What Can Easter In 2001 Mean To Me

Message: What Easter in 2001 Can Mean to Me

John 20:1-18

By Andrew Chan, Senior Pastor, Pilgrim Baptist Church, Vancouver, BC

Tim (The Rock) Raines returns to the Montreal Expos at age 41 Apr. 13, 2001 writes the TheStar.Com.

MONTREAL (CP) - Tim Raines wasn’t prepared for the deafening cheers from the usually quiet crowd when he stepped to the plate in his first game back in Montreal.

For Raines, it was like being in the World Series and batting with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run on base.

``It was that type of ovation,’’ said Raines, who spent his first 12 seasons with the Expos before returning this year at age 41.

Raines has been in the World Series, winning it twice with the New York Yankees. But his comeback from lupus might be an even more impressive feat for one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball history. Raines’ career appeared to have ended on July 19, 1999, when the Oakland Athletics placed him on the disabled list with a kidney inflammation. He was subsequently diagnosed with lupus.

``Lupus took me away from the game, and I wasn’t ready to give it up,’’ Raines said. ``That drove me back.’’

Nobody, other than Raines, understood the odds against him better than his wife.

``He didn’t have any muscle and he was up to about 225 pounds from the lupus,’’ Virginia Raines said. ``With all the medication he was taking, his body was so weak that he couldn’t do much.’’

Gradually, Raines was able to reduce his medication to the point where he now just takes three pills a day, along with vitamin supplements.

And so there was a thunderous reception in Montreal last week. It might have been the most gratifying moment for the man known as The Rock.

``I had tears in my eyes,’’ said his wife, Virginia. ``I knew I was going to get goosebumps, I had those, but then I started crying. It was unbelievable. It was fantastic.’’

The cheers continued throughout Raines’ first at-bat.

This was just one human being playing baseball, coming back as if from the dead.

Fanfare of Lemiuex in NHL, now Jordan too in NBA?

Greatest comeback story is Jesus coming back from the dead in easter story? What does that mean to you?

Do you cheer? Listen to what effect it had on some people in John 20.

1. Despair: (v.1-2)

“… we don’t know where they have put him.”

Feel despair from cry of Mary Magdalene. But who this woman?

Mary of Magdala, a remarkable woman.

A reformed prostitute? She might have been woman who wept at Jesus’ feet wiped his feet with her hair with tears streaming from her eyes.

Had seven demons cast out. Luke 8:1-3 (NLT)

Not long afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby cities and villages to announce the Good News concerning the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, 2 along with some women he had healed and from whom he had cast out evil spirits. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; 3 Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.

Tell impact of Jesus on her life. Love brought her to the tomb. Her faith and hope were gone. She wanted to do something, anything, for Jesus.

Forgiven, healed, clean, loved and while he was alive, she followed him lovingly serve and give him worship like a rock star fan, financial support. Suddenly this one man who has accepted her, with her questionable past, instead of being discarded like yesterday’s news, crucified, killed on cross. And she had left was the body and that too was taken away from her. Can you see why she despaired?

Easter event can lead to despair, for u see maybe Jordan can make a comeback in NBA, Raines in pro baseball, but a certified dead man, comeback to life? Trying to kid who? Sell some swamp land in Florida, ok?

If we just live on just story of Good Friday with Jesus buried, dead, gone, and no where to be found. Sure it’ll be despair.

Do u live as if Jesus never rose from the dead? If pray, it’s like talking to air, feel God is kinda dead? Where is Jesus to be found?? Perhaps you have seen Jesus in pages of the Bible before, but have not reached out to read it recently. u don’t know where u put the Bible even, perhaps suddenly from under your feet all that you built your life upon is swept right from under your feet, and you’re flat on your face in despair?

2. Denial: (v.6-7)