A Broken Chrysalis
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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Sermon on the Mount 
Bible Study
It's truly amazing what a girl will do for love.
My wife, Jean, and I lived next door to each other for ten years
before we were married. My sophomore interest in high school biology
had sparked a live caterpillar collection. Their home was a shoe
box, covered with screen wire. When I went on vacation, Jean fed
them faithfully with leaves from her willow tree. She hated it.
Finally the caterpillars stopped their incessant crawling and
chewing, attached their tails firmly to a stick and lay still,
sheathed with a shiny leather-like case. For weeks they seemed
to be dead, unmoving in their tiny gray wrappings. I removed the
screen and waited.
One by one, the gray cases began to twist and turn violently,
and suddenly split open. A beautiful butterfly emerged. It stood
for hours gently moving its wings, pumping fluids into them to
extend them fully. Then the butterfly soared gracefully away on
the breezes of summer, leaving nothing behind but a broken chrysalis
to indicate its former bondage.
The chrysalis and butterfly suggest the empty graveclothes of
our risen Lord. When Peter and John heard the news that the Lord's
body was gone from the garden tomb, they ran all the way from
their lodging. Peter entered the tomb and "he saw the strips
of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been
around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate
from the linen" (John 20:6-7, NIV). The graveclothes once
wrapped continuously around the body now lay collapsed, mute testimony
that the corpse they had once shrouded had now emerged in life.
The bondage of death is broken. Christ is risen! We can face tomorrow
with the assurance that Jesus is in fact alive to help us, to
guide us, to give us hope for the future. And since He is living,
our problems are not insolvable. The broken chrysalis of His graveclothes
proclaims that Christ is Victor even over death. Because He lives,
nothing is impossible.
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Copyright © 1985-2007 Ralph F. Wilson. <pastor
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Christmas Incarnation