It’s the Sunday we have all been waiting for as the Lenten season comes to an end with the finality of the Easter event. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! The readings assigned for this April 16, 2006 Easter are Isaiah 25:6-9 (Death swallowed up); I Corinthians 15:19-28 (Death is the last enemy) and Mark 16:1-8 (Women at the empty tomb). The verse of Mark 16:8 is our chosen text for preaching.
This is a text that opens up a number of questions. Had you been one of those women who heard from the angel that Christ is risen, would you have fled from the tomb and “said nothing to anyone”? How can we explain this strange behavior particularly in light of the words of Jesus that in three days He would rise from the dead?
The confusion is erased by keeping in mind the distinctions between Law and Gospel, particularly the difference between those living under the Law from those living under the Gospel. Those who live under the Law conclude that God checks us out on the basis of our behavior and works. With that understanding of a just God, who would not be afraid of the news that Jesus, who had been deserted by his disciples, denied by one and betrayed by another, has returned from the dead?
It reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe’s story of “the monkey’s paw” which provided three wishes. A couple wished for a lot of money. Their son was then killed horribly in a car accident resulting in their receiving a large amount of money from his insurance. Their second wish was to have him return from the dead. However, as they heard his steps approach the house, they realized that he would be returning in the horrible state in which he had died; mangled and bloody. They then made their third wish to have him return to the grave.
You can imagine why the women were afraid to face Jesus after what they had done three days earlier. Living under the Law they expected a wrath which they could not endure. Thus, they kept silent. In the sermon there are a number of ways to point out how each of the members of the congregation also fear God as they live under the Law. One example is how they imagine they are being punished when bad things happen to “good people.” And the list can go on and on.
The message of Easter is one which reveals a God Who continues to love us with a love that we do not deserve. Our sins are no longer part of the equation as to whether or not we go to heaven or hell. Now what makes the difference is whether we trust that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that was erected by our sins. The words from the cross “It is finished” are underscored with the Easter resurrection as proof positive that the Father has accepted the sacrifice of His Son and therefore, all who believe and are baptized are saved. That is not something to fear but to shout from the rooftops!
Name:Tom Baker
Tom
venturing forth again I wanted to share a couple of stories that in my estimation have some bearing on what I just read here on the blog about Easter week.
I was calling on a Catholic Nun dash administrator of a local hospital some years ago. Her office was at the end of the maturity ward. As I walked along I walked right past a young woman on a bed who was just rolled out of a birthing room having just given birth to a baby boy. I looked at her. She looked at me, smiled and began to speak to me lifting up her hand as if to touch me. I moved a bit to the left and continued walking past. At just that moment of passing she said, “Hi Mike”. It startled me. I stopped in my tracks and turned back to this person. I did not realize who it was laying there until I heard her voice say “Hi Mike”. She was in fact a member of my church and had a very very hard labor just those moments ago. Her countenance was remarkably changed. She had a glow about her and yet it just didn’t look like her. Once I recognized who it was I then apologized to her for not recognizing her. She said, “yeah, I thought you were coming to see me that’s why I put my hand up to you as you walked toward me. You were looking right at me. I thought you were going to say something to me”.
It was shortly after that, a day or so I was reading in the Scriptures this:::>
Joh 20:14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Joh 20:15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Joh 20:16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
The Holy Ghost then quickened to me by memory what had happened that day at the hospital and showed me something about the agony Christ went through for all mankind that imfamous Good Friday.
Another time, years before that, while I was living in sinful unbelief unchecked even by my conscience I was driving along and saw a bicyclist crash. The man was flung foward and hit the curb of the street hard knocking him unconscious. I stopped my car, got out and ran to this man lying now unconscious on the side of this busy roadway. I came right up to him and he was laying there with the side of his face on the asphalt. I and another person who also came to render to him first aid rolled him over. Suddenly I saw the other side of his face, the side that smacked the road hard when he hit the pavement. While the other side of his face was perfect in form, this side was marred beyond recognition! You could not tell it was a human face!!
It was years later that I first read these words of Scripture:::>
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
It became a sobering reality to me what Jesus suffered at the hands of mankind that Good Friday.
I heard a preacher say the other day that God sent Jesus into the world. He also will send us to the world to go and proclaim His salvation to the lost and His revival to those grown cold. We should not sit around then and wait for God to draw them in.
There may be a bit of law in that admonition. But who can dispute though that His Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God?
To which I quote Isaiah again:::>
Isa 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
Isa 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.
michael burke
eureka, ca.
Good reminds for this holy week, Mike, that though no one can be saved except by the Word of God, it is we through whom God speaks. And a joyous Easter to all who read this Blog. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!!