Behind the scenes of the first Easter Sunday
Here we are the Sunday after Easter Sunday. What should we do as Christian believers? The fact is Christ is raised from the dead. But I wonder has the message of Easter gotten thru? I wonder if this message is really truly applied by believers? Have we deeply reflected on Christ’s passion and the power of His resurrected life? What do we do now?
Shall we cash in on this new discovery? Make an exhibit out of the empty tomb? Sell t-shirts that has the slogan “Jesus is risen” on ebay? Go and build some monuments to remember the resurrection? Make the movie sequel to the Passion of the Christ? Visit the site every Easter Sunday? What should Christians do?
Let me read you the story of the disciples on that first Easter as recorded by the gospel of John 20(NLT):
Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. 4 The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, and he saw and believed—9 for until then they hadn’t realized that the Scriptures said he would rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.
I believe many of us are there with those who first discovered the empty tomb, we see the evidence of the empty tomb, we know the facts. We agree that Jesus is raised from the dead. Like v.10 says “then they went home”. Went home? Here is the most incredible thing that has happened, Jesus who clearly was tortured on the cross and died, is now risen. One disciple saw and believed and yet their reaction was just to go home. Another, by the name of Mary Magdalene said: “I don’t know where they have put him.” For her it was a matter of somebody stealing the body, Jesus can’t be risen. Apparently, the information regarding the empty tomb did not really affect them too greatly. I wonder if that is where some of us are at. We see the evidence, go to church, we believe, we go home! Like Mary, some of us are prejudiced with the idea someone rising from the dead is just too fantastic, someone must have moved the body. Well, that’s all then, time to check out, go home.
But let’s read on in John 20.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned toward him and exclaimed, “Teacher!”
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Let’s look at Mary’s reaction closely. She was crying outside the tomb where Jesus’ body laid. Here is Jesus risen, but she was crying. Why? Verse 13 says clearly, she believed someone has taken the body of Jesus away. In her grief she couldn’t recognize Jesus even if He was standing right in front of her, and He was.
I wonder if we are there too, some of us, that is? I wonder if we are crying in tombs of dead ambitions, crushed hopes, disappointment, how can things go so wrong, everything just went up in smoke it seems. Everything was so nice before. Jesus was around, it was great but then the came the cruxifixion of Jesus. Her world fell apart!
Are you there - has your world fallen apart? Perhaps the regrets of this world have overtaken us. Perhaps the pain is so overwhelming we can’t see straight anymore. Some of us are taken by surprise by the events in our world, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happen to me. We want to so much believe in Jesus, just as Mary did, but we can’t get over the hump it seems, grief, sorrow, pain has blocked our vision of the resurrected and living God.
Then Jesus said: “Mary”. At once she recognized Jesus and her grief is over and she replied “Teacher!” It must be the way Jesus said her name, her personal name. Ah, the power of that moment, she must have embraced him, reunited! That’s more than a hallmark moment, it’s a moment where something deeply personal occurred in Mary, and she could see Jesus, risen, alive and well. I wonder if we can hear today, Jesus calling your name. My friends, do you hear Jesus is calling out your name? Recognize his voice? Deep in your heart?
Jesus said this in John 10,
27 My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me.
Do you recognize the voice of Jesus? He is speaking to you, for where two or three are gathered in His name, Jesus says His presence is there, and He is calling you, do you hear him? Do you hear him say to you, you will never be taken away from him? Or is there something in you that’s preventing you from hearing? Is there disbelief, sorrow and pain, guilt that you can’t let go, it blurs your vision of Jesus? Sin you are hiding from him?
That was also the reaction the first church had too, there was widespread fear, disbelief. The news of resurrection of Jesus did not make them less fearful. In fact if you read the record, it was most unflattering:
19 That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
That’s the true story of the first Easter. If I were there to write the script, I would have told the story with much more glowing terms, instead the disciples were portrayed as cowards that were unable to even rejoice with the news that Jesus was already resurrected. They met behind locked doors! These words says it all, they were totally paralyzed. Here, we get our first glimpse of the disciples gathered together after the resurrection, the first glimpse, in other words, of the church in its earliest days, and, all in all, it is not a very pretty picture. Near the end of his life, Jesus had carefully prepared his disciples to be a devoted and confident fellowship of faith. They were to be a community of profound love with the gates wide open and the welcome mat always out, but here we find them barricaded in a house with the doors bolted shut.
They were to be the kind of people who stride boldly into the world to bear fruit in Jesus’ name, a people full of the Holy Spirit performing even greater works than Jesus himself (John 14:12), but here we find them cowering in fear, hoping nobody will find out where they are before they get their alibis straight. In short, we see here the church at its worst—scared, disheartened and defensive.
If this little sealed-off group of Christians were to place one of those cheery church ads in the Saturday newspaper, what could it possibly say? “The friendly church where all are welcome”? Hardly, unless one counts locked doors as a sign of hospitality. “The church with a warm heart and a bold mission”? Actually more like the church with sweaty palms and a timid spirit.
Indeed, John’s gospel gives us a snapshot of a church with nothing – no plan, no promise, no program, no perky youth ministry, no powerful preaching, no parking lot, no worship bands, no bake-sales, nothing. In fact, when all is said and done, this terrified little band huddled in the corner of a room with a chair braced against the door has only one thing going for it: the risen Christ. And that seems to be the main point of this story. In the final analysis, this is a story about how the risen Christ pushed open the bolted door of a church with nothing, how the risen Christ enters the fearful chambers of every church and fills the place with his own life.
(Adapted from Whispering The Lyrics, Thomas G. Long, CSS Publishing, 1995)
The word of God tells us:
Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see, and he showed them his side. They were filled with joy when they saw their Lord! 21 He spoke to them again and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven.”
Do you identify with that first Easter Sunday gathering? What do we have to offer the world, church? Maybe today we look at ourselves, we have nothing to offer. What have we got here? Certainly not the best facilities in the world, certainly not ample parking, certainly not the best of anything. But Jesus sent that first church with these words (read v.21-23). Tell the world peace can be found, forgiveness is attainable, forgive them, if you refuse to tell them this news, they will remain unforgiven. They will be lost. There will be no hope. Go, in the power of the Spirit, help them to know the forgiveness of God through you, the church with nothing. Will you allow Jesus to breathe in life, His Spirit in you, allow His peace to take over?
There is a little PS written in the gospel of John…
30 Jesus’ disciples saw him do many other miraculous signs besides the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life.
This is what we have to offer… the power of a transformation, the power of the resurrected Christ who comes to our fears and fills it with peace. The power of restoration, redemtpion, renewal. Death can’t hold him, life exudes from him, the friendship of God offered by His wounds to communicate that others “may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life.”
Check out the church ads on the religion page of the Saturday edition of most big city newspapers and you find some impressive sounding places of worship. There, with sleek graphics and Madison Avenue phrases, a few select churches boast of their assets—their choirs, their friendliness, their powerful preaching, their singles ministries, their ample parking, their family life centers, their sensitive child care, and their compassionate spirit. Some churches, it seems, have it all. Other churches, however, appear by contrast to have nothing, absolutely nothing. Take, for example, the first church depicted in bible John 20:19
BUT take heart church, The resurrected Christ has come. He wants to do a makeover of the church. He wants to do deep surgery, not just cosmetic surgery. He wants to speak to the deep needs of people, to improve their lives. He understands there are fears, insecurities, pressures, stresses that we rather see go away. He knows how we feel trapped, going through life, low on energy, our doors are shut. But the resurrected Christ says: Peace be with you. You are forgiven. Receive now His Holy Spirit! Trust Jesus to do it for you! And he’s sent that first unimpressive church, the church with nothing but fear and the world has not been the same.
Folks God sees us as world changers, in spite of the fears and failures we have. The best stuff is you! He sends us! He sends you, a life touched by the peace of God, empowered now by faith through the Spirit of the Living Christ! Jesus believes that the best resource for the world is this, a changed you, touched by forgiveness and fears being replaced by the peace of God through the risen Christ. Receive the Spirit of God in fullness once again. Even when we have done horribly, misunderstood Jesus, like the disciples, the first church did, He still thinks the world of you, Spread the word! Tell others their sins are forgiven.
Stressed out? Terrified?Failed? Peace be with you! I believe Jesus says that to us. Into your paralyzing bolted doors of your life Jesus comes. Opne up your heart today , let the risen Christ come in and say "peace be with you". Amen!
