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Somebody smart once pointed out that the stone in front of the tomb wasn’t rolled away so that Jesus could come out and be resurrected, it was rolled away so that the disciples could come in.

That one little word “in” has so much power, so much meaning and depth. It’s actually given precedence in the Bible, given first place one might say. “In the beginning….” I sometimes quip about how if you really want to study the Bible, the very first word is the most important one to really examine and meditate on.

Are you in? Are you in for an adventure? Are you in Christ Jesus? Is He in you? The truth is, none of the other words really matter until you have accepted your own preposition, your own placement in time and space. Prepositions are, “a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations.”

This may sound kind of pedantic and fussy, pedantic meaning, “characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for academic knowledge and formal rules.” What can I say, thems just the rules.

Your own spatial or temporal relation to what Jesus was really doing 2000 years ago when He rode into Jerusalem triumphant, really matters.

Every year on Palm Sunday I often think of that word “in.” When Jesus rode in victorious on a donkey the week before His resurrection, He did it for you. He went in. He wasn’t hiding out and hanging low, He rode right in to noisy crowds and started flipping over tables in the temple. He knew what was coming and yet He went in anyway and He suffered and died for you. He could have called forth a legion of angels as it says in the Bible, but He didn’t. He willingly laid down His life for you, and He rose from the dead for you.

Then He rolled away that stone in front of the empty tomb…. to invite us in. The empty tomb is no longer a place of death, but a place of rebirth, of resurrection, of new life. When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead He says, “Lazarus, come forth.” Leave the dead things behind and step into new life.

“Lazarus, come forth.” So, are you in?