John 20:1-18
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
“The Hinge of History”
In my parents house there is a map of the history of the world, and it’s a BIG map.
It wasn’t created by a specifically Christian publishing house; I believe it was put out by National Geographic, and fairly recently.
Anyhow, on this map, the history of the world, or the history of civilization is divided up into two categories…
…and the dividing line or the hinge of this map is the birth, life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What are we to make of this?
A few years after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, there were several thousand Christians living under Nero in the Roman Empire.
And it is reported that Christians were regularly “crucified or set on fire so that when darkness came they burned like torches in the night.”
Three hundred years later, there were 34 million Christians or 56.5% of the total population.
Christianity is now the world’s largest faith!!!
What are we to make of all this?
Christianity began in obscurity.
The first missionaries were commoners, whose message appeared to be nonsense to the sophisticated.
With some exceptions, Christianity’s chief appeal was to the outcaste and the marginal elements of society…
…people like Mary Magdalene and a small band of uneducated fishermen and hated tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers…
These were people with no political clout, little money—outcastes, who from the beginning, were violently persecuted.
Again, I ask, what are we to make of this?
As the sun set on the Friday of the execution, Jesus appeared to be a failure.
His promises about the Kingdom of God were little more than provocative but powerless rhetoric.
No matter what Jesus had said about sacrifice and Resurrection during His lifetime…
…well, His disciples obviously did not understand it, and did not expect Jesus to rise again.
On the night He was arrested even Simon Peter crumbled to dust as he denied even knowing his Lord three times.
And after the Resurrection, “On the evening of that first day of the week,” the disciples were huddled together, “with doors locked for fear of the Jews.”
What are we to make of this?…
…well, certainly, without the Resurrection, it is virtually impossible to imagine that the Jesus movement would have continued!!!
Where would they have gotten the power or the nerve?
And yet, here we are, over 2,000 years later, brothers and sisters in Christ…
…declaring with faith and boldness: “Christ, our Savior is Risen from the dead!”…
… “Hallelujah! Jesus lives!”
Many, if not most of us here this morning, base our entire lives on this fact!!!
It is the reason we do not fear death.
It is the reason that so many of us have put our whole trust…our whole lives into the hands of Jesus.
It is the reason that so many of our lives have been changed so radically and continue to change, as we deny ourselves each day, take up our cross and follow Christ!
It is the reason that billions of people around the world are able to face this terribly difficult life with courage, hope, faithfulness, and thanksgiving!!!
It is one of the main reasons that we have so many hospitals, so many schools of higher education, and of course…a church on just about every corner!!!
It was Christ’s Resurrection that made the Christian Church.
It was Christ’s Resurrection that transformed a huddle of dispirited and frightened people into that valiant band who were willing to risk anything for the sake of Christ!
It was Christ’s Resurrection that brought into being and set in motion this mighty Gospel which has been proclaimed to nearly the entire world and has changed the face of humanity!
And the Words of the New Testament itself leap for joy first of all, most of all, and last of all over the empty grave!!!
I mean, we wouldn’t even celebrate Christ’s birth if there weren’t the Resurrection!!!
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is most certainly the hinge on which the doorway of history swings.
It is also the hinge on which the doorway of so many lives swing!
What hinge does the doorway of our life swing on?
What gives you hope and meaning?
What makes this nearly unbearable life, worth the living?
It’s worth noticing that the first person to see the Risen Christ was Mary Magdalene.
For Mary, maybe more than anyone else, Jesus Christ was the hinge of her life.
Jesus had changed her world something fierce!!!
It’s more than likely that Jesus was the first person to ever treat her like a human being—a person of sacred worth…
…someone as worthwhile as any one else.
Someone worth loving.
And so Mary loved Jesus right back.
So “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.”
And this caused all kinds of chaos as she ran and brought back two other disciples…telling them: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb…”
And after the disciples went back to their homes, Mary stayed “outside the tomb crying.”
How many of us have found ourselves standing outside the tomb of our lives…crying?…
…feeling all alone…
…betrayed by the world…
…with no hope?
As Mary wept she peeped her head inside the tomb for another look.
Could this really be happening?
Could things really be this bad?
Have you ever felt this way?
Have you ever felt as if things were so bad you had to take another look…
…just in case…just in case?
And it was then who Mary “saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.”
Sensing that someone was behind her—Mary “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t realize it was Jesus.”
“Woman,” He said, “Why are you crying? Who are you 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.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’”
And as soon as Jesus called her name, she knew that it was Him!!!
Jesus’ Words and promises had not been a like throwing coins into a wishing well.
Good had indeed triumphed over evil.
Jesus really was God!
And God is a God of love, of peace, of understanding and of forgiveness.
God is also a God Who will never leave us alone; never forsake us!!!
Could that be: What we are to make of this?
There is purpose to this chaotic and often confusing existence.
There is sanity amidst the anarchy and turmoil.
We are not alone after all!
There is hope!!!
There is hope for the single mother who works two jobs just to try and keep her sons and daughters fed and clothed.
There is hope for the lonely teenager who is bullied at school, and is tempted with self-loathing.
There is hope for the drug addict or any kind of addict who seems unable to find a way out.
There is hope for the husband who has lost his wife.
There is hope for the child who has lost his or her parents.
There is hope for the elderly person who feels that this life has been but a joke!
God is Alive!!!
God is Alive and doing very well, indeed!!!
God is alive and God loves each and every one of us unconditionally with a grace that never fades away!
And when this life comes to an end, well, in reality it is just the beginning of life…
…of something so much greater we couldn’t possibly get our entire minds around it!
And although wars rage, tempers flare, people hurt us, and we are often in pain—there is peace!
It is a peace that a faith in Christ gives.
It comes from a personal relationship with the Author of Life itself!
And it’s not just some nebulous kind of peace, and it doesn’t depend on circumstances…
…it’s a peace that is able to overcome fear, depression and despair!
It’s a peace which transcends all understanding.
We are not alone!
We are God’s and we surrender everything to God’s love and care.
We trust in God fully…
…so fully that whatever may occur…
…we will be alright…
…because we will be living within the good, and beautiful will of God!
When Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done,” He was praying the prayer of perfect freedom!
It’s a prayer that we would do well to imitate.
Whatever God’s will is for our lives, live into it…
…and things will be alright.
Yield all your cares, all your troubles…
…make the intentional and daily decision to say, “Not my will, but Yours be done!”
Do not despair.
God is alive and God loves you more than you could even love yourself!!!
If you feel bogged down in sin…
If you are loaded with the weight of guilt, you have a God Who forgives you and then forgets, and sends you forward trusting you with His Gospel; with His work, with His love!
Just look at what Jesus did for Peter, after Peter had denied and betrayed Christ!
He forgave him, and then He entrusted the care of His people to him.
So, what are we to make of this?
Take a look at what the apostle Paul, who endured so many hardships one could never count so high had to say, “Jesus Christ, who died…who has been raised to life—is at the right hand of God interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...
…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Can you say that today?
If not, make it your life’s work to reach that goal!!!
It is life; it is freedom; it is victory!!!
The Resurrection has radically changed the past, the present, and the future.
The tomb in which Jesus’ corpse was placed after His execution was empty; if it were not, then Christianity’s opponents could have and would have produced His bones!
The Resurrection is the defining moment of history.
It is the hinge on which the doorway of history swings!!!
After Mary saw the Resurrected Christ she “went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’”
The world has never been the same since.
Millions upon millions of lives have never been the same since.
What are we to make of this?
Or, more importantly, what are we going to do about it?
