Because He Lives

We come to Easter Sunday, the most sacred day in all the Christian Calendar. We have prepared for this day by reflecting and remembering the passion of Jesus in Jerusalem, the events leading up to his crucifixion.

Now we come to the climax of the Gospel stories, the pinnacle of the good news, the beauty of the Christian message: the resurrection of Christ, the once crucified Jesus.

There are so many ways to comment on this most important and central element of the Christian story, but let us focus on a rather unconventional interpretation. Let us come to the text and see the Risen Christ in a new way this morning.

Many of you have heard the powerful message of the redemption of your sins. We have heard it preached and sung, prayed and chanted: Jesus Christ, crucified on calvary, washed away our sins with his own blood, removing our inequities in the sight of the Lord, making us, sinners, the ones despised and wretched before God, clean and white as snow.

This is truly a beautiful message. It is one of Grace and over-powering Mercy. It demonstrates the profound Love that God has for his children... all his children.

You see, God found a way to redeem the most violent death of his beloved son: the Christ. He made a vile and contemptible situation, one of hate and terror, imperial triumph, and injustice into a beacon of hope for all the world.

But believe it or not, this is only a part of the story. We as Christians serve a God who has redeemed us through Christ. But this redemption is not limited to our sins. It is not a redemption purely in this respect, no, it is larger, it encompasses the entirety of our being, it surrounds who we are and truly sets us free.

There are two ways to focus on redemption. First, we can understand redemption in terms of our sinfulness. This is the crux of many sermons this morning. No doubt many of you have heard this perspective time and again. But there is another way to understand our redemption through Christ. Christ has also redeemed the evil that comes upon each and every one of us.
So first, Christ redeems our sins. And second, Christ redeems our evil.
Why this distinction, why this two-fold nature of redemption?

Sins we are responsible for. Sin, spiritual death, is the consequence of our sinful action before God. It is the result of our human fallibility, our imperfection, before the most righteous God.
But evil we are not directly responsible for. These are the unfortunate circumstances that come to each of us. These are the trials and tribulations, the difficulties and the hard times that plague us all. These are the moments of despair when we see the absurdity, the unfathomable way the world has brought us such craziness, such heart-ache, such pain.

Why is it absurd? Because we have no reason to explain it.

Why did the hurricane hit New Orleans the way it did? Why did the heart of Hitler spawn such evil that millions of Jews were horrifically tortured and exterminated in a systematic genocide? Why do many suffer from poverty and starvation? Why did the young person we know pass away so suddenly, with such potential and life ahead of her? Why are these horrible things happening to me? Why?

There are times when we cry out to God, but the reasons are not there to be had for us. We cannot understand why our lives are the way they are. We cannot understand why such circumstances have over-run our lives and left us in despair, hopelessness and grief. Our hearts, plagued by the evils of the world, the cruelty of decisions not our own, are anguished.
The important thing here is that there are things in this world that we encounter which we are not morally responsible for. These are the difficult things in life. When we mess up, we can understand the consequences, even while we suffer through them.

But when we have not personally sinned to deserve the death of a loved one or the torture of a Nazi regime, then life becomes much more difficult. We have not loved to be betrayed or worked to be unemployed.

Sometimes, the world throws at us the evils of existence and we are caught in the storm, helpless and hopeless.

There is a book out by Ellie Wiesel called “Night.” In it, Elie tells of his painful experience in a Nazi concentration camp as a Jewish boy. He recalls the bitter loss of faith he encountered as he saw and felt the cruelty and violence of the world first-hand. In fact, one event stands out to me, it is a moment when Elie, in a way, describes the absence of God in his life, the true feeling of hopelessness before a supposedly Gracious God. He witnesses the hanging of a young boy by the Nazi's, the cruel and unspeakable death of an adolescent used to keep the prisoners in fear of the Nazi power and force.

One of the Jewish onlookers painfully cries out: “Where is God now?”

Elie writes: “Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is He is hanging here on this gallows.”

In that moment, I felt that the unthinkable terror Elie observed erased the idea of a truly Merciful God from his mind. He was overwhelmed by the despair of his situation, by the evil that came over him.

Now imagine you are a disciple of Jesus. You are a follower of this wonderful man who has brought healing, hope, and joy. Now imagine your leader, the one you follow with passion and zeal is taken from you, tortured, beaten, spat upon, humiliated and hung upon a cross.
You too would be in despair, fearful of the future, uncertain and confused about the direction of your life. The cross, a symbol of terror, a device used to publicly warn of anyone who might betray the Romans has taken your leader, hung him, pierced him, and left him to be picked apart by vultures, and devoured by wild dogs.

You catch wind that your beloved Jesus has been moved, lifeless and dead, from the terrible cross to a grave site. Imagine this morning that you are Mary Magdalene, and you have come to the tomb, distraught, hoping to mourn the confusing and absurd death of your beloved Lord. You become nauseated with the unfathomable pain that you witnessed Jesus suffer before he breathed his last. Feelings of betrayal swirl around your confused head as you remember the disgusting deeds of one of Jesus' closest followers, a deed which led to all this.

Turn with me to our scripture this morning to see what happens to Mary.
Text: John 20: 1-18

In our passage this morning we witness a remarkable transformation. Mary Magdalene, the weeping follower of a dead leader becomes transformed into the eager messenger of the risen Christ. Mary, weeping at the thought of her leader further humiliated by thieves taking his already maimed body, cries out.

The word translated “weeping” truly signifies an uncontrollable crying, a gut-wrenching, heart-aching, painful sobbing.

Mary is hopeless and helpless, confused and dismayed, betrayed and fearful. And so she cries.
I think it is possible to see Mary with despair similar to that of the child Elie Wiesel. She too witnessed the cruel and violent death of someone she thought to be innocent. Someone who brought her hope, direction, and joy. She came to the garden to mourn the evil that had come upon her and her Lord only to find more pain, more evil, a stolen body.

But then the transformation... she encounters the risen Christ. She becomes transformed by her living Lord and clings to him. She is so overwhelmed that she rushes to him and embraces him, so much so, that Christ asks her to let him go. Her sorrow has been removed. Christ gives her a special appointment, to share his resurrection with the disciples. And so, she became his messenger to the disciples and ANNOUNCED the risen Lord. A woman of despair, encountering the risen Christ, becomes an empowered woman of purpose.

This is the choice we all face today. Will evil, the terrible force of which drives us into despair, overcome us? Or will we be transformed by the liberating force of Christ? Will we be renewed, be made new by the power of God through our Lord and Savior?

Christ sets us free from fear, he removes the pain of the past and grants us the infinite possibility of the future. He gives us liberation from a world which is full of evil, and grants to us the purposes of God, the direction of the most High, and a place amongst his children within the Kingdom of God. How wonderful is our Christ? How wonderful is our God?

But the choice is ours. Will we choose hope, or will we let fear run its course?

Sermon Illustration:
Shawshank Redemption, movie based on short story written by Stephen King

Andy Dufresne: Tim Robbins

“Red”: Morgan Freeman

BROOKS: Dear fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid but now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called "The Brewer". And a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work and I try to keep up but my hands hurt most of the time. I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello. But he never does. I hope wherever he is he's okay and makin' new friends. I have trouble sleepin' at night. I have bad dreams like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun, an, an rob the Foodway so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.

RED: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

RED: All I do anymore is think of ways to break my parole so maybe they'd send me back. Terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.

LETTER from Andy: Dear Red, If you're reading this, you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. Your friend, Andy.

RED: Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'. That's god-damn right. For the second time in my life, I am guilty of committing a crime. Parole violation. Of course, I doubt they'll toss up any roadblocks for that. Not for an old crook like me.

RED: I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

**Shawshank Redemption: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

How can hope set us free this morning? Paul put it best: In Christ we are new creations... in Christ the old has gone... in Christ the new has come.

You see Christ redeems the evil that comes upon us. How? Christ provides us with an identity, a new identity. This is one free of evil and pain, full of hope and joy. Christ makes it so that we are defined by his Love and Grace, and not by the terrible things that happen to us in the world. Christ makes our lives worth living. Christ makes our lives full of hope.

I think this gives new meaning to a song we will sing... listen to these words:

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow
Because he lives, all fear is gone
Because I know he holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because he lives.

Let us sing. As you finish this morning's hymn, you may choose to find a place where you can see the wonderful baptism of two of our own, who have chosen to accept and live out the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Benediction: Merciful God, you are most Gracious and Just, be here on this special day as we celebrate the beauty of the risen Christ, your son, our Savior. We thank you for the reality of his message, that through a terrible death we might gain hope, joy, and peace. Lord we ask for the patience to endure the troubles that come upon us, we ask for forgiveness for our shortcomings, and in it all, we rejoice over the redemption we have in Christ. You provide for us the infinite possibility of a new future in you, a new hope in your Love, and a new purpose in God's Kingdom. May we hold that in our hearts this morning. Lord God, may we never forget the depth or the beauty of your Grace and Love for us, demonstrated so clearly and so profoundly in the death and resurrection of the Christ. This morning, in your house, we are yours, be with us.
Amen.