I heard a story about a young man whose parents were extremely wealthy. The young man was about ready to graduate high school. The family had a custom to give the graduate a car. The boy and his spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car. The night before the boy’s graduation, his dad gave him a gift wrapped Bible. The boy became angry and he threw the Bible down and ran out of the house.
As sad as it is, the boy and his dad never saw each other again. It was only the news of his dad’s death that brought the boy back home.
As he sat one night going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit, he found the Bible his dad had given him. He brushed away the dust and when he opened it, he found a cashier’s check, dated the day of his graduation – in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.
As I thought about this story, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people in this world have done the same thing to God. Literally tossed aside a wonderful promise, because they didn’t understand it, or they didn’t believe it was possible. In our world, we are taught that; “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” So many of us have been taken in by “empty promises,” that we are leery of anything or anyone that tells us we can have something for nothing. We know the world does not work that way.
But, you know what – God does – God never made a promise that was too good to be true. The truth of the matter is that the world is full of empty promises. We watch TV, and the advertisements tell us that we can be happy, sexy, rich, or famous, if we only purchase a certain product. I am sure many of us have been fooled enough to buy into the worlds promises only to find that they are full of emptiness.
But, God is different. Instead of promises full of emptiness, on Easter, he gave us emptiness that is full of promise. I believe there are three “empty” promises of the crucifixion that are just full of hope for us.
I do not have room to explain each of these but think on your own why each of these three empty “things” can bring hope to your life. 1) An empty cross. 2) An empty tomb. 3) Empty burial clothes. It is the very fact that each of these is empty that assures us that God’s promises are real. Because they couldn’t hold Jesus, because he couldn’t be contained by the cross, the tomb, or even his burial clothes, we can be sure of the fullness of God’s promises in our lives.
Praise God for his “empty” promises!!
-David