The Rest of the Story
by Katie Harding on April 1, 2024
As a teenager, I loved riding in the car with my dad, listening to Paul Harvey, who told amazing stories and would always end his broadcasts with, “And now you know the rest of the story.” Thinking back to a time when you saw God’s hand at work in your life, have you ever shared “the rest of the story”? What happened next? What else did God show or share with you?
Last week I shared about my time in the hospital almost twenty years ago and how God used the button on the white coat of my ER nurse, Andrea Felts, to minister to me in a great time of need. Here is the rest of that story. To my surprise, Andrea was my nurse three nights later on the surgical floor. In fifteen years of being at that hospital, she had only been in the ER twice – once when her neighbor was there, and the second was the night I came in. The night before that, however, the same night I was home and experiencing more complications, God came to her in a dream and said, “When you go to work tomorrow, you will go to the ER.” When she got to work the next night, they sent her from the surgical floor down to the ER. That’s how she walked into my room with the big button on her lapel that read, “Trust in the Lord.” He knew I needed that reminder for that moment and for later when my faith would falter. Over the years, the rest of the story — her story — has convinced me God not only walks with us in our times of suffering and hardship but also goes before us.
On the first day of the week after the Sabbath, the women went to the tomb with the spices they prepared and discovered the tomb was empty. Jesus wasn’t there. God’s messengers reminded them that Jesus said He would “be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (Luke 24:7). In their excitement, the women went and shared this with the eleven disciples, who didn’t believe them and thought their words were nonsense.
But God. If the men wouldn't believe the women, He would tell them Himself.
With heavy hearts and dashed hopes, a few of Jesus’ disciples headed home. They thought Jesus was going to be the one who would redeem Israel, but instead, He was put to death. Cleopas and another were returning to Emmaus, wondering how they could have gotten it so wrong. Yet, in the same way the Lord goes before us, Jesus went before them and was waiting to meet them – waiting to speak into their confusion and disappointment as they were so fixated on the crucifixion.
Often when we share the gospel, we, too, focus almost entirely on the crucifixion, the fact that Jesus died for our sins. But it wasn’t the crucifixion that changed these men’s lives. Jesus was crucified and the tomb was empty, and they were headed home because they felt it was over. Jesus was dead, and Israel was still under Rome’s domination. Nothing had really changed, or so they thought.
It was actually the rest of the story that turned their lives upside down and started a paradigm shift that created a new world order. “Jesus is alive!” That’s what sent these men back to Jerusalem. Jesus didn’t just die; He defeated death. He wasn’t brought back to life like Lazarus and others whom He healed. He died and rose from death into a new life, and through His victory, inaugurated His new kingdom – a kingdom where love is central, good is greater than evil, and justice rules.
But the rest of the story isn't over yet, it's still in motion, and this is where you and I come in. When we surrender to Christ, we consciously make the choice to follow Jesus by dying to the sin in our lives. No longer letting sin rule us, we allow the Holy Spirit, with the same power that resurrected Jesus, to give us a new life in Christ’s kingdom. This not only changed His followers lives and began a movement no one could stop, but it is still changing lives today. May we embrace and live the rest of the story.