He’s almost a superhero with his super strength. I’m sure many young boys are impressed by him, it’s hard not to be, as we hear of him grabbing a donkey’s jawbone and defeating God’s enemies! And yet, Samson shows us how flawed human leaders are. It wasn’t so much that power went to his head (as it seemed to with Gideon, see The problem of power (Judges 7-8, Luke 22), he was flawed from the beginning! His problem with lust led to many slip ups, and to his ultimate downfall. But Israel at this point had got so low that despite the Lord handing them over to their enemies, they hadn’t even bothered to cry out to the Lord as they had at other times. Sometimes people say you get the leaders you deserve, but God’s people didn’t even deserve Samson, as flawed as he was! Like all the other judges and leaders, Samson died. We are left longing for a better leader. Our Psalm for today (146) tells us not to put our trust in princes because they die! We need a king who will reign forever.
In our gospel reading, that is what the women discover as they go looking for a body to anoint with spices (Luke 24), but they instead find an empty tomb with two messengers proclaiming the resurrection! Jesus is the perfect leader who never let his people down, and the resurrection tells us that He reigns forever! Not even death could stop him. Here is the leader we need. A leader so committed to His people that he lays down his life for them, and a leader who will be with us forever.
How do we know it’s true? The first clue is that Dr Luke tells us that women were the first witnesses to the resurrection, you wouldn’t make that up, since at that time a woman’s testimony didn’t hold any weight, you’d have picked strong men as your witnesses. But Luke tells us they were women.
We don’t only have an empty tomb, but also resurrection appearances, like the one to the men on the road to Emmaus. It must have been some journey as Jesus walked alongside the two travellers revealing his identity as he spoke to them. How wonderful it would have been to have heard his teaching about how the Scriptures were all about Christ, and especially his death and resurrection. I wonder if he mentioned Samson? Might he have told them how Samson was a shadow of Christ in how God used his self-sacrificial death to defeat his enemies and rescue his people? Surely he’d have talked about the Passover, Psalm 16, 22, Isaiah 53…. As he talked their hearts burned within them. That’s something for us to pray as we open God’s Word each day, “Lord, please cause my heart to burn within me as I read your Word, please show me Christ.”
And then this risen Christ revealed himself to the disciples, proclaiming peace, and proving that he had physically raised by eating some fish in front of them! How gracious of the Lord to help them to believe (for more see How do we know the resurrection happened?).
What a saviour! Here is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), a King who won’t let you down because he is perfect and reigns forever. He is the leader we need, He is the leader you can trust.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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