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What to Expect on Sunday |
Like all families, whenever our family gets together we like to tell family stories. And those stories, much like yours I would imagine, resurface again and again when the family gathers. The really good ones at least. The stories that are really worth telling. One of the Holmes family stories that repeatedly shows up involves a Chinese restaurant. This story actually came up last Sunday in a conversation with Jane Hays. Well, actually, I was first talking to my daughter, Lindsay, right outside the office door and, using my hands as I talked, I almost knocked Jane over as she approached me to ask a question. And, Jane, you might recall from the conversation that ensued about talking with our hands—I understand Bill has knocked over a glass of wine or two in such fashion(!)—I told you then I had a really good story about people who talk with their hands and one day I would tell you that story. Well, today’s the day! The story involves my last day of work at the radio station in Greeley and it involves a Chinese restaurant, which also requires my using, for a brief moment, an Asain accent. I don’t mean to be belittling in that, it’s just a part of the story, so please bear with me for a moment. Anyway, the story is this. New ownership had taken over the station and made a lot of changes which resulted in my services no longer being needed at the station. So, on my last day at the station, some of my co-workers wanted to take me to lunch. Some of them might’ve actually been celebrating that day! Whatever their motivation, about a dozen of us walked the half-block up the street from the station to a Chinese restaurant we frequently went to. Because of the size of our group, they pushed three tables together at the very back of the restaurant and seated us there. Half of our group sat with their backs to the back wall of the restaurant and half, including me, sat facing the wall with our backs to the rest of the restaurant. Eventually, the waiter took our orders and we continued in our conversation. A few moments later, I was in the middle of telling a particularly good story which needed lots of hand motions in my telling. Right then, unbeknownst to me because my back was to the restaurant, the waiter was approaching over my left shoulder with my soup. Egg drop soup, ironically. Because, yes, right as he moved to set my soup in front of me, I made a particularly emphatic point in my story and sent the soup flying out of his hand and all over me. The waiter, a young Asian man about half my size, was mortified. He was very apologetic and ran to get some rags to clean everything up. He returned, again very apologetic, and I laughed, along with the rest of the group, trying to reassure him that it was my fault, not his. We got things pretty well cleaned up and continued our meal. However, throughout the rest of our meal, whenever the waiter got anywhere near the table with some food in his hands he would first say, "Here I come!" From the replacement soup to the fortune cookies—every time, "Here I come!" My kids love to hear that story. It’s a good story with a funny outcome. At least our lunch party spent most of that lunch time laughing. It’s a story worth telling. The ultimate in a story worth telling is the Easter story. Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross, buried in a tomb, raised from the dead and brought back to life—and that so we might be freed from the bondage of our sin and restored to a right relationship with God—that’s a story worth telling. It is the highmark story in Christian faith, the story we tell again and again on this day, Easter Sunday. If any story is worth telling over and over again, it is that story. Which is why the ending to the Gospel of Mark is so suprising, so sudden and abrupt. Forget verses 9-20, most Bibles include the words that tell us those verses aren’t found in the earliest manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel. Some later scribe apparently had similar problems in reading the abrupt end to Mark’s Gospel, so he filled in the blanks! What we do have in the earliest manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel is the abrupt ending: The women see the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb; the tomb is empty except for a "young man dressed in a white robe" who tells them Jesus has risen and to go and tell the disciples, including Peter. But, the women tell no one! That is how Mark’s Gospel ends—[the women] said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." We can understand their fear and confusion, but we have a hard time with that ending. In part, we have a hard time with that ending because these are women…and they said nothing to anyone? No woman could keep that to herself, let alone three women! And guys, before you laugh too much at the ladies, it’s a good thing it wasn’t men in this story. Because if it had been men, they would’ve returned from the tomb and when someone asked them if anything interesting happened to them they collectively would’ve answered, "Uh-uh!" And the whole thing would’ve ended right there. At least the women eventually told someone. We know they told someone because of the other Gospel accounts and because the story continued on from that point and continues to this day. The story didn’t end with women too afraid to tell anyone…or men too reticent. Eventually, the story was told, and told again. More than that, other experiences with the resurrected Jesus took place, and the story of their experiences were told, and told some more, and we celebrate those stories today. It is a story that stretches credulity. The disciples didn’t fully believe it until they experienced the resurrected Jesus. Two are walking on the road to Emmaus, distressed and talking about the events that took place when suddenly Jesus joins them—whom they didn’t recognize until later. Jesus appears to the disciples gathered in a locked room and they are moved from fear to joy at seeing Jesus. However, Thomas is missing from the group that day so Jesus appears to "doubting Thomas" a week later and delivers that familiar line, somewhat chiding to Thomas and the other disciples, but so affirming and encouraging to followers of Christ today, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed," (John 20:29). It is an unusual story, one that is difficult to believe. We don’t have the benefit the disciples had of personally seeing the resurrected Lord, but we do have the testimony of their eyewitness accounts and their lives to help us come to belief in the story. But it is an unusual story. And so we are challenged in our believing it—as expressed by theologian Wolfgang Pannenberg who is quoted on our bulletin cover this morning. "The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live." Because of the unusual nature of the story, many other possible explanations have been given to try and explain it. One fairly common attempt is to claim that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, he merely "swooned" and was revived later. Generally, my response to that is, "How about if we beat you nearly to death, then nail you to a cross for six hours and see how you do?" I’m sorry, that’s not very Christian of me! So, I try to say, in Christian love, "How about if we beat you nearly to death, then nail you to a cross for six hours and see how you do?" The point is Jesus went through extreme physical punishment. The swoon theory flies in the face of all evidence concerning all that happened to Jesus in that fateful series of events. Another theory that achieved some popularity many years ago, in the late 60’s but still surfaces every once in awhile yet today is the "Passover Plot." This is a book written in 1965 by British scholar Hugh Schonfield that purports the theory that Jesus, knowing the significance of the Messiah to 1st century Jews, took on that persona and planned the events of his arrest and crucifixion in order to take the role of Messiah for the Jews. According to Schonfield’s reading of the Gospel of John, quoting now from Wikipedia’s description of The Passover Plot, "John’s account…suggests that Jesus had planned everything. Among other things, so that he would not be on the cross for more than a few hours before the Sabbath arrived when it was required by law that Jews be taken down, so that one of his supporters, who was on hand, would give him water (to quench his thirst) that was actually laced with a drug to make him unconscious, and so that Joseph of Arimathea, a well-connected supporter, would collect him off the cross while still alive (but appearing dead) so that he could be secretly nursed back to health. Schonfield suggests that the plan went awry because of a soldier’s actions with a spear." The implication being that the soldier stabbing Jesus with his spear—an act which was customary in crucifixions in order to confirm the death of the person being crucified—is what unexpectedly caused Jesus’ death and spoiled his plans. Now the defaming of the character of Jesus notwithstanding, and that is not a minor point, but setting that aside I still find it incredible the unusual stories people come up with in order to explain the unusual story of Jesus’ death (or supposed death) and resurrection. Stories that, for some reason, make it easier for some people to accept. But, some questions that surface with such speculations. Would you trust your life to such a plot? And, if Schonfield’s speculations were true, do you really think the plot would’ve been kept secret? Would you be willing to die for such a lie? What possible benefit would the disciples receive for carrying out such a plot and, more importantly, for maintaining the lie after a soldier’s spear disrupted their plans? What did the disciples get for maintaining their connection to Jesus and the story that he had risen from the dead? Persecution. Death, and that often by tortuous, excruciating means. Sure, we remember their names today, but do you really think that was motivation enough to sustain the lie? Particularly in the realities of what happened in their lives? If someone were to threaten my life in such fashion over my little story of lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Greeley, Colorado, I’d say, "What restaurant, and where is Greeley? Never been there!" And my little story is a true story, but not one worth dying for! Would anyone endure severe persecution and torturous death for a lie? To believe such a thing takes faith beyond anything needed to believe in the resurrection. Yet, some people choose that direction for their beliefs rather than putting their faith, their hope in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps it is the "unusual" aspect of the story that pushes people to such extravagances. However, I suspect it’s also the second challenge from Pannenberg that’s partly the cause. "To believe in the resurrection means you have to change the way you live." If Jesus is who he says he is, if Jesus did for us what Christian faith and Scripture say he did, well then…it ought to change the way you live. If Jesus is the character of The Passover Plot, well then this fake, this charlatan and fraud can be quickly dismissed and we can move on in our worldly pursuits—last one out of the church please turn off the lights. But, if Jesus is who he says he is—what the witness of the disciples and the witness of Scripture lead us with good reason to believe about who Jesus is—well then that changes everything. Or certainly ought to. We should not fall prey to what I call "cheap grace," well-meaning but poorly thought out attempts to invite people to accept God’s act of grace in Jesus Christ—Christ’s death and resurrection that we might be saved from our sins—without having to change anything else about their lives. To be clear, God wants us to "come as we are" to Him through Jesus Christ. No minimum requirements of Bible knowledge. No minimum requirements of familiarity with the story of Easter. No minimum number of days, or hours, spent in church, or in conversation with Pastor Ron or Pastor Barbara before you are "acceptable" to God. No, God wants you to come to Him exactly as you are. Today. Right now. But, let’s also be clear. He doesn’t want you to stay that way. He wants you to become more and more like Jesus. He wants your life to change…for the better. Jesus wants to be not only your Savior, but he wants to be your Lord as well. And he desires that, not because he’s driven by some big ego, or Messiah complex ala the Jesus of The Passover Plot. No, he wants to be your Lord as well because he knows that his way is the best way for your life. And if Jesus is who he says he is, we should want that as well. So, let’s not make the mistake of cheap grace. Jesus went to the cross for you, and he rose from the dead so that you might live a new life in him. A new life, first of all, in eternity with him. That’s Jesus as Savior, and it’s a story worth telling. But Jesus also went to the cross for you and rose from the dead for you so that you might live a new life…right here and now. A new life with priorities in order and goals properly in place. A new life that seeks to follow the standards God has put in place for us, not to spoil our fun, but to bring real joy, real meaning and purpose to life. A new life that seeks to put away the old self—the self of bad habits and sin, the self of selfish actions and damaging consequences—and put on the new life of a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the cross, died for you and me…and rose from the dead that we might live a new life, both in the future…and right here and now. Jesus Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) And that is a story worth telling!
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