Easter

It’s Easter and sometime people will say, how can you come up with a new Easter message every year. I mean it’s the same story… it doesn’t change. It’s kind of like all the different Titanic movies… in each one of them, the Titanic sinks. Easter is the same no matter how you tell the story but, I love Easter and what happened at Easter.

But to understand the Easter story it requires us to pause in the very beginning of the story… the early moments of the story that we tend to rush by whenever we read / hear / preached the story.

What happened between the crucifixition and now?

So, I want to take you back to the moment… that moment when Jesus was crucified. Jesus is hanging on the cross and people are starring.

There is a crowd there watching and in the back of the crowd were a few Galileans who were overwhelmed with sorrow, confusion and fear.

Their leaders had conspired with Rome to falsely accuse and crucify the best person they had ever known, someone who wasn’t supposed to die. He was the one they believed was the Messiah.

But in the last 24 hours,

In the last 24 hours, Jesus was arrested, tried in a mockery of a trial, and crucified by the Romans.

His closest followers and friends were all in shock. They thought they were on the verge of defeating Rome and ruling with Jesus. Four days before this moment, they had entered into Jerusalem with large crowds. Jesus was welcomed as if he were a conquering hero. His followers thought that he would proclaim himself as the King of Israel and get rid of Rome. But now, suddenly it was over and Jesus is hanging on a cross.

The goal of crucifixion was not death. There were easier and quicker ways to kill someone.

The goal of crucifixition was to terrify everyone around and humiliate and send to oblivion the crucified person.

The goal was to make it as if the crucified person never existed. The remains would dumped at the dump, rot and eventually be eaten by wild animals. For a price you could bribe someone to take the crucified body.

The Gospels tell us that

Nicodemus, a well known Pharisee, and Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and well known citizen, asked Pilate for Jesus’ body so they could give him a proper burial.

They take Jesus’ body to Joseph’s new burial cave, his family burial plot. They prepare Jesus body for burial with spices and wrap him in layers of linen. They were going to seal His body in the tomb. Years later they would open it so his family could retrieve his bones and put them in an ossuary box. We keep the ashes. They kept the bones.

pic of an ossaury box

Nicodemus and Joseph were secret followers of Jesus. Yet, because of their reputations, they were torn about going public with the belief that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. They thought he was the Messiah, but now, clearly he wasn’t but he was a good man and didn’t deserve the be killed and treated like a criminal. So they placed his body in the tomb and did what they could do before the Sabbath began and headed home to celebrate the Sabath.

1500 miles away in Rome, Tiberius Caesar has no idea what is going on in Judea, what he considered the armpit of his empire.

Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, is celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem with his friends. The troublesome teacher had been eliminated. Thomas who would later be known as doubting Thomas, has left the city. Peter, James and John along with others are hiding together somewhere in the city trying to figure out how to get away without being caught and to think about what’s next. Peter is thinking about going back to work as a fisherman. Matthew has no job prospects. Across town a group of women are gathering. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is in shock. You have some confused citizens, frightened ex-disciples, broken hearted women and a broken hearted mother.

But you didn’t find in that moment were any Christians.

No-one believed Jesus was the Savior.

He couldn’t even save himself. He certainly was not the long awaited Messiah, the long awaited king of Israel. Nobody was planning to keep the dream alive or the Jesus movement going. Why even bother?

This is often overlooked but it’s so important. The centerpiece of Jesus’ ministry wasn’t his teaching. His teaching seemed impractical and a lot of it was offensive. He said, pay your taxes… pray for your enemies… lust equals adultery… turn the other cheek… and forgive others regardless… I mean whose going to follow someone who teaches that?

Jesus didn’t come to give us a some insights, rules or even principles to live by. Jesus told his followers to follow Him and to put their trust in Him.

At one point, Jesus claimed to be greater than Moses, the prophets and even the Temple (the system of worship the Jews had going on). One time, Jesus told his disciples said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

The disciples didn’t follow Jesus because of what he taught, they followed him because of who He claimed to be.

But in that moment, they realized they were wrong. The SOG, the Messiah can’t be killed by a foreign power. When Jesus died the Jesus movement died with him.

Jesus wasn’t a reformer. He didn't come to reform, change or improve something. Jesus came to establish something brand new. He said, I will build my church.

Politicians and activists in our time try to co-opt Jesus to support their thing. But Jesus didn’t leave that option for us. And his fist century followers understood that. When Jesus breathed his last breath, His movement did as well. Rome had won.

The disciples actually show themselves to believe Rome had won. They all “un-follow” Jesus. They run away when Jesus was arrested, keep their distance during his trial and crucifixion, and either leave the city or hid together afterward to decide where to go and what to do next. There were no Jesus followers when Jesus was crucified. There were no Christians… no church, no Bible.

When Jesus died, everybody, expected Him to stay dead.

So Nicodemus and Joseph prepared Jesus body to stay dead.

On Easter Sunday morning, no one was standing outside of the tomb counting down as to when He might come out. The women who loved Jesus left home before dawn to prepare his body for burial. They probably saw Nicodemus and Joseph prepare his body and didn’t think they did a good enough Job.

(Ladies, have you ever re-loaded the dishwasher)

Back to that moment in time. There were no Christians, just the Roman Empire. There was a relieved Roman governor and a bunch of sad Galileans. They made it through Passover. Passover was a time when the patriotism would rise up in not so good ways for the Roman Empire. The empire and the High Priests had conspired to get rid of the radical rabbi and avoid a potentially bloody uprising against Rome. The crisis was averted and everything was normal again.

Now fast forward 350 years to February 27, 380 AD.

The Roman Emperor, Theodosius 1st issues the Edict of Thessalonica, making Christianity the Roman Empire’s official religion.

In 380 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It ends state support for all of the pagan religions and the priesthoods for those religions. All of the financial support shifts tot the Christian Church. Christianity is the official religion of the Roman Empire.

And we go, what? Rome crucifies the leading figure of a Judean cult with the help of his own people. Then Rome considers the same discredited rabbi and Galilean day laborer … to be God. Not just another god, but He replaces the Roman pantheon of gods. Jesus wasn’t even a Roman. He had never set foot in Rome.

Fast forward to today and us.

There is no Roman empire. The city of Rome is full of crosses, not commemorating crucifixion but a single crucifixion - the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

Pic of cross in Rome

In our times, the cross is no longer a symbol of shame, terror, suffering and oblivion. It represents hope, salvation, compassion, and the love of God.

Pic of someone wearing a cross

About 1500 miles from Rome, Jerusalem is usually filled with Christian tourists from all over the world who are there to walk where a crucified, Galilean Rabbi once walked. Pastor Kathy and I have seen some of the actual stones Jesus would have walked on. It’s an awe inspiring experience to be there.

pic of stones where Jesus walked

Now, if all you knew was a troublesome rabbi was crucified by Rome, then considered a god by Rome, and now hundreds of millions of people who believe he is divine and gather every week to worship Him, and all of that his historically indisputable. If that’s all you knew, what’s the question to be asked is

What happened?

Something extraordinary must have happened to bring all of that about. Clearly there is more to the story. Without more, the story doesn’t make sense. The more is why we are here today. What happened is why we are here and why hundreds of millions of people gather together every week.

What happened is the resurrection.

Jesus didn’t do what dead people do… stay dead. He came back to life. We call it the Resurrection.

It’s recorded by Matthew, Mark who took what Peter told him, Luke, James the half brother of Jesus, John and the apostle Paul. They all tell us what happened. Here is John’s explanation.

John 20:1–2 NLT

1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Now they had no idea who “they” were. They assumed a third party had taken Jesus’ body. had stolen Jesus body … Nobody assumed a resurrection miracle. They were confused by an empty tomb because nobody expected “no body.” They all expected Jesus to do what dead people do… to stay dead.

Pic of the empty tomb

Luke tells us in Luke 24:11

Luke 24:11 NLT

11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.

John 20:3–8 NLT

3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—

Later that afternoon, Jesus visits His followers in the city. They immediately re-engage with His message and mission. But they did not re-engage because of what He taught. They didn’t re-engage because of something they believed. They re-engaged because of what they saw and who they saw.

The disciples reengaged because of what happened… Jesus was who he claimed to be and more.

It turns out that Jesus was in fact, a king… God’s final King who came to die for His subjects rather than requiring them to die for him. Now His followers understood and they re-engaged.

The resurrection is not a Bible story, it’s the story. And it intersects your story, my story and everyone else’s stories.

The resurrection is not a bible story, it is The Story

The resurrection of Jesus resolves one of histories greatest mysteries… How did His teaching and church survive the first century? It revolves around another mystery as well… a personal one. It revolves around the mystery of how you can know where you stand with God and how God views you, your failure, and your sin. Jesus was the only person who spoke with authority of how God feels about you, me and the human race.

John who beat Peter to the tomb makes this statement in John 3:16 about how much God loved us and why he sent Jesus to our world in the first place.

John 3:16 NIV84

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Despite what you may have heard or how you have been treated by Christians or by a church, John said John 3:17

John 3:17 NIV84

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus crucifixion made no sense until the resurrection.

Then it made all the sense in the world. It is why the story was even told.

The resurrection of Jesus is not a Bible Story, it’s the story. It’s the reason we have a Bible. Not only did Jesus resurrection make sense of His crucifixion, it made sense of God’s love for the whole world. Jesus’s secret ambition was to die so that we could live. His resurrection means that He is who he claimed to be, the Savior … peace with God… a reason to believe and to follow… and a reason to believe that He is a King worth following.

After all, no other King would wash our feet. No other king would prepare a table for his enemies. No other king would lay down his glory for the least of these. No other king would touch a Leper’s skin, open his arms to let the outcast in, or respond with mercy in the face of your sin and my sin. No other king would put up with the mockery, be led to slaughter and refuse to speak. No other king would take up a cross and choose to dies with thieves. No other king would take up His cross and give his life for you and for me. He was and is a King like no other king.

That’s why Easter is a big deal. It’s why we celebrate Easter. It’s the end of the story that makes it a story worth telling. It’s the story of a king like no other king. It’s the story of a king worth following.