Sermon: Easter: Invitation to Life

Easter 2006

“An Invitation to Live”

Matthew 27:57-28:15

Cynthia O’Brien

April 16, 2006

Matthew 27:57 – 28:10

^{MT 27:57} As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

^{MT 27:62} The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³ "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, `After three days I will rise again.' ⁶⁴ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."

^{MT 27:65} "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

^{MT 28:1} After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

^{MT 28:2} There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

^{MT 28:5} The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: `He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

^{MT 28:8} So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

^{MT 28:11} While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, "You are to say, `His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." ¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

If you’re going to be a spiritual person, if you are going to seek after the divine, sooner or later you are going to have to talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That’s what we are talking about today:

- What have people said about the resurrection?

- What is the truth about the resurrection?

- What does the resurrection mean for our life and our future?

I. WHAT HAVE PEOPLE SAID ABOUT THE RESURRECTION?

AND WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

Last Sunday, we read the story of the trial of Jesus, how the chief priests and other Jewish leaders conspired to force Pilate, the governor, to have Jesus executed. If you have seen a movie about Jesus like The Passion of the Christ, you can even picture it. Now, as we just read in the Scripture, even after Jesus has been killed, those same chief priests and Jewish leaders go back to Pilate and say, “Look, this imposter said that he would die and after three days be raised, so you’d better put some extra security on the tomb, just in case those pesky disciples try to deceive us.”

They were worried about Jesus being raised, or about someone claiming he would be raised. They did not like him and did not want him to turn out to be their Messiah. No matter what miracles they saw him do, no matter what wisdom he spoke to them, they would not believe him.

According to Matthew, the first witnesses of the empty tomb are the women and the Roman guards. The angel tells the women to run and tell the disciples. But the security guards run to the priests who hired them and say, There was a violent earthquake,

a fierce heavenly creature came down from the sky to the tomb. It rolled back the stone and sat on it. It looked like lightening. We were terrifie. It said that Jesus had risen and that he was going to Galilee.”

The guards have no reason to lie. They are obviously telling the truth. At this point, those chief priests and Pharisees should say, “Oh, my God, it’s all true! Jesus – the Christ! How could we have not seen it? They should fall to their knees, rend their clothing and beg God for mercy. Instead, they cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen. They pay the soldiers to spread a rumor that the disciples stole the body.

It must have been a huge sum of money for these guards to lie, after having seen such a terrifying supernatural event.

Some people today don’t want to accept Jesus’ resurrection. They wonder if the guards’ story might be true. Hey, maybe the disciples did steal the body so they could pretend he had been raised from the dead.

Could that have happened? Not likely. Think about it. There’s no way those guards would be asleep if they valued their lives. The disciples were in no shape to steal the body and create an elaborate scam – they were no longer a strong group. They were discouraged and depressed. Their real life teacher, their friend, their Lord, was dead, and so was their faith.

And even if they could have done something like that, it wouldn’t last. No one lays down his life for a fabrication. Surely at least one of them, about to be put to death, would have confessed – “No! We made it all up!” But not one of them recanted.

If anyone lied, it was those chief priests and Pharisees.

What else do people say about the resurrection? Both the Bible and historians of the day say that the risen Christ appeared to his disciples, but some people want to explain it away. They say, “Maybe the disciples were just seeing things. The disciples must have wanted to see Jesus so much that they actually thought they did, but they were just hallucinating.”

That doesn’t make any sense either. Jesus appeared to 10 disciples without Thomas, then later to 11 disciples with Thomas, then to other people, then to hundreds. Soon after that, the Apostle Paul wrote: “The people who saw Jesus are alive – you can ask them yourself!” A single person might have a hallucination, but not several groups of people.

Some people say Jesus didn’t really die in the first place, that he was just in a swoon and then magically revived, got himself out of the grave wrappings, moved the stone himself and took off. Consider all the people who handled Jesus’ body: flogging him, pounding nails through his hands and feet, hanging him on a cross until he suffocated, piercing his side with a spear so that blood and water flowed out, bringing the body down from the cross, wrapping it in grave clothes and laying it in a tomb. Not one of them saw any signs of life. It was as horrible as they say. He really did suffer a terrible death.

Since we can’t explain away the Resurrection, let’s consider the good that has come of it, which is as good an evidence for its truth as any. The disciples, terrorized, cowardly, dejected, in just a few weeks time are preaching the message of a risen Christ in the middle of cities. Peter, who at the time of Jesus’ arrest was so afraid that he kept swearing up and down that he didn’t know Jesus, now stands in the middle of Athens, unafraid, preaching the good news.

Could these men and women have turned their lives around if they were mounting a deception? Would each one of them have died a martyr’s death if it were a scam? Each one of them was a new person. They were filled with joy and courage. They didn’t care what would happen to them. They had no government protection for the first 300 years of Christianity. And yet something made it so worthwhile that they followed Jesus, even to the death.

Why weren’t they afraid to die? Because Jesus had told them about eternal life, and they believed him. Jesus said, “Do not be troubled, do not be afraid. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again for you, so that you will be where I am.” They were not afraid to die physically because they knew they would live eternally.

III. WHAT DOES THE RESURRECTION MEAN FOR OUR LIFE AND OUR FUTURE?

If you believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, if you believe that Jesus was a wise teacher, then you can trust the things he said about himself, about heaven, about eternal life. Christians from the earliest days to today share a common vision of the day when, as the Scripture says, “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” We look forward to the day when we will trade the troubles of this world for the kingdom of God, and Jesus will rule over it, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Have you thought about these things before? Many people just don’t think about it. Perhaps you’d like to believe, but you haven’t given faith a chance. Maybe you just haven’t had time. But when you take a moment and slow down and think, you realize that it bothers you that you have not resolved this for yourself. It’s as if there is a stone in front of your heart and you can’t pry it loose to see if there’s something good behind it.

Or maybe you do believe, and you have even had a deeply spiritual experience of God, but you’re facing tremendous pressure, like the soldiers did, to deny what you have experienced.

At school, maybe you have restrictions on you regarding talking about Jesus in the classroom.

At work, maybe the boss wants you to take some shortcuts that may not technically be illegal, but you know they’re not ethical, yet you don’t know how to challenge it.

At poker night, the guy in the baseball cap gave you grief when you mentioned God, so you dropped the subject, even though the other three guys were interested in what you had to say.

You may be wrestling with this, but you don’t have to keep it to yourself. People want to know about God. As a culture, we are generally more interested in spiritual things than we were even five or ten years ago.

Like Amy. She wanted to help her mother, who is single, meet some people and maybe even meet a nice older single man. So Amy got her mother to go to an Alpha Course, which is a 10-week course on Christianity that we offer here at the church. Amy was not really into God and did not plan to attend the course, but she went the first time with her mom.

She said, “The last thing I expected was to be intellectually stimulated at the first talk.”

The topic was, “Who is Jesus?”

Amy, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, started paying attention. “I had never really thought about the person of Jesus beyond Christmas and Easter. I was used to dealing with facts [in my work], but when it came to Jesus I realized that I had made a lot of assumptions. Over the course of the 10 weeks, I began to think more about my faith. Every talk I went to, I realized I couldn’t reject it until I knew what I was rejecting. Overall, my biggest revelation was that I needed to actively examine my spiritual faith, for my life to have meaning.”

If your faith has died, it can be resurrected today. Examine the evidence. Choose to believe. Receive the new life -- a changed life now, an eternal life to come.

Listen to these words by Macrina Wiederkehr.

Easter at Your Door

by Macrina Wiederkehr

When dawn stands still with wonder

when birds jubilate in the trees

when buds hurry into blossoms

and grass starts wearing green

I always know that Easter wants to come again.

But deeper yet and richer still

When Jesus, imprisoned in me,

asks me to roll away the stone

that locks him in

then Easter wants to come again.

So, let it come

It’s one dawn past rising time

and Resurrection is the wildest news

that’s ever touched

this crazy, mixed-up world.

It says, yes!

when everything else says, no!

It says, up!

when everything else says, down!

It says, live!

when everything else says, die!

Easter’s standing at your door again,

so don’t you see that stone has got to go?

that stone of fear

of selfishness and pride

of greed and blindness

and all the other stones we use

to keep Jesus in the tomb.

So here’s to rolling stones away

to give our Lord the chance He needs

to rise and touch

a troubled, lonely world.

Some call it Resurrection.

It’s wild with wonder,

It’s beautiful and real

Intent on throwing life around

it touches and it heals!

Yes, Easter, you can come.

I will be an angel of life.

I’ll roll the stone away

and set you free.

Sermon: Save Me From This Hour?

"Save Me From This Hour"?
John 12:20-33
Cynthia O'Brien
April 2, 2006

^{JN 12:20} Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." ²² Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

^{JN 12:23} Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

^{JN 12:27} "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name!"

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." ²⁹ The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

^{JN 12:30} Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. ³¹ Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. ³² But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." ³³ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

Chum Sophan is a young woman who lives in Cambodia. Her parents were trying to make a living raising pigs, but the pigs would usually get sick and die before they were old enough to take to market. This upset Sophan, but there was no opportunity for her to get the education she would need to make it work. She couldn’t make it on her own. She needed someone to save her. Then Church World Service came to work in her village. They selected Sophan to train as a Village Livestock Agent to provide preventive care and treat animals. They also gave her a small loan to build a pig pen and buy one sow. Now she’s one of 28 trained Village Livestock Agents in her district, and a successful pig farmer. She has a reputation for healthy pigs and other farmers are lined up to buy from her. Her family has gained the skills they need to work with animals and to generate income for their whole family. Her prayers have been answered; the Lord saved her and her village.

We count on the Lord to save us, and we praise God when our prayers are answered. But there was one man who did not pray exactly as we would. In John chapter 12, Jesus said,

^{JN 12:27} "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'?

YES, save me! Here is where Jesus should quote the Scripture “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Every other human being prays to be saved from suffering. We pray to be spared an untimely death. We pray to be relieved from pain.

We do practical things every day to back up these prayers. We try to prevent diseases. We stop smoking, get annual mammograms and eat foods that contain antioxidants. We buy cars with good crash-test ratings and pray for protection driving to the coast. And when we find ourselves in some kind of foxhole – literally or figuratively – we pray, pray, pray to get out alive. “Father, save me from this hour!”

Then if God does save us, we not only have our life back, but we have a great story. A testimony of the glory of God. We quote the Scriptures: “In my distress, I cried to the Lord, and the Lord saved me.”

Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Hallelujah! I can hear the disciples thinking. God is going to save us! Jesus is going to be glorified. This will be the event of the year! How will Jesus show his glory? Will he do a great miracle? Will he heal someone, or raise someone from the dead? How will he be glorified? The disciples can’t wait to see Jesus glorified.

But the more Jesus talks, the more confused his disciples get. Jesus is talking about seeds dying, about men losing their lives. Even though Jesus says he is about to be glorified, he says, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.”

SKIING

Dave Barry can’t decide whether he wants to ski or be saved from skiing. He wrote recently about how he and his son have such different approaches to skiing that they can no longer ski together.

Quote: “(My son) skis via the Downhill Method, in which you ski down the hill; whereas I ski via the Breath-Catching Method, in which you stand sideways on the hill, looking as athletic as possible without actually moving muscles (this could cause you to start sliding down the hill). If anybody asks if you're OK, you say, ''I'm just catching my breath!'' in a tone of voice that suggests that at any moment you're going to swoop rapidly down the slope; whereas in fact you're planning to stay right where you are, rigid as a statue, until the spring thaw. At night, when the Downhillers have all gone home, we Breath-Catchers will still be up there, clinging to the mountainside, chewing on our parkas for sustenance.”

What should Dave say as he stands sideways on the hill – “Save me from this hill?”

You skiers and snowboarders know: There is a reason that you fill up your gas tank, go to the rental shop and pay 25 bucks to rent your skis or board. There’s a reason you drive 37 miles up to Timberline and pay 46 bucks for a lift ticket. There’s a reason you wait 15 minutes in line and ride a thousand feet on the Magic Mile Express, get off and get on the Palmer chairlift and ride another 1500 feet up to the top where you stand at 8,540 feet elevation.

Now what shall you say? Save me from this mountain? No, the reason you went up there was to ski DOWN. That is the point of all you have been through until this moment.

Jesus said, It was for this very reason I came to this hour.

ESTHER

Remember the Jewish girl in the Old Testament, Hadassah, who was made Queen Esther of Persia only to discover a plot to kill all the Jews? Her uncle Mordecai said, “You have to approach the King and tell him this is wrong.” But she said, “The king will kill me if I do.” Mordecai replied, “Well, if you don’t save us, God will save us another way. But who knows but that you have come to royal power for such a time as this?” What should Esther do? Go quietly back to her rooms, after understanding that her whole reason for being there was to step out in courage?

Jesus said, It was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Now for anyone who is paying attention, Jesus explains more about this hour in which God will glorify him.

Jesus said, ³¹ I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." ³³ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

CRUCIFIX

Imagine a young couple in a jewelry store, shopping for a gift for her great aunt for Easter, comparing cross necklaces, and one turns to the other and asks, “Do you think we should get the cross with the man on it or without the man on it?”

The cross that shows Jesus on it is called a crucifix, and we think of it as a primarily Catholic image. The plain cross is thought of as a mostly Protestant image. Which one shows Jesus’ hour of glory? The crucifix, with which we meditate on Jesus suffering, or the empty cross, signifying the resurrection?

Personally I’m more comfortable with the resurrection. But I find it interesting that Jesus, when he talks about his hour of glory, does not talk about the resurrection. When he talks about being lifted up from the earth, it is not his resurrection or his ascension into heaven. John makes it clear this is about the kind of death he was going to die. Jesus’ hour of glory is the hour of his death.

Jesus’ hour of glory, he says, is when he is lifted up on the cross, when he is humiliated and tortured, when he dies slowly by suffocation and exposure. This is the hour he will not ask to be saved from. This is his hour in which he draws us all to him. This is his hour of glory.

What is your hour of glory? It is when you take up your cross and follow Jesus down the hard path. It is when you make an unpopular decision that you know is right. It is when you suffer in order for someone else to be happy. It begins in this hour right here, when we hear his word, when we believe it in our minds and hearts, and when we seal it in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In this hour, we share in this glory of Christ’s suffering and death. He draws us to this table to share his suffering with us. As we eat the body and drink the blood, we are tangibly reminded of his hour of glory. We are bound to him.

Paul wrote to the Romans: We were therefore buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

And he said to the church at Corinth: Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

When we gather at the Lord’s table, we find reason that we are here. We find the courage to follow Jesus. We remember our responsibility to those who are in need. We find the strength to do the hard things that we know we must do.

The Lord answered Chum Sophan’s prayer. But who was it that sacrificed to give the money so that Sophan could get the training she needed to support her family? You did, just a few years ago. You and 11,000 other Presbyterian congregations gave to One Great Hour of Sharing. The money for her training can be traced all the way back here, because we are the people who care.

We might have said, “Lord, save me from this special offering!” But Jesus didn’t say that, and neither do we. Jesus said, “No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

For what reason did you come to this hour?