Sunday 04/17/22 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “New
Life and New Life!”
(“New Life Is Coming” Series: Part 7 of 7)
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
New Testament Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Gospel Lesson: John 20:1-18
He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Alleluia! Happy Easter everyone! I hope that on some level we feel resurrected
to. Afterall, we are here on this Easter or Resurrection Sunday, and we are not
all required to wear face masks. No longer do we all look like we are robbing
the bank at gun point. If you work for a bank, this is probably good news for
you on this Easter Sunday!
Sometimes friends the night is the very
darkest before the first glimpses of light from the sunrise show up. Sometimes
hope is in short supply, but then something miraculous happens. When we least
expect it, and when all hope is gone, suddenly resurrection!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead this day is not just a historical event, but it was and is a transformation.
This transformation today continues to transform people nearly two-thousand
years later. This person, who was fully God and fully human on earth, named
Jesus Christ had an amazing three-years of ministry here on this earth. During this
ministry, Jesus loved, healed, forgave, taught, restored, and changed the
world. Despite all of this though, the idea that Jesus could actually rise from
the dead, was not something that the disciples thought would really happen,
until it did.
I mean after all, all the disciples,
except John, Jesus’ mother, and the other women fled on Good Friday. Jesus told
them that he would die and would be risen over and over, during his three years
of ministry. Clearly though, the disciples did not have faith that this would
be case, as most of them fled on Good Friday. I do not even think that they
understood why Jesus gave them communion or the Lord’s Supper the night before,
why he washed their feet, or why he gave them a new commandment to love each
other, and so on and so forth.
It would seem that as far as the disciples
were concerned, they had a fun three-year exciting ride with Jesus, but now it was
over. Jesus was now dead, and whatever “New Life” that had in him would die, or
they would keep it to themselves. Then suddenly on this morning, as we saw in
our opening video, resurrection. What is like when something happens that is miraculous?
What is like when all hope is gone, and then resurrection shows up? What is
like when we have almost given up, and “New Life” breaks forth?
It would seem, hopefully, that we have
new life in form of this COVID-19 pandemic coming to a manageable close. I mean
what do we do with all masks and all the hand sanitizer now? I have lots and
lots of masks, do you? Imagine the garage sales next year? Masks, masks, and
more masks! I am actually thinking of having a mask Sunday next year, just so
we can remember how crazy it was when we all had to wear masks. We can decorate
them and have a wacky mask Sunday. Perhaps during this pandemic, it seemed that
it would never end, but then resurrection came, as here we are all here this
morning.
The concept of resurrection, of “New
Life And New Life” is what Easter is all about. As I said, Jesus rising from
dead this day is not just a historical event, but it also an affirmation. It is
an affirmation that God loves us, and that in the end evil will not prevail. It
is an affirmation that love will conquer hate, and that all the attacking
armies of this world will never take God’s love away from any of us. It is an
affirmation to the many people who have suffered in Ukraine, that God will get
the final word, not a dictator. Resurrection is the hope that good will prevail
in the end, that evil will lose, that love will reign, and that justice will be
served.
If we do not believe on this Easter
Sunday, this resurrection Sunday, that good will prevail, and that God’s love
will win in the end, then what? For if there was no God, and if there was no
resurrection, then is there really any hope for any of us? Or we all just
doomed to walk in darkness. For the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
15:12-14 that:
12 Now if Christ is
proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no
resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if
Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your
faith has been in vain
(1 Cor. 15:12-14, NRSV).
So, if there is no God, and if there is resurrection of
Jesus Christ on Easter, then we are still trapped in our sins and our darkness.
This world will stay broken forever, and there is no divine justice. People who
do great evil may never be held accountable, as there is no God that will hold
the wicked to account, if they do not repent. This would mean that if we chose
to do great evil and harm many people, other than the possible earthly
consequences, everyone just gets away with it.
What Easter Sunday or resurrection Sunday tells though, is
that God’s love, grace, light, life, and hope, will win in the end. It tells us
that the innocent people killed in Ukraine did not and are not dying for
nothing. It tells us that those people are still loved by God, that Jesus died
for them two days ago, and that he rose victoriously on this day for them and
for us.
In a world with so much suffering and death, friends, resurrection
wins. Hope wins, grace wins, and love wins. While we are called as Christians to
continue to improve and transform this world in the name of Jesus Christ, we
have the eternal promise of God through Jesus Christ. The same Jesus that tells
us that he will be with us until the end of the age. The same Jesus who promises
that he is preparing a place for us in his Father’s house in heaven. This Jesus
who loves us all, and despite the suffering, the cruelty, and the great evils
of this world, resurrection wins.
So powerful was Jesus’ resurrection this day, that his historical
event launched the Christian Church. You see the Christian Church began after
Jesus was crucified and resurrected. What do I mean by this? Well, when Jesus
was alive on earth, he was the living church, and then Jesus hands the church,
the Jesus movement over to us. The Christian Church begins because of Jesus’
resurrection. When Jesus was crucified, most people fell away or lost all hope.
Then the resurrection occurred. By the day of Pentecost all of Jesus’s followers
were out preaching the good news and growing the church.
What made the movement of Jesus Christ stick though, was
the resurrection. Easter Sunday is what started the Christian Church. This is
because if Jesus’ tomb remained full, with Jesus in it, then while Jesus would
have been a good guy, or at best a prophet, his gospel would not be worth dying
for. According to church tradition all but the disciple John died brutal
deaths. After Jesus’ empty tomb on this day, the unwavering belief in Jesus’
life, death, and resurrection truly began.
For all of these reasons and many more, I have preached a
sermon series over the season Lent, concluding this morning, called the “New
Life is Coming” series. Even though the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened
almost two-thousand years ago, we celebrate Easter or resurrection Sunday to remember
what he has done for us. Even though every Sunday is a mini-Easter, we
celebrate today, we know that Jesus is alive, and that God’s love will have the
final word in this world.
We are reminded of this in our Psalm
118 reading for this morning, as we here in Psalm 118:1-2 once again:
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let Israel say, “His
steadfast love endures forever” (Ps. 118:1-2, NRSV).
Further
the Apostle Paul reminds us once again in our reading from 1 Corinthians
15:19-26 for this morning that:
19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:19-26, NRSV).
Powerful words from the Psalmist and
the Apostle Paul. Looking at our gospel of John account of the resurrection for
this morning it says once again, starting in John 20:1:
20 Early on the
first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb
and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and
went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said
to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where
they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and
went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other
disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to
look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter
came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying
there, 7 and
the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but
rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb
first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they
did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead (Jn.
20:1-9, NRSV).
After this the disciples excitedly return to there
homes, but Mary Magdalene stays behind and is weeping. She then sees in the tomb
two angels in white, one sitting at the head and the feet of where Jesus’ body
was laid. The angels ask Mary Magdalene why she is weeping, and she said because
they took Jesus’ body. She then turns around and sees a man, who she thought
was the gardener. This person, who is Jesus, but who Mary Magdalene thinks is
the gardener, asks Mary why she is crying. Mary Magdalene tells Jesus, who she still
thinks is the gardener that if he has taken Jesus’ body to tell her where he
has put it. Suddenly then, this man, Jesus, who Mary Magdalene thought was the
gardener said her name. At this point, she realized that it was the risen
Christ. Jesus then tells Mary Magdalene for her to not hold him, as he will
soon be ascending to his Father in heaven. Mary Magdalene then comes back to
report not only Jesus’ tomb empty, but that she had seen him alive and risen
from the dead.
We
have eyewitnesses of the empty tomb and hundreds of people that saw Jesus after
his resurrection. What has always fascinated me about the gospel of John
account of the resurrection though, is John 20:6-7, where Peter once again
tells us what he sees in the empty tomb regarding Jesus’ burial linens. Once
again John 20:6-7 says:
6 Then Simon Peter
came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying
there, 7 and
the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but
rolled up in a place by itself (Jn.
20:6-7, NRSV).
This
is fascinating to me, and only in the gospel of John account of the
resurrection do we hear that the linens that covered Jesus body were laying
where Jesus’ body was, but that his head linen wrappings were rolled up in a separate
place by themselves. This is a really strange detail to mention. I mean how
come only the gospel of John tells us that Jesus body linen wrappings where
were his body was laid, but that his head wrappings were rolled up in a place
by themselves?
In
closing, I want to give one theory on why Jesus’ burial face covering was rolled
up in a place by itself. Here is one theory:
When Simon Peter arrived after [John], he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered [Jesus’] head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Why would John have noted the placement of the burial cloths in light of the astonishing fact of the absence of Jesus’ body? And why would he have thought it important to include this detail in his telling of the events of that first Easter Sunday morning? In fact, it was an important detail. According to Father Chrystian Shankar, the rolling up and placement of this cloth hearkened to a Jewish custom of the time. It related to a common practice used by servants and masters of this era. A servant, after he had prepared the dining table for his master, would stand to the side, out of sight of the master, but attentive to the progression of the meal. He wouldn’t dare to return to the table until the master had finished his meal. When the master was finished, he would rise, clean his fingers, mouth, and beard, and leave the “napkin” crumpled in a ball on the table. The wrinkled, discarded napkin indicated “I have finished.” If, however, for whatever reason, the master left the table with the intention of returning, then he would crease the napkin into folds and leave it beside his dishes. This was a message for the servant that he was not to disturb the table, given that the master had indicated: “I am returning.” This, then, is perhaps the reason for John’s attention to the detail of Our Lord’s face cloth. Jesus had told them with his words that the Son of Man would return. That morning, he repeated the promise, with the seemingly inconsequential, but very symbolic, gesture of leaving his face cloth rolled to the side, assuring us that he’d not left for good (https://aleteia.org/2018/07/26/why-did-jesus-fold-the-linen-cloth-that-covered-his-face-in-the-tomb/).
Friends, Easter Sunday, this day of resurrection, is one of “New Life And Life.” Jesus is alive today, alive in us, and the master of the house will return one day in glory to give us all new life. Today we are reminded that goodness will win, that love will win, and when it is all said and done that God will have the final word. With this said, He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Happy Easter everyone! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment