Sermons for the Month
Jesus Is Alive!
DATE: March 27th, 2005
SERVICE: The Resurrection of our Lord
TEXT: Matthew 28:1-10“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Did you do it this year? Well…did you? Last year I began my sermon by asking if everyone jumped out of bed anxious to tell others that "Jesus is alive!" on THE most important day of the year for Christians. So, I thought you would be prepared this time around to stick your heads out the windows and loudly announce the resurrection of Jesus to the world. After all, Jesus is alive!
It's a great idea, but I'll admit that there may be obstacles (other than not wanting to alienate the neighbors) to doing it. That's because this news of the resurrection has caused consternation through the ages up until this very moment.
I'm always reminded of this when I tell the story of the resurrection to the children who attend our preschool. This year I had just gotten to the climax of the story, telling how the friends of Jesus - who were very sad - went to the cave to see his body early on a Sunday morning when they saw (can you believe it?) an angel who announced to them that Jesus is alive.
I paused for a moment, looking around at those open little faces, when a little one in the front row, right next to me, looked into my eyes and asked the question we all have secretly asked. "Pastor Jean", she said with just a bit of skepticism in her voice, "Is this a true story?" Of course I quickly answered in the affirmative, but before I could go on a little voice in the back posed what may be the next most asked question about the Easter account. "How did he come alive?" I was sorting through my repertoire of "Explanations for 4-year-olds" when the one who wondered about the veracity of the whole thing gave the obvious response. "Oh, that's easy", she said, 'He's (meaning the resurrected Jesus) a fairy." I guess she had Tinker Bell of Peter Pan fame in mind.
It was one of the great challenges of my pastoral life not to have 50 four-year-olds leave the church thinking that Jesus had been raised from the dead because of sparkling wings and fairy dust.
Now, once you've recovered from that episode of "Kids Say The Darndest Things" (it took me about a week) I'd like to propose that our young friends pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to the age-old Easter dilemma. And, it began fairly early in the life of the church.
We do not often read verses 11-15 of Matthew 28, but they explain one reason why people doubted that Jesus was raised from the dead. We might call it the great cover-up. Here's what Matthew writes:
"While they were going (meaning the women who were going to tell the disciples that they had seen Jesus), some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So, they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day."
Matthew wants to make sure his readers know how the rumor got started that the body of Jesus was stolen, not resurrected. It was the priests, who paid off the guards, who started the lie.
But the followers of Jesus know the truth. After all there was tight security at the tomb, so tight that it took an earthquake and an angel to open it. As for the guards, they were frightened to death, which is a bit ironic because Jesus who is supposed to be dead is alive, and the guards who are supposed to be alive and guarding Jesus' body become like dead men. Not only that, the women encountered Jesus and grabbed a hold of his feet, not wanting him to wander away from them. There is more than enough detail in the true story to counter the rumor.
And countering the rumor is important because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith. If Jesus had remained dead, then his suffering for us on the cross would have been meaningless. Instead, Jesus not only exchanged his goodness for our sin on the cross, suffering the consequence of our sin, but in the resurrection he conquered death which entered the world because of sin. In other words, it's a new age for those who believe and death no longer has the final word.
It's such an amazing concept that it's understandable that, like my preschool friend, we and those who went before us would question whether or not the story is true. And, the fact of the matter is that no one actually saw it happen; there are no accounts of Jesus opening his eyes, standing up and leaving the tomb. Maybe that's why it seemed possible to get away with the rumor that the body had been stolen. And it might have worked except for one thing - multiple people saw the risen Christ and believed.
As for us, we are asked to use the eyes of faith to see him and to believe. There are four accounts of the resurrection in the Bible, each one written from a particular perspective. But, they all have the same message - Jesus is alive and he revealed himself to his followers. Most of us - by the power of the Holy Spirit - believe what we read. But even if we doubt, it's still true that the resurrected Jesus comes to us just as he did to those first followers.
Perhaps his presence is a bit more difficult for us to discern, since we are not as intent as they were about seeing him. They were overwhelmed at the thought of his absence, and that may not be true for us. But, just because we overlook him, it does not mean that Jesus is not there … or here.
I recently flew home from Seattle and ended up arriving five hours late. You who fly know the story … mechanical problems, missed connections, long hours in the airport. I would like to report that the resurrected Jesus was hanging around in the midst of the chaos of trying to get home.
First, he was sitting listening, as I was, to the story of an older woman whose daughter-in-law had just died. The Memorial Service had been postponed because her granddaughter - the deceased woman's daughter- was in jail. There was so much pain in her voice, and I was so compelled to offer words of comfort in spite of my own frustration, that I knew the resurrected Jesus was in the vicinity. Then there was the 3-year-old who pointed Jesus out to me just after the announcement that the delay was stretching into the hours. She was in the chair next to me singing, her sweet little voice clear in the midst of the low rumble of grumbling. I started to listen, but the only word I could pick out was "Jesus".
So I caught her - and her mother's eye - and said, "Are you singing about Jesus?" She gave me one of those combination smiles - angelic and impish - and said, "I'm singing to Jesus."
Hmm… I guess I overlooked him … but that does not mean he wasn't there. After all - Jesus is alive!
AMEN