Past Sermons |
27th March 2005
Easter |
Mind Games
John 20:1-18
Let me start out with a scenario for you this morning. Every day, a gentleman goes to work. Every day, he rides the elevator all the way down to the ground floor of the high rise apartment building that he lives in.
But when he comes home from work, he rides the elevator back up to only the 6th floor. Then, he takes the stairs up to his apartment a number of stories higher. This he does every day, unless it is raining. If it is raining, when he comes home he rides the elevator all the way up right to the floor his apartment is on. Why?
Here's another one to think about. Ann is lying on the floor dead. There's broken glass and water all around her. Stuart is asleep on the couch seemingly oblivious to the death that has occurred. How did Ann die?
Did you ever play those kind of mind games where you are presented with a scene, and you have to figure out what happened to make that scene the way that it is by asking questions that can only be answered with a "yes" or "no"?
Ok, just so that you won't be trying to come up with a solution to those two scenarios the rest of the morning instead of listening to my sermon, I'll tell you the answers.
In the first one, the reason the gentleman would only go the 6th floor on his return home from work, was because that was the highest button that he could reach on the elevator control panel. He was as we say, "vertically challenged" - in other words - short. On days that it rained, he had his umbrella with him, and he could use that to punch the button that indicated his floor.
In the second situation, it might help you to know that Ann is a fish, and Stuart is a cat. And the glass and water all around Ann on the floor is from her fishbowl that Stuart successfully knocked over.
Let's try one more. On Friday night, a man dies. He is buried on that same night. On Sunday morning, some friends of his arrive at the tomb where he was buried to pay their last respects only to discover that his body is gone. What happened?
Well, first we can definitely say that whatever happened, it was a surprise! No one expected it -- not one single person.
What we celebrate here this morning (and the answer to our question) was apparently totally outside of the frame of reference of the women who went to the tomb and of every single disciple, and this even though Jesus had told them over and over again that it would happen, that he would be killed and that on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
Yet not one of them believed it would happen. Not one of them took Jesus at his word. Let's review:
On the day after the Sabbath - on Sunday morning - while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and some other woman went to the tomb of Jesus with special spices to finish the process of preparing his body for burial.
Mary went out first - by herself - ahead of the others. She went ahead of them - not because she was expecting a surprise, but because she wanted to be alone for a while in the graveyard.
She went out alone because her best friend had been tortured and killed and because she wanted to grieve awhile before undergoing the ordeal of doing what needed to be done, before she touched the wounded lifeless body of Jesus and honored him by treating his broken body with the dignity that the dead should receive.
When she got to the tomb, something was different than it had been when she had left late Friday afternoon. The huge boulder in front of the tomb had been rolled aside - exposing the entrance to the place where Jesus' body had been laid.
Mary is stunned by this, she is shocked - not because she suddenly figures out that it was true after all - not because she remembers that Jesus said that he would rise from the dead and at last believes it. No, she is shocked and stunned because she believes that someone has stolen the body.
Mary turns and she runs and tells Peter and John exactly that. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Peter and John run to the tomb, look in and see the tomb is empty, and then go away - back to their own homes. And when they go back, neither of them comprehend what they had seen: the strips of linen laying on the rock bench and the burial cloth for his head, folded neatly and set apart from the rest of the linen, much in the fashion that a carpenter in those days communicated that a work was finished by placing a folded work cloth neatly on the piece.
They return home - still in mourning, for as John puts it in today's Gospel "as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead."
When the two disciples leave, Mary is again alone by the tomb - and she is weeping. The body of the one she loved is gone. She cannot even do the little that she had come to do. She stands there weeping - and, after a while she musters up her courage and she looks into the tomb. And when she does, she sees two angels - two persons -- dressed in white -- seated on the ledge of the tomb where the body of Jesus was supposed to be.
And does she, she who has heard the promises of Jesus, then believe those promises? Does she now believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead? No, she doesn't. Rather, when they ask her why she is crying, she says to them: because "someone has taken the body of my Lord and I don't know where they have put it!"
Then - still weeping - still in shock - still unbelieving - still not expecting or hoping for a single thing, Mary turns around, and she sees Jesus standing there and she supposes he is the gardener.
Mary doesn't expect to see Jesus walking about - fully alive - and so she doesn't. She doesn't see Jesus even when he talks to her, even when he says to her, as did the angels, "Woman - why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?"
Still thinking he is the gardener, she asks him if he has moved the body. "Tell me," she says, "where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
It is then that Jesus calls her by name, "Mary." And it is then -suddenly - that her eyes clear - that her heart clears - and she realizes that Jesus is alive - and standing in front of her.
And as she attempts to grab hold of him and embrace him - Jesus tells her not to touch him, but to go and tell the others what she has seen - to tell them that he has risen just as he said he would.
And she does as Jesus has asked. The scriptures record that the disciples do not believe her.
Indeed each of the first disciples has to go through a process of being convinced - of being convinced either by Jesus himself or by the overwhelming testimony of others who have seen him. Wow! What a story!
The reason I have laid so much stress upon Mary's disbelief this morning, and upon the disbelief of the other disciples - is because we are like them, aren't we? We hear the message that Jesus proclaimed. We witness the miracles that he performs in other people's lives. And yet when it comes right down to it … we struggle.
Part of that may be that we struggle to find it's relevance to our lives today. Don't we have more pressing issues to deal with -- wars and rumors of war -- budget deficits -- job problems -- marriage problems - children problems -- roofs that leak -- cars that need fixing?
Let me tell you why it is relevant. It is relevant because of Jesus' unconditional love and presence in our lives. And that wouldn't be possible without the resurrection.
The truth is that if there was no resurrection then Jesus would be but a great teacher. If that was all there was - we'd have a nice blueprint for our lives, BUT … it would end there. It would be something we just read about in books. But because of the resurrection it DOESN'T end there!
Jesus' resurrection promises that he is still with us, loving us, supporting us, inspiring us, comforting us. Jesus is in our everyday struggles. Because of the resurrection we can be assured that Jesus cares about every detail of our lives.
And yet oft times I think we are like Mary. We see Jesus, but we don't recognize him … because we don't expect him to be there -- present in our lives. Our eyes are closed, as are our hearts. Were it not so.
The risen Christ wants to be a part of our lives, if we'd let him … if we'd just believe.
Strangely enough, we are often open to Jesus' help and presence only in the worst of circumstances -- when we are really desperate -- but Jesus wants to help us in every circumstance.
You fathers and mothers know what I mean. You don't want your son or daughter to wait until they are in jail to give you a call. You want them to call whenever they have a problem - whenever they need help or counsel -- before things get out of hand. In fact, you want them to call just to say hello.
And so it is with Jesus. Jesus wants to help us in every circumstance. Jesus wants to be there for us in good times and bad -- in big things and little -- in worship on Sunday and at work on Monday. Jesus wants to help us to make good decisions.
He wants to help shape our lives. He wants to help us decide whom to marry. He wants to help us raise our children. Jesus' resurrection promises God's help in every situation of life.
And Jesus' resurrection promises God's help even in death. The resurrection is God's promise of eternal life, which means more than living forever -- eternal life means living now AND forever in the presence of God.
In my few years of ministry, I have seen people cope with the problems of life and the problem of death. I can tell you that a resurrection faith makes a difference.
I have seen people of resurrection faith faced with difficulty. I am not going to tell you that their lives are always simple -- but I will tell you this: they have a faith foundation that steadies them when trouble hits. They know that God loves them.
When they act in faith, their faith helps them through the crisis. It keeps them going. It keeps them from making it worse. It gives them hope. It assures them that God is with them - and that God will lead them through the valley into the sunshine beyond.
And I have seen people without faith faced with difficulty. Unfortunately, too often that is like watching a boat drifting on the water -- subject to every wave and current -- rudderless --helpless. You don't want to live like that. You want to live a life of Easter faith.
Today -- Easter -- is the first day of the rest of our lives: My prayer for each of us is that the Holy Spirit will touch our lives here and now -- and give us an Easter faith.
My prayer is not that God will make our lives easy, but that he will guide us with a steady hand through every difficulty.
My prayer is that, in life and in death, God will comfort us with his love and strengthen us with his presence.
My prayer is that our Easter faith will shine like a beacon on a mountaintop, reminding us from where our help comes -- because our help comes from the Lord.
Pastor Tom |
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