The Great Escape

Have you ever heard of a man named Harry Houdini? I’m sure you have. His claim to fame was that he was a great magician who specialized in spectacular escapes. As a matter of fact, he was said to have laughed at locks and sneered at fetters.

People would say that Harry had the flexibility of an eel, and that he had the 9 lives of a cat. They did everything imaginable to try to incarcerate him. They would seal him in coffins. He would escape. They riveted him into a boiler. He escaped. They sewed him up in canvas bags. He escaped. They locked him in a milk can. He escaped.  They sealed him in a beer barrel. He escaped. They put him in a maximum-security prison. And Harry somehow got out. But then on October 31, 1926, old man death laid his hands on Harry Houdini and put him in a grave, and he is yet to escape. As a matter of fact, he told his wife, “If there is any way out, I will find it. If there is any way out, I’ll make contact with you, and we’ll do it on the anniversary of my death.” For 10 years she kept a light burning over his portrait. At the end of 10 years, she turned out the light. Death had Harry, and he couldn’t escape.

Death laid his hands on Jesus as well. It put Jesus in a tomb. There was a stone at the mouth of that tomb, and the seal of the Roman government was placed upon that stone. But on the third day, Jesus Christ stirred within Himself. He rose from the sleep of death.  Jesus Christ passed through the walls of that rock-hewn tomb into life everlasting. He conquered that which no man had ever overcome on his own – death.

This coming Sunday, we’ll celebrate the anniversary of the greatest escape ever known to man. Jesus escaped the clutches of death and overcame the grave. Please, come and join us as we applaud the greatest escape in history, and as we make preparation for our own.

John