This week we will focus on an Easter message originally preached in 2004 and revised for this blog publication. Next week we will resume with our devotional journey through Acts discovering more of the Holy Spirit.
May you have a blessed Easter. He is risen indeed!
“There can’t be any misunderstandings . . . not anymore,” said the chief priests. It was the day after that man Jesus had finally been silenced. And really silenced he was. Dead. Dead and cold in the grave. The guards and the crowd had assured them that at his arrest Jesus had been utterly abandoned by his disciples. All of them had fled away that night. Someone remembered one of them named Peter had been in the courtyard during the trials, but he had vanished, as well.
You might think that this would have satisfied them. It should have really, except for one thing. This Jesus had said something that troubled them deeply.
Matthew, when writing the story of his Lord’s life remembered it this way.
Matthew 27:62-66
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
You see these leaders, both the religious ruling council and the Roman ruler Pilate, had encountered this unusually ordinary man in a most extraordinary way. They themselves had looked into his eyes, heard his responses and didn’t know quite what to do with him. As always when you encounter Jesus you either believe in him or you mark him off your list as just another odd blip on the radar.
I guess if they had radar they knew that that blip was gone, but their concern was that some misunderstanding would occur—a grave misunderstanding. They knew the terror and the value of rumors. They knew that if word got out that he was alive then the disciples of this odd man might rally and re-emerge into the community, spreading heresy and division. And then, whether he was alive or not they would still have trouble in the city.
So they laid a trap--it was in the form of a seal around a rather large stone at the mouth of a particular grave. You see if anyone tampered with the seal it would become immediately evident that someone was trying to pull a great hoax. Everyone in that room that day knew it was totally impossible for anyone to come back to life—particularly after the gruesome death of crucifixion. The man was gone. Now their primary concern was control over the rumor that might erupt at any moment.
But they were still a day away from the first Easter.
And then it was Easter morning. The women had come to pay their respects as usual. It was very common for people to visit the grave the first few days after burial. They came in their sorrow, with the visual memories of their beloved and tortured Lord scorched into their brains. Oh, how he had suffered! They wanted to weep by his grave one more time. And then a most dreadful thing happened.
John relates the story in this way from John 20:1-10
John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
John pens a few words that strike wonder in our hearts. He often referred to himself as “the other disciple.” And when he looked on the empty grave and the clothes just lying there on the ground in his heart and for the first time he really believed. But for Peter and the women who had been at the tomb of Jesus, there was a grave misunderstanding. They did not yet connect the words of Jesus with the truth about Jesus.
Would you believe? If you had watched him die. If you had seen his still and cold body. If you had attended the funeral service. Would you believe?
Word got out rather quickly that something was amiss at the tomb of Jesus. The guards who had been at the tomb came back to the temple with a rather fantastical story. They talked with wild-eyed rapidity of a great earthquake. They told of the angels whose clothes were brilliant and stunning like lightening and how the angels had rolled the stone away in an instant and sat down upon that stone. In their stupor, the soldiers, unable to move or communicate heard the angel tell the women to look inside and see that He had already risen from the dead!
All this was terrifying to the priests. They could not understand how this happened. Certainly these soldiers had been hallucinating. Everyone knows that once someone is dead for three days they are gone. So, something had to be done. In Matthew 28:12-14 we see exactly what they did.
12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed.
Even with the eyewitness testimony of their own trusted guard these religious leaders refused the truth. They misunderstood the grave. They saw and believed what they only wanted to see and believe—a cold, dark grave and a stolen body. They didn’t see that it was a doorway to life.
Even Jesus’ disciples had such a hard time with this. They had had relatives who had died, children who had passed far too early, friends who had been in horrible fatal accidents and none of them came back life. But their friend Jesus was more—far more—than just another friend who had died. He was the Savior of the world, fully human and fully divine, who bore in his body all of our sins so that He could rise again to bring life to everyone who would believe on Him.
You might say to me, “Preacher, that’s a pretty big pill to swallow. I don’t know if I could ever believe what you are telling me.” So, for right now, don’t listen to me, listen to others who had the same grave misunderstanding.
John 20:10-29
10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Sometimes through our own tears that we cannot see clearly. What we perceive as the end may not, in fact, be the end. Mary had heard Jesus’ prophesy that he would rise again on the third day, but it had not registered. Truth is kind of funny that way. If we are not open to a new way of thinking we just might miss it.
But Jesus did not want Mary to miss it, so he called her by name. It was in the wonderful familiar voice that Mary’s heart was finally opened to the truth. He was alive! He was well! And he wanted to be with them all. Then she did what any good evangelist would do, she ran and told her friends what had happened. Her misunderstandings and tears had been cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.
John remembered more and made sure to carefully write it down for us.
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus was different after the resurrection. He still had the scars from the crucifixion. He still had recognizable face and voice. But he was operating under resurrection power now. Walls, doors, and stones were no longer of interest to him. He only wanted to be with his beloved disciples. He appeared to them, graciously, wondrously, beautifully. And in the midst of their fears of there present life and the threats that still hung in the air, he spoke only peace to them. Peace. Peace. Peace. When they heard his voice and saw the wounds and experienced him one more time in the flesh then they rejoiced. All their misunderstandings were cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.
But there was one person who was not there. We don’t know why he wasn’t there. His name was Thomas and he clearly did not understand.
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Thomas needed proof. He wanted the empirical evidence. He wanted to touch Jesus before he would believe. And so Jesus gave the great gift of understanding. Jesus didn’t have to, but he wanted. And all of Thomas’ grave misunderstandings were cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.
And now I want you to listen to me. I believe that Jesus is alive today. I believe that He is our risen Savior that he died and rose again on the third day having paid the full price for my sins and yours.
You see I write to you today for the same reason John wrote these words. He wanted everyone who heard the story of Jesus to believe.
John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
You see John and I, and many other people in this world, understand something today. We don’t look on the cross of Jesus and think that’s just the end of his life. We don’t look on the arrest of Jesus and become dismayed that his ministry ended in such disgrace. We don’t look on the grave of Jesus and think that something sad has happened and that there is no solution.
Just as Jesus said we could, we have experienced the power of the resurrection in our lives. We have received the full and free salvation of our souls and the forgiveness of every one of our sins. We have believed and received life in His glorious name.
And let me tell you something, I have never regretted believing in Jesus. I now understand that His grave is the doorway to resurrection life.
You may have some grave misunderstandings about Easter, about Jesus. Maybe you think that he was just a good man, a good teacher. Won’t you believe today that he’s far more than that—that He died for you and, more than that, he took what was supposed to be the end and made it into a new beginning for you?
Maybe your grave misunderstanding today is that Jesus would never forgive you of your sins. You feel unworthy. You feel you have gone too far. You feel that no one should ever forgive you. Here’s the truth. He went all the way for you. He went lower than any sin you could ever commit to purchase your salvation.
Maybe your grave misunderstanding today is that you need physical proof of His resurrection. But, as Jesus said, if you believe without seeing you will be more blessed than those who have seen and believe. Why not give a try today?
Maybe this is the Easter that your grave misunderstandings can turn into belief in our Risen and Living Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2012
