An Indian chief named Crowfoot (“Isapo-Muxika” in his native language) is reported to have said, “A little while and I will be gone from among you. Whither I cannot tell. From nowhere we come, into nowhere we go. What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of buffalo in the wintertime. It is a little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
These exquisite and dignified words of the Indian chief emphasize the fact that life is short, that every person now living will one day die – that is, unless Christ’s return to earth takes place first. The psalmist asked the question, “What man can live and never see death?” (Psalm 89:48). “It is appointed for men to die once” (Hebrews 9:27).
Just as we recognize the cessation of plant life at the end of summer – the yellowing of grass and the bright colors of falling leaves – so also must we recognize that there is a limit to the number of years a person can live on earth. We cannot forget our first childhood contact with death, the shock and pain of its brutal invasion of our family circle. Though we may try to suppress such thoughts from our mind, we cannot be unaware of them.
Chief Crowfoot correctly recognized that our journey on the earth comes to an end. Also, he had no awareness of where he came from or of where he might go when he walked into the sunset. He knew that even if he could live well beyond his hundredth birthday it would still only be an instant of time. Multiplied millions of people in our world are in the same quandary. They do not know where they came from, and they have no assurance concerning where they are going.
But faith has an answer for anyone who has anxiety concerning the end of life. The Son of God not only faced death bluntly and biologically, but He was victorious over it. He transformed it from an enemy bent on our total destruction into a friend that promises to usher us into eternal glory.
The Christian faith affirms that we were created by God, and that we were created for a unique purpose – every single one of us. Thus, death is not final. It does not have to be the last word for those who accept Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as both Savior and Lord. Therefore, if you have done that, death is only a comma in the story of your life, not a period. The resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees eternal life to all who believe.
The high point, the constantly recurring theme, and the grand climax in the great symphony of the Gospels, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins; He arose from the dead victorious over sin and death. It was the day death died. If we subtract this from the message of the New Testament, we have nothing to say that has any lasting significance. When I was in Israel in 1973, I went inside the empty tomb where Christians believe that Christ was buried and rose again three days later. I spent 15 minutes in prayer and rededicated my life to Christ. It was the most moving experience of my life.
The resurrection of Christ is the most momentous event in history. If anyone needs proof of this fact, let him consider the consequences of what happened to history’s first believers. Their faith, which died when Jesus died, was suddenly revived. They saw Him die, and then they saw Him alive again. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to other women, to Simon Peter, to two men on the way to Emmaus, to 10 others at once, to 11 on another occasion, to James, and then to 500. They all had a fantastic story to tell.
These were more than verbal reports of excited, exuberant men and women. The amazing thing is that along with these reports of the resurrection of Christ was the indisputable resurrection of Christianity. Following Christ’s resurrection the once disillusioned disciples became men set on world conquest.
These ordinary, fallible, blundering men and women were changed from weak vessels into flaming messengers, ready to go boldly into the very city that had crucified their leader to proclaim Him as the world’s Savior. Their faith was no longer a consoling convenience, but a consuming passion. They were electrified with a new power. They proclaimed a new message. They sang a new song: “Christ is alive! He is alive!”
Dr. Donald G. Barnhouse, a great scholar of another generation, once said, “The angel rolled away the stone from Jesus’ tomb, not just to let the living Lord out, but to let unconvinced outsiders in.”
This is the message the Indian chief named Crowfoot needed to hear. So do millions of others today. Some of them are people you personally know. Have you ever shared with them the message of Easter?
If not, why not?
The Paper Pulpit 
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