My car broke down. It was late at night and I was traveling alone. I had the same feelings about the matter as you are probably imagining right now. What a welcome sight it was to see the red and blue lights of a police officer's car as he pulled up behind me. He stayed and helped until the simple repair on the car was completed.
Driving home afterward, I thought about the way I'd felt when I'd seen the police car approach. The relief was diametrically opposite to what one usually feels when those flashing lights first appear in the rearview mirror! That experience reminded me that the position we find ourselves in—our point of view—can make a tremendous difference in how we interpret and feel about many things.
Depending on one's perspective, the "good news" of Christ Jesus' disappearance from the sepulcher after the crucifixion could have seemed either promising or troubling. We're accustomed to reading about the event from the point of view of those early followers who in retrospect saw his resurrection as wonderful. The tragedy of Jesus' betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and burial was ameliorated, and relief hardly seems like a strong enough word to describe what his followers must have felt.
