Introduction
Happy
Easter! Jesus is alive!
We
don’t always realise this, but the New Testament letters were mostly written
before the Gospels so our first reading is the earliest record of the
resurrection that we have, probably about 15 years after the events.
I'm
going to focus first of all on this passage, 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1091) where
Paul says, “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you
received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved,
if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed
in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
This
is, he says, a matter of first importance. That’s not first in sequence, it’s
first in significance. It’s at the very top of the list of absolutely essential
things to grasp in life he says.
Here
in v1-4 is the essential core of what Christians believe. “I received it” Paul
says. “I passed it on to you like a relay baton as my top priority.” And like
in a relay race, if you drop the baton you are disqualified from the race.
The
great theologian and former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright calls what we find here
the ‘irreducible minimum’, without which this is no longer the gospel, if we
don't hold at least this we are not Christians, we are still stuck in our sins,
estranged from God and lost for all eternity.
What
is this irreducible minimum? Two things. First of all, Jesus’ atoning death as
a substitute, in our place, and secondly, his stunning physical, bodily
resurrection from the dead. These two events must have prominence and
precedence and pre-eminence in our faith. This is the gospel. Without this we
have nothing of value to say to the world.
Empty
Tomb
On
Sunday 26 November 1922, after years of study and investigation, the British
archaeologist Howard Carter found the entrance to an ancient burial chamber.
With a trembling hand, Carter made a breach in the doorway with his chisel, and
peered in aided by the light of a candle.
“As
my eyes grew accustomed to the light,” he said, “details of the room within
emerged slowly from the mist.” He gazed in wonder at piles of treasures; what
he later described as “strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the
glint of gold.”
Lord
Carnarvon, who had been funding his research for nearly a decade, called out to
him from the top of the steps leading down to the tomb. “Can you see anything?”
he said. And Carter shouted back in a voice cracking with emotion, “Yes,” he
said, “wonderful things!”
It
took Howard Carter ten years to catalogue all 5,398 items found in that tomb,
of course as we know, of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It remains to this day
the greatest ever discovery in all Egyptology. It will probably never be
surpassed. Carter went on to write about his discoveries with these words; “It
was the day of days, the most wonderful that I have ever lived through.”
Another
Sunday, as far as we can work out the dates, we’re not sure but the best guess
is 5 April 33AD, three women peer into another tomb in the Middle-East. And
what do they see? Wonderful things! Truly wonderful things! It would become for
them the day of days, the most wonderful that they had ever lived through.
Because
as they squinted into that tomb, hollowed out of the rock, they didn’t see gold
or jewels or ebony; or any exquisite, dazzling, priceless sarcophagus, or
treasures of any kind. All they saw that morning was a discarded, bloodstained
burial shroud left behind and lying on a stone slab in a vacant cave.
Sometime
shortly before they arrived, the most momentous event in world history had
taken place.
It
means Jesus has got the whole world in his hands.
And
I want us to focus on his hands just for a moment.
- those hands that had wiped sweat off his brow in the carpenter’s workshop where he grew up
- those hands that opened blind eyes with a single touch
- those hands that wrote in the dust before discharging a sinful woman from the accusations of self-righteous men
- those hands that received and blessed the children who came to him
- those hands that cleansed untouchable lepers with a compassionate touch, so tender
- those hands that broke bread and lifted the cup at the last supper
- those hands that carried the cross to his place of execution
- those hands that curled up in agony as they were smashed against the coarse wood of his cross
- those hands that held to his lips the cup of God’s wrath against sin before he drank it dry
- those hands that hung limp and lifeless as he was lifted down dead from the cross
- those hands that turned stone cold in the cool of the tomb…
And
on that first Easter Day, all of a sudden his wrists begin to tingle, and his
fingers begin to wiggle, and his hands begin to move, and his arms begin to
stretch - and those hands throw off his burial shroud and push him up from the
slab, he shoves the one-and-a-half ton stone out his way and those hands are
now on his hips, as out from the grave he strides, victorious over death
forever!
That’s
the day of days! That’s the most wonderful day that this world has ever lived
through.
Between
Good Friday and Easter Sunday
We
know where Jesus was at the moment of his arrest - in the Garden of Gethsemane,
several hundred metres from Jerusalem’s city walls. We know where he was at the
moment of his resurrection three days later - in another garden; this time a
memorial garden close to Golgotha. For Friday and Sunday it all seems clear
enough. But where was Jesus on Saturday?
This
is the question a Bishop asked a class of sixth formers about 10 years ago.
“Where do you think Jesus was between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?” Dead
silence… And then a sixteen year-old girl raises her hand and gives this reply.
“I don’t know exactly, but I wonder if he was in deepest hell, looking for
Judas his lost friend?”
The
Bible doesn’t exactly put it that way. The First Letter of Peter says he was in
the place of the dead preaching to disembodied spirits from the time of Noah.
But
I do think that young person’s reply shows an understanding of how wide and
high and low and deep the love of Jesus is. This is the Good Shepherd who goes
looking for one lost sheep.
Between
Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus was also settling a few accounts with the
devil.
If
you’ve seen the film based on Homer’s Iliad called Troy you'll remember a scene
in that film where the armies of Greece and Thessaly are lined up against each
other, ready for battle. And they come to an agreement. They decide that, to
save massive bloodshed, each army should select a champion, a bit like David
and Goliath, and they can fight it out between them and the victory will go to
the army of the victor.
Thessaly
select a brute of a man called Boagrius. What a specimen! He’s about 7 foot
tall, shaven headed, eyebrows joining together, all muscle, he’s an absolute
beast. And he strides forward with a mean frown on his forehead and a snarling
mouth.
Then
the Greeks bring out their champion; Achilles. It looks like a mismatch.
Achilles is muscular and fleet-footed by most people’s standards but Boagrius
is a monster. Everyone watches with baited breath. They advance towards each
other. Boagrius takes a great javelin and hurls it at Achilles. Achilles raises
his great circular shield and just fends it off like it is some kind of insult
and he continues to stride forward, completely fearless.
Boagrius
seems to find it amusing though and he hurls another spear. The same thing
happens; Achilles just swats it away. Then, as Achilles approaches, out comes
Boagrius’ huge flashing sword but it is scarcely out of the scabbard before
Achilles has athletically leapt towards him and he dispatches him in one move.
Boagrius drops to the dust face first and with a mighty cheer the day goes to
the Greeks. What a scene!
Then
Achilles, unflinching, strides out towards the Thessalian army all lined up in
rank and he looks up and down, and left and right, and he shouts out “Is there
anyone else?” And everyone steps back. “Definitely not me. Maybe him…”
Listen,
between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus descended to the place of the dead.
He had taken an absolute battering at the cross. It was brutal. It was carnage.
He got the full force of human wickedness, he took a complete hammering –
literally - they smashed the loveliest life ever lived against the cross of
shame.
But
between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus faced off all the powers of hell
and said “Is that all you’ve got? Is there no one else? Does no one else want
to have a go?” Is there no other challenger? Is there no other adversary?
There
was no one else! All the powers of evil cringed and shrunk off into the shadows
of hell. Sin and death, like rats on a sinking ship, panicked and ran. Every
demon, every evil spirit cowered and recoiled. And when he’d seen them off, as
the old hymn says, “up from the grave he rose with a mighty triumph over his
foes.”
Jesus
rose from the dead. And the resurrection of Jesus authenticates, validates
everything he said and did. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, you don’t need
to take any notice of what he said. It’s of no consequence.
But
he said he was going up to Jerusalem - and he went. He said he would be mocked,
beaten, spat on and handed over - and he was. He said they would crucify him -
and they did. He said after three days he would rise again - and up from the
grave he rose.
People
say, “Yeah, but what about other religions? What about other philosophies?”
Well, what about them?” The evangelist J. John puts it this way; “You’re
walking down a street and it branches in two, and you don’t know which way to
go… there are two men lying there; one’s dead and one’s alive. Which one would
you ask for directions?”
The
Buddah, Moses, Patanjali, Mohammad, Confucius and all the rest of them are all
dead. Jesus is alive. He alone of all religious figures brings real forgiveness
today, true freedom, deep healing today, new life, fresh hope and a bright
future today to all who come to him in faith.
The
First Witness
Now
let's look at Mark’s gospel now (page 967). It says in v9 that Jesus
appeared first to Mary Magdalene. The other three gospels agree. She’s gone at
first light with two other women to wash Jesus’ body, hastily buried the
previous Friday, and embalm it with spices. It’s her last act of
devotion.
But
when she gets there she finds that grave has been disturbed and the body is
gone. And the emotion of the weekend gets the better of her; she can’t even
have any closure and she just wells up and loses it right there.
She’s
got tears running down her cheeks. She feels wretched. She’s been sobbing for
three days and now it’s getting worse. Her eyes are wet and weary from constant
crying. All she’s got are unanswered questions. Who’s taken the body? Where is
it? Why has it been moved?
Ancient
tradition says Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute. She is sometimes
identified with an unnamed woman who had lived a sinful life who poured perfume
on Jesus’ feet earlier in Mark’s Gospel.
It
tells us here in v9 that Jesus had delivered her of seven demons. To have one
was a living nightmare – she had seven of them. Just think of the oppression,
the attrition, the heaviness, the shadows, the torment, the constant harassment
that she lived with…
We
don’t need to know what the demons were or how she got them. All we need to
know is that when she met Jesus, they had to go and her living nightmare was
over with a word of his command.
No
wonder she loved him! This was the only man who had ever treated her with
dignity. No wonder she stayed to the very end at the cross and no wonder she
was first to arrive at the tomb.
Ending
About
6 years ago I met a man called Dennis Balcombe. He is based in Hong Kong and he
often travels into mainland China to visit outlawed churches where there is an
unprecedented spiritual revival. It is estimated that Christians now number
around 100 million in China. Now, this man had heard rumours of great signs and
wonders accompanying the preaching of the Gospel there including resurrections
from the dead, so he was eager to make enquiries about it.
Everywhere
he travelled in China people said, “Yes, it’s true” and one man even came
forward personally saying, “I was one of those who was raised.” Others present
confirmed his testimony saying they had been mourners at his funeral when it
happened. He had been certified dead the previous day.
That
man will die again one day. Those who are miraculously healed will grow old and
will one day die.
But
Jesus was raised and lives for evermore - he saves the desperate, he transforms
lives, he healing the sick and he mends broken hearts.
That's
why today and every day can be the day of days, a day of wonderful things, the like of which we
shall never see again, the most wonderful this world has ever lived through.
Let’s
stand to pray…
Sermon preached on Easter Sunday 2016 at All Saints' Preston on Tees.
Thanks to Simon Ponsonby at New Wine 2015 for the inspiration for much of this material. Too good to waste!
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