In Jesus Holy Name March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday Redeemer
“The Rest of the Story”
Many people enjoy reading novels. They have their preference: mystery, historical, romance, science fiction. Others enjoy certain authors and their style: John Grisham: A Time to Kill; The Pelican Brief; the Last Juror. Others enjoy Tom LaHaye’s “Left Behind”. Then there is Jean Auel and her series: The Clan of the Cave Bear; Mammoth Hunters about men and women caught up in the dynamics of prehistoric Europe. Then there’s Louis L’Amour and his western novels. James Michner: Alaska; Centennial; The Source; Hawaii; Poland. How could we forget the Harry Potter Chronicles by J.K. Rowling.
All these novels contain the elements of mystery, suspense, fear and alienation, anger and murder, greed and overwhelming love and personal sacrifice. The reader turns each page with anxious anticipation for the rest of the story.
The rest of the story. Sometimes the rest of the story has a happy ending. In other cases like “Cold Mountain” it is a Greek tragedy as two lover’s try to live through the Civil War.
On May 9, 1957 a 23 year old pilot, Lieutenant David Steeves took off from Hamilton Air Force Base near S.F. Somewhere between there and his destination of Selma, Alabama, Lieutenant David Steeves disappeared. A search was made and neither Lieutenant Steeves nor his Lockheed T-33 was found. After some time the Lieutenant’s mother received a death certificate declaring her son to be dead. But there is a “rest of the story.”
Fifty-four days after he had disappeared Lieutenant David Steeves walked out of the California Sierra Mountains.
He told of how something had exploded in his cockpit; how he had parachuted to safety; how he had lived on berries and burrowed into the snow to sleep at night. He told how he had stumbled upon a ranger’s cabin in Kings Canyon National Park where he found fish hooks, beans and a canned ham.
People were glad. Lieutenant David Steeves was alive. But the rest of the story. A nation which was worried about communism started to think: Isn’t it unusual Steeves’ plane went down just before his unit went to Korea? When no wreckage of the plane was found, some suggested the pilot had sold the jet to Russia; others said he had sent it in pieces to Mexico. No charges were ever brought against David Steeves, but he left the military with a cloud over his good name.
After that Steeves became a commercial pilot, but his free time was spent scouring the wilderness, looking for the wreckage of his plane. Steeves died in 1965 never having found the remnants of his jet. But there’s more; there is a rest of the story. In 1977, 12 years after Steeves had passed away, some Boy Scouts hiking in Kings Canyon found a cockpit cover whose number matched Lieutenant David Steeves’ lost Lockheed jet.
The bible is filled with stories that should have ended but didn’t. The story of Adam and Eve should have ended with them being expelled from the Garden of Eden, doomed to live a life without hope or happiness. But, because of God’s grace and promise of a Redeemer there is the rest of the story.
The story of Moses should have ended with him remaining a shepherd in the Sinai. But the rest of the story finds Moses delivering God’s people from slavery and into the promised land 40 years later. The tale of Noah should have ended with the flood; the story of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego should have concluded with them being toast. The story of Daniel should have ended in the lion’s den. But in each case there is “the rest of the story”. By God’s hand, and often in a miraculous way, God spared his representative
That is certainly true for the story of Jesus. When I read the Gospels there are so many times Jesus’ story could have ended. He was born in a Bethlehem stable. What are the survival odds for a child when he is born in a barn? What are the chances the baby living when his first bed is an animal’s feeding trough? None of us would have been surprised if, a few days after he was born, he had contracted some infection and died.
Later wise men from the east came looking for a new born king of the Jews. They went to Jerusalem, the palace of the present King Herod. There was no new child in Jerusalem… but they were told to go to Bethlehem. They could not have known the unbalanced mind of Herod, the power man monarch. They did not know that others would follow them to murder the child. These new visitors brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. His story could have ended there, but it did not.
At the age of 30, with his baptism in the Jordan, he began his formal ministry to heal the sick, preach good news about the kingdom of God. What could be better. Jesus was healing people from dreaded diseases. He raised people from the dead. You would think everyone would appreciate his message about God’s love. There was the time Jesus spoke in the synagogue at his boy hood home town of Nazzareth. Surrounded by people who had watched him grow, Jesus shared how God’s Old Testament promised where being fulfilled in the things he was doing.
When he was done with his short message the bible says: ‘all in the synagogue were filled with wrath…they rose up and drove him out of town….in order to throw him over a cliff.
Then there was the time Jesus was summoned to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, three of his good friends. Lazarus was ill. Jesus was asked to come as quickly as he could. He came but it was too late. His friend Lazarus had died four days before and was buried. Martha greets Jesus as he arrives. As they walked towards the house a wonderful conversation took place. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who believes in me shall never die.” It is a strange question to ask at a funeral. But Jesus was true man and true God, that’s why, when Jesus called into the darkness of the tomb… the dead man came back to life.
Many of the Jews who came to visit Mary and Martha and saw the resurrection of Lazarus, believed. But the rest of the story tells us that the religious leaders, the Pharisees were offended. They were so angry the decided to kill Jesus. How foolish. Here was Jesus, raising the dead, what more could you ask for. The Jewish High Court, with the help of a traitor managed to capture Jesus and brought him to trial. Understand, I use the term trial in the loosest possible way. The courtroom was filled with false witness and they had already decided to pronounce Jesus guilty, worthy of death.
That night could have been the end, but it wasn’t. Left to them selves the Jewish High Court could have stoned Jesus to death. But at that moment the Roman governor was in town. He would not have been happy if his authority would have been questioned or over ruled by the Jewish Supreme Court.
They took Jesus to Pilate… we have read the details of the trial already this morning. The Roman ruler gave into to the demands of the Jewish Rulers and handed Jesus over to be crucified.
A crowd of people gathered at the cross to watch him die. They saw the nails pounded into his hands and feet. They watched the disinterested soldiers throwing dice for his clothing. They cared little for the men they had nailed to the crosses.
There were others at the foot of the cross watching the death of their dreams. There were others laughing and taunting. They were glad to see the end of Jesus. They knew this would be the end of Jesus’ story. Sometime after Jesus was dead, a Roman soldier reached up his spear and shoved its tip into Jesus’ heart….he was making sure he was dead. Quickly, before sunset… his friends took him down from the cross and buried him in a borrowed grave.
But there is a rest of the story. Human experience says there shouldn’t be a rest of the story, but there is. Common sense says there should not be a rest of the story, modern day skeptics and cynics don’t want to hear the rest of the story. On the third day, Jesus was shown to be alive. Even though the grave had been sealed and a guard of soldiers placed at the site to guard it, Jesus came out of the grave alive.
There is more to the story. We have our confirmation class memorize this verse: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 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.” (John 20:30-31)
God’s holy and righteous character demands death for the sinner. But a good and gracious God provided a substitute for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When the Israelites sinned God told them to use the blood of a bull or goat or sheep, just as they did on the night of the Passover in Egypt when the angel of death spared the lives of all who had placed blood on their door posts. Jesus became our substitute. The spikes never held him to the cross. It was the chords of God’s love for us that bound him, tighter than any nails that men could mold.
All the other stories in the bible that are filled with drama, intrigue, alienation, suspense, were just warm ups for the greatest story ever told. “God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, his overwhelming love for you, for me sent Jesus to the cross as the perfect, acceptable sacrifice, so that God could forgive us and give to all believers eternal life, and our very own resurrected body.
