Life on the Flip Side
Resurrection Sunday, Apr 12 2009, John 20:11-18
Intro:
A simple coin has two sides. We look at one side at a time, and without a mirror or some other tool we can only look at one side at a time – we can’t see the other unless we flip it over.
As I walked towards Resurrection Sunday this year, the Holy Spirit seemed to apply that image to my life, and to the story of passion week, the story of the cross, and the story of the empty tomb. Two sides, the one I see, and the one God sees. And generally, I’m not looking at the same sides as God. And it got me wondering and reflecting on the question, “what is life like on the “flip side”?
Story #1:
I’m sitting at the hospital bed of my friend Bruno. He has cancer, but the worry at the moment is in his leg – there is a large blood clot, and if it releases and goes to his heart he’ll die instantly. The health care providers are working aggressively to dissolve the clot, and are hopeful the treatments will be successful, but there are no guarantees. I’m looking at the one side of the situation, the danger and the potential for sudden death. I see a sick man in a hospital bed, with a family who loves him and a church who needs him, and I’m just praying for healing.
But Bruno sees the flip side. He tells me, “if the clot releases and I die right now, please don’t take it personally…” He says, “I am not afraid to die. My life is in Jesus’ hands. I don’t want to die, but if it is my time…” and then he smiles as he starts to think of eternity with Jesus, no more sin or death, and he starts to speak to me of life. His life, his story, the way he met Jesus as an older man and then the way he could look back over his entire life and see how Jesus had been with him all the way, even before he knew Him and acknowledged Him. And we cried tears together – not of fear or sadness, but tears of joy over the goodness of God.
One side was fear, the other side was life.
Story #2:
I’m in my office and my secretary comes in to say that a stranger has just come to the door and asked if he could pray in the sanctuary. She let him in, but thought I should know. He looked a little rough, a little ragged, like maybe he could be even a little bit dangerous, but since I was here (unexpectedly, by the way – it was during a time of the day when I was rarely in the office), she let him in. From this side, it looked a little strange.
But God saw the flip side. One of His children, lost and struggling, full of anger and brokenness. I sat and listened to his story, which he poured out, of how he had been cruel to his wife and full of anger and how he had messed everything up so badly and didn’t know how to make it right. I listened, prayed with him, and he left to go and apologize and try to live differently. I’ve never seen him again.
One side was a hopeless man, the other side was a God who loves to breath new hope and life.
Story #3:
I’m with a group of teenagers, and I hear them say cruel things to each other, see them interacting in ways that tear down instead of building up. Part of me feels angry, feels like being cruel back, wants to defend the hurt ones by attacking the ones doing the hurting.
But then God shows me the flip side – they are all the hurting ones. The ones being cruel are acting poorly, but acting out of insecurity and pain and a thin shell that they hope will protect them from being hurt again, especially if they can hurt first. And as I see them the way God sees them, my anger melts into compassion and I re-double my efforts to love unconditionally with the prayer that the love of God will heal the wounds and restore life.
One side is cruel kids, the other side is broken hearts.
Story #4:
You sit and listen to a sermon from a guy in a clean suit with a couple of degrees in Bible and ministry. He makes sense, and on the human side he might look good.
But God sees the flip side – a side that is prideful and lustful and selfish, that has asked for forgiveness and then gone out and done the same thing again. And God sees this side and is kind, and that kindness leads to repentance, and amazingly God takes the filthy rags of my life and replaces them with clean, beautiful garments, and when I mess those up God does it again.
One side is an outward appearance, the other side is a human heart that is sometimes ugly and other times beautiful as it welcomes forgiveness and grace.
The Cross:
I’m standing at a cross with Jesus dying. As I discipline myself to not jump to the empty tomb, I allow myself to see what John and the two Mary’s see. Jesus, the one believed to be the Messiah, defeated. Dying. Dying in a public, humiliating, agonizing way. On this side there is nothing but despair, defeat, and death.
But God sees the flip side. And the flip side is even more painful than the side I’m looking at – God the Father sees His only Son, with whom He has been united with the Holy Spirit in perfect love and unity and completeness – become the one thing that He cannot look upon: sin. Jesus becomes hatred. Jesus becomes lust. Jesus becomes selfishness. Jesus becomes pride, and deceit, and cruelty, and murder, and greed, and disrespect. And the Father must look away. And the Son must die alone.
The Tomb: John 20:11-18
I’m watching women walk towards the tomb of Jesus. On this side, it is a dark journey, they are going to touch death. To wipe caked blood of a cold brow. Dirt from around holes in lifeless hands and feet. To bind a gaping wound in His side. To provide a little dignity to the physical remains of the man they thought was the Messiah, after it had been stripped of all dignity by the way of death. They get there, and find yet another indignity – the body is gone, they can’t even clean it and give it a proper burial. The story goes like this:
“11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Did you see the flip? On the one side, it is a place of death and further despair, a place where the dead body is supposed to be but isn’t, which can only mean that someone has removed it and put it somewhere else. Looking at this side of the coin, it is the angel’s question that seems silly – “why are you crying?”? It is a tomb, a place of death, where the living go to cry and grieve. A living man walks up, early in the morning, it must be the gardener – maybe he knows where the body has gone and can point her in the right direction.
But with one word, the coin flips. The word? It is her name. On the lips of a man whose voice she had heard before, who had laughed with her and taught her and cried with her, her name on the lips of a man who was definitely dead on Friday, and who is now alive on Sunday. And from this side, God’s side, she now sees that where there once was death there is now life. Where there once was despair there is now hope. Where there once was sadness there is now joy.
From the human side, the angel’s question is silly and Mary’s question is logical. From God’s side, the angel’s question is profound and Mary’s question is silly.
This Same Power: Eph 1:19-20
So what does it take to flip the coin, so we see our lives not from just the human perspective but from God’s?
What does it take so we see the flip side of a marriage that is broken, struggling, painful? What does it take so we see the flip side of another day of loneliness? What does it take so we see the flip side of an existence that seems little more than working to make money to pay bills? What does it take so we see the flip side of time spent desperately seeking the next bit of temporary enjoyment that we hope will dull the ache of insignificance inside of us?
It takes the power of God. Not heard about with our ears, but entered into and experienced. It takes us going, like Mary, to the place of death, weeping, and then hearing Jesus speak your name. It takes that power, which Paul described like this: “19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
Did you catch all that? “the incredible greatness of God’s power (the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead) FOR US”.
God’s power for you – God’s power that raised Jesus from the dead, for you. Where do you need that power in your life? To bring purpose? To bring healing, physical or emotional or relational or spiritual? To bring comfort? Peace? Effectiveness in sharing this good news with people you care about who don’t know Jesus?
It is only a supernatural power of God that can flip the sides so we see life as God’s sees it, and so we live in that kind of life. Where do you need the power of God in our life?
What We Bring to the Party:
That kind of power must cost a lot. We must have to bring something pretty special to God before we’ll be able to access that power and have everything we want. Well my friends, listen very closely: you can bring it all. The deed to your house. Your car keys. Your vacation plans. All your jewelry and all your RRSPs. You can even bring your dreams. And not just the material treasurers: you could bring the sentimental ones also – the little trinkets and pictures and memories. You can bring all the things you have done for others, all the volunteering and serving and all the “righteous” activities.
And even if we bring all of that, literally everything, it amounts to nothing more than everything God already gave us in the first place. Isaiah calls these things “filthy rags” in God’s site. It is not some crass transaction, some bargaining session where we put some things on the table and see what God puts on the table in response. Even if we are offering God our all, in return for what He can do for us, we are missing the point.
“Do you love me?”
That is our human side of the coin again. We have something God wants, He has something we want. Let’s make a deal…
That’s not God’s side. God’s side looks at the Easter story, of death and resurrection, and sees love: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.” God’s side sees love: powerful, simple, and profound.
And on God’s side, that is all He wants from us. Our love. Because if we love Jesus, we’ll gladly obey. We’ll gladly follow, no matter how hard the road. We’ll gladly give and give and give, to God and to others, because we are so full ourselves of the only thing that ultimately matters and ultimately fulfills. Love. We can’t just obey because we are afraid of getting in trouble if we disobey – that is fear, not love. We can’t just follow because it looks like a fun adventure – we’ll drop off when the road gets too hard. We won’t give and give just because we are nice, without getting something in return. Love is the only thing God wants from us, and the only thing powerful enough for us to live from.
The thing about true love is that we can’t fake it. We can’t manufacture it. We can’t just pull the wool over God’s eyes and say, “yes, of course I love you…”. We can’t flip the coin over on God and have Him see what we want Him to see.
Do you remember the other story, the story of Peter at the fire denying he even knew Jesus, and then of Jesus appearing after the resurrection with only one question for Peter? “Do you love me Peter?” That was all Jesus wanted to know, “do you love me?” He asked Peter three times. He asks us still. This Easter weekend, as we look at the now-empty cross and the now-empty tomb, as we try to see from God’s side of the coin, that is the only question that matters: Jesus, looking you straight in the eye, holding your face gently in His nail-scarred hands, speaking your name, and asking, “do you love me?” Our side of the coin tends to ask, “God can you do this or that or the other thing for me?”, God’s side asks “do you love me?”
Hope follows Love:
When the answer is “yes”, a bunch of amazing things follow. God forgives, because as we love Jesus we see how our sin hurts God and it makes us sick and we repent. God empowers, because our love propels us to serve and act in love and God delights in providing power for those acts to be potent life-changers. God comforts, because our love for God is returned a thousand-fold. God heals, as our love for Him overcomes our fears and selfishness and convinces us to open up and let Him into those places of pain.
And the overflow of that love is, among other things, hope. Hope that carries us through grief. Hope that the incredible burdens we carry are known and shared. Hope that life abundant will come, that sorrow will last for the night but joy will come in the morning, and hope that we will live now in the Kingdom of God, loving and being loved by the creator of the universe, by Jesus who died and rose again, and by the Holy Spirit that fills us with life and love every day.
One Final Story:
I’m sitting in that front pew two days ago, praying at the end of the Good Friday service. I’m talking with God about my life, and what I see on my side of the coin. “Lord, I’m off trying to serve. Trying to live for You. Trying to do what You’ve asked. I feel like a servant in Your Kingdom, off on assignment, checking in occasionally, getting an email from you everyday, but at a distance… Is this the way it is supposed to be?”
And I hear Jesus saying, “no…”. It is not a rebuke, there is support and encouragement and confirmation, but there is also Jesus saying that there is something more. “You are not out on assignment alone… let me walk with you. Together. As one. Every moment of every day. This love you have for me, Steve, is much better when it isn’t a long-distance relationship…”
Life on this side can seem lonely, hard, sometimes discouraging. But on the flip side, the side that God sees, it is something more. It is love – genuine, true, powerful, strong, sustaining, faithful. It is a love that looked at Mary Magdalene in the garden tomb, saw her grief, and then flipped the coin by speaking her name. She responded with a genuine, powerful outpouring of love. If you and I will listen, will stop and turn from the noise of our lives and really listen, we’ll find that same resurrected Jesus calling our names as well – eager to flip the coin from the human side that we see to the side that God sees.
I’ve asked our elders to come up to the front, because Easter is often a time of decision, and we need one another to pray for us. So as we sing the next couple songs, please feel free to come for prayer – come to listen, come to respond to Jesus’ love, come to be forgiven, come to find hope, come to allow God to show you life on the flip side.
