Welcome Happy Morning!
John 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Welcome Happy Morning, age to age shall say. Hell today is
vanquished, Heaven is won today. Lo! The dead is living, God forevermore; Him,
their true Creator, all His works adore. Come then, true and faithful, Now
fulfill Thy Word! Tis Thine own third morning, Rise O Buried Lord! Show Thy
face in brightness. Bid the nations see. Bring again our daylight; Day returns
with Thee. Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say; Hell today is
vanquished. Heaven is won today. Amen.
The lyrics of this hymn I just shared with you were written in the
sixth century by Venantius Fortunatus – truly from age to age it is the same.
We do welcome that happy morning when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus
was acknowledged then as Conqueror of Sin, Death and Satan as He is today, as
He always will be. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End. He is the risen Lord, eternal Lord.
You know it really surprises me that so many people spend so much
time and effort and energy chasing after the temporary, pondering the
inconsequential. In truth, much of the world focuses its attention on the
fleeting while putting off thoughts of eternal destiny -- ultimate consequences
-- when really the first priority of our thinking ought to be eternity and how
eternity informs the momentary. We’re here for just a blinking of an eye and
then something happens to us. Death and eternity. We can’t avoid death any more
than we can avoid eternity – they don’t go away simply because we choose not to
think about them. We need to plan ahead and not go so willy nilly about life.
Eternity is a long time. So let me ask you a question this morning: How and
where will you be spending eternity? If you truly are a Christian, can you be
certain – are you certain that you have put your faith in a reliable place, in
a reliable person?
The Bible tells us that everyone has sinned and has fallen short
of the glory of God and that the wages of sin – what is earned through sin – is
death. If there is no atonement for sin, what is earned is an eternity of
separation from God.
The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only basis on
which we can come into a saving relationship with the living God. There is no
other way for Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father but by me.” By Jesus.
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Mt. Rubidoux, Riverside, California, Easter Morning at 6'clock. From 1870-1925? 2,000 people holding union services from the Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. |
Suppose the entire human race lined up on the West Coast with one
objective – to get to Hawaii. We’ll equate their goal with God’s standard of
righteousness. The gun is fired and all the swimmers jump in. As we look out
over the ocean, we see the most moral one of all – an individual always doing
his best, trying to adhere to the highest moral standards – yet he would be the
first to admit his imperfection and sinfulness. But he’s out there in the water
75 miles from shore. Next we see a college student. She does cheat on her exams
a little and goes on a binge every now and then but she’s not a complete
reprobate. She’s gotten about 10 miles out. The mass murderer is drowning a few
yards off shore. Scattered about in the water between the two extremes of the
spectrum, we see the rest of the human race. As we look from the mass murderer
to the tremendously moral man, we can see the difference. It’s an enormous
difference. But what’s the difference in terms of Hawaii. Everyone will drown.
A set of swimming instructions won’t help at this point. We need
somebody to take us to Hawaii. This is where Jesus comes in. If you can live a
life that is absolutely perfect in thought, word and deed, you can make it to
heaven on your own steam. But no mere human being has ever done or ever will do
this. All the other religions of the world are essentially sets of swimming
instructions, suggested codes of ethics, patterns for living. But humankind’s
basic problem is not a matter of knowing how we ought to live; it’s lacking the
power to live as we ought. The good news of Christianity is that Jesus Christ
does for us what we cannot possibly do for ourselves. Through Him alone are we
reconciled with God, given His righteousness and enabled to have a personal
relationship with Him in His very presence.
And how did He accomplish all of this? By going to the cross and
taking upon Himself the punishment for sins that was rightfully due to us. And
how do we appropriate His righteousness? By admitting and repenting of our sin,
accepting Christ’s sacrifice in our place and living lives of service and
gratitude for what the Lord has done.
But how do we know that Jesus – who claimed to be the Messiah, the
Savior, God enfleshed – how do we know that He wasn’t some lunatic or that He
wasn’t a liar? The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are either elements
in the world’s greatest hoax –or the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension
are the most important events ever for humankind.
So what do we have for proof of the claims of Jesus?
Well, first there are the prophecies all fulfilled in Jesus –
written hundreds of years before Jesus appeared on earth, prophecies recorded
for us in, what we call, the Old Testament. Detailed prophecies referring to
the place and time of His birth in – specifically – Bethlehem. His birth by a
virgin. His ministry in Galilee. His roles as prophet, priest and king. His
triumphal entry into Jerusalem astride a donkey. His betrayal by a friend. We
have to the penny the amount of money for which He would be betrayed. We have
the prophecies that the money would be returned for a potters’ field, that
false witnesses would come forward to accuse the Messiah. We have accountings,
hundreds of years before they occurred, of all the incidents surrounding His
death – that He would be mocked and spat upon; that His hands and feet would be
pierced; that He would be given gall and vinegar to drink; that soldiers would
cast lots for His clothes; that Jesus would pray for those who were crucifying
Him; that not a bone of His would be broken; that He would be buried with the rich;
that He would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven.
Then we have the witnesses to the resurrected Jesus: from 1st
Corinthians 15 and elsewhere, we learn that Jesus, after His resurrection,
appeared to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to several women as they ran from the
tomb, to two disciples on the Emmaus Road, to 10 disciples in the Upper Room,
to seven men at the Sea of Galilee, to 11 disciples on a mountain, to more than
500 people at one time
And then there are the details surrounding the crucifixion: Jesus
was sentenced to death by the Roman Empire. Death by crucifixion, the most
horrific, painful means of execution ever devised. But first, as I noted last
week, Pontius Pilate had Him scourged. And, as you’ll recall, in this form of
punishment, the prisoner was tied to a post with his back bent and a whip with
long leather straps studded with sharp pieces of bone, rocks, lead pellets and
glass was used on Him. With each lash, the whip would wrap around the body,
stripping off pieces of flesh. Roman beatings could be so severe that bones and
organs were left exposed. By the time they got through beating Him, Jesus’ body
may well have been barely recognizable.
They jammed on His head a crown of thorns and then beat Him on the
head repeatedly with a staff. Then they led Him away to be crucified. John
tells us that Jesus – battered, whipped, dehydrated, exhausted from a sleepless
night -- carried His own cross as they headed out of Jerusalem. But, with His
condition weakened by the torture, the soldiers took a man from the crowd and
had him carry the cross for the remaining steps to the place of crucifixion.
Then on the skull-shaped hill, Golgotha, Jesus, naked and already
in unimaginable pain, was nailed to a cross through His ankle and heel bones.
And He remained on that cross for six hours.
The following events at the site of the crucifixion help verify
that Jesus was dead:
·
The Roman soldiers did not break
Jesus' legs, because they "saw that He was already dead" (Jn. 19:33).
·
The soldiers plunged a spear into
Jesus' side, and from it came both water and blood (Jn. 19:34). Medical experts
say that if He were not already dead, this in itself would have killed Him.
Others have concluded that the pouring out of water and blood from His side was
proof that Jesus was no longer alive.
·
When Joseph of Arimathea asked
for the body of Christ so he and Nicodemus could bury Him, Pontius Pilate
ordered a centurion to verify that Jesus was dead (Mk. 15:43-45). The Roman
governor would not release the body to Joseph until the centurion was certain
that all signs of life were gone. You can be sure that an officer in the Roman
army would not make a mistake about an important matter like this in his report
to such a high official as Pilate.
·
Joseph and Nicodemus prepared the
body for burial according to Jewish custom. This included wrapping it "in
a clean linen cloth" (Mt. 27:59), anointing the body with "a mixture
of myrrh and aloes" (Jn. 19:39), and placing it "in a tomb which had
been hewn out of the rock" (Mk. 15:46). It seems obvious that any sign of
life would have been detected by these bereaved friends. Surely they would not
have buried a breathing Jesus.
·
The Pharisees and chief priests
met with Pilate to discuss what had occurred. They made such remarks as
"while He was still alive" (Mt. 27:63). Soldiers were ordered to
secure the grave with a seal. In addition, guards were placed on duty to
prevent the disciples from coming to "steal Him away" (v.64). The
Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities knew beyond doubt that Jesus was dead.
After His body was wrapped, it was placed in a rock cave before
which a huge stone was rolled. Geologists from Georgia Tech went to Jerusalem
some years ago to study just how large this stone had to have been to cover the
four and a half to five foot doorway
that would have been standard at the time. The stone, they estimated, would
have weighted 1 ½ to 2 tons. This stone would have been sealed with clay and
stamped with the Roman signet. To mess with a Roman seal was punishable by death,
by crucifixion. The tomb was heavily guarded – remember, this was the Roman
Empire – the most well-trained fighting machine that has ever walked the earth.
Because of the stature of Jesus, the controversy surrounding Him, we can
surmise there would have been a pretty substantial detail guarding Him. Again,
well-armed, well-trained. And they themselves would have been beaten, set
afire, or executed if they failed in their duty.
Could the disciples have eluded the guards – the well-trained
fighting machine who would faced death for this? Could the guards have slept
through or allowed the disciples to remove the two ton stone, unwrap the 100
pounds of graveclothes, fold them up neatly, lift the body and carry it away?
Come on!
And then there is the witness of the disciples. They had dedicated
the better part of three years to following Jesus. In the hours after Jesus’
death, they were probably asking themselves if they all hadn’t made just a huge
mistake. Even though Jesus had told them He would die, they’d just never gotten
it. They hadn’t understood; they hadn’t bargained on the cross. And so they
were in hiding, fearing for their lives. But, then something happened to change
them overnight into bold, fearless proclaimers of the name Jesus. So bold, so
fearless, so determined to spread the word, that we’re here today to talk about
what they did, what they saw 2,000 years ago. So bold, so fearless, so changed
– that they were willing to give their own lives so that we might know their
Jesus.
They had been so afraid they had been cowering behind doors but
then – on the third day after the crucifixion – John tells us one of the women
who had followed Jesus made her way to the tomb. Mary Magdalene had left behind
her life of sin for a new life as a disciple of Jesus. She believed Him. She
loved Him. And then He died on the cross.
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Easter Morning by Caspar David Friedrich, 1828-1835. |
Mary witnessed His death and she was there when His lifeless body
was taken down and placed in the tomb. And so she returned to the tomb early in
the morning on the third day and found, to her amazement and fear, that the
stone had been rolled away.
She responded by running to tell the disciples. Her announcement
to Peter and John was like a pistol shot that started the race to the tomb. And
so the proud, impulsive fisherman and the one known as the beloved disciple,
made for the tomb. From the outside, one could see the body was not there. Mary
had probably seen that. But from the inside of the tomb, a person might be able
to receive a great insight. That insight is the key in all of this: the
realization that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.
Understand that Mary didn’t know that in those initial moments
outside the tomb. What she said was: “They have taken the Lord out of the
tomb.” When she said, “they,” she probably meant the Romans had taken the body.
But, as we’ve noted, that was an incorrect assumption. After all
that had occurred, the last thing the authorities wanted was to see a missing
Jesus whose disappearance would be certain to stir up the people again. And
Mary knew the disciples hadn’t taken Him. They’d been in hiding, afraid to show
their faces. And a simply human Jesus couldn’t have emerged from the tomb on
His own. Remember what He had endured.
So, if the authorities hadn’t done it and the disciples hadn’t
done it, and a merely human Jesus hadn’t done it, how had the stone been moved,
the guard foiled and a dead Jesus come out of the tomb? Well, let’s see.
Verse 4 in John’s gospel tells us that John reached the tomb.
Imagine the scene: He and Peter had been running and have arrived huffing and
puffing. But John stops short – he peeks into the tomb but he doesn’t cross the
line. Instead, he squints to try to see inside.
We can sympathize with him. There is something about walking into
a tomb – we avert our eyes, we pull back. It’s a region to which we defer and
give respect. But, while John hesitated, Peter crossed the line. He went right
into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there as had John from the
outside.
This gospel writer, John, now uses four Greek words all translated
“saw.” Mary and John “saw” at a glance (the word used for their seeing is blephei). Peter “saw” (the-o-rei), carefully examining the
details, theorizing.
Peter noted that the cloth that had wrapped Jesus’ head was
separate from the other grave clothes. It even had a rolled-up appearance. The
Greek word suggests it was coiled or rolled as though the head around which it
was wrapped had suddenly dematerialized and vanished. Peter saw all this like a
detective, examining the details, looking for clues. He was trying to figure
out what “they” had done with the body when “they” had taken it. He was puzzled
that they would leave the grave clothes.
Then John went into the tomb. Again, he “saw” but this time the
Greek word used is eiden, a physical
seeing, a mental understanding, a spiritual knowing. While Mary and John had
initially just looked, while Peter was theorizing, John now had a flash of
insight.
Verse 8 says John saw and believed. What did he believe? He
believed that Jesus rose from the dead. He understood that Jesus was not
carried away by some weird soldiers who had taken the trouble to unwind and
rewind the grave clothes. John had crossed the line. Faith is going across the
line, seeing, believing, and then acting on that belief. John believed what he
believed based on what he saw in the tomb. Only later did the disciples come to
understand from scripture why Jesus had to follow this route. The point here is
that they didn’t make up a story of resurrection to fit a preconceived
understanding of scriptural prophecy. Jesus had been explaining to them that
these prophecies had to be fulfilled in Him but, as scripture tells us again
and again and, as we’re reminded in our passage from John, the disciples were
slow to understand.
It is interesting to note how each of these words about seeing has
moved into the English language. Blephei
is found in words particularly relating to the eyelids, that which covers the
eyes. Theorei lends it base to words
that speak about speculations, untested assumptions, abstract reasoning. And eidon has made its way into the language
in words such as eidetic, defined as that which is marked by extraordinarily
detailed and vivid recall of visual images.
It’s clear that all of the disciples came to this eidetic way of
seeing because nothing less -- no fictional story, no hoax -- could possibly
account for the changes that occurred within them.
Take, for instance, the transformation of Thomas. Of all the
disciples, he seemed the least likely to be convinced. His pessimism was first
revealed earlier, when Jesus mentioned His plans to go to Bethany where Lazarus
had just died. Thomas had suggested to his fellow disciples, "Let us also
go, that we may die with Him" (Jn. 11:16). Although this statement
suggests a degree of courage, it also implies that Thomas was resigned to
martyrdom. If that was his typical response, it is no wonder he responded to
the disciples' claim that they had seen Jesus after His death by saying,
"Unless I see . . . I will not believe" (Jn. 20:25). Does this sound
like someone who is willing to rekindle the anger of the Roman officials by
claiming that Jesus was alive if He really wasn't?
Now look at Thomas a week after the crucifixion. In the upper
room, surrounded by his 10 friends who had already seen Jesus, he saw the
Savior face to face. Finally, Thomas was convinced. His statement, "My
Lord and my God!" (Jn. 20:28) is the ultimate proclamation of belief in
Jesus' resurrection. Here was victory that could be won only through hard
evidence. It's the only thing that could have changed this skeptic into a
believer.
No, the disciples were not the type of men who could have lived a
lie as far-reaching as one that claimed a dead man wasn't dead anymore. They
might have misunderstood Jesus on occasion, but they were basically honest men.
They had no reason to devise such a scheme, and they didn't have the courage it
would take to defend such a bald-faced lie. Peter would never have been hanged
upside down for a trumped-up story. Mark would not have been dragged through
the streets to his death if he had been defending fiction. James would not have
been beheaded for a falsehood. Thomas wouldn't have been pierced with a lance
for a lie. Yet history tells us that these men each died in these horrific
ways. What a testimony to the truth of their claims! They were willing to die
for the One who overcame death for them--and for us!
So this day we celebrate – this happy morning – calls us to the
tomb to confront the reality of death and to make a decision about what kind of
relationship we want to have with death. We are asked to decide whether we will
allow eternal death to have a grip on us or whether we will, instead, embrace
the eternal life that is offered to us only by the resurrected Jesus Christ.
Finally, let us walk once more by the tomb. John and Peter have
gone off to ponder the questions and Mary remains at the tomb sobbing and
sobbing. But, as she looks into the tomb again, she sees two angels now seated
where Jesus’ body had been.
And they ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Her reply was the
same she had given to Peter and John just moments earlier, “They have taken my
Lord away and I don’t know where they have put Him.”
Then she sensed someone else near her. She turned and saw a man
whom she assumed was the gardener. And He asked her, “Woman, why are you
weeping? Who are you looking for?”
Perhaps she couldn’t see clearly through her tears, perhaps her
grief and fear kept her from seeing, but, initially, we’re told she failed to
recognize that the one to whom she was speaking was the risen Jesus. Finally,
He called her by name as He does each of His disciples and she felt a pull on
her heart. She knew this was Jesus, alive and standing before her.
Then Jesus said a surprising thing: “Do not hold onto me for I
have not yet returned (or ascended to the Father). Perhaps this was Jesus’ way
of telling Mary that her life could never return to what it was. Mary would
have to let go of the incarnated Jesus so that He might complete His work and
send the Comforter, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Mary
would also have to let go of death, of sin, of all that bound her. She would
have to truly trust the risen Lord. That’s something we all need to remember on
this Resurrection Sunday. There are some things we just can’t hold on to. Many
of us have perhaps remained entombed for years, wearing death and sin like
graveclothes – bound by regrets, anger, unresolved guilt, fears. These must be
stripped away in order for us to fully display the light that will draw others
unto Jesus.
We who have welcomed Jesus as Savior can leave the tomb; we can
let it go to claim the abundant life that Jesus has for us now. Jesus Christ is
alive and new life is available to everyone who calls on His name.
While tears of joy were streaming down Mary’s face, Jesus told,
“Go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary left the tomb to share the good news. “I
have seen (in the Greek, e-o-raka) the Lord,” she said. This fourth Greek word
for seeing has a similar meaning to another – eureka – which has come directly
into the English language and is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as the word “used to express triumph
upon the discovery of something.” In the case of Mary, the something was not a
something, but a someone. Mary had discovered the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And
because this risen Lord had conquered death, Mary had discovered new hope, new
meaning, new life. Well, more accurately, these had been given to her for
salvation is the gift of God. We receive not of our own efforts so that no one
can boast. My most fervent prayer this morning is that we all might see as Mary
saw on that first Resurrection morning.
That we might really see – not a simple blephei kind of seeing (at a glance); not a theorei kind of seeing (speculation) and not even an eiden kind of seeing (identification)
but that we might be filled with the full triumph of discovery as the eyes of
our hearts comprehend that in this day we have been confronted with the reality
of death and it’s alright because Jesus has conquered death. Jesus has risen
from the dead and that makes a difference for us now.
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Easter Morning, chromolithograph by Mary Theresa Hart, issued 1861-1897. |
Welcome Happy Morning, age to age shall say. Hell today is
vanquished, Heaven is won today. Lo! The dead is living, God forevermore; Him,
their true Creator, all His works adore. Come then, true and faithful, Now
fulfill Thy Word! Tis Thine own third morning, Rise O Buried Lord! Show Thy
face in brightness. Bid the nations see. Bring again our daylight; Day returns
with Thee. Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say; Hell today is
vanquished. Heaven is won today. Amen.
And all God’s people said Amen!
NOTE: I composed this from notes
compiled over a number of years. Attributions may not be complete. Sources
include: Paul E. Little’s How to Give Away Your Faith.