Peter, John & the Great Easter Race - Easter Sermon

Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006
PETER, JOHN & THE GREAT EASTER RACE
John 20:1-18

I want you to do some “Let’s pretend” with me this morning. I want you to use your imagination and, for just a few minutes, close your eyes and travel back in time one thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six years.

You are a street merchant in the crowded, dusty and holy city of Jerusalem. It is early morning on the first day of the week. As a Jew you have kept the previous day as the Sabbath day of rest; at least until sunset when the Sabbath and the day came to a close.

By coincidence, that same sunset had marked the end of the Feast of Passover. Tens of thousands of Jews had come from all around the Roman Empire to perform the rituals of sacrifice in the Temple and the eating of the Passover meal.

Today, however, the Passover and the Sabbath were over. Today was just another day of work.

You had wakened, dressed and eaten a light breakfast in the light of dawn. Now, the fresh-risen sun was sending long cool shadows across the streets and byways of the ancient city.

Along with other early risers you step quietly out of your small, one-story stone house and turn the corner onto one of the larger streets in your area of the cit.. You are on your way to the nearby bazaar where you will be selling the exquisitely-woven baskets that you, along with the help of your three children, spend most of your waking hours weaving from the dried fronds of date palms gathered from the Kidron Valley.

You have already sent your children off to gather more fronds. Fronds will be easy to find today, you think, since so many had been broken off to celebrate the many pilgrim-processions that had crossed that valley during the previous week. One group after another had started their procession at Bethany on the tall ridge opposite and a bit south of the Holy Temple. The processions had then dropped low into the valley only to begin climbing again as they approached the gates leading to the vast Temple area on Mt. Zion.

Local people would wave the palm branches in praise of God and as a sign of welcome to those who had traveled so far to worship. Children had especially enjoyed the processions, tirelessly waving their palm branches and chanting “Hosanna!” meaning, “Praise the Lord!” over and over again.

The biggest crowds had gathered for the arrival of the rich and famous. Who knows? Perhaps the rich would toss a few coins into the crowd! As for the famous, it was not everyday that one could see in person and up close the noted rabbis and other religious scholars from places like Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch and Babylon.

Jesus of Nazareth had drawn a fairly good-sized crowd himself when he had arrived one week ago today.

As with the others, the children had waved their palm branches and shouted “Hosanna!” as he entered Jerusalem sitting on a donkey.

But there were other, older men and women in the crowd, who had welcomed him as the new King of Israel, a descendent of the great King David himself. There was great excitement surrounding this Jesus. The news had spread everywhere that he had recently raised Lazarus of Bethany from the dead. Some in the crowd seemed to hope that a man with such power from God might be the Christ himself—the long-awaited Messiah who would restore the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory.

But there were also rumors that the religious leaders of Jerusalem had put a price on his head and were determined not only to arrest him but, if possible, put him to death as well.

As it turned out, these rumors had sadly turned out to be true. After teaching publicly in the Temple day after day, Jesus had finally been arrested late Thursday evening while gathered in prayer with his disciples in an olive grove called Gethsemane.

After a brief, secret trial by the Jewish leaders, Jesus was condemned to die. Permission to execute him was then sought from the Roman-appointed Jewish King Herod and, later on Friday morning, from the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate himself.

In the end, permission had been granted and Jesus, along with two thieves, was publicly crucified at Noon on Friday. He died just three hours later. Because the Passover Sabbath began at sunset the two other men were killed outright and all three bodies removed by the Roman soldiers who had executed them.

Jesus’ body had been taken and placed in a tomb owned by one of the few Jewish leaders who had spoken in Jesus’ defense during his late-night trial.

“Dead and buried.” That was Jesus. One more failed hope. The excitement was over. The children would be collecting the dead and drying remains of broken palm branches to be woven into more baskets. Life was back to normal.

The holiday was over but there is still money to be made from shrewd bargaining with the many pilgrims who remained.

As you turn the corner, a young man, his robes girded up around his waist, brushes past you. He is clearly a man in a hurry, running as if for his very life. His lean body and beardless face have hardly registered in your mind when a second man, bearded, stocky and gasping for breath, rushes past, as if in pursuit of the first.

“Strange,” you think to yourself, wondering if the first man was a thief being chased by his victim.

“No matter,” you decide. There’s work to be done.

You have barely taken another stop before a woman, also breathing heavily, trots past you, headed in the same direction as the men. Her “trot” is little more than a fast walk and you see her stop twice to catch her breath. After a moment’s hesitation you call out to see if she needs any help.

“No thank you,” she says. “But come…come with me as I…I will show you a wonder…he’s gone…he’s not there…the stone…it’s…the tomb…empty.”

Mystified, you follow along behind her…but at a discrete distance. You follow her out of both concern and curiosity.

It is but a short distance to the edge of the city. You follow the woman through the city gate and down a ways to a small garden.

There you see the young man who had rushed past you just a few minutes before. He is standing alone, as if deep in thought. The woman approaches him and stands quietly, searching his face without speaking a word.

You hear a sound like a muffled roar coming from inside what is obviously a rich man’s tomb. The sealing stone has been pushed to the side and from the darkness of the tomb a bearded man appears, the other man who had hurried past you in such haste. He is still breathing heavily, his face covered in sweat.

Suddenly, you feel somehow exposed, as if you were the first man, Adam, who had suddenly discovered that he was naked in his own garden.

Like Adam, you step back into the shadows, surprised to suddenly feel the burden of your sins weighing very heavily on your spirit.

The bearded man gasps out, “She’s…Oh, there you are…You were right. He’s gone! But how? Who took him? . . . John, go in and see for yourself and tell me what you think.”

Still without speaking a word, the young man, apparently named John, disappears into the tomb. He is there for only a few moments before reappearing. His face has changed from one of questioning to that of someone who has found an answer; or someone who has just thought of something important or, perhaps, someone who has remembered something that they had forgotten.

Still not saying a single word, this man called John breaks into a small trot of his own, heading back to the city. With a soft groan, the second man follows, his face creased with puzzlement, tinged with wonder.

The woman, now left alone, is weeping. You suppress the urge to step forward and comfort her, wondering if, perhaps, this was the tomb that had been “loaned” to Jesus for his burial on Friday. The men were clearly Galileans, Rough, solid men with broken nails and weathered faces. Fishermen, perhaps. Perhaps two of Jesus’ own disciples.

You had only seen Jesus once during the previous week. You had been on your way to the Temple for mid-day prayer when you entered a crowd of people gathered around a rabbi, or teacher of some sort. The man was saying, “Now is the time for judgment on this world, the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

You had heard some in the crowd snort and mutter, “Blasphemy,” under their breath. Others had stepped forward to ask questions. But you had little time to waste and moved on to offer your prayers to God.

Although you had hurriedly left, the words of the teacher, Jesus, had stayed with you. You had found yourself offering a different prayer than usual that day.

“Almighty and merciful God,” you had begun. As you prayed you were on your knees with your head touching the stone pavement in total submission to the power and majesty of the Lord.

“If today is the day of judgment as this Jesus has said,” you continued, “then I ask you to have mercy on me, a poor sinner. I beg you to cast out Satan from the earth and restore your Kingdom—not just the Kingdom of Israel but the Kingdom of Paradise for all who love you with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.”

Your prayer had stopped abruptly as you recalled Jesus’ prophecy that he would be “lifted up” and that “all men” would come before him.

In that quiet moment in the Temple you had, for a brief moment, wondered if Jesus might actually be the Christ, the Messiah, come at last to restore God’s Kingdom and to prepare the world for the Day of the Lord, the great and terrible day of the Last Judgment.

But, four days later when you had heard that Jesus had been crucified, you had let that idea drop like a hot stone.

Now, however, as you stand in the garden on this first day of the new week, you find yourself wondering…”What if…? Could Jesus be alive? What would that mean?”

While you were lost in thought the woman had slowly walked over to the tomb and is now leaning inside, as if afraid to take even one step over some invisible line drawn across the entrance.

Once again you hear muffled words from the tomb, as if a conversation is being carried on.

Behind the woman, just outside the cave, you see what you can only later describe as a “bright shadow,” shimmering with an increasing intensity and brightness that forces you to turn your eyes away.

After blinking away the discomfort, you look again and see a man standing next to the woman. She turns towards him, still weeping and sobbing. The man’s lips move slightly and the woman suddenly stiffens, dropping to her knees like a gazelle stopped dead in its tracks by a well-placed arrow.

Her face is buried in his feet; her arms in a tight embrace around his legs.

With a gentle gesture that you can only describe as “love” the man raises the woman to her feet, speaks a few words to her and, with a sudden shimmer, is gone.

Without hesitation the woman runs across and out of the garden. As she disappears out of sight you hear what you assume to be her voice, high-pitched and shrill, “He’s alive! I have seen the Lord!”

It is clear that she is no longer weeping!

But what about that man in the garden? Surely it had been Jesus . . . it must have been Jesus . . . looking like a living spirit or an angel of God shining with the glory of heaven! Jesus . . . risen from the dead? Is such a thing possible?

The Pharisees teach that the resurrection of the dead would not come until the Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment at the end of history.

Could it be that Jesus’ prophecy about himself had come true? He had been lifted up from the earth as he predicted—on a cross. And, if he had risen from the dead, then the Day of Judgment had arrived, just as he said. Could it be possible then, that Satan, the prince of this world, has been driven out at last?

As if to answer your own questions you find yourself filling with a hope, a joy that you have never felt before. The burden of your sins, so heavy on your soul only a few minutes before, seem lighter now—or are they gone completely? What does it matter? All you want to do is to be with Jesus; to hear his voice.

You feel as if you are being drawn to him by some invisible power, at work deep within your most innermost being.

No longer do you feel the need to hide in the shadows, embarrassed and ashamed. You feel refreshed, renewed, even reborn! You are stunned to discover that you would be so bold as to stand in the very presence of God himself, as if you yourself were suddenly holy and acceptable to God; worthy of his love . . . because of Jesus!

You rush to the tomb and, after hesitating only long enough to take a deep breath, you step inside.

When you come out a few moments later, all doubt is gone.

“He is risen!” you say to yourself. “He is alive! He is the Christ! He is the Messiah!”

All thought of baskets have left your mind. Your only thought, the only desire of your heart, is to search for Jesus until you find him. Even if it should take a thousand lifetimes!

Suddenly, your mind clears enough to think, “The woman! I must follow the woman! And those men, the one called ‘John’ and that other one! I’ve got to find them!”

Now it is your turn to run from the garden and through the streets of Jerusalem. You have no idea where your running will take you but, somehow, you know that you will see that woman again. You will greet the men with joy and, together with them, you will find Jesus!

And what was true for you then, is true for you today. Amen.

“Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!”

--by Jim Tweedie, Pastor
Mililani Presbyterian Church

Very Early In the Morning - Easter Sunrise Sermon

EASTER SUNRISE—April 16, 2006
“Very Early In the Morning”
Luke 24:1-11

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that on Easter morning the women went to the tomb “at dawn on the first day of the week”

The Gospel of Mark tells us that it was, “Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise.”

The Gospel of Luke also tells us that it was “very early in the morning.”

Lastly, the Gospel of John says that the women started out, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark”

The four Gospels all agree that women from among Jesus’ disciples woke up in the early morning darkness of that first Easter day and headed off to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been placed two days earlier.

Why, I wonder, did they go to the tomb so early? It’s not as though they were worrying that Jesus might be going somewhere!

No, Jesus was dead and he would have been just as available to the women at 11:00 am as he was at 6:00 am!

What was the hurry?

During the Sabbath the day before, they had quietly collected oils and spices to place around Jesus’ body. This ritual was customary at burials in those days but there had not been enough time to do things right when Jesus had died so late on Friday afternoon.

The sooner the women got to Jesus’ body the better, of course. One of the main reasons for the spices, after all, was to cover up the smell of death and decay that would have already begun.

Although the women headed out with this task in mind, we read in Mark’s gospel that the women wondered how they were going to get inside the tomb at all.

They knew that they were not strong enough to move the stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb by themselves.

It is not clear whether they even knew that the tomb entrance had been sealed and that guards had been posted to keep anyone from looting the grave or from stealing Jesus’ body.

I have given this all a great deal of thought this past week and I’d like to share with you why I think these women disciples went to the tomb so early and so eagerly on that Sunday morning.

1. First of all, they were motivated by FAITH. They believed that they were responsible for making sure that Jesus was buried properly. The element of faith is obvious in the fact that they clearly believed, or at least hoped, that God would bless their efforts by providing them a way to enter the tomb.

Have you ever faced a difficult situation that you were not sure how to handle?

I remember once climbing 20-30 feet up a granite cliff while backpacking in the Touolome River Canyon in Yosemite National Park. Why did I do this? I really have no idea. It just seemed to be a fun thing to do at the time.

Well, up I went until I could go no further. It was at that point that I realized that I did not have a clue how to get back down without simply letting go and falling onto the sharp rocks far below. I had gone off by myself and there was no one nearby to call to for help.

Now I’m sure that none of you would ever be so foolish as to ever start something you did not know how to finish! Or are you? Of course you are!

You may not have ever climbed a granite cliff but I bet you have started at least one thing in your life that you really were not completely prepared for.

How about repairing a leaky toilet or a faucet?

Out comes the wrench; the water line is turned off to the house. The nuts and bolts are unscrewed. The broken part is identified and then . . . Well, of course you do not have the part you need to replace it. So, off to City Mill you go, hoping, hoping, hoping that they have the part you need in stock because you know that there is no way in the world that you are ever going to be able to put the whole thing back together without it!

My friends, you have stepped out in faith!

I have so much faith that I once had the opportunity to make four different purchases from three different hardware stores before finally finding at some obscure corner knick-knack repair shop in Wahiawa the one simple part I needed!

Meanwhile, for most of the day, the water in my house had been shut off and not even the toilets were working! I can assure you that my family was not pleased by my efforts!

After having this experience once or twice we will never again try to start anything until we have all the possible parts fully researched, purchased and lined up next to us before we even think about turning off the water!

So it is that we learn to plan every detail of every task, whether it be a party, a vacation trip or church building campaign so that we will be in complete and total control of it all.

But this is not faith! Where do we allow God any opportunity to work his will when we have predetermined everything that will happen ourselves?

Faith means taking control of what you can do and then stepping out boldly, trusting in God to do the rest!

When Psalm 127 says that, “Unless the Lord build the house, they who build it labor in vain,” the Psalm really means what it says!

We must always leave room in our plans for God to complete the work according to his plans!

On that first Easter morning, those women stepped out in faith. They had done all that they could have done and then went to the tomb anyway, leaving it to God to somehow roll that stone away for them.

Their faith was, of course, rewarded. For when they arrived at the tomb they found that the stone had already been rolled away!

If they had spent the morning running around and getting all the necessary permits to open the tomb and had taken time to get permission from the tomb’s owner and hired men who knew how to move the stone they would have had everything under their control but they would have missed out on being the first to discover the empty tomb and to meet the risen Jesus!

It is only faith that gives us the opportunity to experience miracles and other signs and wonders of God. If we do everything ourselves without including God in our plans then that is what we will get: Our own work and none of God’s!

So, the women were, first of all, motivated by faith.

2. Second, the women were also motivated by COURAGE.

HAve you ever wondered why the men didn’t get up early and heaD for the tomb instead of the women? It was because the men were afraid. They were afraid that they might be recognized and identified as Jesus’ disciples. They were afraid that they, too, would be arrested, beaten, stoned or crucified. So they stayed hidden, locked safely away in the Upper Room.

The women knew that even if they were recognized as being followers of Jesus they would most likely have been left alone. Besides, with their head covering and veils they would have been hard to recognize anyway!

Still, it took courage for these women to step out into the open and mingle with people who had, just two days before, called for the death of their teacher and friend.

What would you have done if you had been in the disciples’ place?

Have you ever hesitated to state your opinion or to take a stand on some controversial issue because you were afraid of what others might think of you? Have you ever kept quiet about something important because you didn’t want to “rock the boat” or get on the wrong side of your boss, your employer or your commanding officer?

I remember once when I failed to do what I knew to be the right thing to do. I failed to act because I was afraid that I would damage a friendship, betray a confidence and make a difficult situation even more complicated than it already was.

Because of my fear, because of my lack of courage, I did nothing. And because of that someone almost died. That day was one of the most awful days of my life.

Since then I have decided, that insofar as I am able, I will always try to do the “right thing” no matter how afraid I might be of the consequences.

I want to be like those women on Easter morning who stepped out in courage to go to the tomb.

They were rewarded for their courage by being trusted with the most important message given to humanity since the creation of the world! The resurrection of the Son of God from the bonds of death.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for having done the right thing!” Sometimes the suffering and blessings come together. But it is always the blessing that we should hunger for! The blessing that come from having chosen to do the right thing. And that takes courage.

3. Thirdly, the women went to the tomb early in the morning because they were motivated by CURIOSITY.

Now it has been said that “curiosity killed the cat” but that is not what I am trying to say to you this morning!

What I mean by curiosity is that God has placed us in a wonderful, amazing universe which he has personally designed and constructed for our benefit.

It is God’s desire that we be curious about what God has made and what God is doing.

I, for one, am particularly curious about current events, the unfolding of contemporary history and the amazing recent and ongoing discoveries of science, especially in the area of astrophysics.

By keeping up with the news, by seeing the big picture of world history and current events and by putting them all in the larger context of the whole of creation I believe that, guided by God’s word in the Bible, I am busily engaged in the observing the work of God’s Holy Spirit and the unveiling of God’s plan of redemption and salvation for fallen humanity.

What are you curious about? It is good for you to follow up your curiosity and there are many ways to do this. One of your highest priorities, however, is to be curious as to how God is at work both in your own life as well as in the world around you.

A person without curiosity is a person who has ceased to learn.

Such a person is as good as dead to God!

One of the basic biological criteria for life is that it must be growing, reproducing . . . constantly replacing dead cells with new, living cells, and always adapting to change.

Without curiosity we might as well be vegetables!

So the women were motivated by curiosity. They wanted to see what had happened to Jesus. They wanted to see what was going on that very morning. They wanted to see what God had “up his sleeves” and they were ready to be surprised and amazed!

They were ready to be changed and ready to grow into the people God had created them to be. They wanted to know the truth—the very truth of God that would set them free from sin and death.

So, they stepped out in FAITH, COURAGE and in CURIOSITY.

4. Last of all, they stepped out into the Jerusalem streets early that Easter morning because they were motivated by LOVE.

They were motivated by their love for God.

They were motivated by their love for Jesus.

They were motivated by their love for their spiritual family that Jesus had created from among his faithful disciples.

Lastly, they were motivated by their love of others who had never known Jesus, had never felt his healing touch, had never heard his words of life and had never seen the glory of God shining in his face.

The love that moved them to action that morning was, in fact, not from themselves at all, but from God. It was God’s love that motivated them, the same love that brought Jesus to earth in the first place; The same love that led him to lay down his life for his friends, and, as the women were soon to discover, it was the same love of God that had conquered death and raised Jesus to life that very morning!

A good Boy Scout should be “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”

A good Christian, however, should always be motivated by FAITH, COURAGE, CURIOSITY and LOVE.

Without these there would have been no Easter and without these there would have been no one to discover the empty tomb or to meet the risen Christ face to face.

Let these Easter women be role models for your own life.

Christ arose, but he chose these women to be the first witnesses to the greatest event in the history of the world.

If you want to experience the creative and healing power of God in your life; if you want to experience what it is like to be refreshed, renewed and reborn; if you want to experience the forgiveness of your sin and receive the assurance of God that you have been saved to live with him forever; then I invite you this morning to:

--Step out in faith, trusting that God will complete any good thing that you have begun for his glory;

--Step out with courage, risking everything on Jesus Christ and the salvation that he has won for us.

--Step out in curiosity, asking questions, seeking answers, peeking around corners and looking for God in every place and in every thing and in every idea.

--Step out in love in response to the love God has shown to you in Jesus Christ. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love others as Christ has loved you.

Step out and walk . . . no, I mean run to the tomb of Jesus! If you do you will find that it is empty this morning. If you do you will be filled with wonder and fear and joy all at the same time. If you do you will return a different person than you were when you left.

But if you do not step out in faith, courage, curiosity and love like those women disciples of Jesus then nothing in your life will change. It will all remain the same. Forever. The women knew better. And they were proven to have been right all along.

Follow them this morning. Follow them so that, like them, you, too, will become a follower of Jesus. See? The tomb is empty. He is not here! He is risen! The power of Death to hold you has been destroyed! With Jesus you are free! You are free! Alleluia! Amen!

--by Jim Tweedie, Pastor
Mililani Presbyterian Church