Escape

A woman, all shackled up, was placed in a wooden box that was also locked up. A black cloth was thrown over the box, and when it was pulled away, the woman was gone.

An elephant was running around in a big field. Then a big board came down and blocked the elephant from view. After a few seconds, the board was taken up and the elephant was nowhere. Escaped to where? I don’t know. The field was so empty and as we know elephants can’t run that fast.

I saw these on cable television and even though my mind tells me it’s all magic, I still can’t help but open my mouth in wonder.

Escape acts are a favorite fare for magicians. Hungarian-born American stunt performer Eric Weisz, popularly known as Harry Houdini, was noted for his sensational escape acts.

He would escape from coffins and beer barrels where he was sealed, from boilers where he was riveted, from canvas bags were he was tied up and from a milk can where they locked him. He was even put in maximum-security prison and he still escaped.

Houdini wanted to defy death. He told his wife that after dying, he would find a way to contact  her, and that he would do it on the 10th anniversary of his death.

On October 1926, he died. For 10 years, Houdini’s wife kept a light burning over his portrait. At the end of 10 years she put off the light. There was no Houdini who returned to her. Death had Houdini and he couldn’t escape from this any more.

Death laid hands on our Lord Jesus Christ, too. We commemorated His Passion and Death during the Holy Week that passed. Jesus was laid in a tomb that was sealed by a big stone. But beyond comparison with Houdini of course, He easily rose from death, left his grave clothes and passed through the walls of the rock-barred tomb.

Jesus did not escape. He resurrected from the dead!

The world may have magicians in all its four corners doing escape acts. Their skills in magic have fooled us time and again.

But the heavens have Jesus who doesn’t need magic. We have Jesus in our hearts who will never escape from His mission to bring us back to His Father. He doesn’t need magic to rise from the dead. He IS resurrection. He is Life itself. He is our Salvation.

During the Holy Week, we thank Jesus for healing us of our sins and oppressions “by his wounds”. (Isaiah 53:5)

Today, Easter Sunday, we rejoice in Jesus for bringing us back our salvation and setting us free by His unconditional love for us.

On that morning of the third day after Jesus’ death, the stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out. It was rolled away to let the disciples in to see that Jesus had come back.

And so, there will always be Easter Sunday celebrations every year because the Church wants us to see that Jesus is alive all the time in our life . . . in all the ups and downs that we encounter.

Jesus will never escape from us. In fact, He is alive, not behind us in a tomb but before us on a throne. He waits for the grand time when we come face-to-face with him. And that will be purely heaven!

Today we thank God for the Risen Christ, for the gift of salvation given us through His Passion and Death. Despite our fallen nature, weaknesses and faults, God still gave us His Son to die and be resurrected because He knows that, left to our will and wants, we will always try to escape from His commandments.

We forget that Jesus once declared: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

An Easter sermon of renowned Pastor Adrian Rogers made me reflect:

What if Jesus had not been born?

What if He did not die on the cross?

What if He failed to conquer death like Houdini?

Then what?

Well, we would have been escape artists — escaping the road to Heaven and living it out with the comforts of the world.

But that’s not God’s plan. To this day, He has not escaped from His promise to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

And you know what He just needed from us?

Jesus said, “Call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

So when life seems unfair and we get beaten up by problems, go to God. Seek Him even more. Do not escape!

Today and every Easter Sunday, there’s no escaping from the joy of being given another shot at heaven’s door. Let’s celebrate!