Easter Sunday April 15, 2001
(Written with assistance from a sermon by Leonard Sweet, "Crack Open Some Easter Eggs and Be Cracked Open" at www.preachingplus.com)
INTRODUCTION
How many of you have participated in an Easter egg hunt this spring? (Either searching for eggs, hiding eggs, or watching others do this.)
When you think about it, the tradition of hard-boiling, dyeing, hiding and then rediscovering eggs in grass nests or reed baskets has to be one of the strangest rituals in human existence.
Oh, I know it’s solemnly steeped in symbolism – spring, rebirth, chicks cracking out of a tomb-like shell. But for most of us – tell the truth now – it really is just a little silly.
So what is it that delights us about finding these rainbow colored eggs in all sorts of odd places? For children and those of us with childlike imaginations, the Easter egg is wonderful precisely because it is so outlandish. It’s color is flamboyant, it’s location is a secret we must uncover. It’s presence is ridiculous and unexpected. No matter how old we get, we still hope for surprises and we are delighted when they materialize.
Easter eggs have gone through some changes over the years – Because of salmonella scares, most Easter egg hunts are a search for plastic replica eggs. Since these are filled with candy instead of crumbly yolks and jiggly hard-boiled egg-whites, this is a definite improvement.
More recently, Easter eggs have been post-modernized, becoming part of the computer culture. It seems those techno-wizards composing the software that run our computer programs get bored writing the same old codes over and over again.
To amuse themselves and assert their individuality these programmers insert secret codes into a program, that, when correctly accessed, deliver something commonly called an “Easter egg” to surprise and delight the searcher.
If you have kids they can probably tell you how to find “Easter eggs” inside their video games. You can also find them inside standard computer software or boring spreadsheets of information.
In the video game, Tomb Raider II, Lara Croft, the female Indiana Jones-type heroine, may suddenly turn into a fireball. Why? It’s an Easter egg. Programmers have hidden in the computer code for this game a surprise: if Lara takes one full step forward, one back, turns around three times and then leaps backward, she explodes.
Easter eggs sometimes direct you to the names of those who programmed the software, others are just meant to be funny.
In Apple Macs, you can sometimes find the cry, “Help, I’m being held prisoner in a system software factory.”
In Microsoft Word 97, you can play pinball.
And in Microsoft Excel 97, punch in the coordinates “X97:L97,” strike a couple of keys in the correct order, and the next thing you know, your screen turns into a virtual world of blue mountainous peaks and valleys, which using your mouse as a controller, you can fly through forward or backward, fast or slow. Maybe that’s what Microsoft means by “productivity application.”
www.eeggs.com gives many examples
Sometimes Easter eggs are events, or even ideas. Things that make us say, “Wow!” or something that alters our perceptions or transforms our lives. Some of history’s most famous Easter Eggs might include:
Gutenberg’s moveable type
The Declaration of Independence
Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
Pasteurization
Immunization
The telegraph
The Emancipation Proclamation
The telephone
The 19th Amendment
The Internet
I. (THE EMPTY TOMB IS THE BIGGEST EASTER EGG OF ALL TIME)
But today, we celebrate the biggest Easter egg ever dropped into human existence.
(Can you say it with me?)
…HE IS RISEN!
Read verse 1 – On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
It was the first day of the week – but it was also the third day. The horrifying shock of Friday, the emptiness of Saturday and now Sunday. The third day.
Have you ever had a third day experience? When it seemed like the blackest night had just enfolded you in shroud of fear, depression, panic, heart-ache or loss? When your stomach churned, your eyes felt like they couldn’t cry another tear, your head felt hot as it throbbed, words of consolation did little good –perhaps you felt too tired for sleeping, maybe even too wounded to hurt?
Was it maybe…
The day your relationship died?
The day you got the news – that message that changed everything?
The day you lost your job?
The day…well, you know the day.
The day when it felt like you couldn’t possibly feel any worse.
That’s the women on Sunday morning. Because we know the end of the story, we sometimes look past what the walk to the tomb must have felt like. It was probably a rather quiet group – not saying much along the way. The sounds of a few morning birds already chirping high above in the trees. Sandals scuffing against the dry dirt of the well-worn path. An occasional sniffle, the tell-tale sign that not all tears had ceased to be shed.
It was the third day.
Scripture identifies some thirty events that took place on the third day. For instance, on the third day, God seals the covenant with Moses. On the third day, Esther goes before the King to beg for the safety of the Jews. On the third day, Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac.
These third days are watershed moments that determine the future course and current of people’s lives.
It’s the third day – and the women are on their way to the tomb of Jesus.
READ Luke 24:2-6a
Did you hear those words Luke used? “Found, find, look for”
They didn’t even know they were on a search or a hunt, but they found the greatest discovery of all time – they found what all of history had been leading up to…
The tomb – the real Easter egg – was empty. Jesus is risen!
The tomb of Jesus was cracked wide open. But…
II. WILL WE ALLOW THIS NEWS TO CRACK US OPEN?
For those who first heard it, the news of the empty tomb produced shell-shock in different ways. First there is the reaction of the women…
READ v. 9-10
The women were cracked open in the midst of despair (v. 9-10)
ILLUS – In the recent movie, 28 Days, Sandra Bullock plays a young woman who is sentenced by a judge to a drug and alcohol rehab center for a period of, you guessed it, 28 days.
She has trouble adjusting to the lifestyle at the center, the group sessions, and worst of all her body is de-toxing from years of substance abuse. In an attempt to climb out of her room to retrieve some smuggled pills, she falls and breaks her leg. Faced with the prospect of getting kicked out of the center, which would mean serving time in jail, she finds herself up against one of those third day experiences. Her life is a mess, her future looks hopeless. She admits she’ll die unless something changes. She’s ready to be cracked open in her despair. To receive a brand new way of life. To let the third day turn into a brand new sort or morning.
The women in Luke 24 ran and told others – Hey, come and see what I’ve found! The night was over. Morning had arrived. The third day had ended and Easter was here! Jesus is alive! Despair had been cracked wide open.
Do you feel desperate or hopeless today? If you do, you need to know Jesus can crack your life wide open! He is risen!
***
Next to hear the news of the empty tomb were the disciples of Jesus. Listen to how they respond…
READ V. 11
The disciples had hearts that refused to be cracked open (v. 11)
Their hearts were closed to the news.
They told the women, “You’re nuts! You’re making it up! We don’t believe you.” So, you know what they did? They stayed home on Easter Sunday, unconvinced that this news was anything significant.
ILLUS - The Department of Social Services in Greenville County, South Carolina, once sent the following form letter: “Your food stamps will be stopped, effective immediately because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.”
Dead people don’t usually have changes in their circumstances. Dead people usually stay dead.
So when Mary Magdalene and the others went running off yelling, “He’s alive! He’s alive!” -- Who could be expected to believe them? I’ve sometimes put myself in the biblical story, saying, “If I had been there, it would have been different.” But would it? Maybe I would have doubted, too. Maybe I would have stayed home that first Easter.
Some people are like that today too. They stay home on
Easter Sunday. Perhaps unconvinced that the news of the empty tomb is all that significant.
ILLUS - Nicko McBrain was a guy like that. He’s the drummer for the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. In the mid 1980’s the band’s fame grew rapidly, and so did Nicko’s fortune. Each new album sold more than the one before. Concert tours were generating more money. Nicko was now riding in limousines, staying in lavish hotel suites and consuming top shelf alcohol.
But according to the this month’s issue of the Willow Creek Association newsletter things started to change. A couple of years ago, while Iron Maiden was on tour, Nicko’s wife, Rebecca, stayed home in Boca Raton, Florida, with their son. She quickly became friends with a neighbor who shared the Gospel with her, and eventually led her into a personal relationship with Jesus.
Soon afterward, Rebecca invited Nicko to church, he reluctantly agreed, and started attending Spanish River Community Church in Boca Raton.
One particular Sunday morning he was lying in bed physically depleted from a rigorous tour. Rebecca woke him up and asked him if he was going to church with her. He was determined to stay home. Nicko remembers, “I just lay in bed, completely exhausted and said, ‘No, go on without me.” Rebecca then retorted, “If you don’t want to go for yourself, then at least go for your son.” That was it. Nicko couldn’t go back to sleep and prepared himself for church, and – unknown to him – an appointment with God.
“I can’t remember what it was,” he says, but right in the middle of one of the songs, I started crying my eyes out. I just stood there saying, ‘What’s the matter with me?’” Pastor David Nicholas asked everyone in the congregation to stand for the closing prayer, and Nicko couldn’t maintain his balance. “I just sat there thinking, ‘I didn’t drink last night…why can’t I stand?” And during that prayer, all those years of running away and living life on his own terms came to a collision point as Nicko came face to face with the One he was created to know. At that moment he opened his heart to Jesus. Now a committed follower of Jesus, Nicko McBrain, drummer for Iron Maiden, plays the drums for Spanish River’s worship team.
A heart of iron cracked wide open. A heart that encountered the risen Jesus. A heart forever changed. A heart in love with Jesus. A heart in which Jesus Christ now lives.
ILLUS - A four year old girl was at the pediatrician for a check up. As the doctor examined her ears, he asked, "Do you think I’ll find Big Bird in here?" The little girl didn’t say a thing.
Next, the doctor took a tongue depressor and looked down her throat. He asked, "Do you think I’ll find the Cookie Monster down there?" Again, the little girl was silent. Then the doctor put a stethoscope to her chest. As he listened to her heartbeat, he asked, "Do you think I’ll hear Barney in there?" "Oh, no!" the little girl replied. "Jesus is in my the heart. Barney’s on my underpants."
You might be thinking, “That’s a good place for Barney.” But I hope you know that your heart is an even better place for Jesus. Your heart was designed for Him to live there.
ILLUS - A couple of years ago, Kim and I had a problem with ants coming into our house. They came in through the concrete floor in our furnace room. But we both agreed, they didn’t belong in our house. We called an exterminator, he bombed the nest and we got to vacuum up around a trillion dead ants with the ShopVac. There may be some things living in our hearts that don’t belong – greed, selfishness, bitterness, hate – Jesus not only exterminates and forgives those things, but He also takes up residence. He’ll crack your heart wide open, and change your life.
Even though the disciples stayed home on Easter Sunday, soon afterward they met the risen Jesus. And he did crack the heart of each one wide open. So don’t give up on someone who’s at home today. Perhaps their encounter with Jesus is coming soon, because, you know, Jesus is risen. He is alive.
***
Luke 24 tells us how at least one other person received the news of the empty tomb.
READ V. 12
Peter shows us – a mind cracked open to new possibilities (v. 12)
Hopeful after hearing the report from the women…
Peter went to see for himself, but didn’t fully understand. What could it mean?
His pulse raced, his mind exploded with possibilities, his skin tingled with a flush of crazy exhilaration, could it be? Could it be?
Could it be?…Could it be that life will now somehow be different because of this? Could it be that a new chapter is waiting to begin?
Could it be???
Yes, yes it can be! He’s alive! He is risen! Nothing now can ever be the same! Everyone must know about this! I’ve got to tell the world! And so Peter did.
***
How about us?
I don’t know about you, but inside me there’s this longing. I guess I’d call it a hunger to transcend this life. A yearning to escape my earth-bound tendencies. I long for those moments when I can feel like I’m truly alive for the very first time. My guess is that you sometimes have these desires too.
Maybe we should call it a passionate desire for more than what this life has to offer. An ache for what lies beyond.
But you know, sometimes in my quiet moments I can almost feel it…
Lying on my back on a cool summer day
A hug from my wife
The trusting eyes of a child
Staring at the stars on a crystal clear night in the open country
A soul-stirring crescendo in a piece of music
A moving scene of well-directed cinema
A touching line of poetry
A breath-taking view from mountain heights
I can’t quite put my finger on it. Sometimes, these moments happen so fast, they are so fleeting, they pass so swiftly – almost as if in moments like these, when I want to express what I feel the thoughts approach the tip of my tongue and then just as quickly vanish into the vast and mysterious place from which they came.
These moments of epiphany – when reality is begun to be grasped through something simple, something striking, something surprising. They are like Easter eggs. They tell me there is more. I can feel it. But what is this MORE? Can it ever be realized?
For me, I’ve concluded that these fleeting moments of ascendancy are elements of the life beyond that creep into the here and now. They show up because the Creator and organizer of it all is leaves us some hints and clues. Popcorn trails that point us to the answer. And what do we seek? Sometimes at first we don’t even know.
But think about. What did the women expect to find on Easter Sunday? The rest of the disciples didn’t even bother to look, but they eventually found it anyway.
How about Peter? He went looking for something simple and instead found something utterly profound.
An Easter egg – that cracked him wide open - and life would never be the same.
Peter changed the world, just because he got up to go and see for himself. You’re here. You got up to come take a look. Well, the tomb is still empty. You’re probably still figuring it out like the rest of us. His tomb is empty! So what does that mean? Let me tell you what it meant to one guy…
ILLUS – Pete Maravich was born to be a basketball player. His dazzling ball handling, flashy passes and remarkable scoring ability set him apart from other players of the 1960s and ’70s. He averaged a record 44.2 points per game over his college career, and he led the NBA in scoring in 1977.
On Sunday afternoon just two weeks ago, CBS aired a 90 minute program called, “Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.”
While Maravich could do it all on the court, as a professional ballplayer he developed a reputation as being self centered and difficult with his teammates, and life off the court sometimes gave him trouble. From severe bouts of depression, a tendency to drink too much and live life too hard, Pete Maravich was not enjoying life. But then Pete gave his life to Jesus Christ.
In telling his life story, it was impossible to avoid talking about Jesus. Out of a 90 minute program, the last 30 minutes dealt with how Jesus changed his life. How he started basketball camps for kids where he told them about Jesus. Famous people recalled the Bible Pete gave them with their name engraved on the cover. Pete Maravich died at the age of 40 playing a game of pick up basketball at a church in 1988.
CBS couldn’t tell the story of Pete Maravich without focusing on someone named Jesus. And as I watched, I thought to myself, when my life is said and done, I hope that it’s impossible to talk about me without talking about Jesus.
Let me tell you what the news of the empty tomb means to me. It means that anything can happen. Jesus is risen! That tells me that no matter how dark the third day seems, God is bringing something life changing on the other side of night.
Easter means that tomorrow is never just another day!
CONCLUSION
Larry King, the CNN interviewer and radio/TV personality, tells of a visit to Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium before a spring training game.
“King said manager Tommy Lasorda was introducing him to players and having a good time. They walked past Eddie Murray at first base and Lasorda said, ‘Hey, Eddie, how you doing?’ Murray replied simply, ‘Okay.’ At that, Lasorda went wild. ‘Okay? Okay? Two million dollars a year. It’s March. There ain’t a cloud in the sky. You’re standing there wearing a major-league uniform. You’re thirty-three years old, you’re going to the Hall of Fame, and you’re saying okay? You say, “Great, Tommy!” ’ Murray, looking at Lasorda like he was a maniac, seemed at a loss for words. Lasorda tried again, ‘You say it: “I feel great!” ’ So Eddie started saying, ‘I feel great!’ ”
- Quoted in Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10 (Zondervan, 2000), 133.
How about it Christian Church of Clarendon Hills?
Christ Is Risen!
All your sins are forgiven. You’re on your way to heaven. Jesus is alive and living in you.
Say it like you mean it: “I feel great.”
Say it like you mean the world out there to hear it: “I feel great.”
Let’s go out there let Jesus crack us wide open!
