What were the disciples thinking after Jesus’ death? What were they expecting? Not much from what we are told here. They would have felt like Jesus had lost; that he had been overcome and that the devil had defeated him. I imagine the devil would have thought the same thing. What happened next underscored something that Jesus had repeatedly tried to teach his disciples. The Kingdom of God does not advance by winning worldly contests of might and wit. The Kingdom of God advances by sacrifice. Evil is not overcome in the world by force or even by intelligence. Evil is perpetrated that way, but it is not overcome that way. You won’t overcome evil by being better or stronger or smarter than others. Evil is overcome through sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice destroyed Satan’s claim on human beings because it atoned for our guilt. The result is that we are now restored to life. Once Jesus had exhausted the penalty of the guilt of mankind by his death then life came forth. He rose from the dead and, because of what he did, so will we. Jesus is not just a person of the past. Jesus is alive and present. Moreover, he is leading us to overcome evil just as he did, by sacrifice. Whenever you face a situation where you feel the evil one has sown discord, you can prevail for good in that situation by making a sacrifice. Whenever we make a sacrifice for someone else, we sow life and we overcome the works of the evil one.
Think about what sacrifice you can make to overcome the works of the evil one.
Read Luke 24:1-12
