henever you watch something on TV that is a continuation of a previous show, they always bring you up to speed on what is going on. They say, “Previously on ‘I Love Lucy,’ Ricky caught Lucy in one of her little pranks.” You know the drill. So I think it is only fair to bring everyone up to speed on the events immediately preceding the scripture passage today.
The previous Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey, which was a way of making the claim to being the conquering hero or Messiah. Thousands of travelers to Jerusalem for the Jewish festival celebrating the deliverance from slavery in Egypt welcomed him by shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Jesus popularity was never greater.
Jesus then has several encounters with religious leaders, which irritated them. They try to find some way to get rid of him. The problem is that everyone in Jerusalem loves Jesus, so there is fear that a riot would ensue. Jesus celebrates the festival with his disciples on Thursday evening. On the way back to where they were staying, Jesus stops to pray. One of his disciples gives the authorities the opportunity to arrest him.
Once arrested, all of the disciples get lost. Through a series of mock trials before the Roman governor, the Jewish king, and the religious leaders, no one can find a serious, provable allegation to hold Jesus. They come up with some trumped up charges to execute him. No one really wants to take the responsibility for executing him, because he had done nothing wrong. On Friday morning, the religious leaders manage to convince Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, to execute him because he had allegedly made claims to be a king, which violated Roman law, as Caesar was the only king under Roman law. Jesus is severely beaten and executed. The efficient Roman crucifixion machine quickly makes sure that Jesus is dead.
He is hurriedly taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb that is hollowed out of a hill. By late Friday afternoon, it is all over. The followers that Jesus had attracted were devastated. They had left everything—family, friends, and lucrative businesses—to follow him. He let them down. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Some of the women, who had followed him, wanted to put some spices on his corpse, as was the tradition in that time. It was a way to show love to a loved one for the last time. The end had come, and they wanted to honor their fallen leader. Because of the late hour of the death and burial of Jesus, they were not able to get to it that day. Saturday is a holy day in Judaism, so they had to wait until Sunday. That’s where we pick up the story.
Turn with me to Mark 16.
Read Mark 16:1-8.
Jesus is more than a memory.
Jesus’ life is more than a memory because he rose again. He did live a life during a period in history, but he is not confined to that era. Elvis Presley was a famous man. He lived in a historical period, and his life is confined to that. He is still famous. People flock to Memphis to see Graceland. His music is still popular. People impersonate him. As time goes by, even the memory of Elvis fades. He is not nearly as popular today as he was a quarter of a century ago. I was four years old when he died. Elvis has left the building, and he is not going to come.
The memory of Jesus has not faded, even after nearly 2000 years. This is true, because he is not dead. The memories of dead guys fade, but Jesus’ memory has not faded. If anything, it has grown stronger over the centuries. The Christian faith continues to gain ground around the world, because of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead early on that Sunday morning.
His memory was fading fast while he lay in that grave. The disciples were probably making plans to go back to their businesses and families. These three women were making one last trip to the tomb of their fallen Lord to show him one last act of love. They weren’t expecting anything to happen. In fact on the way there, they suddenly remembered the 1000-pound stone that stood between them and the body of Jesus. There was no way they could possibly move it. They were going to go in and do what they needed to do and get out. They would then go on with their lives.
When they look up, perhaps because they were down about the events of the week, they notice that the stone is gone. Shocked they walk into the tomb, only to see a young man sitting there. The young man was an angel. This really freaks them out. Perhaps they thought they were in the wrong place, or something.
The angel reassures them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.” Yep, they got the right tomb, but what is going on?
The whole week had been such a whirlwind. Joyous celebration followed by confrontation, then a trial, an execution, death, and burial was the summary of the week. Now they are told that Jesus had risen from the dead.
This is the very reason the memory of Jesus has not faded. He isn’t dead. He is alive and well. We could sit around and talk all about Jesus, but Jesus wants to meet us face to face.
We have to meet Jesus, personally.
The fact that Jesus lived is a verifiable fact. There are very few that doubt that Jesus was a historical figure. The problem is that some people leave him there, in the history books. “Jesus is not a figure in a book but a living presence.”
It doesn’t matter how much we study the life of Jesus. We have to meet him personally. It’s not enough to study him.
That’s one of the problems with history. You can study a person, but unless you can meet them, they can’t be fully understood.
I majored in history in college, which is a great subject to study. It’s not the best one for finding a job outside of teaching. During my time, I studied great people in history: Charles DeGaulle, Khrushchev, Adam Smith, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and others. I read things they wrote. I looked at photographs. I read biographies. I watched videos. I studied as much as I could, so I could write a decent research paper. Although I studied them in detail, I was no closer to meeting them. Most of them were dead, which made it a problem to meet them. The others that were still alive, such as Ronald Reagan, were not going to meet me. Former presidents don’t make a habit of meeting with unknown college students from unknown colleges. I had to settle for studying these people and their lives rather than meeting them. It would have been beneficial for me to meet Ronald Reagan when I was writing my paper on the Iran-Contra Affair, but I had to settle with reading his memoirs. I knew a little bit more about these men than I had before, but I didn’t know them.
That’s the same way with Jesus. We can read about him. We can read what he said. We can take pilgrimages to the land where he lived. We can walk where he walked, but that does us little good in meeting him. Sure, we can learn about the culture in which he lived. We can learn about the geography of where he lived and worked. But, there comes a point when we have to come face to face with the living Jesus. We have to meet him to more fully understand him and know him.
Knowing about Jesus is not enough we must know him.
Knowing about Jesus is not enough we must know him. If you have been channel surfing at all this last week, you probably ran across one of the million Jesus specials on TV. From the History Channel to the Discovery Channel to whatever there was some sort of Jesus special on. I think the Home Shopping Channel even had a special.
On these specials, they interview scholars who have devoted their lives to studying the life of Jesus. They show footage from the Middle East. They have reenactments of the events of Jesus’ life. They discuss, debate and try to figure out all they can about Jesus. They try to prove that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They try to find the exact location where Jesus was baptized. They try to locate the place of the crucifixion. They examine possible tombs where Jesus would have been laid. Some scholars are skeptical about Jesus. Some are Christians. They all think they have is figured out.
I was amazed as I watched one of these, someone has actually tried to figure out what Jesus looked like. They examined first century Jewish skulls so they could get an idea about the shape of his head. They examined drawings of Jewish people to get an idea of what Jesus’ hair was like. Surprisingly, this guy thinks Jesus had short hair. Using computer technology they formed a clay model of what they thought Jesus looked like.
All these people are striving to find out all they can about the life of Jesus. They even try to fill in the gaps that exist in the Bible. We know little about Jesus before he was about 30 years old. They have looked as hard as they can to try to figure out what Jesus did during the first 30 of his life. There are all kinds of wild theories.
They miss something. “The Christian life is not the life of [someone] who knows about Jesus, but the life of [someone] who knows Jesus.” The most highly educated scholar who knows all the intricate details of the life of Jesus and the world of first century Palestine is not necessarily someone who knows Jesus. Sure that person knows a lot about Jesus. I would rather be someone with no education who knows Jesus real in my heart.
Who cares what Jesus looked like? Who cares if he had short or long hair? Who cares if he lived in one house until he was thirty? All we need to know is that we know Jesus.
I knew about my wife before I met her. She came to church, and I found out a lot about her. I knew she was from Florida. I knew she was a teacher. I knew she drove a tan Hyundai. I knew she was good looking. But, I didn’t know her.
It was only after I had spent time with her that I knew her. The more time I spent with her the more I knew her. More than 11 years after I first met her, I am still learning more about her.
That’s like it is with Jesus. Until we meet him, we cannot truly know him. I would invite you to meet Jesus this morning.
