CHRIST IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Five-year-old Brian had a pivotal verse to recite in an Easter program: “He is not here, he is risen” (Luke 24:6). Unfortunately, he could not remember what to say, and the director had to quietly remind him of his line. He then confidently grabbed the microphone and triumphantly shouted, “He’s not here; He’s in prison!”
What brought us to this day? During the season of Lent, we took time for self-examination and reflection, hopefully drawing us closer to the throne of Grace. The week before Easter, Holy Week, traced the final week of Jesus’ earthly life from
Palm Sunday’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the crowd shouting “Hosanna”, which means, “Save us!”,
to the Upper Room where Jesus, with His disciples shared their Last Supper together.
We then, on Good Friday, went from the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal from Judas Iscariot, the mock trials, the humiliation, the torture, the crucifixion, the burial.
This looked like the end. Evil seemed to have won. Hope seemed lost.
This seems like such an abrupt ending to the greatest story of the greatest life ever told. Jesus is alive, the women had been told, and they went away and “They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.”
This can’t be the ending to the story.
SPOILER ALERT: It’s not! Christ rose from the grave. Christ is alive. Christ in the world, changes everything. Because of this, his disciples went into the world proclaiming the gospel, AND we can go into the world with this confidence.
The passage we read today is the traditional ending to this gospel. Out of no where, Mark begins the gospel with Jesus being baptized. he ends it with quickly and with no real explanation with the women being afraid and not saying anything.
Now, we know from the other synoptic Gospels (Matthew and Luke), and the Gospel of John and the longer ending to the Gospel of Mark, the disciples reaction to Jesus raising from the dead and their proclamation to the world.
Doesn’t it often seems like things go bad or we cannot get out of the situation we’re in. It seems like everything goes so wrong at times. It seems that nothing can get us out of the pit of despair and fear. It seems like we have to stop what we’re doing because we’re too afraid to keep going. But fear should never stop us in our tracks.[1]
Because Jesus has risen from the grave, there is so much more to the story, to our story, than we can even see at times.
Because Jesus Christ is alive…
EVERYTHING CHANGES!
The women who went to the tomb to perform the burial rituals, became the first preachers of the gospel:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
We proclaim with Christians around the world and throughout history:
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELULIA!
Nothing has been the same since Jesus Christ came to us, as a human being, born in a stable in Bethlehem.
Nothing has been the same since he showed the disciples, and many of the people of Israel, what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like (and is like on earth here and now).
Nothing has been the same since Jesus died.
Nothing has been or will be the same since God raised Him up from the grave!
Now is the time to unwrap the gift that came to us that first Christmas, when Christ was born. We get to unwrap and live into the joy and new life that God offers the world through Jesus Christ.
Everything has been changed. Christ has won (Christus Victor)!
Jesus Christ is alive and is showing us how he is redeeming the world.
Through His Love.
I never what joy was, or how much joy there really is in the world. They suddenly seemed to appear in my life. It is amazing how much love a person can have and give. We spent some time together and I knew they were an answer to many years of praying. I knew Amanda was the one for me…I found someone I want to share life with. Then, at Sea World, I got to meet them. Their smile, their sense of fun and adventure was encouraging to my soul and I knew my older kids were special people, now I have the privilege to call them my kids.
For some time, I thought my joy was complete. I have an incredible wife and two amazing kids. On a November afternoon, a couple years ago, the world was introduced to my youngest daughter, and I fell in love once again.
Love is an incredible thing. Because of the love of God that was and is experienced through Amanda, Sage and Solomon, and now Samarah, I can see Jesus working in and through them to share His love and grace to the world, which ultimately changes the world and makes this world see, experience, and live into God’s Kingdom here and now AND in the life to come.
JESUS HAS COME TO REDEEM AND TRANSFORM ALL OF CREATION.
He starts with us, as individuals, who bring others into the community of faith, working in the world to show the world Jesus Christ changes everything.
Scholar NT Wright puts it this way, “The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love. The cross is not just an example to be followed; it is an achievement to be worked out, put into practice.”[2]
In John 20, we see Jesus, who seems like a gardener to Mary Magdalene, working on tilling the soil. He is doing this to demonstrate he has come, not just to change individual people’s lives, but to change the world as a whole. So, Jesus is working in the dirt…what Genesis 2 says humans were made out of…what Genesis 3 says people will return to be…and what is also cursed. He is working to redeem and transform all of creation.
In the book, “Give them Christ”, Asbury professor, scholar, and author, Stephen Seamonds, writes, “The resurrection of Jesus was therefore not only one miracle—extraordinary no doubt—among others; nor was it simply the final guarantee of life after death. Rather it was the decisive start of the general resurrection, God’s final redemption of all things!”[3]
See, it is not enough to just say Jesus “changed my personal life.” That is only a small part of the real story. We get to be instruments of his grace, that are transformed into his new creations [4]that go into the world to work with God to transform the world by making disciples of Jesus Christ wherever we go.[5]
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave also demonstrates God’s incredible power.
WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.
The stone has been rolled away. The stone would have been too large and heavy for people to roll back on their own. Remember, the women at the tomb would have been perplexed because they had seen the stone rolled in place and knew how heavy it was.
When the stone was put in place, it rolled down an incline to make sure the tomb would stay closed. Moving the stone away, then, was no simple feat.
But, no matter what seems to be blocking the path. No matter what seems to be interfering with God’s work in the world (natural disasters, terminal illnesses, famine, poverty, hungry, people in prison), nothing is too great for God to handle. Nothing is beyond the reach and scope of God’s power.[6]
God raising Jesus from the grave, rolling the stone away shows that everything is different now. Nothing is impossible with God. We can have sure and certain hope of God’s incredible power, presence, and love flowing through our lives and in the world.
The love and power of God and His word, can transform any human, break any addictions, free people from internal prisons of self-doubt, hatred, cancer, illnesses, comas, you name it.
I visited a person in the nursing home. This person had been unresponsive for awhile. I started reading Psalm 23, “walking through the valley of the shadow of death,” “the Lord is my shepherd, I am in need of nothing else.” When I began reading Revelation 21 about a new heaven and a new earth, she suddenly became (more) alert and was reaching for her “mama”, trying to sit up. This was the first time she had really moved in awhile.
God through His word, through His son Jesus Christ, brings people to a new sense of alertness and “wakes them up.”
Paul declares, in Ephesians 5:17, “Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
If God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He sure can wake up those who are asleep to His word, those who are passed away and will be part of the final resurrection.
With God, nothing is impossible.
Jesus being raised from the grave shows this. Because of our knowledge and faith in the resurrection, because we know Jesus is still alive and with us always, everything changes with how we view the world. We live as people of the victory of the resurrection because God has won!
Philosopher Stephen Davis sums up Jesus’ resurrection well:
“[The resurrection] assures us that God will win and that accordingly the world is not mad. Events do happen that we cannot explain. Irrational tragedies and horrible outrages do occur. But because God raised Jesus from the dead after the catastrophe of the cross, we can be sure that God will one day overcome all catastrophes…The resurrection is proof that no matter how bad things get, we can trust in God. God loves us. God has our interests at heart. God works to achieve what is beneficial to us. And in the end God will win.”[7]
Friends, I not only believe this, I’m counting on it!
[1]1 John 4:18
[2]NT Wright, “Evil and the Justice of God” Page 98
[3]Stephens Seamands, “Give Them Christ” Page 106
[4]2 Corinthians 5:17
[5]Matthew 28:19-20
[6]Romans 8:38-39
[7]Stephens Seamands, “Give Them Christ” Page 119
Ryan Stratton 