“All Things New”
Easter
Sunday – Bethel Baptist Church, Scottsburg VA
Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23
Recently, I read a couple of articles in Baptist
press about the American fascination with vampires and zombies (and I’ll add
ghosts to the list). All you have to do
is turn on the TV or show up at any random movie theater and you’ll find these
stories in abundance. The Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta last year offered a breakout session, led by
professor Curtis Freeman, on the church’s relationship with this genre of
entertainment.[i] The popularity of zombies and vampires in our
culture is an indication that despite our abandonment of traditional religion,
we’re still interested in issues like the afterlife and the decline of
civilization.
Everybody loves a good horror story. There’s something about them that makes our
lives—no matter how dismal— seem not so bad.
Every year, Jesus and His followers would celebrate a horror story
called Passover. Yes, it was about the
glorious rescue of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. But it was also about plagues and pestilence
and a destroying angel brining death to the firstborn. They had to remember the dark things in order
to celebrate God bringing them through it.
On one particular Passover, the disciples not only
remembered a horror story—they lived one.
Jesus had predicted it, but nobody had believed it. But the impossible had happened. The religious leaders that the disciples had
trusted up to a few years ago had arrested the Master, charged Him with
blasphemy, and turned Him over to the Romans for a further charge of
treason. Jesus had been brutally
tortured and crucified. The sky had
turned black, and there had been an earthquake at His passing. “The tombs were
opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were
raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the
holy city and appeared to many (Mt 27:52-53[ii]).” Jesus was buried, leaving the disciples with
nothing but fear and regret. Fear that
the Romans would come after them next.
Regret because though they had sworn to stick by Jesus, nearly all of
them had failed Him.
Even though it was Judas who had betrayed the Lord,
the disciples had to be asking themselves, “Why didn’t we see this coming?” Judas, of course, had added to the horror
story by his own suicide, so great was his remorse for the terrible thing that
he had done. Both Jesus and Judas had
been their friends. So, as often follows
suicides, the disciples had to be asking themselves that classic question, “How
could we have prevented this? Is Judas’
death on our heads, just as Jesus’ death is?”
Regret gnawed at them with sharp teeth. They had told Jesus that they would go to their
deaths for Him, yet when things began to fall apart, they had failed. Peter, James, and John had fallen asleep
during Jesus’ most desperate hour in Gethsemane. Judas concealed enmity with a kiss. Three times Peter denied even knowing
Jesus. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
failed at defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
The disciples all scattered—only John
followed Jesus to Golgotha to stand at the foot of the cross. In a day, all the horror stories they had
ever heard became real. Guilt and shame
ate at them—then something worse happened.
Jesus rose from the grave.
Yes, I said that this was even worse. From our perspective, we think of the empty
tomb as a magnificent thing—but the disciples didn’t share our
perspective. Peter and John had found
the grave opened and Jesus’ body gone. Had
somebody stolen the body? Their women
had told them that they’d seen the risen Lord—but that was impossible, wasn’t
it? Of course, Jesus was Master of the
impossible. But if He had come back,
what would He do to those who had betrayed Him, abandoned Him, denied Him,
failed Him?
So, Luke 24:36-37 says, “While they were telling
these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace
be to you.’ But they were startled and frightened
and thought that they were seeing a spirit.” You have to remember—Christians have been
taught about the resurrection for two thousand years. But they didn’t know what this thing was that
stood before them. The dead don’t just
come up out of their graves and walk around.
But they’d heard horror stories before—tales of ghosts coming back to
haunt people who had hurt them in life.
This is why they were frightened when they thought they were seeing a
spirit. Jesus was back—and what would He
do to them now?
This is why the Lord’s first words to them were so
important: “Peace be to you.” He saw
them shaking in their shoes. He knew
they were wondering what kind of retribution a spectre might bring against
those who had failed Him. So He said, “Peace.” “And He said to them, “Why are you
troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts (Luke 24:38)?” Jesus reassured them that He had not returned
like some undead creature from the crypt.
Neither was a ghostly apparition or figment of their imaginations, the
product of indigestion, “more gravy than grave,” as Scrooge once said. No—Jesus was alive. Fully alive.
So alive that He could show them His scars, invite them to touch Him,
and sit down to eat with them. Jesus was
alive, and He was real. Everything was
okay.
Perhaps like the disciples, you feel like you have
betrayed, abandoned, or failed the Lord.
You too have lived out a real-life horror story that is more scary than
you’d like to tell. To you, God has
become more a phantom to be feared than a Lord to be loved or a Brother to
embrace. Today, God speaks the same
words to you that He did to His disciples after the resurrection. “Peace be to you.” He knows that you’re troubled, and that
doubts arise in your heart—but He loves you anyway, and wants to give you His
peace.
John chapter 20 records the very same appearance of
Jesus after the resurrection, but He adds some more detail. Still, in the midst of their fear, Jesus
shows up and gives them His peace. But
He then sends them on a mission of peace.
“As the Father has sent Me, I also send you (verse 21).” Peace is to become their new lifestyle, their
new purpose, their new profession. He
gives you the same commission. Jesus
doesn’t want you to be at peace. He
wants you to bring peace to others.
But you can’t do this on your own. God isn’t fooled. He knows that you are troubled, and that
doubts arise within your heart. So He
gives you the same gift He gave the disciples.
His Holy Spirit gives you access to God’s supernatural peace, then equips
and enables you to share it. But it
doesn’t stop there.
In John 20:23, Jesus tells the disciples that if
they’re going to receive His peace, and go on a mission of peace that’s
empowered by the Holy Spirit, they must start by first extending His peace
within their own body. After all that
had happened, they had a lot of forgiving to do. They had to extend God’s forgiveness to one
another, and receive it for themselves.
Only by moving past the past could they move forward. Jesus tells you the same thing—you’ve got to
start within, forgiving others and receiving God’s forgiveness yourself. Otherwise, you’ll just keep reliving the same
old horror story over and over again.
Only when you do this can the resurrection make any sense in your life. Steven Cole tells the following story:
A little boy visiting his grandparents and given his first slingshot. He
practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to
Grandma's back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let
fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately he
hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to look up and see his sister
watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the
dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the
kitchen today. Didn't you, Johnny?" And she whispered to him,
"Remember the duck!" So Johnny did the dishes.
Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing., Grandma said,
"I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally smiled and
said, "That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it." Again she
whispered, "Remember the duck." Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing.
After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he
couldn't stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he'd killed the duck. "I
know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the
window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered
how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."[iii]
Jesus
died a horrible death, proving that humanity is capable of the worst of sins
and atrocities. But then His
resurrection proves that God’s glory eclipses even the worst sin. He speaks peace and mission and blessing and
forgiveness, because He wants to end our horror story and give it a good
ending. The problem is that every time
we relive our sins, we let Sally make a slave of us again. Each time we choose to live in the past,
holding onto fear and unforgiveness, we let the devil win.
Jesus
rose so that we could rise above these things.
He defeated death so we could live in victory. For this reason, our horror story becomes the
Good News: Christ is risen (Christ is risen, indeed)!
[i] “Session explores churches and zombies in
post-Christian age.” Jeff Brumley. June
30, 2014.
http://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28882-session-explores-churches-and-zombies-in-post-christian-age. April 4, 2015. See also: “Many Americans find meaning in
vampire, zombie tales, Baylor prof says.”
Jeff Brumley. March 16, 2015.
[ii]
All scriptures taken from the NASB.
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