I can always tell when I’m
undergoing a lot of stress. That probably isn’t much of a surprise to many of
you right now, given we’re at the end of Holy Week and I’m now less than two
months from the wedding date. A lot going on, and my
dreams at night are showing it. They’ve become a whole lot more vivid than they
normally are. Vivid and strange; my imagination can come up with some pretty
bizarre stuff from time to time. And frightening too, because
along with vivid dreams come vivid nightmares.
I had such a nightmare
earlier this week. I was being chased through my hometown by some guy who was
trying to kill me. And I woke up in a cold sweat before he got me. So there I
am, lying in bed, middle of the night and I start thinking. That’s dangerous, because I start thinking that, dream or no dream, death is
real and death is coming. My heart starts to race again, my breathing gets
shallow. I get that sinking feeling in my gut and it’s
many minutes before that feeling of utter panic fades away again.
I don’t have moments like
that often, but they do happen from time to time where I face down my own
mortality and it terrifies me. I can remember a similar episode from when I was
a child and a few others throughout the years. I don’t know if anyone else here
has moments such as those, but no doubt we all have times when we are
confronted with the reality of our own deaths. What we do with that truth may
change from person to person, but we cannot deny it.
Neither can we deny that it
is the reason that we are here today. All this may seem a grim way to being a
sermon on the celebration of Easter, but all this is, in fact, central to what
this day is about, what this day means, and why God did what he did on that
first Easter so many centuries ago.
Death may be inevitable
human reality, but it was not meant to be so. Our God is a god of life and he
created us to experience a life of unending joy. But something went wrong. We
went wrong. We disobeyed, death became real, and we were cast out of
In the times that followed
our exile from paradise, God sought out from all the peoples of the world a
nation that would be his chosen ones. And he came before them, made covenant
with them, and promised that they would be a blessing to all the nations. I
don’t know if anyone among those ancient Hebrews understood precisely what that
meant, but God proved faithful.
God proved faithful. All the
other promises he made came to pass. God gave them a land and prosperity. They
became a great nation, as he had promised. But history often seemed to work to
thwart God’s designs: Invasion, conquest, slavery. But God remained faithful
and send to them the liberating prophets of which I’ve been talking these past
several weeks.
Men and women
who set the people free from bondage, guided them back to the land and to paths
they should follow. We know their names well: Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, David,
Jeremiah, and so many others.
And then, at the right time,
God decided it was time to send a new liberating prophet, one like and yet
unlike those who had come before. This one would be his son. And
so he sent his angel to a young woman of
Jesus grew in stature and in
wisdom. It did not take the people long to see in him that God was doing
something. He spoke with power, teaching and encouraging. His touch brought
healing and restoration to many who were afflicted. But, as I’ve pointed out,
he did some unexpected things. He embraced the unembracable,
the rejected, the alien, the sinner, and those not of the covenant.
These unexpected things
brought with them a danger. Jesus was not playing by anyone’s rules but God’s. He
did not always do what the people wanted him to do. He proved a threat to the
greedy and the ambitious. He proved a disappointment to the common people. So
they conspired against him, had him arrested, put on trial, tortured, and then
ultimately put to death.
But this too was part of the
plan. Jesus had come to save his people, to save all people, from our greatest
enemy. The blessing long promised to all the nations, to all the people, had
come at last. It was found in this one man, God incarnate, Jesus Christ. And in
order to defeat this great enemy, death itself, Jesus must embrace death. And
on a cross, he did just that.
But God proves faithful. And
Jesus promised that the tomb would not hold him long. So on the third day, the
stone rolls away and Christ steps out. He is alive. He is risen!
God is faithful. And within
the resurrection of Jesus there is promise for us, that where he has gone
before, we will follow. Death may still be inevitable to us, but it is not the
end. There is more. Beyond that door lies the paradise we once lost. God has
put right all that we put wrong.
This is what Easter is truly
about, the restoration of all that God intended for his people. We have not yet
seen its full culmination, the world continues to be broken and death remains.
But we have been given hope. And God likewise remains faithful. He is with us
wherever we go. He continues to bless the people of the old covenant and those
of the new. And when that moment comes, and death comes
calling, he will be there also.
But if you ever find
yourself in a cold sweat about that moment, do not fear. God is faithful. He is
promised you life eternal, and he has sealed the deal with the death and
resurrection of his son, Jesus. Christ is risen!
Alleluia! Amen.