MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2024/04/28
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Reading:
1 John 4:7-21
Text:
1 John 4:11: “Dear Friends since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
Message:
The first reason we love is because it is the character of God. God is love. This means that we do not get to make excuses for ourselves. We cannot bypass this command because we are just not a loving kind of person. Now it is important to define what the scriptures mean by love. Love does not refer to feelings or being an emotionally soft person. Love is the denying of self for the gain of another. This is what love looks like in marriage. I don’t do what I want or what is in my interest, but what is for the gain of the other. This is what love looks like among us as well. Our actions are controlled by what will bring gain to another person through the denying and sacrificing of ourselves. So if we are not loving people what we are admitting is that we are self-consumed and only act selfishly. We are looking at how others can deny themselves for the gain of me. This is not love but selfishness and is sin. Love is thinking about others and not thinking about ourselves. Relationships are destroyed when we think about how things affect us, rather than thinking about how our acts are affecting others. Therefore, we cannot excuse ourselves because we think we have an unloving personality. We need to repent of being that way and change our personality toward being self-sacrificing.
If we are born of God we are going to share in His character traits. Loving each other is the proof that we know God and are born of God. It isn’t always easy to love one another – and for some it is a struggle. “The love that Christ commands is not easy, even for people who are blessed with great natural warmth of heart. and it is not impossible, even for those of us who tend to be crabby and short-tempered. For Christian love is not a vague feeling of affection for someone. It is rather a condition of the heart and will that causes us to seek the welfare of others – including people we don’t particularly like, and even people who have done us wrong.” ( Louis Cassels). If there is any overarching characteristic that Christians are to have, it is love. God’s love makes our love look puny! His eternal ever-forgiving love appears gigantic next to our small efforts at love. Yet God calls us to love each other – and to love others – even our enemies. How is it that this incredible unbelievable love of God can become our love?
I We love because God first loved us
God reveals His love in the most dramatic and powerful way in sending Jesus His only Son to die on the cross so that we might live. We see the depth, height and width of this love that while we were yet sinners and rebels that Jesus died for us that we might be forgiven and have a new life. God denied Himself for our gain. Jesus reveals to us the heart of God. We see in verse 10 “This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us.” So our proper attitude we should have is love is not that we love Him but that He loves us. Love is not that we do things for God but God does so much for us. We are motivated by what God has done for us.
He sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins. God removed the offense and covered our sin with his mercy so that the relationship is restored. The greatness of the sacrifice reveals the love. So we read in verse 11 “If God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.” What God did for us drives us to do the same for one another. No one has seen God but the love of God should be seen in us by loving each other. We cannot see God and the world cannot see God. But the world is supposed to see the love of God in us by the way we treat each other. We are convincing people that the invisible God truly exists. God is seen in that he abides in us. His love is perfected in us. We prove God by the love we show for each other. God’s love is perfected when it is reproduced in us and among us, the community of faith. In this community of faithful believers we see God’s love have its ultimate fulfillment. To put this another way. God revealed his love for us by sending his Son in a sacrifice for us. When we do not sacrifice for each other, then it shows that God’s love is not in us and God’s love has no meaning or value to us. When we see God’s love and act upon that love by loving others, then God’s love is being made complete in our lives and God’s love is being brought to completion on this earth because we are carrying out God’s purpose.
Qualities of this Love
Love is not a warm fuzzy feeling, it is a decision. That is the kind of love God has, not fuzziness that overlooks sin – the decision to love and forgive sin. C.S. Lewis says “Love is not an affectionate feeling but a steady wish for the loved persons, ultimate good as far as can be obtained.” “Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.” This is the heart and soul of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s what distinguishes us as Christians. In the words of the old camp song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” God loves us, and we, in turn, love one another – that’s the essence of the Christian faith. Yet, when you try to put love into action, it’s a lot easier said than done. Face it, sometimes we don’t feel very loving, and, to be honest, some folks are a lot easier to love than others.
What lies behind the admonition to love one another as God loves us, in order that we might rediscover what is the source of love, and, in so doing, tap into the well-spring of a love that is both encompassing of all those we meet and enduring over the changing seasons of our lives. As we read in verses 7-8. From these two verses we see that the source or origin of love comes from God. Proud people think that love comes from them, and while it’s true that we can do some things with our love, realistically it’s difficult to maintain. So, spiritually speaking, love comes from God. If you glance through this passage the word “love” appears 27 times and God appears 20 times. The implication we get from this is that God and love are related. In fact, this passage clearly states: “God is love,” not once, but twice in the hope that it will sink into our thick skulls. Since God is love, he becomes the source of pure, genuine, lasting love. Just as a battery is the source of power in our cell phones, or the engine is the source of power in our cars, God is the source of love in our lives. If you want something, it’s best to go to the source to get it because the source is where the greatest supply and the purest form is going to be found. If you want water, you go to a water source and if we want to love we have to go to God.
If the source of our love is not God, the real thing, then ultimately, we’ll find that our love will be limited in some way and unsustainable. When we think about the topic of love, most people think about the romantic side of love, or the emotional type of love. While this can be really good, and we need it, if that is all we have, it will eventually fall short because frankly our emotions are fickle and unreliable and can change like the wind. When God is the source of our love, our supply is unlimited. We don’t have to go someplace to get recharged or filled up like we do with our cars. Not only that, when God is the source of our love, we actually get to know Him better, because in order to genuinely love others, we have to draw near to God and rely on Him to do it. And when you’re working closely together like that you naturally get to know God a little better. When we love deeply, not the shallow superficial kind, we begin to understand God’s heart and how hard it is to really love genuinely. To be consistent, compassionate, and patient is not always easy. Usually we can take just so much and then we want to explode. But in the process of experiencing this, we become more thankful to God because we realize just how hard it is to love, it must have been just as hard for him to love us and yet he still bore with all our rejection, failures and shortcomings. If you want to get to know someone better, try doing what they do. So we know how to love because God put it in our hearts when He made us.
In verse 10 we see the ultimate expression of God’s love. “This is love not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God’s love is the highest expression for love there is (verse 9). We see that true love requires tremendous life-giving sacrifice– This is the definition of true love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 we read about love qualities. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
We don’t have the capacity to love, separate and apart from God. We can feel infatuation, and we can practice reciprocity, returning a favor to someone who does something nice for us. But, as for love – genuine love – that can only come from God. The Good News is, when we’re willing to place God at the center of our lives, God’s love fills our hearts and gives us the grace to love one another, not just in part and for the moment; but fully, intimately, completely, and for all time. Only love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Only love such as this lasts forever.
We read in verse 16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Sometimes man’s love can be incomplete. This can be so irritating and unsatisfying like finishing a puzzle only to find that you’re missing several pieces. However, when we love, God’s love is made complete in us. The cycle starts with God loving us, and it’s completed when we love others.
Conclusion
In verse 18 we read, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Through God’s love, we don’t have the fear of judgment. When we are caught disobeying the law, we are fearful because of the judgment we will receive. But when God’s love is complete in us, we are not afraid of judgement anymore because Jesus paid our price as an atoning sacrifice, so we are no longer under God’s judgment and have been set free.
In verse 21 we see “And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” Ultimately God has given us his command to love others. And when we obey his command it is one way that we reveal we love God. So how can we love God? First off, we can’t hate. Verse 20 says, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” Therefore, we need to forgive people. How can we love if we don’t forgive?
We know that our love at best is limited so we must come to God for wisdom and strength to love as God first loved us. When we reach our limit, and it happens, we must come to God in prayer and ask for his help, just like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane. Ultimately God must be living in our heart for us to be able to love others. God’s love is anything but abstract. It is concrete and specific and this is why we are called to love one another not with husky feelings but with deeds of loving kindness. The source of our love is God, and God’s love is concrete and specific, first in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and repeated, over and over again, in deeds of loving kindness we’re able to share with others in Christ’s name.
We have to direct our love toward the people around us. Love is action, we can’t just love with just emotion, with just a warm fuzzy feeling inside of us, we must love with action and truth to become a person of action like Jesus (1 John 3:18). Even married people fall out of love all the time, if we want a lifelong commitment it must go beyond just our feelings, it becomes a decision for us to love one another. Love must be action otherwise it could fade according to your fickle feelings. Therefore, practically speaking, we must not envy or dishonor others. We must not keep a record of their wrongs against us but forgive. We must not delight in evil or boast. Instead we must be patient and kind to each other. We must be humble and always trust, protect, persevere, hope and rejoice in truth.
Well, here’s what I hope you’ll take home with you today: 1 John 4:11, “Beloved if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2024/04/21
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Reading:
John 10:11-18
Text:
John 10:14-15 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Message:
Today is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. The image of God as our Shepherd and Jesus as our Good Shepherd is such a familiar one. But is it still of help to us? It is rather old fashioned, is it not? In Biblical times everyone knew a shepherd. It would have been a very familiar and helpful metaphor. But is it still so today? And yet somehow, this image continues to speak to us as people of faith. Psalm 23 is still one of our most beloved Psalms and passages in Scripture. Jesus as the Good Shepherd is still one of the most familiar ways of thinking of Him and of picturing Him. It is so because we all long for a shepherd. We all know that we need someone to lead us and to protect and to guide us. We are a lot like sheep. And sheep need shepherds.
Our world is in such a mess and needs someone to lead us. Our world certainly needs a good shepherd now. We need someone that we trust to lead us as a nation with coming elections and our troubled country and also all around the world with the wars and murders. Times like these are when we need a shepherd more than ever. Because we are a lot like sheep. Whether it is an old-fashioned image or not, it is still true. We are still a lot like sheep.
The main point of our Gospel reading today is found in verse 11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Note the different reaction of the hired hand in verse 13: since the sheep do not belong to the hired hand, he does not care for them. Tending sheep is just a job. But the good shepherd cares because the sheep are like his own family. They are his sheep; they belong to him, they have an intimate relationship with him (“I know my own and my own know me”). He calls each of his sheep by their name, and they hear his voice. They follow only his voice and no one else’s. That’s what Jesus is and does for us. He lays down His life for the world, for you and I in particular.
I Sheep require a great deal of maintenance. We see this is Psalm 23. Shepherds tend to be quite busy. This means that if Jesus is the good shepherd we are the sheep. In Psalm 95 we read “we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.” Being called a sheep will upset many today. We like to think of ourselves in more flattering terms than as sheep. Sheep are not very bright, stubborn, often mean and irritable, prone to wandering off. We butt heads with each other, and we bully the weak. We are sheep who hurt each other and hurt ourselves. Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; everyone has turned to his own way.” We don’t naturally like to stay close to the flock. Sheep are prone to straying, and so are we. We’ll drink any contaminated water that promises refreshment. We like to munch on any grass in the pasture that looks appetizing, no matter how poisonous it might turn out to be. We want to jump on board political band-wagons, embrace erring philosophies, and swallow the narrative our culture gives us hook, line, and sinker. We’ll wander off on our own, thinking we can go it alone. Just me and God, thank you. Who needs all the difficulties of congregation and community when you can go it alone? I know better after all. But, a lone sheep is an easy meal for the wolves. As independent as we like to think we are, we follow the leader, and if that leader isn’t the good shepherd, we’ll follow the leader to our own death and destruction.
When you spend any time studying Scripture, it becomes very obvious that God’s plan is for us to be together, in a community of faith like this one. You might remember that the first thing Jesus does when he begins his ministry, is to call a group of disciples together. And the early church – after Jesus is crucified and raised – spent a lot of time together. In the Book of Acts, we learn what life was like for those early Christians. In Acts 2:46 “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.”
Christians are supposed to spend much time together. We are not intended to be on our own. That’s why Jesus created the church. That is one of its primary purposes: So that we sheep can come together and be kept safe. And so that we can join together in seeking guidance from our shepherd. Especially in uncertain times like this one. Which brings us to the second way that we are like sheep. Our waywardness comes from the original itch of wanting to be gods in place of God, doing it our way instead of God’s way. You and I have that same stubborn tendency. It manifests itself in our spiritual restlessness, our boredom, our itch to hear things that will give us warm fuzzies inside instead of something that will point out our faults and call us to repent. Left on our own, we’d be dead sheep, devoured by the wolves.
II It turns out that sheep are very good at hearing, and especially at hearing the voice of their shepherd. A practice typical in Jesus’ time was for shepherds to get together with other shepherds and their sheep during the day. A bunch of shepherds, all together with lots and lots of sheep, usually at some kind of watering hole. It was noisy and chaotic, to say the least. But at the end of the day, the shepherds would call for their sheep. And the sheep would follow their own shepherds to a safe place to sleep. In the midst of all that chaos, and all those competing voices, the sheep would hear their shepherd’s voice and follow their shepherd. And that is, of course, what we are supposed to do, too: Listen to our shepherd, our good shepherd, and follow him.
There are plenty of competing voices these days, all clamoring for our attention. Voices from our TV’s and our computers, and our phones and tablets, and on and on. But there is only one voice that truly matters to our soul. And that is the voice of the shepherd, the voice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Sheep are good at listening to the voice of their shepherd, and we need to be, too. Now, more than ever.
III Jesus says also I know my sheep. “I am the good shepherd,” says Jesus. Jesus tells us what he means. “I know my own, and my own know me”(verse 11). You are Jesus’ own sheep, and he knows you, and likely better than you know yourself. He knows you. Your strengths are known, and your weaknesses are understood. He is aware of your fears. He perceives your sins. He understands you the way an architect understands a house he planned. The way a shepherd knows each one of his sheep and calls them by name. He is the God who created you; that brought you into being inside your mother’s womb. Even now, he sustains your very existence. You are known deeply, down to the depths of your soul.
IV Jesus tells us about the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep and the hired hand who runs away when the sheep are being threatened. They represent two completely different kinds of leadership. The definition of the good shepherd is that he isn’t in it for profit. The most crucial test of what he is in it for will come when he’s faced with a choice. A predator appears – a lion, a wolf or a bear. You can tell the difference between the good shepherd and the hired hand by what they do. The hired hand will cut his losses because he’s in it for himself. The good shepherd shows who he is by being prepared to die for the sheep. The violent death of Calvary was not a terrible accident. Jesus says it is his vocation.
The sheep face danger; the shepherd will go to meet it, and, if necessary, he will take upon himself the fate that would otherwise befall the sheep. In Jesus’ case, it was necessary, and He did. The good shepherd is the suffering, dying, and rising shepherd he lays down his life for the sheep. That’s what makes this image so wonderful. Not the hard-working shepherd tending his flock, but the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep. When the night came, and the sheep were in their pen, the shepherd would lay down in the doorway, opening the pen. There he would sleep. If anyone wanted to get to the sheep, he would have to get through the shepherd first. At the cross Jesus lays down His life for His sheep, for the world. He is not some hired hand who runs off at the first sound of danger.
He’s the good shepherd. He’s fully invested in the sheep. God has authorized Jesus to lay down his life and then take it up again and take us along for the ride. Jesus came to give us life through giving up his own life. He did this not as a victim but as a willing, voluntary sacrifice. “No one takes it from me,” he said, “but I lay it down of my own accord.” This, he said, is a command “I have received from my Father”(verse 18).
V Sheep are natural followers. In the day of Jesus the sheep followed the shepherd unlike today on the farm, we drive our sheep. When as a student at university I shoveled coal on the steam engines to get money to get through varsity because my parents were poor, we used to push the trucks which load sheep at the stock fares with the engine and then a goat will lead the sheep into the truck and run out to lead the next flock into the next truck. Sheep must be led. And, when you think about it, that’s really not that stupid. Sheep trust their shepherd, and go where the shepherd goes. And they let the shepherd go first, to make sure the way is safe, and then to invite them to follow him. And isn’t that what Jesus is asking of us? To be his followers? He’s not going to push us. He’s not going to force us. Instead, Jesus just keeps calling us, in many and various ways, and inviting us over and over to follow him. He promises to lead us, to protect us, and even to lay down his life for us. And He invites us to trust Him. Trust Him and follow Him.
Where the Shepherd goes, there also go His sheep. Sheep and shepherd always are together. To follow Jesus is not to take a privileged detour around the hardships of life but to go through them together with Jesus. Jesus isn’t the way around suffering and death but the only way through suffering and death that leads to resurrection and life.
Conclusion
Jesus is our shepherd, the Good Shepherd. The leader that our world needs right now. And we are his sheep. Flocking together, listening for his voice, and following him. Perhaps this image of being sheep, and Jesus as our Good Shepherd, is not so out of date as I might have thought. Or perhaps, we need an out-of-date image, to remind us that what we need right now is not going to be found in technology, or progress, or any of the things that we are tempted to believe in and follow.
Our world has not out-grown its need for a shepherd. It is now, just as it has always been, a world in need of a good and faithful shepherd. And today, Good Shepherd Sunday, we pause to remember this. That we are blessed to have a shepherd, who is good and loving and faithful; who promises to lead us all the days of our life, through the trials and tribulations and whatever this world throws at us. We can help this shepherd by being good and faithful sheep. By continuing to flock together, faithfully listening for his voice, and by following him. The Lord is our shepherd. Still… so, let us be his sheep. Still. Until that blessed day when we shall be gathered, by our shepherd, into the house of the Lord forever.
The great good news of this Good Shepherd Sunday is that sheep have a shepherd, and you have a good shepherd, who laid down His life so that you might have life in Him and dwell in His house, His flock, His green pastures, forever. The Lord Jesus is your shepherd, you shall not want.
Here are the words of a children’s hymn:
I am Jesus’ little lamb;
Ever glad at heart I am.
For my Shepherd gently guides me
Knows my need and well provides me
Loves me every day the same
Even calls me by my name.
Thanks be to God
Amen
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2024/04/14
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Reading:
Luke 24:36-48
Text:
Luke 24:39 “Look at my hands and my feet. It is myself! Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have!”
Message
Easter is more than just one day of celebration. A whole season of Eastertide prompts us to maintain the energy of those who first ran from the empty tomb. We need to keep the energy and joy of Easter alive.
For the disciples, the days after Christ’s crucifixion were a mixture of emotions. Many of them had fled the scene at the garden of Gethsemane and foot of the cross. We might imagine they huddled together in the shadows, trying to stay under the radar and out of sight lest they meet a similar fate. John’s gospel reveals them shutting out the rest of the world in a locked upper room, presumably from fear. But we know the gospel message continued to spread. Do you remember the refrain from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar? The apostles sing “what’s the buzz? Tell me what’s a happen” over and over again. Post-resurrection we might imagine it being a bit more hushed, but with even more anxiety as they try to put the pieces of it all together. In Luke’s account of these days, just before this morning’s text, two disciples travel to Emmaus, and a stranger joins them to talk about it all. That stranger, of course, turns out to be the risen Christ, revealed in the breaking of bread. Almost immediately, Cleopas and the other disciple race back to Jerusalem, a 7 mile trip, to proclaim that “The Lord has risen indeed” (verse 34).
And, as if a stranger turning out to be Jesus isn’t exciting enough – in the appearance in today’s lesson, Jesus almost appears out of nowhere. “Surprise! Here I am!” aren’t quite his words, but rather words of peace, a reassurance for their anxiety and fear. Can you imagine? You know how when you’re talking about someone, even something good, and then they walk into the room unexpectedly? You are probably left a little speechless and lose your train of thought. Multiply that and you have a tiny sense of this moment. The disciples probably froze, and turned sheet white, as if they had seen a ghost. Because, despite the news they had been talking about, that is exactly what they perceived as happening; the development of yet another overwhelming ghost story.
It’s not enough that the tomb is empty. It’s not enough to proclaim, “Christ is risen!” It’s not enough to believe in the resurrection. At some point we have to move from the event of the resurrection to experiencing the resurrection. Experiencing resurrected life begins with recognizing the risen Christ among us. That is the gift of Easter and it is also the difficulty and challenge described in today’s gospel.
Cleopas and his companion are telling the other disciples how Jesus appeared to them on the road to Emmaus when Jesus, again, shows up out of nowhere, interrupting their conversation. “Peace be with you,” he says. They see him, they hear his voice, but they don’t recognize him. They “thought that they were seeing a ghost.” They know Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. They know dead men don’t come back to life. This can only be a ghost, a spirit without a body. The tomb is open but their minds are closed. They are unable to recognize the holiness that stands among them. They are continuing to lie, think, and understand in the usual human categories. They have separated spirit and matter, divinity and humanity, heaven and earth. Whenever we make that separation we close our minds, we deny ourselves the resurrected life for which Christ died, and we lose our sense of and ability to recognize holiness in the world, in one another, and in ourselves.
I am not too keen on the idea of ghost stories but here is a flip side. For, although the disciples think that Jesus is a ghost, their assertion is proven wrong: not once but twice. First Jesus invites them to touch Him and see that He is flesh and bone. This is not an apparition. He is fully present with them. God is not just with the disciples in a spiritual sense. God dwells with them and this is the risen Lord in the flesh. With Jesus’ resurrection, however, God shatters human categories of who God is, where God’s life and energy are to be found, and how God works in this world. Resurrected life can never be comprehended, contained, or controlled by human thought or understanding. Jesus’ resurrection compels us to step outside our usual human understandings of reality and enter into the divine reality.
That new reality begins with touching and seeing, flesh and bones, hands and feet, and broiled fish. Jesus said to his disciples, “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Then “he showed them his hands and his feet.” After this he ate a piece of broiled fish in their presence.
N.T. Wright notes that it matters because:
“Resurrection implies at the very least a coming back to something that had been forfeited, that is, bodily life …(and) The deepest meanings of the resurrection have to do with new creation. If the stories are metaphors for anything, they are metaphors for the belief that God’s new world had been brought to birth.”
Wright and others stand firmly behind the bodily resurrection as central to an understanding of the meaning of not just the Resurrection, but faith in Jesus Christ. In all conversations, the importance of the resurrection is affirmed. And, as Stephen Cooper notes:
“To insist on the reality of the resurrected body is to demand that we accept our present reality as the place where transformations of ultimate significance take place.”
I think that’s what Jesus was trying to prove in his offering of his body to the disciples. That this wasn’t just some figment of their imaginations or hopes in the midst of despair. It was true and real. This matters to us, today, too. Our faith should not be something lost in fantasy or fiction. It should be grounded in the real and tangible experience of Christ among us. Our faith isn’t some theoretical idea. It is something we can touch. So the disciples touch him and their joy begins to grow. But they still aren’t sure. You can imagine a glistening in their eyes, a turn of the head as they look at him again. Could this really be true? Jesus offers a second offer of proof, asking for something to eat. And he eats some broiled fish. Clearly this is something a ghost could not do. Now the disciples get it. Jesus puts the ghost story to rest, because there are other things he needs the disciples to hear. His offers of proof remove the distractions that otherwise would keep this as simply a fantastic ghost story of inspiration and wonder. Just as Jesus is present with them, he calls them to embody this good news of resurrection and build upon what they know from scripture and his teachings and become witnesses to all that has been proclaimed, including the resurrection.
Barbara Brown Taylor offers that this is how Jesus ushers in their new way of being. She writes:
After he was gone, they would still have God’s Word, but that Word was going to need some new flesh. The disciples were going to need something warm and near that they could bump into on a regular basis, something so real that they would not be able to intellectualize it and so essentially untidy that there was no way they could ever gain control over it. So Jesus gave them things they could get their hands on, things that would require them to get close enough to touch one another.
He calls them to take on these teachings as a way of life together. Just as He has been transformed, resurrected, they too are to be changed in ways that impact their way of being in the world. That is the point of the gospel after all. That is the aim of Easter. To give those who would follow Christ, even the church, new life. One that is marked by tangible engagement with the Word, not just read and studied, but lived and breathed. And when we do that, we fully reflect the image of the risen Christ.
Luke wants the reader to know that the place to look for the sacred is not beyond the earth. But the sacred center of life is still in the world, in the flesh and blood, material world. This is where God is active and alive. This is where people can know God and where God lives with and empowers people – in the flesh!
MESSAGE FOR EASTER SUNDAY, 2024/04/07
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Reading:
John 20:19-30
Text:
John 20:26 “A week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus come and stand among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.'”
Message:
In our Scripture passage this morning we will see another group of men who suffered because of their unbelief. Despite all the eyewitness reports they heard, they refused to believe that their master had come back to life. And they would have continued to live in doubt and fear, if Jesus had not come to them personally to end their unbelief. It was now about 8 pm on the Sunday when Jesus had resurrected from the dead. In a house somewhere in Jerusalem, a group of fearful disciples were huddled together mourning and weeping. They had locked themselves in, afraid that the Jewish authorities would come looking for them there. In subdued tones they discussed all the strange happenings that day which they had heard from others: First, a group of women had informed them that they had found the tomb of Jesus mysteriously open and His body was missing, but two angels there told them that He had risen from the dead. But the words of these women were just idle tales to the disciples, and they refused to believe them.
However, their report was soon confirmed when Simon Peter and John went to see the tomb and discovered that the graveclothes of Jesus were still lying there, but not His body. Then came even more startling news to all the disciples: Mary Magdalene arrived at the house and told them, ‘I have seen the Lord! I have seen the Lord.’ And in response to all of that joy and sadness and confusion and fear and guilt, Jesus simply said: “Peace be with you.”
I Jesus now brings lasting peace and joy to their troubled hearts.
Jesus knew that His disciples had locked themselves in a house because of their great fear of the Jews. He knew how deeply troubled and anxious they all were. And so He calmed the storms that raged in their hearts, in the same way that He had calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee two years earlier. At that time the sea instantly became tranquil and calm when He said, ‘Peace, be still’ (Mark 4:39) And now, His words had the same calming effect on His disciples. In verse 19 He says to them, ‘Peace be unto you.’ And he repeats it in verse 21 and verse 26 ‘Peace be unto you.’ Some would think that this was just the usual Jewish greeting of ‘Shalom’ which Jews give when they meet one another. It isn’t. In fact, this is the only instance in the NT where Jesus ever said, ‘Peace be unto you.’ And so they are meant to draw our attention to the special peace that the Lord brings to His disciples.
And what a wonderful peace this is! It is the same peace that Jesus had mentioned at the Last Supper in John 14:27. ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ But now in chapter 20, something new is revealed about this peace, because the body of Jesus now bears the permanent marks which testify of this peace. The nail-pierced hands and the spear-wounded side which the Lord showed His disciples in verse 20 bear permanent testimony to His completed work on the cross – the work which is our source of peace. As Romans 5:1 says, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Colossians 1:20 says: ‘He has made peace through the blood of His cross.’
This peace is yours if you believe in the Christ who died on the cross and rose again. You have peace with God through Him. And when you have peace with God, you can also have the peace of God which passes all understanding, to keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. This peace does not depend on having peaceful circumstances. It is a peace from within, a peace that you can always have even when circumstances are not peaceful at all.
And this story is also about how Jesus comes to us, in the midst of our doubts and fears and sin and guilt, to offer each and every one of us that simple word of grace, and mercy, and forgiveness. ‘Peace be with you,’ says our risen Lord to us all. This gospel reading is really about the peace which surpasses all understanding; the peace which the world cannot give; the peace that can only come from our crucified and risen Lord; and the peace that comes when we most need it. Think back to a time in your life when you feel as though you have truly disappointed God. And now, imagine Jesus showing up at that very moment, and saying to you: “Peace be with you.” That is what our Lord does for each and every one of us. That, too, is what the miracle of Easter means for us.
Perhaps you may want to know how this lasting joy can be yours. Well, you can have it only when you look to your resurrected Saviour. Verse 20 says, “then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.’ It was only when the disciples saw Jesus that they were glad. This made all the difference in them. By seeing Him they knew that all the reports of Him they had heard that day were true. Now they truly believed that the Lord had risen from the dead. And now they were most ready to do His will joyfully, knowing that Jesus is alive and well. Likewise, we must keep our eyes on Jesus and believe in Him in order to have this lasting joy. It can make a great difference in us. Do you know what happens when we take our eyes off the Lord? We lose our joy, and we sink right back into our doubts and fears. One chorus which has stayed with me since my childhood days is ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.’ So, dearly beloved, whenever you feel overwhelmed by many responsibilities, turn your eyes upon Jesus! Look to Him and say, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.’ (Phil 4:13)
Whenever we turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus we will be able to rejoice in Him and no one can take that joy away from you.
II As the Father Has sent me.
But today’s gospel reading is also about the ways in which we are called to share that peace and that joy, with a world so filled with doubt and fear. Jesus did not join his disciples in the upper room simply to celebrate his resurrection with them. He also joined them there to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit, and to send them to the world to continue his mission. “As the Father has sent me,” Jesus said to them and to us, “so I send you.”
The blessings that the disciples received when they saw and believed in their resurrected Master were meant to be proclaimed to all men. And this is what Jesus commissioned them to do in verse 21, “As the Father hath send me, even so send I you.” The only reason why we can carry out our mission as a church today is that Jesus has risen from the dead. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would have no good news at all to proclaim. What verse 23 says about remission of sins would be impossible. As 1 Cor. 15:17 says, ‘If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.’ If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would also have no power to proclaim the good news effectively. In verse 22 we see Jesus breathing on His disciples. This was a symbolic act which signified His giving of the Holy Spirit to empower them for service. This was fulfilled 50 days later at Pentecost. It was only with the Holy Spirit’s power that the Church of Jesus Christ could become a movement to make disciples of all nations, and to be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The word “Apostle” literally means one who is sent. The word “Disciple”, on the other hand, literally means one who learns. The disciples have learned from Jesus many things. By his words and his example, he has taught them about the Kingdom of God, and about our Heavenly Father’s purpose for them and for the world. Now, these disciples are becoming apostles. Disciples who are sent into the world. Jesus sends those first disciples out into the world to be his apostles. And he sends us out into the world in the same way. We are the sent-out people of God, with a mission that comes straight from our crucified and risen Messiah. But Jesus doesn’t tell us to do this. He helps us to do this. That, too, is the miracle of the resurrection. After he said to those first apostles, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” Jesus breathed on those apostles, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
You see, it is not enough for Jesus that he conquered death through the great triumph of Easter. Now he wants to breathe this new life into you and I; he wants to share that new life with us. And then? Then he wants us to go out and share that new life with others. To share that new life with a world that is suffocated by anxiety and fear. He wants to breathe new life into this world through us. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jesus wants us to go into a world in the grip of death, and breathe unto it new life. And our world needs that new life, doesn’t it? And if we wonder where it will come from, it will come from us. We are the ones continuing Jesus’ mission. We are now the body of Christ in the world. We are God’s plan to bring new life into a dying world, until the day that God’s son returns again. Our words, our deeds, our hope, our faith, our love, our witness in our daily lives, our acts of love to others; all of this done in Jesus’ name with the help of the Holy Spirit; all this is how the world catches a glimpse of our risen Lord. That is what it means to be an apostle, and that is what we are.
III Thomas
How could Jesus have known everything that Thomas had said? What does this reveal about Jesus? It shows us that He is the omniscient God. Nothing is hidden from Him. Jesus knows everything that happens. He knows every word that you and I have ever said. There is only one conclusion that we draw from this: Jesus is truly God Himself – the true and living God who came down to earth in human form. This explains why Thomas responded as he did in verse 28 “My Lord and my God.” Dear friends, will you also give the same response? Will you acknowledge that Jesus is both Lord and God? Well, that acknowledgement is not good enough. You must go on to confess Him as your Lord and your God, like Thomas. There must be personal submission to Him. This means giving Him willingly all rights to your life, withholding nothing at all from Him.
Why? Because He is worthy! Jesus is worthy to receive all your love – you’re your whole-hearted devotion. This is not unreasonable at all, if you consider how Jesus has made you an object of His love and devotion. His love for Thomas was revealed in the way that He granted so readily every condition for believing that Thomas had set in verse 25, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Jesus could easily have taken great offense at all these conditions, and at his strange refusal to be convinced by the reasonable testimony of all the rest. What right did Thomas have to demand this when he had refused to believe his fellow disciples? But instead of showing any displeasure at doubting Thomas, Jesus dealt with him lovingly, even calling him by name in verse 29. And He lovingly brought Thomas to faith in Himself with a gentle rebuke in verse 27 ‘Be not faithless, but believing.’
So we must look forward to each Lord’s Day when we can come together to meet Him by faith. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is (Heb 10:25) but make it our top priority to be in the Lord’s House for our weekly appointment with Him! We should not follow the example of Thomas. Unlike the rest of the disciples, He continued to live in doubt and fear for a whole week. And nothing that they said about their blessed encounter with the Lord could convince him that Jesus had truly risen from the dead. He remained stubbornly firm in his unbelief. Why? Because he had not been there to experience the encounter for himself! He was absent when the disciples met together on that Sunday. And it was only when he attended their meeting next Sunday that he realized what great blessings he had missed! So please make sure that you don’t miss those great blessings. Make it a point to keep your weekly appointment with the Lord and His people every Sunday. Even though you can always read your Bible and worship at home, it is not the same as being in His House for the worship service. Therefore, unless you are sick or infirmed with age, you should never be absent from church on Sundays.
Do you know the end of Thomas’ story? Do you know where he died? He died in India. He was the apostle to the people of India. He brought the gospel of Christ to India. He died a martyr after he was run through with five spears by five soldiers. That doesn’t sound much like a doubter, does it? It sounds like someone who grew and changed, someone for whom the resurrection of Christ was real, someone for whom the empty tomb made a difference. It just took a little time, as it does for most, maybe all of us.
We know Doubting Thomas but let’s not forget Confessing Thomas. He’s in today’s gospel as well. “My Lord and my God!” With those words Thomas has recognized and named a new relationship, a new worldview, a new way of being. Somewhere between Doubting Thomas and Confessing Thomas is the story of resurrection in Thomas’ life. All that stuff about Doubting Thomas, the fact of his disbelief, is just Thomas’ starting place, nothing more and nothing less. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a starting place. And we all have our starting places.
What is your starting place? What are the facts of your life today? The starting place for the story of our resurrection is whatever is. Whatever your life is today, whatever your circumstances are, that’s the starting point for your story of resurrection. So if you’re dealing with deep loneliness, sorrow, and loss, that’s your starting point. That’s the room which Christ enters. If you are locked in a house of fear, confusion, or darkness, that’s your starting point and the place in which Jesus stands. If illness, old age, disability, or uncertainty are facts of your life, that’s your starting point and the place in which Jesus shows up. If you feel lost, betrayed, disappointed, overwhelmed, that’s your starting point and the house Jesus enters. If joy, gratitude, and celebration are the facts of your life today, that’s the starting point for your story of resurrection.
Conclusion
And Jesus has not changed the way that He deals with people. He would show you the very same love. He says to you now, ‘Be not faithless, but believing.’ If you are a sinner, Jesus calls you now to trust Him completely to save you from your sins and from eternal death. If you are already saved, Jesus calls you now to fulfill the mission He has sent you to fulfill, trusting Him to work in you and through you. And if you are fearful and troubled, Jesus calls you now to trust Him to bring His lasting peace and joy into your life. Dearly beloved, will you heed His call today, especially when you know that it comes from the One who has proven Himself to be most worthy of your trust? O let us not be faithless any more, but believing!
Again and again, in the midst of our doubts and fears, and in the midst of our sin and failings, our crucified and risen Lord and Savior comes to us and says: “Peace be with you.” Again and again, he comes to us and says, “Do not doubt, but believe.” Again and again, Jesus forgives us, breathes new life into us, and offers us the gift of new life in Christ, and the promise of the Holy Spirit. And again and again, our risen Lord reminds us of our mission; to go and share the peace and the joy and the hope of this new life, with our world that struggles to find peace, joy or hope. Again and again, the risen Jesus comes to us. To give us peace, to give us new life, to forgive our sin, and to gently remind us not to doubt but to believe. And again and again, he invites us to go. To go in peace, to serve our risen Lord. Thanks be to God.
Amen
MESSAGE FOR EASTER SUNDAY, 2024/03/31
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Reading:
John 20:1-18
Text:
John 20:16 “Jesus said to her ‘Mary’. She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means teacher).”
Message:
Jesus found Mary when she was lost, He gave her a new direction. He told her to find others. If you are feeling lost this morning, Jesus has found you. He wants to give you a purpose. He wants us to help the lost people in our lives. Mary was lost not physically but emotionally. “Mary” is the greatest Easter story ever told. In that one-word sermon “Mary”, Mary’s life is permanently changed. As the resurrection of Jesus completely changed and upended her life, from horrible grief to unbridled joy, from the lowest depths to the highest heights. What a shock! She was so excited, relieved, overjoyed that she grabbed on to Jesus and didn’t want to let Him go! Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”‘ Jesus means that she’ll see Him again soon, He’s not returning to Heaven yet, so go tell the disciples, give them the sermon of my resurrection. Which she did – telling them that Jesus was alive, their Lord had risen just as He had foretold and promised.
It’s clear she loved Jesus deeply, but now what? Her Lord and Teacher is dead. She saw Him nailed to the cross, she watched the Roman soldier plunge a spear into Christ’s side, making sure He was in fact dead. She cried as the stone was rolled in front of the tomb. Everything she hoped for was lost. Everything she knew about Jesus was a lie. He was nothing He said He was. Mary knew it, everyone knows it, that when someone is dead, they stay dead, there’s no coming back. It’s no wonder that Mary was a mess come Easter morning.
What about you? Are you a mess this Easter morning? Are you one of the millions of people struggling with depression, anxiety, and a sense of grief? Did you know that twenty percent of all people on disability are on it because of severe depression? Did you know? On this jubilant Easter morning, I am overjoyed to give you this same Easter sermon. Jesus has risen and He has risen for you – each of you. When you hear this sermon, don’t hear “Mary.” Hear your own name. the Lord says in Isaiah 43 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” How is that for an Easter sermon? Stand with me beside the open tomb, turn around, and see the Risen Lord! Hear Him say your name! Listen … hear Him say your name.
This morning, we’re going to see how Jesus’ resurrection changed one woman, Mary Magdalene. Today I want you to put yourself in her shoes. I want you to feel her sadness, but I also want you to feel her joy and comfort when she realizes that Jesus has indeed risen from the dead. How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ change you? We find Mary Magdalene at the tomb, and she was crying. She was shedding tears of hopelessness, tears of despair and frustration. For some time now, she had been following the Teacher, Jesus Christ. She had thought that perhaps he was the Messiah. He had healed her of demon possession, and more importantly, he had shown her how to have peace with God. He had made so many promises. He had said so many good things. He had even performed miracles. But now he was dead. And all the things he had said and done were dead with him. How can you hope in someone who is dead? For Mary Magdalene, the world had become a very cruel place – a place of broken promises, unfulfilled dreams, and big disappointments. And to top it off, it seemed that someone had stolen the body of Christ – could things get any worse? It’s no wonder that she’s crying.
Have you ever had moments like Mary? Moments when the world seemed like a very cruel place – a place of broken promises, unfulfilled dreams, big disappointments? The world can be a very difficult place to live, and the Devil uses those difficult moments to make you feel hopeless and despairing. The Devil wants you to say to yourself, “God is dead. There is no hope.” When we look at what is happening in the world today, the Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, the children that have been abducted in North Africa, we are tempted to think “God is dead, there is no hope”. When suddenly your health takes a turn for the worse, you are tempted to think God is dead, there is no hope.
When we look back over our past and we consider all the mistakes and faults we made in word and actions and you wish you can take them back, but you can’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness. “Is there any way I can change the past? Is there any way I can make right the wrong things I have done?” The answer is no. And then we feel what Mary felt – an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and despair. Mary was dealing with the death of a loved one. What happens when you have to deal with that? Perhaps you’ve dealt with it, or maybe you’re dealing with it right now. When a loved one dies, or when you face your own mortality, it feels as though you’re facing the end of the road. To think that there is anything positive beyond death is far-fetched, we say to ourselves.
What hope does the world have to offer? Not much. “This is all there is,” many people say, “So you better grab what you can while you can.” That turns people into very self-centered creatures, glorified animals really. A life that is truly here-focused, me-focused, is truly a wasted life, and with it comes loneliness, greed, and ultimately, hell. Maybe that person puts on a happy face, but it’s a face that’s covering up feelings of hopelessness. What hope does the world have to offer? Be a positive thinker, people say. Can you imagine going up to Mary Magdalene as she’s crying, and saying to her, “Everything will be alright, Mary, just think positive thoughts!” That’s ridiculous. And yet, that’s the best comfort our world is able to offer. To tell someone to be optimistic without any real reason for being optimistic is really quite silly. That causes even greater feelings of hopelessness and despair.
How do we find hope here in this place? Mary was lost. And she felt absolutely alone. But in that moment of her absolute distress and loneliness, the answer to her problem was standing right in front of her. Not only was Jesus’ body not stolen. Jesus wasn’t dead anymore. He was there, with her, in that garden. He is with her, calling her name. Mary Magdalene found hope on Easter morning. She looked into the tomb, and found that it wasn’t empty after all – two angels were in the tomb, and one of them asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” Mary said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” Then she turned around, and there was Jesus, standing right behind her. She didn’t recognize him right away. Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Mary wasn’t thinking clearly. She thought that Jesus was the gardener. She said to Jesus, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” At this point, Mary still believes that Jesus is dead. She still believes that his body is missing, that she must find the body so that she can give it a proper burial. The Messiah was still dead. There was still no hope. But Mary was wrong – there was hope. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” So many times, Jesus had called her by her name while he was alive. And now she heard that familiar voice call her name again. She looked up, and realized that it was Jesus. The Bible tells us that she was so excited that she called out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” which means teacher. She grasped Jesus’ legs and did not want to let him go. Somehow, he was alive! Jesus told her that she need not to hold on to him like that any longer. He wouldn’t be leaving her in death, like he had done before. Soon He would be returning to the Father, but He would be with her and his followers always. “Go, and tell the brothers that I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary quickly returned to the disciples and told them that she had seen the Lord.
When Mary saw Jesus, her life was changed. Christ’s resurrection opened Mary’s eyes to His power and Lordship, she saw Him for who He is, the Son of God who died and rose again to save her from her sins. What a turn-around for Mary! One minute God is dead, and there is no hope. But then she sees that Jesus is alive. God is not dead. There is hope! There is a reason to be joyful, to be hopeful, to be optimistic. Jesus was alive and well, and that’s what changed her. Her hero was alive. We all love heroes. But there is only one hero in all the world who has died, and then has come back to life – Jesus Christ. This one-on-one moment that Mary has with Jesus also belongs to you. When things look hopeless, remember – it’s not a dead end. There is another way that leads to hope.
In verse 16, when Jesus says, “Mary”, you can substitute your name there. Jesus comes to you, during your lowest moments in life, when it seems as though God is dead, that there is no hope, Jesus comes to you, and says to you, “Why are you crying?” And then he calls you by your first name, and reminds you: “I am alive. I have risen from the dead.” And, like Mary Magdalene, you see your risen Savior. You find resurrection hope, joy and comfort and relief, the same feelings Mary felt that first Easter morning. The death of a loved one, your own death – you no longer have to feel hopeless when you face those things. Jesus calls out your name, and reminds you that he has experienced death himself, he has overcome death, and promises you that because of him, death is not the end of the road for you.
Only one thing can bring hope to a hopeless situation. Only one thing can bring joy where there is only sadness. Only one thing can bring life where there is nothing but death. Only one thing can give you a real reason to be optimistic. And that one thing is knowing that Jesus Christ is alive, right now – has risen from the dead.
Conclusion
Everything is changed with the resurrection of Jesus – everything. He calls your name, He speaks peace, He gives peace. Jesus is alive so you know that He is with you regardless of how messy your life is. He has conquered not just Satan but all the problems that come in this sinful world. He will be with you, He will guide you, strengthen you, uphold you with His mighty arm! He is risen from the dead, is there anything He can’t do? Not a thing!
The Easter message is not an empty tomb but a risen Lord. But Jesus not only reveals Himself to Mary but gives her an important job to do and not only to Mary but also to all of us. Go and tell my brothers and sisters that “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” We never need to feel alone again because He is always near and understands, He is here to comfort us in all our struggle. We are not alone, He finds us when we feel lost and alone. And if you know this truth, this message has personally impacted your life. Who are you called to go and tell? Whether that’s by explicitly stating the gospel message or finding ways to reflect the compassion and patience of Christ to someone feeling lost in themselves. If you’ve been found by God, who do you need to seek and find in your own life?
We no longer need to feel alone and hopeless because He has come today to find you, allow yourself to be found by Him for Alleluia, He is risen indeed. The good news of the resurrection is, as Paul writes to the Romans, that nothing, nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39). No grief, no hurt, no anger, no mistakes, no hardship, no persecution, nothing that has happened or will happen. In his resurrection, Christ got rid of every boundary that had the potential to separate us from our Creator, even and especially the boundary of death. This is the promise of eternal life and eternal love. This is the good news of Easter.
Today we celebrate the fullness of God’s presence in this world and beyond. We do this by singing joyfully, shouting “Alleluia,” and coming around the table for communion, proclaiming the saving death of our risen Lord as we sing, “Christ has died. Christ is Risen, Christ will come again,” and we trust that with God’s help, our faith will be deepened, and our spirits renewed to live into our belief.
That empty tomb filled Mary Magdalene’s heart with an incredible sense of joy and comfort and hope. It changed her life forever. Jesus is just as much alive today as he was on that first Easter morning. The comfort and hope you receive this morning from the Word of God is just as real as the comfort and hope Mary received. Mary returned to those disciples a different person – someone whose world had changed for the better. As you leave here this morning and return home, may you carry with you that same hope that Mary felt. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
Amen
MESSAGE FOR GOOD FRIDAY, 2024/03/29
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Reading
John 19:16-42
Text
John 19:29-30 “A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When He had received the drink, Jesus said “It is finished” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.”
Message
What do you see when you look at the cross? The sin of the world? Suffering, pain, loss? Sorrow, separation, death? To some degree all that is present in the crucifixion. No doubt, all of those things are the sword that pierced Mary’s soul as she stood and watched. Those things, however, can also become the veil, the lens, that distorts our vision on the cross. They can keep us from seeing why this day is called Good Friday. They can keep us from seeing a way forward. Sometimes we let the suffering of Jesus blind us to the love of God.
If today is just another day of suffering and brutality, a day to reenact the execution of Jesus, then it makes no sense to speak of this day as good. We must acknowledge, however, that good does not mean easy or magical. The goodness of Good Friday does not eliminate the reality of sin, grief, suffering, and death. It means those are not the final or ultimate reality of this day, or any day for that matter. To fixate on the bloody details of the crucifixion risks promoting a false view of what the cross of Christ accomplishes. That fixation leaves us with an angry God seeking retribution, payment, for humanity’s sinfulness through the violent, bloody, torturous execution of Jesus. That is not the good news of Jesus.
John tells the story quickly and succinctly, yet the reality of the physical agony can never be far from our minds as we journey with John from Gethsemane to Golgotha. But we can’t divorce that journey in chapters 18 and 19 from the opening 17 chapters. Every story, every detail, is building towards this moment. The gospel is one story, from incarnation to Ascension and Pentecost, and on to today. The gospel is the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ, it is the story of the love of God, and it is the story of a question, what kind of man is this we see hanging on the tree, and why is he there?
John does not describe the physical side of it except for a few details which help us to understand the significance of what we are reading. John’s gospel offers no graphic or bloody details of the crucifixion of Jesus. For Jesus the focus is not on suffering and death, it is on love. That’s why Jesus can give himself to the cross. He doesn’t look at the cross, he sees through it. Death is not the end. Jesus trusts the Father’s love more than his own death.
Peter, however, can neither look at the cross nor the one who is dying. “I do not know him. I do not know him. I do not know him.” Peter fears death is the end. For Jesus and for himself. In a sense he’s right. Without love death is the end. Without love the entire earth becomes a tomb. There’s no question that Jesus suffered and died. Mary suffered, cried, and had her heart broken by grief. Good Friday does not deny any of that. Those things were real in the crucifixion of Jesus and they are real in our own lives. We cannot help but look at the many crosses of our lives and world and see sin and brokenness, suffering, sorrow, tears, loss and death.
But what if there is more to see? What if those are simply the veil that Jesus’ death tears down? What if we are to see love there as well? That’s what makes this Friday good. The crucified love of Christ is stronger and more real than death. The crucified love of Jesus does more than join us in our sufferings and dyings. It carries us through them. God’s love defeats sin and death. Every time.
Jesus taught us about what his love means last night on Maundy Thursday. When he stoops down and washes feet, when he gives the new commandment to love each other as Jesus loves us. This is where Jesus’ love for us leads. In John’s Gospel, Jesus knows this. Jesus’ mission of love always led here. Through the miracles. Through the healings. Through the overturning of tables, of speaking truth to the power structures of this world. This is where Jesus’ love leads. To death. On a cross. Because his ways of love are not our ways of power, he dies on the cross. Because of us, for us, he dies.
Jesus’ glory and exaltation come from his passion. From his death on the cross. He has been on his way to Jerusalem and the cross, and as Jesus has been speaking, and praying, and healing his way through the Gospel of John, speaking in love, showing the world what God is like, what God is about, it was always leading to this point.
There is a tendency for us as Christians to focus on Christ’s suffering, the pain and the blood He shed. It may lead us to want to cover our eyes, turn away and even ignore the events of Good Friday. But we see that the cross is the central, most important symbol of Christianity. Churches in the past were built in the shape of a cross. People wear crosses to symbolize how precious and valuable Christ’s suffering and death on the cross was for us and books were written on the crucified Christ.
Why is this so, because of two reasons. Firstly, the cross reminds us of our sinfulness. It wasn’t just the Romans or the Jews who crucified Jesus Christ – it was all of humankind. We, along with the whole world despised and rejected the very one whom God sent to love and save us. The cross reminds us that we are sinners. We too are guilty of the same sins as Peter, Judas, Mary, Pilate, and all the others who had their hand in killing Jesus.
Secondly, the cross reminds us of its loving, saving power. God’s love was demonstrated to us by giving away Jesus to suffer and die on the cross. But God’s love was not only for friends and family members – it was even for most unattractive people, the greatest sinners, the worst enemies. Our gospel very subtle hints at this by telling us that two members of the Jewish council (Sanhedrin), Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus came to look after Christ’s burial. Here were two influential Jewish leaders who were won over by Christ’s love for them. They were so moved by Christ’s love for them that they were willing to take the risk of asking Pilate for their Saviour’s body to give him a proper burial. Now this was a risk because Pilate could have told this to some – not all – of the Jewish leaders who were opposed to Jesus. If they had found out, it may have meant being dismissed from the Sanhedrin. It was also a risk which, if Pilate wanted to be nasty, could have resulted in their arrest, or worse, their crucifixion – since they were Christ’s disciples. The power of Christ’s love – when it takes hold of us – makes us willing to take risks. For as hymn writer Isaac Watts put it: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
We see that the cross is God’s love. As we stand with those disciples at the foot of the cross and watch the events unfold, we are challenged to take a good, hard look at the violence and meanness of the world and the bloodiness of the cross, and to look at God hanging on that cross. To describe these events as the Passion of Jesus Christ might seem odd, and yet here, as nowhere else, we see the heart of God, the love of God, revealed to a broken humanity. We see the heart of God torn open between the folly of human sin and the unquenchable desire of God for his creation. As we read in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that God gave us His only Son” also “Jesus having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
He loved them to the end. His love for us, for the human race, for the world, brought him into confrontation and conflict with the powers of the world, the religious establishment and the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. His love brought him here, to trial before “Pilate” in a kangaroo court where the verdict was foreordained by the interests of the empire. His love for us, for the world brought him here, to this place of execution. It’s a love that is incomprehensible, unimaginable, that offers us and the world the possibility to hope for a different kind of world, where power, greed, oppression, and self-interest hold no sway but where love invites us to imagine we, ourselves, giving our lives for others. “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
It is a story we know. And it is a story we live. Each year. Usually in churches, but not always. And not this year. But still we are part of this story as we remember it in our homes, in our couches, at our tables. Where do we fit in? Rather than being on the outside looking in, we are active in it. We betray Jesus like Judas, we are threatened by him like the High Priests, we deny him like Peter, we hold onto and proclaim our own power and might like Pilate, we benefit from the fate of the innocent like Barabbas, we weep at the horror of it all like the Women, and we come in the night to bury our King. This is our story. We take part in it. Why? Because this is what Jesus’ love for us brings. Even though we are imperfect, and our sin and our selfishness is what leads God to dying on a cross, Jesus’ love endures. In his crucifixion, he shows us the depth and breadth of God’s love for us.
But the cross is bigger than even the sum of all our individual stories. It is the story of God’s unending love for God’s broken world, a world full of senseless evil and violence. A world where the good die young and the old grow lonely. A world of wars and cancer, of corruption and pollution. A world where there often seems little reason to hope or to dream.
The Passion of Jesus is the phrase we use to describe his suffering. But Passion also means love. God’s love is patient, kind, passionate. It is love which bears all things, believes all things, hopes and endures all things. It is love which never ends. It is love which does not go gently into that good night. On the cross God’s heart is torn between the passion of sin-induced suffering and the passion of grace filled love. On the cross Jesus refuses to give into the meanness, the arrogance, the evil which surrounds and enfold him. In the face of evil and despair, the Passion of his loving remains. To the cries for blood from the crowd he doesn’t respond. Against the clubs and whips that beat him he refuses to fight back. To Peter he utters the command to lay down his sword. To the soldiers who have torn his body to shreds he offers forgiveness. To the thief he whispers the hope of paradise. To the grieving disciples and his broken-hearted mother he offers words of comfort. On the cross the Passion of Jesus’ suffering is surpassed only by the passion of his love. Only the tenacity of God’s love is greater than the tenacity of humanity’s sin. In the heart of God there stands a cross, and on that cross God shows the fire of his love, a fire that the cold darkness of sin and death will never overcome.
Conclusion
He is the faithful one who lays down his life for his friends, the good shepherd who will never stop searching for his lost sheep, the living water of our baptism, and the one who will carry us through the stormy waters and deliver us to the far banks of the Jordan. Through the sweat and blood, the thorns and nails, the mockery and the humiliation, the burning fire of God’s love in Jesus remains.
As we contemplate Christ’s love for us, expressed in his crucifixion, may we open our hearts to receive and to be embraced by that love. And may that love inspire us, move us to share that love, to express Christ’s self-giving love in the world around us. May it give us hope that our world might be redeemed and transformed by Christ’s love, breaking down the barriers that divide us, bring justice to those who are oppressed, hope to those living in fear and anxiety. May we be Christ’s love, binding up wounds, mending the broken-hearted. In this world where so many are overcome by suffering, oppression, fear and despair, may Christ’s love shed abroad by us show us the way from cross to resurrection, from despair to hope, from death to new life, into beloved community, and a world created anew.