Preached on Sunday, April 21, 2019
Easter-Resurrection Sunday, at the main
service
Scripture readings:
Matthew 28:1-10
Some
people complain that each of our four gospels tells the events of this Resurrection
Day differently, some more differently than others. You’d think that, with an
event so big, the tellings would come out the same.
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| Walking near Crab Creek, Desert Aire-Mattawa Holy Week Crosses, Riverside Community Church April 2019 |
Actually,
if the tellings had all come out the same, the world would suspect the authors
of collusion. The truth is that, when the world judges the actions of God, for
better or worse, God never gets treated quite fairly.
I would
say that this has been true since the first humans believed devil’s lie in the
Garden of Eden. This is only one symptom of why we need the cross and the
resurrection of Jesus in the first place.
Adam and
Eve took the first bold step of human nature in the direction of a lie. It was
the first layer that humans laid for themselves on top of God’s foundation.
It was
never built straight after that. It all needs to be done over, from the bottom
up. That’s why God became a human. The Lord came to earth in Jesus in order to
become the first true and genuine human being in a new human race. Jesus was
and is the beginning of a new creation of a new heaven and earth. In the end,
his death and his life will work backward until this world’s last day becomes
the new creation’s first day. God will say, “Let there be light!” and there
will be a new heaven and earth.
You see,
it’s important, this day.
The
English and the German speaking people are pretty much the only people in the
world to call this day by a pagan name. All other languages use a better name:
something like pasch, or Pascua de Resurrection. Pasch and Pascua mean the
Passover.
The
Hebrew, Jewish Passover was from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land. It
was really a prophecy of our own Passover: our passing over from death to life
in Jesus.
You might
say, “But we still live in a world where everyone dies.” That’s true for now.
Christians believe that life with Jesus, in this world now, is a richer, fuller
life: what the Jesus called life abundant. “I have come that you may have life
and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) You might say, “At least, life now has a
little bit of heaven in it.” Or you might call it “Life with a little bit of
resurrection in it.
In the
old world, as it was before Jesus came, you died in a world where no
resurrection had ever happened. Someday that would come, but it wasn’t a part
of that old world yet.
There was
heaven, yes, but heavenly life only after departing from a defeated and tired world
that was lost in lies and death. It is a very different thing to die in a world
where someone has defeated the power of sin and death. Because of Jesus we
depart from a changing world, where someone has made a start by rising from the
dead.
In his
body now, Jesus carries around with him his own tiny bit of this defeated and
tired old world. Only, that bit of our world, from which we have been made,
isn’t defeated and tired anymore. We live, now, in a world where there is someone
who will not die, and cannot, die.
We die,
now, in a world that is in its first stages of being brought back to life. In
Jesus we have the slow beginning of a tidal wave of life.
In God’s
time, we will all be part of the great change that will bring an end of death:
an end of lies, an end of brokenness, and hurt, and scars, and hate, and fear,
and decline, and every kind of ugliness.
The day
of the cross and burial, and the day of grief, and the day of rising from the
dead are the days that changed with world. It’s the three days that changed the
world, and heaven too. Life without sin, life where every human achievement,
every blessing of your life and mine will reach its mark, life without death,
has begun.
Everything
that ever has caused harm, and pain, and tears was carried by God, in our mortal
flesh and blood, in Christ Jesus. Our freedom from all of that is gone, when we
seek Jesus, and Jesus comes to us and says “REJOICE!” Xairete, in Greek!
English
Bibles are so mild-mannered. Jesus walks right up to those women disciples and
says “Greetings!” “Hail!” It’s like saying howdy! “Hi there.”
In the
Spanish Bibles Jesus walks right up to the friends who are looking for him and
says, “Salve!” That can mean “hello” too. But Spanish says salve (as in
salvation). Jesus has given the word a hidden power because, from the mouth of
Jesus, you feel saved, and safe, and healed, and joyful. Jesus has given this
to us: Salve!
Those who
spoke Greek usually said “rejoice” instead of saying “hello” or “ola”. They
said it as a polite custom, just as we Anglos say “how are you?” without really
wanting to know. What the Greeks said without caring, Jesus says because his
dying and rising for us are real. His living and dying, and rising are where
all lasting, never-ending joy will come from: A new heaven, a new earth, and a
new everyone, and that means you.
It can be
you.
I know
Jesus. Jesus is my oldest and dearest friend, but I seek Jesus every day. I
look forward to my friend, and Savior, and Lord every day. Do you? Do you seek
Jesus? Then Jesus says “salve” to you. You are saved. You’re eternally safe. Rejoice!
In my
imagination, the angel says these words with a smile, a joyful smile. The angel
knows that what these women and disciples will find is much better than
anything they are looking for now. They’ve been seeking the dead instead of the
living.
The angel
knows that they will have to get used to living in a whole new world. So do we.
So do you. Someone has risen from the dead. No one ever saw the need before.
And, if they saw the need before, they weren’t able to do it.
Jesus saw
our every need: above it all and beneath it all. Jesus saw our need to die to a
dying world, and to live an undying, everlasting life. When we grieve, or when
we fear a future grief on the horizon, it’s the image of God in us, telling us
that love is meant to last forever and never, never die.
Because Christ
has risen indeed, from now on, we die in a world where we will never do
anything in the future but live: live now in the Lord’s well-being, live to
come, in the Lord’s heaven, which is only the recess until a greater life
comes, live into the living future where death will be no more. The only brave
new world is found in Jesus.
Are you
looking for this? Then are you looking for Jesus, the Lord of Life. Today is
the Passover to life. Life invading a dying world has begun, and we celebrate
today because we know that we belong to life. We are part of this invading
life, in Jesus.
