The Resurrection: Real News For Real Life Easter Sunday

The Resurrection: Real News for Real Life

Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018 – Brad Bailey

Intro

I have to admit…a part of ne is a bit of a news junkie. I like catching the news for a bit each day. Not so much just for the information…but like reflecting on how our culture thinks about things. So I check in across all the networks. If you tend to watch much news…

Has anyone else noticed that in the past year…particularly on CNN…there is nearly always the banner “Breaking News.” [1]

I find that it draws a moment of attention…BUT…then I realize…that wasn’t really THAT important. When my day ends…it really reflect something that changed my world that much.

Just this week television interview host Larry King, who left mainstream news station a few years ago… challenged his former news station and said, "Everything is breaking news. Do you notice that? When ….everything is breaking news, what's breaking news?"

When everything declares that it’s really important…we’ve lost our sense for what is really significant… for what news is really big news…for what matters.

I believe this is breaking news: Jesus of Nazareth, the One who declared he was bringing the Kingdom of God to re-take our created world…and demonstrated it by healing sickness and taking authority over evil….and said he would die as a sacrifice to atone for our sins and separation from God… and give the gift of eternal life…and was then crucifies on a Friday by the religious leaders and Roman Empire… has risen from the dead and is alive.

That is arguably real news… worthy stopping for. That may not fit in the ticker tape…but regardless of what you understand about it… it has the potential to change everything.

This is real news. By “real” I am not referring to the comical bantering over “fake news”…but rather I want to consider the nature of significance and substance. It changes everything.

On that first morning…it didn’t come as an image of the television or internet. It came in real life. As it was described in the account we heard earlier (from John’s Gospel)… they arose early in the morning while it was still dark.

That darkness represented more than just the physical darkness. They hiked along those paths outside of town in the darkness with a sense of the darkness of this world proving to define everything. They had been awakened by the profound hope in seeing One who was greater than the powers of this world. But they had defeated him. And they did so with such cruelty and injustice… that the only way to go honor his tomb was to go when it was still dark… so they wouldn’t be seen by others. One could only be left wanting to hide their association with him in the darkness.

And it was ultimately a darkness that was hanging over their whole world.

But when they arrived at the tomb…what they discovered… seemed impossible to take in.

It was too good to be true. They doubted…they wondered… and finally grasped…it was real.

Jesus was alive.

It was real news… crazy… wow…”What?”…news.

One morning something happened that changed EVERYTHING.

The darkness of their world broke open with the dawn of new life to their souls.

The darkness that permeated the world was pierced with the light of new life.

And that is how it began and unfolded. There was no footage being shown across the globe like we experienced on 9/11 when we all sat and watched and wondered…is this real…if it is.. what is it really about…and this changes our world. God was actually working in the world… no longer bound by one physical bodily life. He was not bound after all. Nor was their world bound by the powers of this world.

That was real news…and it spread. Though only initially able to spread among the local connections…it created a community that was bold and unwavering despite what threat of the religious establishment. So one of those religious leaders …a man originally by the name of Saul…was taking initiative to stop this threat about the Messiah which they thought was over. He was on his way to carry our further persecution and even execution when God even furthered his own plan. Saul was confronted. He hears these words: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Imagine being confronted by the life you had been trying to silence.

The One you thought was RUINING your world…. was the One who RULED the world.

Imagine those you hated …. had been those who were actually telling the truth.