Sermon manuscript:
“And they said nothing to anyone,
for they were afraid.”
Everybody inevitably learns that there are some things you
can’t change. Things have been written into our DNA, for example. One is
predisposed for this. Another is predisposed for that. It’s disappointing, but
what can be done? There are so many things like that. Things are the way they
are.
There’s a little bit of comfort that comes from acknowledging
things as they are. Perhaps you’ve heard of the five stages of grief. The last
stage is acceptance. That is the stage that everyone is looking for because of
that little bit of comfort that comes with it. There’s a bit of peace. Prior to
acceptance there is all kinds of fighting: denial, anger, bargaining,
depression. Those are all ways of saying, “No!” Acceptance is that motherly
voice that says, “Hush now. There there. Nothing can be done. In time you’ll
come to accept it, then you’ll be at peace.”
The reason why there is peace is because you finally
acknowledge the superiority of the forces at work. They are much larger and
stronger than you. If you can’t beat these forces, then you might as well quit
fighting. It’s a relief to not have to fight anymore. Having settled down the
choke chain can be taken off and a regular leash put on.
The apostle Paul in several places in his letters talks
about the superior and overwhelming powers and forces that exist in life. One
of his favorite terms for this are the orderly pillars of this world, sometimes
translated as the “principles of this world.”
Paul says that we were enslaved to these things. That’s another way of saying
that they are overwhelmingly superior to us. We have to accept things the way
they are—we have no other choice—because there’s no changing them. But Paul proclaims
something thrilling: God, in Christ, has set us free. We don’t have to resign
ourselves to what is assumed to be inevitable.
Not resigning yourself to what is deemed to be inevitable is
one way to look at Jesus’s work. The blind person seems to be doomed to blindness—nothing
can be done—and yet he sees. The deaf hears. The unrighteous persons—drug
dealers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and such—need not be unrighteous forever.
Even the dead person can have those seemingly unbreakable chains broken. Jesus
preaches good news. Good news for those who are enslaved to overwhelming forces
is the message: “You are free!”
Think about Easter. Death is that ultimate force before whose
superiority we grieve. Fight as you may, the best option seems to be acceptance.
But, as Isaiah prophesied and as Jesus fulfilled, “Death
is swallowed up forever.” The angel said, “You
seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He’s not here. He has risen.”
Jesus was no longer enslaved to death. He became its master. If Jesus can break
this seemingly unbreakable chain, what others might be broken? The answer is all
of them!
This is made clear with the festival we will celebrate 40
days from now, which is closely related to Easter. 40 days from now we will
celebrate Jesus’s ascension into heaven. He was raised up to the right hand of
God the Father. This is the position of superiority over absolutely everything
except God the Father.
Try to think of something that you deem to be absolute and
unchangeable. How about the laws of thermo-dynamics? The physicists say that
they are unbreakable. Jesus can break them. How about the space / time
continuum discovered by Einstein? Jesus is Lord over it.
But these concerns can seem rather remote. How about that
seemingly unchangeable law about money—namely, that those who’ve got it are
going to keep it and those who don’t aren’t going to get it? Jesus is Lord. He
has spoken about this. He turns things on their head. He says, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your
consolation,” and, on the other hand: “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours in the kingdom of God.” Money, finance,
economics and so on are certainly things that people regard as inevitable and
unchangeable. Jesus is Lord.
Or what if you are one of those charmed individuals who’s
got the world by the tail? You’re so charming and dashing. Everyone loves you.
In the game of life, you’re a winner. Or, on the other hand, you’re not one of
those people. You’ve never been popular. You’re sad and lonely. The general
rule for how things go in this life is that those who are sparkling and
charming remain sparkling and charming. Those who are duds remain duds.
Jesus, again, has spoken to this. He says, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”
And, on the other hand: “Blessed are you who weep now,
for you shall laugh.” Jesus is Lord. You are not lord with all your
talents and charm. Neither are sadness and loneliness lord. Jesus is Lord.
You can perhaps see how Easter has an edge to it. You can
see how Easter has an edge to it in our Gospel reading this morning. Did you
notice the women’s reaction? When the angel told them that Jesus had risen you
might have expected them to react with a “Hurray!” What does it say? “And they went out and fled from the tomb.” They
couldn’t get away fast enough. And it says, “Trembling
and astonishment had seized them.” They shook. That word “astonishment”
literally means, “they were out of their minds.” Their world was reeling; their
heads were swimming. Finally it says, “They said
nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
We are all well catechized in how we are supposed to react
to Easter. We are supposed to be joyful and happy. So were these women doing
wrong? I don’t think so. I think they were seeing something that we often don’t
see. They were seeing that everything is changed. The old masters are no longer
supreme. Jesus is supreme. That is to say, Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is the
king! They had, of course, believed this about Jesus before, but they thought
that he would only be an earthly king—a king of Israel. As it turns out he is
king over absolutely everything. Easter changes everything.
Easter changes everything towards the good. Jesus as king is
going to bring in everything that is good and life-giving and he is going to expel
everything that is evil and life destroying. What is good will remain. What is
evil will not. The days are numbered for everything and everyone that is evil.
Sin, death, the devil, evil people, evil institutions—all of these are going
under the boot of this King.
If you’d like to get an idea of what this resurrected,
ascended, supreme King is like read Psalm 2. The apostles liked to quote Psalm
2, because it is so obviously about Jesus. What this Psalm says, in general, is
that the kings, the high and mighty, those who regard themselves as the
greatest, are going to have another thought coming. The Psalm says, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in
derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury.”
Needless to say, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of this King!
And you need not be on the wrong side of this King. The good
news went out into all the world after Easter, after the ascension, and after
Pentecost. The good news proclaims freedom to those who have been enslaved.
The only ones to whom the good news is not good news are
those who want to remain enslaved—those who want to hold on to their evil.
Those who say, “I am the way that I am, buzz off with your talk,” are on the
wrong side of this King. Those who say, “Things are the way they are, you just
have to accept it,” are on the wrong side of this King. Psalm 2 gives us this
pertinent advice, “Kiss the Son—kiss Jesus—lest he be
angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.” But
then there is also this word of hope right after that: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
That is a good way to encapsulate Easter: “Blessed are all who take refuge in Jesus.” Why are
they so blessed? Because Jesus is king. Jesus rising from the dead shows that
he is Christ the king. If you take refuge in him, then everything has to turn
out for the good. Jesus is increasing what is good and making what is good
eternal. Whatever evil afflicts you, whatever evil afflicts your family, whatever
evil afflicts our society, whatever evil afflicts the whole world is temporary
and passing away. Evil is not supreme. Evil is not unchangeable.
So don’t accept evil. You are not powerless before it so
that your only choice is to accept it. In Christ you are not dealing with a
superior force against who it is futile to fight. To be sure, it is easier not
to fight. Giving up gives us a little bit of comfort, a little bit of peace. Thank
God that Jesus didn’t accept evil. He fought it! He fought it to the death—and
prevailed.
Alleluia Christ is risen!
No comments:
Post a Comment