There are times in all of our lives when we are hoping and praying for Easter. There are times when life has been unfair. At such times, we hope for God to intervene and undo its unfairness. There are times when life is being fair, but we are under a kind of judgment and/or time of suffering that we truly wish would end. We hope for God to shorten our suffering. There are times when we have been suffering for some time and begin to lose hope that our personal Easter will ever come. We hope against hope that God will come quickly. There are times when we have suffered a death in our relationships or career. We hope God will resurrect the death of hope we are suffering. There is that time when we know that our time on this earth grows short. We hope that this world is not the end. The Message of Easter is this: Death is not the final word. Love wins in the end. 

Years ago, Kathy and I had two friends, a young couple, who desperately wanted to have children. It seemed impossible. They had been married for several years when we got married and trying to have children for most of that time. They were very strong Christians, but it seemed to the doctors that it was not possible for them to have children. Finally, they decided to adopt. About a year later, they discovered that they were going to have a baby. All those years of sorrow were swallowed up in a moment of joy. Love finally had its victory.

The First Easter

This year our Lenten meditations have all been on the Amazing Love of God. Last week, we meditated on the cross and on the death of Jesus, which John tells us embodied God’s love for the world—a love so deep and powerful that it would endure the cross )John 3:16; I John 4:8-9). The cross and the resurrection belong together. The cross is God’s judgment on the sin, brokenness, and evil of our world. The resurrection is God’s validation of the sinless life and sacrificial death of Jesus and this promise to us of eternal life with him.

The text for this week is from Mark 16:1-8:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid (Mark 16:1-8).

Prayer: This Easter season, O God, we ask that the power of the Risen Messiah, Jesus the Christ would come into all of our hearts and minds. Give us all a new outpouring of your Holy Spirit this day and each and every day. In His Name we pray, Amen.

A Fearful Beginning

As we have seen, the last week of Jesus’ life was a week of growing pressure, gloom, and disappointment for the disciples. Jesus’ entry into the city on a donkey, a symbol of his continuity with Solomon and other “Sons of David” who sat on the throne of Israel was the highpoint of a week of disappointment. All week long, until his death, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Priests and the Teachers of the Law opposed him. Finally, on Thursday night, he was betrayed and deserted by everyone. Even Peter, the “Rocky Balboa of the Disciples” denied and deserted him. Then, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. There was no appeal process. He was marched straight to Calvary, the Place of the Skull, where he was crucified. Near dusk on Friday, he died, and Joseph of Arimathea quickly claimed the body and buried him in his personal tomb so that the Passover would not come before his burial (Mark 15:42:46). Mark’s description of the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus ends by noting that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses knew where he was buried (15:47).

There is a lot packed into that one sentence. The disciples did not know where Jesus was buried because they were scattered, hiding in fear, afraid of the authorities and what might happen next, disillusioned, and desperate. Only the women knew. They had gone with Joseph to the tomb and watched as the body was hastily interred. They planned to return on Sunday to anoint the body.

No one expected Jesus to rise from the tomb or find it empty when Passover was over. They knew Jesus was dead, and they knew that dead people do not return to life. We sometimes believe mistakenly that the ancients did not know things we know. That is not true when it comes to things like virginal births and a man rising from the dead. What made Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’ resurrection so important to the early church was precisely the fact that they were impossible. If true, they forced a complete conversion and a different way of seeing reality.

All of us, ancient and modern, have a way we see the world. We observe things happening and not happening. We conclude that things we see happening over and over again will keep happening. We also conclude that things we do not see happening will not happen in the future. Death is one of those things that we have certain expectations about what will and will not happen next. We expect the person to stay dead, and we do not expect a resurrection.

Sometimes, we are glad we know these regularities. Sometimes we are not so glad. For example, when we are suffering and our suffering goes on for a long time, we sometimes conclude it will never end. Experience begins to tell us this is going to be true. This was the condition of the followers of Jesus Friday and Saturday before the first Easter. Jesus was dead. He was going to stay dead. All of their hopes and dreams died with him, and they expected those hopes and dreams to stay dead.

A Surprise Announcement

All four gospels are unanimous in recording that it was the women who found the tomb empty on that first Easter morning (Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10). As we learn from Mark, they came to the tomb to finish embalming the body of Jesus (Mark 16:1). They knew that Jesus had been placed in a wealthy person’s tomb, and there was a large stone capping the tomb that would have to be rolled away (16:3). They were not sure that they were strong enough to roll away the stone and, because it was very early, they wondered if anyone would be around to roll away the stone.

When they arrived, they were amazed and confused. The stone was already rolled away (Mark 16:4). As they began entering the tomb, they were faced with another amazing fact: There was an angel in the tomb waiting for someone to arrive! The angel made what is probably the most famous announcement in world history: “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you’” (16:6-7).

There is a lot of hope for us in these words. First of all, God has vindicated Jesus who died for our sins on the cross. Secondly, by the power of the resurrection God has declared his judgment fulfilled and our reconciliation complete if only we believe. Third, this gracious gift of forgiveness and new life is offered to his disciples who deserted him, even Peter who denied him. It is offered to everyone however far from God. God is not finished with the disciples, with us, or with the human race. In the person of the Risen Christ, God has gone ahead of us, and now by the power of his Holy Spirit draws us into his future of mercy, wisdom, and love.

Our old expectations, the certainties by which we normally navigate life have been superseded by an even greater certainty: This world is not all there is. Our current problems are not all there is. Our current limitations are not all there is. The Risen Christ has given us a new hope, a hope against all hope. By the resurrection, God promises us an eternal fellowship with the Risen Christ.

An Eternal Presence

By the resurrection, Jesus was restored to his disciples. The fellowship they once had was restored, not just for a time, a few days while he walks the earth in his resurrected body, but forever. Nothing, not even death can separate them or us from the love of God (Romans 8:38). Here is how Paul puts it in Romans:

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:32-39).

Nothing, not even death can separate us from the love of God. God’s power will always be with us.

What Good News this is! In Matthew, when Jesus gives the disciples the Great Commission, he promises to be with them always, always “to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). In Luke, Jesus promises his disciples that they will be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). In John, Jesus breathes upon the disciples after his resurrection, symbolically giving them the promised breath of God (John 20:22-23). In Acts, Jesus promises them the power of the Holy Spirit—a promise kept on Pentecost (Acts 1:8). The promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise that Jesus will always be with his people until the end of time with the power of God’s Spirit of Amazing love.

On Good Friday, Jesus died for our sins on the cross. On Easter, he rose from the dead as a sign of God’s New Creation in him and of the power of his life-giving sacrifice in our lives. This is not something we feel just once, when we come to believe in God, but something we can always experience. His forgiving love is always there for us when we fall short and fail. His cleansing power is always there to cleanse us from guilt and shame. His power to overcome the past and bring new life is always there for his people.

Often, we see Christians who begin the Christian life with joy and in the power of the Spirit. Unfortunately, slowly, ever so slowly, they begin to make of Christian faith a religion of works and duties. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, the joy and power of the Spirit fades from their lives. Old, bad habits recur. This does not have to be! God is always present for his people to undo the effects of sin in our lives. We can live a life of victory over sin and death, if we will only accept God’s gracious offer of salvation and become disciples of the Risen Christ.

A Love that Will Not Fail

Jesus’ Amazing Love is with us when we fall short, when we are called to sacrifice for others, when times are tough in our nation, city, or families. God’s resurrection power is always with us and never fails. This is the sign of Christian hope.

This week a passage from Romans came to me during my quiet time. In Romans, Paul uses Abraham as an example of the power of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Abraham wanted a son, and he believed God had promised him that son although he and his wife, Sarah, were too old to have children. For years and years, Abraham held onto that promise. Finally, Paul tells us, God honored the hope that Abraham had by faith, and he was given a son of the promise God had made (Romans 4:7). Paul goes on to say:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:5-9).

The life of which Paul speaks is resurrection life by the power of the same Holy Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead. The God who gave his only Son to save the world on the cross (John 3:16) will save us through the power of the eternal life the Son has received as a result of the resurrection (Romans 5:9). This same God can be trusted to resurrect each one of God’s children to an unimaginable life. God’s Amazing Love is finally going to win.

The hardest part of every Easter message is how to end it. The story ends with the women afraid to tell anyone about the empty tomb, perhaps from fear that people will think they are crazy. I think their fear is our fear as well. But, the ending of Mark is not the end of the story. The women did in fact overcome their fear and tell the disciples and Peter (Matthew 28:8-16; Luke 24:9; John 20:1-3). We know that because of the other Gospels and also because we are here today!

In the same way we must go and overcome our fears. We too must go and proclaim to our own generation the Good News that sin and death do not have the final victory. In the end, God’s Amazing Love wins. [1] In the end, wisdom and love are more powerful than armies. This is a message that our dying culture and violent world desperately need to hear again and again.

[1] Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1986), 99. In writing this, I am also indebted to Thomas Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1976 and John Polkinghorne, The God of Hope and the End of the World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), both of which I reread and consulted in preparing to write.

Copyright 2015, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved