He Lives!

                                       Luke 24: 1-12

 

 

          He had told them. Three times he had told them,

 

according to Luke. The first time, he said: “The Son of Man

 

must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and

 

chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be

 

raised” [9:22].  The second time he said to his disciples: “The

 

Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men”

 

[9:44]. On the way to Jerusalem, he foretold his death a third

 

time, finishing his remarks with a comment that “on the third

 

day he would rise” [18: 33]. But they didn’t understand. The

 

people closest to Jesus, the people who had been with him day

 

and night for three years, didn’t understand who he was or

 

what he was there to do. When Jesus died on that hill on

 

Calvary, his followers hid in fear and cried in despair.

 

          What a difference three days make! It was Sunday, the

 

first day of the week. The Sabbath was over. Mary Magdalene,

 

Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women went

 

to the tomb to cover Jesus’ body with spices and to do other

 

final burial rights that had had to wait until after the Sabbath. 

 

          The tomb was a hole carved in the rock and covered

 

with a large stone which was rolled across the opening along a

 

top groove meant to hold it in place. The tomb was hewn

 

to hold a man’s body, which would be placed upon a stone

 

shelf also carved from the rock. The tomb was probably too

 

small for all five women to enter at the same time.

 

Luke talks about what they found and what they did not

 

find. They found the stone, but it had been rolled away. And

 

when they went in, what they found was not the dead body of

 

Jesus, but the living spirit bodies of two men. From Luke’s

 

description, there is no doubt that they are angels. No matter

 

that the Gospel accounts differ on the detail, from one

 

man in a long white robe in Mark to the angel of the Lord in

 

Matthew to two angels in John.  No two eyewitnesses ever give

 

identical accounts of something witnessed.  It is not the

 

messengers that Luke would have us remember. When God

 

has something to say, something for us to remember, it is never

 

about the messenger and always about the message. Here, the

 

message is that flesh has been replaced by Spirit and that

 

the tomb is empty!

 

          “Why do you seek the living among the dead? ask the

 

angels? Why, indeed! Why did the religious rulers see him as a

 

threat instead of the answer to their prayers? Why did the

 

people think he was going to be the king they wanted instead of

 

the Savior they needed? Why was everyone expecting a man-

 

made solution to a God-sized problem? The dead reside in

 

tombs and Jesus’ tomb was empty! The angels heralded the

 

news that changed the world. “He is not here, but has risen.”

 

          The angels told the women to remember…to remember

 

what Jesus himself has told them on several occasions…that he

 

would rise on the third day. They remembered his words and

 

then they realized that they were looking for Jesus in the

 

wrong place. The tomb was empty.

 

          Place yourself in that group. You are one of his followers,

 

perhaps one of the women. You are loyal. You have followed

 

Jesus to the end. You heard of his arrest in Gethsemane and

 

you came to the temple court. You waited through the night

 

and saw him taken to Pilate, then back to the temple and yet

 

again to Pilate. You heard his cries of pain as he was whipped

 

and scourged.  You clamored to get inside the Roman

 

courtyard where Pilate presented Jesus and Barabbas. You

 

watched helplessly as the mob demanded that Jesus be

 

crucified. You followed him as he carried his cross through the

 

city and up that hill to the Place of the Skull. You cried as he

 

suffered and yet forgave his persecutors. You huddled at the

 

foot of the cross as he breathed his last.  Your dreams and

 

hopes disappeared with his death and for the last two days, you

 

have cried until there are no more tears. And now, you come to

 

prepare his broken body and he is gone. The tomb is empty,

 

save for two men so bright that your eyes must turn away from

 

the light. What does it all mean?

 

          Luke does that to us in his Gospel. Early in the book, the

 

angel leaves a young Mary to “ponder” things in her heart.

 

Mary Magdalene and the other women find an empty tomb,

 

and they are “perplexed.” When they tell of these things, all of

 

the apostles except Peter characterize their story as an “idle

 

tale.” Peter has a different take. His heart stirs and he runs to

 

the tomb. Looking in, he sees nothing but the linen cloths that

 

have covered Jesus. He goes home “marveling” at what had

 

happened. Luke has the characters, and us, pondering,

 

perplexed and marveling. They did not know what it all meant.

 

          In one of the most monumental miscalculations of

 

information in all of history, the disciples call the story of the

 

empty tomb an “idle tale.” Peter is the lone exception and

 

even he can only “marvel” at the news. The tomb is empty

 

and he is risen. An idle tale?  Not exactly. Two thousand years

 

later, with two billion converts alive today to retell the story, it

 

is known as the Good News, the Gospel, the greatest story ever

 

told.

 

          But even today, it is difficult to grasp the incredible truth

 

of Easter.  Most Bibles now have captions and headings to

 

explain the text. Look at the captions in your Bible for Luke 9

 

and 18 regarding Jesus’ forecasts. Chances are that they read

 

of Jesus foretelling his death. But Jesus words also foretell of

 

his resurrection on the third day. How do we fail to note that in

 

our headings? Are we more interested in his death than his

 

resurrection? Even today, we strain to grasp the message that

 

lies in the story. It is just too big. When we try to downsize it

 

into bits and morsels that we can digest, we distill it into

 

something foreign, something smaller than it is. Do we know

 

what it means, or are we perplexed or still pondering?

 

The story of Easter is the story of the resurrection. Yes,

 

Jesus’ death had to come. His sacrifice had to be made. His

 

love,  his sacrificial, unbounded love, had to be shown and

 

demonstrated for us to know forgiveness.  But the story of 

 

Easter is resurrection! He lives! He lives today! Easter means

 

Resurrection Sunday, and the very fact of the resurrection is

 

that God conquered death and that in that victory lies our

 

path to redemption. He did it for us!

 

          He foretold his death. He went to the cross. All true. But

 

don’t stop there. He rose! To know that he rose is to know that

 

the resurrection is revelation! The resurrection is under-

 

standing. It is no “idle tale.” The real story of the cross is

 

not tragedy, but triumph…and our salvation!

 

          Many of us still look to make the story bite-sized, but it

 

will not be contained. Many of us still look for Jesus among the

 

dead, but we will not find him there.  He is more than a great

 

man, a hero from the past, a role model for gracious living, a

 

person to be studied. The tomb is empty. The story of Easter is

 

that he lives. He lives! He is here and now. We can meet him

 

every day. We can experience him…not just study him. He

 

lives! And because he lives, we too can live.

 

          And the angels said: “Why do you seek the living among

 

the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember…”  

                        Who Is This?

                                       Matthew 21: 6-11

 

 

          It was Passover. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. If you

were living in the kingdom of Judah during the first century,

you came to Jerusalem three times a year. There was the Feast

of Weeks, the Feast of Booths and there was Passover. You

stopped working at your job. You took your children and your spouse out of school and their normal routine, you packed your bag and you went to Jerusalem. The law required that every adult male who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem must come to the Passover. In addition, Jews from all over the known world made the journey because of its importance on the Jewish calendar. It was the celebration of the Exodus; the remembrance of God’s deliverance of the nation of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

          Those of you who are race fans know that Charlotte Motor Speedway fills up grandstands of more than 180,000 spectators for a major race like the World 600. There are many more in the infield and parking lots. The area just outside Charlotte becomes one of the biggest populations in North Carolina for a few days. A NASCAR race has nothing on Passover. Normally, Jerusalem had a population of about 80,000, but during Passover, it swelled to many times that number. Some thirty years after the death of Jesus, a Roman governor took a census of all the lambs slain during Passover. The number was upwards of a quarter million. Passover regulations required a lamb sacrifice for no more than ten people. Do that math. That equals somewhere around two and a half million people. Passover was the main event!

          It is into this arena that Jesus purposefully came. Matthew is ever faithful to tracing the connections between the Hebrew Scriptures and the story of Jesus. He tells us that Jesus sent his disciples to a nearby village to obtain a donkey and a colt, which they dutifully did. What followed was Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem at a time when it was overrun with a population probably twenty five times the number it normally held. It was like arriving at the State Fair gone turbo and being the main attraction of the grand opening. The crowds were huge, the streets were overrun, the atmosphere was high drama and it was infectious.

          And then here came Jesus, riding on a never before ridden colt accompanied by the colt’s mother.  Matthew tells us that this was done to fulfill Scripture, specifically that of Zechariah 9:9, where the prophet tells Israel that its king shall come humbly, “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt…” Jesus sat on the cloaks of his disciples and the large crowd became larger. Many spread their cloaks on the ground. Others cut palm branches to spread in his path. The crowds went ahead of him, proclaiming him and celebrating.

           The scene is not unique. At least a dozen such scenes had happened in Jerusalem’s recorded history, from Alexander the Great to Marcus Agrippa. So the scene is not so unusual. The thing is, such a reception is one reserved for a king or a conquering hero or a ruler. What has Jesus to do with this?

The crowds were shouting. They called Jesus the “Son of David.” They said he came in the name of the Lord.  They called him the prophet. Matthew says that the whole city was stirred up.

Well, if the “what” part of this breaking news has happened before, and many times before, then it must be the “who” that’s important, and indeed it is. It was then and it is now. Son of David? A reference to Scripture and prophecy?  Prophet? A reference to another of God’s heralds?  The Lord’s ambassador? Such language was the language of pilgrims. Hosanna? The term means Save Now. Hosanna in the highest might have meant that some saw Jesus as able to save them.

Was he the Savior? And if he was, what did that mean? Savior of what? Savior of whom?  “Who is this?” they asked. The crowd received Jesus like a king. Of course, he knew this was coming and he knew it would be the key to his earthly downfall.  This made no difference to Jesus, because he was the one person in Jerusalem who knew who he was.

When the religious rulers heard of all the ruckus over this man, they fretted. They were under the thumb of Rome and Rome did not tolerate sedition. Jesus was a major threat to the status quo. Jesus was more than a thorn in their side. He threatened to disrupt a delicate balance precariously struck between religious and political leaders.

“Who is this,” they asked. Caiaphas the high priest asked Jesus if he were the Son of God, and Jesus answered in a riddle. He said that “from now on you will see the Son of Man seated on the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” To Pilate, the Roman governor, he responded as he had to Caiaphas; that is, he said only to their questions: “You have said so.”

Who is this? No one got it right. No one got it right on Palm Sunday, when they called him Son of David and Prophet. No one got it right in the Sanhedrin, when they accused him of blasphemy. No one got it right at his appearance before Pilate, when a government official played the political card rather than exercise fundamental judgment and fairness. No one got it right in the crowd that formed on the morning of Good Friday when they chose to free Barabbas over Jesus. Not even the disciples got it right. We have Peter’s example to remind us of our mortality and weakness.

Who is this? Nobody got it right that first Easter, but that’s okay. God planned it that way. That’s why Jesus came. Because we don’t get it right, at least not without the grace of God that surpasses all understanding, even unto a cross.

Nevertheless, and unbelievably, the question remains to this day. Who is this? Is he the Son of Man? Is he the Son of God? Is he Messiah? Is he Savior of all? There are billions of people walking the face of the earth right now who think they have the answer, and they are wrong.

Who is this? Prophet, priest, king? Yes, and so much more! He is us and greater than us. He is the least and the most of us. He is the bridge to God and God himself.  Who is this?

He is my Savior. Make him be yours too. That’s who he is.

                              Dem Bones

                                            Ezekiel 37: 1-14

             

 

 

          Yesterday, I was listening to a college professor talk about a study he and others had conducted. They rigged Monopoly games so that one player has most of the money and power from the outset. When they won and were interviewed about the game, all the winners’ responses had to do with various moves they had made. They completely ignored the fact that they had the upper hand from the beginning, that they were favored with more money. They said nothing about good luck. That same team conducted other similar tests to weigh the tendency of people to react certain ways in certain sets of circumstances. Their findings were very predictable. In fact, similar studies have been conducted by a number of famous universities for a period of over forty years, and the results never vary. Their conclusions are that people who are advantaged by wealth or power quickly learn how to take their good fortune for granted. Not only that, they fairly quickly lose their ability to be sympathetic or empathetic to their fellow man. Put in simple terms, they thumb their noses at those mundane rules of life that the rest of us have learned to follow.

         Recently, I was at a synagogue during Sabbath worship. It was very interesting as a Christian to watch these devout people, direct descendants of Abraham and Moses and David, as they read from the Torah. Their worship was moving, and yet as I watched and listened to the reading and liturgy from the same books that you and I call the Old Testament, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sorrow that these, the chosen people of God from the beginning, stop right at the edge of the grace that God has offered through his son Jesus. In the next ten days, they will celebrate Passover, while Christians will go to the cross and then celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God. The Jews are still a “works” religion, while Christianity points to Jesus not only as Messiah but as Savior of all mankind.

          Think about it. In the eyes of religious history, the nation of Israel had it all. They were God’s chosen. While we played Monopoly with the Iron, the nation of Israel got to move around the board with the Rolls Royce.  While the Gentiles were trying to scrape up the religious capital to buy Baltic Avenue, the nation of Israel was getting monopolies like Boardwalk and Park Place. They had the Law and the Prophets.

          And yet, Israel couldn’t get it right. First, the Northern kingdom fell and later Judah followed.  Rescue after rescue after rescue, from the garden to Sodom to the Exodus to Sinai, and yet, the more that Israel benefitted from a playing field built in its favor, the more it became complacent and the more it acted ungrateful and unimpressed. Israel acted just like the participants in the Monopoly study.  It was so proud of itself; it felt so vested, that it never could take the time to remember who it was and how it got there.

          In the 37^th chapter of Ezekiel, the exiled prophet says that the hand of the Lord is upon him, a claim he makes several other places in the book. Ezekiel and his people Israel are in exile and their situation looks completely hopeless. Not only is the Temple gone, but so are most of the people.  They are living in the lands of their victors and their identity is practically gone. It is to this backdrop of hopelessness and despair that God speaks through his prophet to his people.

Doesn’t this story have a ring of familiarity? It is the story of the cripple at the Sheep gate who had all the excuses about why he couldn’t get to the pool. It is the story of Nicodemus who, for all his education and training and wealth, could not grasp the power of God to transform the human heart. At the end of the day, these are not stories about people or places or nations. They are stories about God.  

Lucky for us…and the nation of Israel, that it is not God’s story. The hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel and God’s Spirit set him down in the middle of a valley of dry bones. The dry bones were the hopeless, exiled nation of Israel, or the hopeless cripple at the pool, and even the hapless Rabbi Nicodemus who couldn’t see the power and face of God in plain view. God asked Ezekiel: “Son of Man, Can these bones live?” And the wise prophet said to God: “You know.”

Yes, God does know. God told Ezekiel to prophesy over those bones, the bones of a nation gone bad, a nation corrupt, a nation in despair. A rattling sound was heard and bones came together. They were tied together with sinew, then flesh came upon them. And Ezekiel is looking at a valley of people the size of a great army, but with no breath, and with no breath, there was no real life in these people.

Where was their hope? The nation of Israel had run out of gas, just as so many of us have done in our own lives. What could it do? What can we do? Read on. God said to Ezekiel: Prophesy! Call for breath, and the prophet did as he was commanded. And the Scripture tells us that “the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

When God chooses to act, things happen. God chose to act in that valley of dry bones. God brought the nation of Israel back to the Promised Land. God brought them through many more watershed events in their history, just as he has with us.  We know now that God’s people are those who come to believe in him and in the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. What we also need to realize is that his power and authority transcend all things human, all things finite. As it was in Bethesda and in Jerusalem, it also was in the days of the exile. God can raise us from the valleys of our lives, from the depths of our despair, from the hopelessness of our plight, whatever it might be, by the simple breath of his Spirit. He did it for Israel, He did it on the cross, and he does it for us even now.

“And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”