Happy Easter!
Easter isn’t a day; Easter is a season. We have
several more weeks of Easter Season to celebrate the Risen Christ.
He is Risen. He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!
In ancient times, ghosts and spirits were known to be
real. We have mostly forgotten this truth as our minds have closed to ideas
which cannot be explained by the scientific method. In I Samuel 28, King Saul
had already upset God and God refused to speak with Saul. So Saul visited a
medium in the town of Endor, a woman who could consult the dead. At Saul’s strong
request, she brought up the spirit of Samuel the recently dead high priest of
Israel. For this evil action, Saul was killed in battle the next day. And this
event was buried deep in the memory of all the people of Israel, a story told by
grandparents to grandchildren for ten centuries. It was remembered by the
disciples of a rabbi, a teacher named Jesus a thousand years after King Saul
died.
It was Sunday evening. They had seen Him die on
Friday afternoon, buried Him before sunset. They separated to mourn on Saturday.
Sunday morning the women and then Peter and John reported the tomb was empty –
Mary said she’d seen Him alive, but who could believe her? So that evening,
they returned to a safe house, to come together in fear. Peter reported that
Jesus had appeared to him; two men came running in, telling them all that they’d
seen Him on the road to Emmaus.
They closed the door. They were hidden away, hiding
from the world who might want to kill them for His name’s sake. And suddenly,
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Was the man in front of them a spirit? Had He come
back like Samuel the prophet from the dead? What did this mean for them – would
they soon die? Was the spirit in front of them about to curse them for all
time? It was frightening and scary. For it was known that an evil spirit could
assume a false shape – and then that spirit could lead people to their
destruction. They wanted to be sure this man really was Jesus and not a false
Jesus, insubstantial without any real power.
The man spoke. “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look
at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a spirit does
not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
A
spirit, a ghost. The Greek word pneuma is used in the original manuscripts.
It means spirit, ghost, wind, breath. Something with a thin substance, somewhere
between living and not living – no body, yet you can feel it – barely, like you
can feel the wind or a strong breath from your neighbor. Something unearthly –
not quiet real, yet not quiet imaginary. A spirit is from another realm, the
realm of God or the afterlife. Yet this person said to touch him and see.
And
he showed them his hands and feet, punctured with holes from the huge nails
that had been driven through the wrists and ankles, torturing him as they
connected with the nerve bundles. Tearing with the weight of his body on the
cross. Yet the holes were healing, indeed the skin had healed, the bleeding
stopped, the scabs washed away. The scars would remain forever, but the damage
had been done. Anyone who had seen Jesus on the cross or being carried to the tomb
knew it was Him, and so they were joyful and they were amazed, but how? How
could it be true? They had seen Him die! They had seen and heard Him forgive His
executioners, and then they had seen Him die. They had even seen the Roman
guard stick a spear into His side and they had seen the water and the blood
pour out as that spear had punctured His lungs full of fluid from the torture
and then the spear had punctured his heart and the last of his blood came out,
draining out like a priest drains the blood from a sacrificial lamb.
And
they had seen Him taken down, His blood clotted upon him. They had seen Him carried
to the tomb, mummy wrapped with over forty pounds of spices and left there
while the huge stone was dropped in the trench in front of the entrance. Like
reasonable men, they had never expected to see Him again.
And
yet… here He was talking to them, looking fresh, active, even more alive than
He had been during the days walking on the highways of Galilee. He spoke again:
“Do you have anything here to eat?” And so they fumbled around, and one of
them gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it
and ate it in their presence. No one had ever heard of a spirit being hungry
and eating fish! And so they began to believe.
They
began to believe that this was actually Jesus, not just a spirit, but Jesus in
the flesh, recovered and healed and stronger than ever before, standing in
front of them eating that bit of tilapia from the Jordan River. But how had
this happened? How could He be alive again? They knew He was dead – but He was
alive! Their brains spun around in circles while their hearts leaped with joy!
Like
most men, the disciples had not stopped to consider what His presence meant to
them during the days on the road over the previous three years. He was a good –
no, a great teacher, a great man – but they had not realized how much they had
grown to love Him, to rely upon His steadiness, His strong, quiet power that
was like a stallion under His perfect control. He had spoken with each of them
many times and His gaze was soft – and yet piercing. You knew He loved you, you
knew He cared for you, and yet, you knew He expected and demanded great things
of you. And so as His disciples, we had grown to depend upon His strength and
love and guidance. And so, when He had been taken away from us, we were lost.
And
then, that evening, He was back again with us and we were filled with joy and
amazement as we watched Him eat that little piece of broiled fish. It was so
ordinary – things were once again right, the world was normal again, our fear
was gone.
He
said to us, “This is what I told you while I was still with
you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law
of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” And then in our minds, we
began to connect all sorts of things we had read about and heard in the old
scriptures with Jesus. We saw the Angel of the Lord standing before Joshua and
Jericho with the face of Jesus. We saw the leader of the three men who came to
visit Abraham before Sodom was destroyed with the face of Jesus. We saw the
suffering servant of Isaiah 53 with the face of Jesus on the cross. We saw the
Son of Man of Daniel standing before us. Our minds had been opened to the true
meaning of the scriptures. And we knew Jesus was the Messiah, come back from
the dead!
He
told us, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise
from the dead on the third day, and repentance
for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are
witnesses of these things.”
And
so we began to tell others of what we had seen and heard, what we had simply
witnessed. We began with our brother Thomas who was missing that night – and the
next Sunday, Thomas saw and believed.
Many
people over the centuries have missed the point of the fish-eating of Jesus.
Many people have walked away with a complete misunderstanding of what will
happen after a Christian’s death. Let’s take a look at what this episode
teaches us.
First,
Jesus did not come back to visit the disciples as a spirit, or a ghost. Jesus
came back among them in his new, glorified body – a body which was basically
repaired from the ravages of the cross – yet still had at least the scars, with
pierced wrists and ankles as larger versions of pierced ears. Healed, yet not
fully repaired. Jesus was strong and healthy – he had just walked the six miles
to Emmaus that afternoon.
Later,
in Revelation, John sees Jesus as a strong warrior with the white hair of
wisdom and age.
And
so, theologians speak of the full resurrection of the body, a repaired body
which does not breakdown over time like our current body does – an immortal
body which is still a physical body. It is like having a body which has a
perfect healing and immune system.
In
our letter from I John 3, John writes: “Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet
been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Our resurrected bodies
will be just like Jesus’ resurrected body. It will be repaired, with perfect
healing and immune system, a body that will not wear out, a body that will not
require knee replacements, artificial heart valves, and similar repairs.
You know, I used to
think, “Wow, I’ll have a new 20-year old body in the resurrection.” Now, I’d be
happy with a forty-year old body.
Our body will be like
the body Jesus had.
Do not be taken in by
the lies that have dominated Hollywood movies and their portrayal of life after
death. We do not become spirits in the Resurrection. We do not acquire wings.
We don’t become angels – after all, angels are the created servants of God – As
John tells us in our reading from I John, “See what great love the Father
has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is
what we are!” Angels are the servants – we are God’s children.
The
disciples were tempted to fall prey to the lie that Jesus had come back in the
spirit or perhaps as an idea in their minds, a hypnosis, a suggestion. They
were tempted to declare that they had seen the Spirit of Christ. But a little
piece of fish changed all that. That little bit of fish proved to them that
Jesus had been truly resurrected, that His body had come alive once more. And
that little bit of fish convinced them that there was hope for them and their
bodies in the future.
I
mentioned last week that many people actually have two different views of the
afterlife, depending on when you ask them the question. First, there is the
happy view, the view that everyone goes to Heaven and flits about on wings as
angels, playing harps. The only way we don’t make it to Heaven is if we are a
serial murderer or an evil Hitler-type Nazi. And we aren’t. We know in our
minds that we have sinned some, but we’re not as bad as Charles Manson. After
all, all that we’ve done is to borrow a few paperclips from the office. We’ve
said a few nasty things to people in our life. We’ve lusted after a couple of
television stars. But who hasn’t? So we’ll end up in Heaven with the rest of
the good people.
And,
of course, this view is wrong, for Jesus taught that lusting is the same as committing
adultery and hating is the same as committing murder. All have sinned – and the
wages of sin is death. By justice is when we get what we deserve, and what we
deserve is death.
The
other view people commonly have is that there is no hope. We are aware of our
sin or sins – the one big sin or the repeating smaller sins. We recognize that
we can’t break free by ourselves. We are addicted to doing wrong. So when we
understand this, we often resign ourselves to either a real death or an
eternity in Hell because we are hopeless.
John, in
his first epistle, explains this. He writes that “4 Everyone
who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he [Jesus] appeared so
that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on
sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”
Jesus
takes away the sin of people who live in him. Now I want you to notice
something – “living in him” is a much stronger statement than “believing in him”.
You may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you may believe He died for you,
you may even believe that He died to remove your sins. But John tells us that
we need to “live” in Jesus to stop sinning. What does this mean?
You’ve
probably heard about “abiding” in Jesus – which means living in Jesus as though
He were a house or a home. We are to be surrounded by Jesus, we are to spend
our lives with boundaries set by Jesus, we are to move as though He is beside
and around us like a tent that we carry with us as we move.
Too
often, we say, “Jesus, we’re on your team”, and then we continue to live our
lives the same way we used to live our lives – we might make a couple of minor
changes, watching our language, cutting back from 5 or 6 beers to at most a
couple of beers – and those are positive changes, no doubt.
But
John is telling us to live in Jesus. We need to put on Jesus as a skin,
presenting Jesus to the world! And this is where we need to be extraordinarily
careful, for we can put on a false Jesus if we’re not careful. We want to show
people the real Jesus, a caring, loving, wise individual with real flesh and
bones – not a false Jesus who leads people to their destruction by speaking things
without any real power, by lying about what is true and important. We don’t
want to mislead any new disciples.
So
what’s the difference?
- A false Jesus tells people not to sin. The real Jesus forgave sins.
- A false Jesus hates people who break moral and ethical laws. The real Jesus loves people who are failing, pities them, and helps them succeed in life.
- A false Jesus is arrogant about how good he is. The real Jesus is humble, yet strong, suggesting gently and guiding others toward good.
- A false Jesus wants to destroy evil people. The real Jesus knows that people are the victims of evil who need to be led to a better way.
- A false Jesus has little patience with people who repeatedly sin. The real Jesus forgives people at least seven times seventy times.
We
need to put on the real Jesus skin and live within him. And the only way to really
begin to do this is to get to know Jesus closely, intimately. There are four
things we can do today which will help us know Jesus closely.
First,
we must read the stories about Him, particularly the New Testament. Have you
read entirely through the New Testament? It is about 185,000 words long, about
the length of an average novel. Reading it aloud, as though you were standing
in the pulpit reading to a congregation, will take about 18 to 20 hours – or less
than a month if you read for an hour a day. You may read much faster. But
reading is the way we become familiar with His character.
Second,
we should practice two-way prayer. Speak to Jesus and listen for the reply deep
in your mind from the Holy Spirit. Take time in the shower, when driving, when
sitting on your porch in the cool of the morning. Begin holding conversations
with Him. This will help you become familiar with how you respond to Him.
Third,
out of gratitude, begin serving Jesus and the body of Christ, which is the assembly
of believers. Do things for other Christians – and non-Christians – on behalf
of Jesus. At first, do what comes easily to you – call up homebound people, make
or deliver meals, pick up people and bring them to church, repair porches,
build handicapped ramps, repair cars, mow lawns. sing in the musical groups, organize
the church, teach children or adults.
Fourth,
learn to lead others to Jesus. Nothing will bring you closer to Jesus than
trying to lead others to Jesus. Just strive diligently to put on a true Jesus
skin rather than a false Jesus skin. If you are asked questions you can’t
answer – study or ask wiser Christians for the answers. Being the teacher will
always teach yourself faster and better than being the student – as long as you
are trying to be the best teacher you can. And teaching can begin with just
simply talking to your friend, neighbor, or relative about what you learned
today in church.
You
know, when the disciples gathered together in that room and Jesus walked in
that Sunday evening in the early spring, it began a forty day period of the
final teachings of Jesus to that group of disciples. It is like a dandelion that
flowers for a while, then tightens up into a little cluster while the seeds are
maturing. And then, the dandelion turns into the white ball phase, the wind
blows, and the dandelion seeds are blown everywhere by the wind to begin new dandelion
plants.
The
disciples had walked with Jesus for three years. Now, over forty days, they
received their final teaching, maturing. And soon, they would be scattered by
the wind of the Holy Spirit around the world to plant new groups of disciples.
Much the same can happen here with us.
We
can each teach our own group of a dozen or so people, leading them from no
knowledge of Christ to baptism and becoming strong disciples. And then, as jobs
and college and life moves us around, we can each begin again to teach about
Jesus to the people the Spirit puts into our lives.
It
is not important how educated or how good a speaker we are. It is not important
how well we read or how many friends we have. What is important is that we each
try to put on the real Jesus skin, to avoid the false Jesus, to step forward
and teach what is true and godly and faithful to the Jesus who gave His life
upon the cross, so that we might each be free from the slavery of sin and have
eternal life.
Did
you notice that the disciples had great joy? They had joy because they realized
that their leader had claimed to be able to die and come back from the dead –
and then He did so. He also claimed that He could and would give eternal life
to all who followed Him. He had previously raised Lazarus – surely He could now
raise His loyal followers. Like the men and women there in that room that
evening so long ago. Like us today. Have joy! Share the joy of Christ!
And
so, let us remind each other of the core parts of our faith that we have kept
over the centuries:
Let us join together in reciting what we believe, as
expressed in the ancient Apostles Creed (UMH #881)
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
** catholic means universal
Let us sing,
Closing Song: Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling.
Benediction: May you find the real Jesus and live
within Him, listening to the Holy Spirit and speaking of the love of God to
everyone you meet!
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