In Jesus Holy Name April 9, 2023
Text: Luke 24:1-3,5b-6 Redeemer
“What is Truth About Easter?”
I’m so glad you are here this morning to enjoy the experience of Easter worship. The spring flowers bloom in the sunshine. The music renews our soul. Easter shouts a truth every human soul longs to hear. He is Risen!
Philip Yancy wrote: “Christianity has two great symbols to offer the world, a cross and an empty tomb.” The Easter event is the ultimate test of faith. The one great watershed that ultimately divides believers from unbelievers is the resurrection of Jesus from death….after His crucifixion.
The Easter event challenges the American culture where truth has been muddled. On this Easter morning we and our culture must once again ask “What is the truth about Easter?”
There is a man 2000 years ago who asked the question: “What is truth?” Here is man I’d like to meet. He is a man caught in a terrible dilemma. No matter how many times we read his story, it is still not fully clear what he really thought and how he really felt. His name is Pontius Pilate. He is the man who handed Jesus over to be crucified. Pilate was the fifth prefect of Judea. He had been personally appointed by the Emperor Tiberius in A.D. 26. He would travel to Jerusalem during each Passover to make sure everything stayed under control.
That was the main job of the Roman provincial governors: To keep things under control, to collect taxes and keep the peace.
Exactly how much Pilate knew about Jesus is a question I cannot answer for certain. I’m sure he knew something. After all, that’s a governor’s job. He must have known of Jesus’ popularity with the people. He certainly saw the crowds on Palm Sunday. He must have known that the chief priests and scribes had no use for him. He must have heard the rumors flying across the countryside. It is the job of a politician to know these things and, as we shall see, Pilate was a smart politician. He always knew which way the wind was blowing.
All four gospels agree on the first question Pilate asks—”Are you the king of the Jews?” The problem was that to Pilate the title “King of the Jews” implied a military ruler, but to the Jews it meant the Messiah. The chief priests meant to confuse Pilate into thinking Jesus was some kind of revolutionary leader, and thus a threat to Rome. It didn’t work because Jesus told him, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36)
It is at this point that Pilate asks the question that earned him a place in history. When Jesus said, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me,” Pilate replied, “What is truth?”
Surely Pilate was a troubled man. From the vantage point of 2,000 years, it is hard not to feel sorry for him. He never asked for this terrible situation. He never meant to set a murderer free. In his mind, he knows Jesus is innocent. He knows it. His wife has given him God’s message. But the people have asked for the murderer. One more time he tries. “What shall I do, then, with Jesus?” It is the act of a desperate man. He knows what he should do but is afraid to do it.
The human heart and mind needs truth. We need truth regarding the love of our spouse. We need truth regarding the security of our bank. We need truth regarding the doctors diagnosis. We need truth regarding what happens when our heart stops beating. When there is “no” truth chaos reigns and human life has no foundation.
As proof, I hold up Adam and Eve. In the Garden they were surrounded by God's faultless, flawless creation. Their world had no room for pain, or tears, or hurt, or illness, death, or sorrow. Perfection was the truth which had been given to them by their loving Creator. Still, it was a truth they could not receive without questioning.
All too easily Adm and Eve believed Satan when the evil one slyly suggested, “Maybe God is holding out on you? Is it not possible that there is more... so much more for you to enjoy? Here, look at this fruit. Is it not tempting to the eye? No doubt it would be pleasant to the palate. Please, help yourself. What harm could it do?" Apparently a great deal of harm. Death came into our world.
Truth is needed if we are to have security. It is to Pilate's credit that he could recognize truth when he saw it; it is to his shame that once he found it, he could so easily ignore it. History has judged the judge of Jesus and found him wanting. When the time came for Pilate to stand up for the truth, he faltered and failed.
When he had to choose between setting free a murderous public enemy or releasing the Man in whom he had found no guilt, Pilate simply didn't care. Truth was thrown out the window and Pilate worshipped the god of expediency. Jesus was crucified. A Roman soldier’s spear pierced His heart. He was dead.
George Bernard Shaw remarked, “The statistics on death have not changed. One out of one person dies.” Yes even Jesus died. He was crucified.
The Greek playwright Sophocles said it this way: “Of all the great wonders, none is greater than man. Only for death can he find no cure.” Death is the fundamental human problem. Of all the fears that plague the heart of man, none is greater than the fear of death. It is our greatest fear, the sum of all other fears.
Only if Easter is true will the human heart and mind find hope and security.
I am not much of a tent man myself. I spent my last night in a tent a few months ago. It was cold and uncomfortable. The Apostle Paul states that our bodies are like tents. They wear out, they sag, they expand, they wrinkle, the joints get creaky, the arteries harden, gravity pulls everything downward, the heart slows down, the eyes grow dim, the teeth fall out, the back is stooped, and the arms grow weary. Our bones break, our muscles weaken. The body bulges in the wrong places. We brag about our strength but a tiny microbe can kill us. Sooner or later we grow old and our bodies begin to break down. Eventually they stop working altogether. (illustration from Rev. Ken Pritchard sermon)
No amount of Vitamin C or Siberian Ginseng can change that fact. At best, we can only slow down the aging process; we cannot delay it forever.
As long as death reigns on planet earth, there will always be an obituary section in the newspaper and there will always be a funeral somewhere. The cemeteries are always open for business.
(Read Thessalonians 4:13-18). How can Paul say that? Because one grave, in one cemetery, in Jerusalem, was only occupied for 3 days, by the man Jesus. Jesus did not stay dead…. That is truth. He said he would rise from death…He did… the women found the tomb empty. The two disciples Peter and John did as well.
What they found surprised them. The body was indeed gone but the graveclothes were lying exactly where they had been placed on Friday just before sundown. The Jewish custom of burial involved wrapping the corpse with strips of linen. The graveclothes lying on a ledge in the tomb were like an empty cocoon after the butterfly has emerged. The head covering was still in place as well. The body has simply vanished.
The disciples should have remembered the words of Jesus but they didn’t. On Friday evening as the body of Jesus was placed into a borrowed grave the disciples were so frightened they had no room to think about His promised resurrection on Sunday morning. So the angel reminded them: “Remember, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” Jesus was raised from death by the power of the Holy Spirit, with a glorified resurrected body. Then they remembered.
That first Easter morning Jesus appeared to Mary, and the disciples with a resurrected body. He met them in the upper room, where they were hiding. Jesus stands in the middle of a locked room and said: “Why do you doubt? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you seek I have. Do you have some fish to eat? That was truth on display.
What is the truth on Easter?
Jesus lived a true historical man. That is a truth.
He healed the sick with a touch of His finger. That is historically true.
He raised the dead with a word. Even the Jewish Pharisees knew that truth.
Jesus was arrested, crucified and died on the cross. Pilate knew it was true.
Jesus was buried. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and the women knew it was true. They went to the tomb on the third day to anoint the body of Jesus.
The tomb was empty. That was true.
The angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. Was that true?
In 1930, an atheist names Nicholai Ivanovich, a communist leader who took part in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, went to Kiev to address a huge assembly on atheism. He spoke for one hour and did all he could to dismantle Christianity. When he finished, he looked out at the crowd, and asked if anyone had any questions. Silence filled the auditorium.
And then, one man got out of his chair, came up to the platform, and stood right next to the communist leader. He looked at the crowd and then shouted out an ancient greeting that was well known to many Russians: “Christ is risen!” The people immediately rose to their feet and responded thunderously: “He is risen indeed!”
The phrase isn’t, “He was risen.” It is, “He is risen” because He’s alive right now. Jesus died in our place. He took our sins as full payment on the cross and rose from death and the grave just as He promised, validating everything He did.
In Revelation 1:18 Jesus declares, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” I love that expression: “I hold the keys.” Every time I leave my house I take my keys with me. On my key ring I have five keys. One is for my house. One is for my car. One is for the office. The rest open certain gates and certain doors. They give me entrance into places where I am always welcome. Keys matter. Whoever has the keys has the authority to enter at will. When Jesus came forth from the tomb on Easter Sunday, he came forth holding the keys of death and Hades in his hand.
Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will have eternal life.” This is the truth on Easter. He is Risen!
