Scripture: John 20:1-18
Theme: Easter and Red Eggs
Proposition: A fun sermon to around Resurrection Sunday. Instead all allowing the bunny, the egg hunts and all that stuff side track us - let's listen as the Ancient Church tells us about how the Red Egg speaks of Jesus' Resurrection, Victory, Salvation and New Life
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father and from His Only Son Jesus Christ who came to take away the sin of the world!
Let us say once again this morning - CHRIST IS RISEN! CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!
Whether the sun is shining bright, it is raining or even on those rarest of occasions when it is snowing, today is one of those days that we in the Church of the Jesus Christ celebrate to the fullest. For today is the day that we celebrate all the world the truth of Jesus Christ - His Mission, His Message and most importantly His Resurrection. Today is the day we celebrate that some 2,000 years ago God broke into human history as the Incarnated Son of God - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And that Jesus made a way for all people to be rescued, redeemed and restored into God's Holy Image.
It is also true that over the last 2,000 years or so there have been some rather strange things that have attached themselves to our celebration of Resurrection Sunday. Some of those things have been quite harmless while others have almost twisted and turned the message of Jesus' Resurrection upside down. For example:
We have noticed that nearly everywhere you go and shop the shelves have been filled with:
+All types, shapes and sizes of Easter baskets filled with all kinds of different eggs, candies and other goodies
+Little stuff animals in the shapes of an Easter bunny or a rabbit or some other cute furry animal
+Easter lilies ready to burst forth in bloom
+Dogwood branches or some other floral design ready to be put out for show
Now, for the most part each one of those things are basically harmless. All the chocolate candy is wonderful to eat, the little stuff animals bring a great deal of comfort and the flowers bring forth a great deal of beauty. The only time they are harmful is if we completely remove the Cross, the Tomb, the Angels, Jesus and His Resurrection. We can have all those other things but central to today and the message of Jesus is His Resurrection, His Victory over Death and the means of Salvation. We must make sure that alongside our children hunting Easter eggs and eating all that chocolate we tell them the true story of Jesus and His Resurrection.
The truth is more children today get more excited about the coming of the Easter Bunny than they do about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus Christ. And why shouldn't they? After all the bunny shows us week after week before Easter and welcomes babies and children to have their picture taken with him. And if we are not careful as parents and grandparents we will think more about our adventure with the Easter bunny than we will about Holy Week, the Stations of the Cross, Communion or Sunrise Services.
What is the answer? Are we to boycott the Easter bunny, the Easter egg hunt and all that wonderful chocolate and other candies? Should we put up great signs denouncing the bunny and all the other stuff that has attached itself to Resurrection Sunday?
Personally, I don't think that is the direction that we should be traveling. What I do think we should be doing is not boycotting but promoting the truth. We should be doing the same thing that the disciples did 2,000 years ago and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. We should begin by looking back into the history of some of these symbols and bringing out their richness. We must recapture the reason they were brought into the Resurrection and Christian Story in the first place.
Over the years many people have had a problem with the image and person of St. Nicholas or as he is called in our country Santa Claus. There has been some who want nothing more than to get rid of him. But the truth behind the image is amazing. It is the story of an ancient Bishop who did everything he could to share the love of Jesus Christ with the less fortunate. Bishop Nicholas gave up his inherited fortune to help the poor especially those who were in danger of being molested and abused. The more you know the true story of St. Nicholas the more you understand how the myths around him arose. St. Nicholas is this wonderful story of what happens to a person when they allow themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live a Spirit led life. Rather than being a detriment in sharing the Good News about Jesus the more you know of the true story the more you see that Santa Claus is a great example of a progressive holiness lifestyle.
The same could be said this morning for some of the symbols that have attached themselves around Resurrection Sunday. When you learn the history behind some of these things then you being to realize that you don't need to get rid of them or fight them. Instead, all you have to do is to share their true story and their true meaning. You simply have to rescue them from folk theology and myth. Many of them have been used as wonderful object lessons for centuries to share the true message of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection.
Now of course:
+You don't find a bunch of scripture passages speaking of rabbits hopping around an open tomb or there being an egg hunt right after the Resurrection. You don't find any stories about James and John being upset that Peter or Andrew found the most eggs or who found the prized egg.
+You don't have Jesus giving out a chocolate bunny to Thomas or to the two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus.
+You don't even have a scripture reference to an Easter lily because they don't grow in the Middle East. Our present Easter Lily comes from the land of Japan. There is a lily that grows in the Middle East but it is currently on the endangered species list and doesn't look anything like our present Easter lily.
But for a few moments this morning, let's go back to those Easter eggs. Did you know this morning that the egg is one of the oldest symbols used to speak about faith in both Judaism and Christianity? In fact, our Jewish friends have used the symbol of an egg to teach about faith for centuries. In the Jewish Passover Seder meal an egg is sometimes used. In particular, a hardboiled egg is used that is dipped in salt water. It was to be a symbol of:
+The possibility of new life - one that God had rescued from slavery
+The sacrifices that were offered at the Temple. When it was impossible for a family to provide a lamb for the Passover a meal and egg was used as a substitute. This enabled those families who were destitute the opportunity to celebrate Passover.
Jewish historians tell us that the egg also became a symbol of great mourning over the two lost Temples. The first Temple of course was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Hard boiled eggs became the food of mourners and therefore were great symbols for the loss of the two great Temples.
In the early centuries of the Christian faith we see that a great deal of the symbols of Judaism were adopted by the Early Church. One of those symbols was an egg. The egg became an important Christian symbol of sharing the message of New Life, the Resurrection and Salvation.
+Just as a new life would emerge from the shell of an egg, the Church spoke of the New Life that emerged from the shell of Jesus' tomb. It was a way to speak of how Christ broke the powers of Hell, death and the grave. It was a way to talk about how the angels at the tomb told the women that Jesus had risen from the dead. It was a way to tell the story of how Jesus was now the firstborn of a new kingdom - a kingdom of people who had been rescued from the penalty and power of sin. A new kingdom of people who could be redeemed and renewed and restored into the Image of God.
+The egg became one of Christianity's first object lessons and means of sharing the Good News. Much like we today see all those fish symbols used today on our cars, our ancient brothers and sisters in Christ would use the symbol of an egg. People would give away eggs as a way of greeting one another in Christ. People would use the egg as an object lesson in sharing the Good News of Resurrection and New Life.
+The egg was also a great object lesson to teach about spiritual formation. Today we who know Christ are waiting to experience the fullness of our everlasting life. While we are waiting to be "hatched" we are to be busy growing more and more into the image of Jesus. On the outside an egg looks empty but we all know better. Inside that shell are all the ingredients for life. Inside each of us that know Jesus as Savior and LORD there is everlasting life growing and developing us more and more into the image of Jesus. One day we will experience our "hatching" our transition from life here on earth to everlasting life in the New Heaven and New Earth.
Therefore, over time the egg became a great way of being able to teach children and others about Jesus, the Resurrection and the New Life. It was a great way to share the Good News about everlasting life. It was also a wonderful object lesson to teach about the Trinity - the outer shell being God the Father, the White part of the egg to speak of Jesus the Son and the Yellow part to speak of the Holy Spirit - all three in one.
So, rather than just something we merely gather up and eat - poached, hard boiled, scrambled or sunny side up - we need to reexamine the humble egg this Resurrection morning. Eggs are a wonderful way for us to tie together our ancient Jewish roots surrounding Passover as well as share the Good News of Jesus' Victory and Resurrection.
But what about all those colors?
Well, I am not sure exactly how we got all those colors but I do know this morning that in the ancient church they focused on one particular color. For hundreds of years the Church favored one color of Resurrection Eggs above any other color. While our Jewish friends favored a brown egg for Passover to symbolize humility those in the Early Church picked the color RED to dye their eggs.
The Color Red was used of course for some obvious reasons:
+It's a great symbol of the blood of Jesus that was shed on the Cross. Like the red blood that was painted on the door posts of ancient Israel so that the death angel would pass over the Early Church wanted people to know it was the blood of Jesus that saves us from the penalty and power of sin.
+The color Red was both the color of life in general along with becoming the color of Victory. After a battle the color red was used to signify the winner. Armies would hold high banners colored red as they returned home to let everyone know that they had been victorious. Early Christians picked up on this symbolic color to state the fact that in the Resurrection Jesus proved that He was victorious over sin, death, Hell and the grave.
So, a Red Egg - not only could be used as a tool to teach about Jesus coming victoriously out of the tomb it could be used as a symbol of Jesus' blood, new life and spiritual victory. Now those reasons are reasons enough for a modern day church to not only have an egg hunt but to make sure that plenty of the eggs are colored bright red.
Coupled with all of this tradition was another tradition that surrounded the color of red. It centers around John's story of the Resurrection that we read this morning. It centers around the person of Mary Magdalene. Some historians say that the reason the Early Church adopted red as the color of the Resurrection Egg had to do with Mary Magdalene and her sharing the story of Jesus' Resurrection. According to ancient traditions, following Jesus' Resurrection, Mary Magdalene went out like many of the other disciples and shared the Good News of Salvation and Holiness. Infilled with the Holy Spirit all of Jesus' disciples spread out all over the known world to share the message of salvation. Bible historians tell us for example that Bartholomew went to India, Andrew went off to Greece, Matthew shared the Gospel with those in Iran and Philip went to area of modern day Turkey.
Church tradition also gives us some rather interesting stories surrounding Mary Magdalene. It is said that some time after Pentecost that Mary made her way to the city of Rome. Led by the Holy Spirit she began to share the message of salvation to everyone she could meet. After some time she was able to share the message of Jesus with those surrounding the family of Caesar and even Caesar himself.
It is said that Mary had a rather unique way of sharing the message of Jesus. She would use an egg as a prop in telling the story of New Life made possible through Jesus. The story goes that it was while she was telling the story of Jesus to Caesar himself that the miracle of the Red Egg occurred. The story goes somewhat like this:
Through God's hand, Caesar had graciously given Mary Magdalene an audience and was listening to her share about Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He patiently listened as she shared that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was both the Only Son of God and was in fact the long awaited Messiah. Mary then told Caesar the story of how Jesus died on the cross but then on the third day the LORD was raised from the dead. She went on to tell the Emperor how Jesus ascended into Heaven and sent His Holy Spirit to rescue, redeem and restore people into God's Holy Image.
The story goes that at first Caesar greatly doubted Mary's story concerning Jesus being the only Son of God and His Resurrection. According to Roman theology, he (Caesar) was the both Son of God and High Priest. After all that was the message that was stamped on most of the Roman coins in circulation at the time. Each coin bore his image and the inscription that Caesar was the true Son of God and High Priest of Rome.
Caesar also doubted that any man could be raised from the dead especially one that had been crucified on a Roman cross. Caesar believed that the soul of a dead person would go underground to the river Styx. Once you cross the River Styx you would then face a time of judgment. Afterwards you would either be sent to the Elysian Fields ( a form of Paradise) or continue to live like as a shade (ghost like) or if you had really offended the gods you would be sent to Tartarus where you will spend a specific amount of time paying for your sins (usually hundreds of earth years). Since Jesus of Nazareth had died on a cross then there was no way according to Roman theology that he could be raised after only three days. Instead, Jesus would have been sent to Tartarus where he would have to spend hundreds of years paying for his evil life and blasphemy against the Roman gods.
Suddenly, according to the ancient story, Caesar had a wild idea. If Mary was telling the truth then the egg that she had used to explain her story would miraculously turn red - the color of Jesus' blood and the color of victory. According to tradition it was at that very moment that Mary's egg turned the brightest red possible proving to the Emperor that Jesus had not only risen from the dead but that Jesus was the Only Son of God and that He ruled victoriously over sin, death, Hell and the grave.
It was after this story became wide spread that the early Christians began to imitate Mary in presenting each other with eggs. In particular eggs that had been dyed the color red. And in using those eggs they would over and over again share the message of Jesus and His Resurrection.
Now, we all know that over the years that Church tradition has taken some license in some of its stories that have been passed down. History has a way of creating stories that explain the unexplainable. Is the story true? I don't know but I do know this at some point the Early Church began to use eggs colored bright red as a way to tell the story of Jesus.
So, this morning while we can't redeem all the modern symbols of the season - we can redeem the Easter Egg or at least those dyed red. We can do that because the egg has a long history of being a symbol of faith first for the Jew and then for the Early Church. We can do it because the Egg and especially the Red Egg has been a way to tell children in particular and people in general the message of Jesus Christ for hundreds of years.
So, as we go forth this season and enjoy Egg Hunts - why not include a few RED EGGS. Why not buy a big Red Egg for yourself as a reminder. Put it on your desk or some other place where people can see it. When they ask why you have a red egg then you like Mary will have an excellent opportunity to share the message of Jesus, His Life, His Resurrection and the way of Salvation.
As your children and grandchildren are hunting eggs - why not make the red egg the special ones? Why not have a large Red Egg as the Prize Egg? Let the Red Egg be one of the ways to tell the Story of Jesus. Use it as a teaching tool -
+In Christ we can have New Life
+Christ came forth from the Tomb to Share Everlasting Life
+Even as the egg is three in one so too is the Trinity
+Even as we think about a dozen eggs we can think about the Disciples
+Even as we see the Red Egg - we can speak of the power of the blood of Jesus, the power of the Resurrection and how through Jesus we can experience Victory.
As we close this morning there is a little jewel that is in our passage - it's in verse 8 - John goes into the Tomb - He sees and believes. There is a great deal of message in that phrase - SEE AND BELIEVE. This morning as we close let us do so by sharing the Lord's Supper and singing an old hymn favorite - He Lives -
You ask me how I know He lives - He Lives within My Heart
As we come to share the Supper does Jesus live in your heart this morning? Do you know Jesus as Your Savior and LORD. He invites you right now to come and confess your faith in Him. He invites you to His Table to partake of the wine and bread and to proclaim Him as Savior and LORD.
End with Communion and Prayer
