{"id":44705,"date":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/easter-offers-emptiness-full-of-promise\/"},"modified":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:55:31","slug":"easter-offers-emptiness-full-of-promise","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/easter-offers-emptiness-full-of-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Offers &#8220;Emptiness Full of Promise&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In devotional piece for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayschristianwoman.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Kyria.com<\/a>, an evangelical website for women, Christian recording artist Carolyn Arends shared a unique Easter insight, passed along to her from her pastor. She writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>A couple years ago, during a jubilant Easter service, our pastor said something that stopped me in my mental tracks: &quot;The world offers promises full of emptiness. But Easter offers emptiness full of promise.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Empty cross, empty tomb, empty grave-clothes &hellip; all full of promise. If I were writing the Easter story, I don&#39;t think I&#39;d choose emptiness as my symbolic gesture. But then, I also wouldn&#39;t be talking about strength being made perfect in weakness (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2%20Corinthians+12%3A9\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" title=\"view Scripture passage at BibleGateway.com\">2 Corinthians 12:9<\/a>), foolish things confounding the wise (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1%20Corinthians+1%3A27\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" title=\"view Scripture passage at BibleGateway.com\">1 Corinthians 1:27<\/a>), the meek inheriting the earth (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5%3A5\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" title=\"view Scripture passage at BibleGateway.com\">Matthew 5:5<\/a>), or the poor in spirit getting (in every sense of the word &quot;get&quot;) the kingdom of heaven (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5%3A3\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" title=\"view Scripture passage at BibleGateway.com\">Matthew 5:3<\/a>). And I certainly wouldn&#39;t be talking about dying in order to live.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>What is it about God that makes him so favor this kind of paradox? I guess this is what we should expect from the Servant King&mdash;the God who decided that the best way to save the world was to let it kill him. I don&#39;t understand the way God thinks. But on those days when I feel hollowed out and broken&mdash;half-dead, even&mdash;it makes me glad to remember that for Easter people, even death is full of promise.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The world makes a lot of promises. Smoke and mirrors, mostly. Frantic, cartoonish attempts to distract us from the gaping holes in the middle of our souls (or to sell us the latest product in order to fill them). There&#39;s no life in those promises.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>So I&#39;m hoping that &hellip; I&#39;ll be a little more willing to die to that stuff. I&#39;m praying I&#39;ll become more aware of the empty space within, and that I&#39;ll resist the urge to fill it with any old thing I can find. I&#39;m going to wait, carved out, vulnerable, a cracked and crumbling jar of clay, on a life God&#39;s offered to deposit anywhere there&#39;s room. I&#39;m going to believe that if I&#39;ll just leave my empty spaces empty, he&#39;ll fill them. That, I&#39;m convinced, is a reasonable expectation.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3451,3540,3573,3575,3584,3585,3586,3718,3719,3723,3737,3738,3839,4077,4078,4085,4088,4167,4293,4399,4460,4463,4615,4723,4780,4782,4828,4830,4870,4877,4887],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-44705","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atonement","tax_ctp_tags-calvary","tax_ctp_tags-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christ-anointed-one","tax_ctp_tags-christ-substitute-for-humanity","tax_ctp_tags-christ-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-christ-suffering-servant","tax_ctp_tags-cross","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-crucifixion","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-death-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-good-friday","tax_ctp_tags-good-news","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-mercy","tax_ctp_tags-messiah","tax_ctp_tags-peace","tax_ctp_tags-promises","tax_ctp_tags-redeemer","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-savior-christ-only"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Easter Offers &quot;Emptiness Full of Promise&quot; - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/easter-offers-emptiness-full-of-promise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easter Offers &quot;Emptiness Full of Promise&quot; - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In devotional piece for Kyria.com, an evangelical website for women, Christian recording artist Carolyn Arends shared a unique Easter insight, passed along to her from her pastor. 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