Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007
Mark 16:1-8
Senior Pastor
A man is driving
along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but
unfortunately the rabbit jumps right in front of the car.
The driver, a
sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see
what has become of the rabbit. Much to
his dismay, the rabbit is dead. The driver feels so awful that he
begins to cry.
A beautiful blonde
woman driving down the highway sees the man crying on the side of the road and
pulls over. She steps out of the car
and asks the man what's wrong.
I feel terrible,” he
explains, "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it."
The blonde says,
“Don't worry." She runs to her car
and pulls out a spray can. She walks over to the limp, dead rabbit, bends down,
and sprays the contents onto the rabbit.
The rabbit jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them and hops off down the
road.
Ten feet away the rabbit stops, turns around and waves again, he hops down the
road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves,
and repeats this again and again and again, until he hops out of sight.
The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and demands, “What is in
that can?
What did you spray on that rabbit?"
The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label.
It reads, “Hair
Spray: Restores life to dead hair –
Adds permanent wave.”
New life is
astonishing. Mark tells us that the
women went to the tomb very early on the first day of the week, when the sun
had risen. (v. 2) Worried about how they might gain access to
the tomb, they are discussing this as they walk that way. But when they get close enough to see the
entrance, they can see that the cover stone has already been rolled away.
But more astonishing
than that is when they enter, instead of seeing a dead body, Mark tells us that
they see a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and
they were alarmed. (v. 5) But more astonishing still is the message
the white robed young man delivers: Do
not be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. (v. 6)
He has been raised;
he is not here. He has been raised; he
is not here. They come expecting to
anoint a dead body, to pay their respects, to mourn lost dreams of a Messiah
who would deliver them from captivity.
They come, looking for closure, but far from it. The crucifixion was not the end. The mocking and beating of Jesus are not the
last word. The seeming tragedy of it
all has been reversed; the seeming abandonment by God is no such thing. “But go, tell his disciples and Peter
that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he
told you.” (v. 7)
He is alive and
has gone ahead of you. Jesus is on the
move. This journey with Jesus is not over, it has
just begun. Tell the disciples that
Jesus is going ahead of you. Are you
ready to see Jesus? Are you ready to
encounter the risen Christ? He is going
ahead of you… follow and you will see him there.
Don Piper tells the story of a guy who was driving
down the highway in a small, compact car one day. From all appearances it was an ordinary day, cool and rainy. He approached an old two-lane bridge with
the steel superstructure overhead. It
had no shoulders but spanned a beautiful lake.
As he was crossing the bridge a large truck came from around the corner
and crossed the centerline. It met him
head on and rammed his little car into the guardrail. He was crushed in the car.
When the emergency
personnel arrived they found him there, checked his vital signs and declared
that he was deceased. Sometime later a
clergy person arrived on the scene, merely a passer-by, but since traffic was blocked
he exited his vehicle and walked up to the crash sight. He identified himself to the authorities and
asked if anyone needed prayer. He was
told that all the injured were fine, but there was one fatality still in the
crushed car. The pastor felt
compelled to go and pray for the man and his family.
This pastor went to
the car and found the man had been covered with a tarp. He slipped his hand under the tarp touching
the man on the shoulder and began to pray.
After his prayer he began to sing, “What A Friend We Have In
Jesus.” And much to his surprise, the
body under the tarp began to sing with him.
Yes, that’s right, the man was still alive.
The pastor ran to
get the authorities, exclaiming, “He’s alive, he’s still alive.” They didn’t believe him, he said, “I know
he’s alive he is breathing.”
“No way,” they said,
“We checked his vital signs and he had none.”
So finally he said, “Well, I don’t know about
that, but he was singing with me! Maybe
we ought to check him again.”
And sure enough the
man survived. Don Piper was the
man. In his book, 90 Minutes In
Heaven, he also tells what happened to him after the wreck. He writes that his memories jump from
driving down the highway onto the bridge to a place where he was surrounded by
light. He shares that he heard a voice
calling to him, “Donny!” he looked to see his grandfather. He also tells how he was greeted by his best
friend from childhood who was killed at the age of nineteen in a car accident. The only people he saw were people he
knew. Everyone was happy, there was
beautiful music. And interesting, I
think, is that he says there was no sense of time in this place of beautiful
music and bright light and welcoming people from his past. He was considered dead at the scene for
approximately ninety minutes but has no sense of being gone that long.
What a powerful
story. But this is not a
resurrection; this is a resuscitation.
Resuscitation is when one dies and then comes back to life, in the same
body. Resurrection is when one dies and
then is alive again but in a different body and in a different relationship to
time and space. Mark describes this
briefly, that is, how Jesus appears on earth but in a different body. But the other Gospel writers give even more
detail; you can read about it in Matthew, Luke and John.
But the story of
Jesus and the story of Don Piper suggest to us that there is life after
death. That this is not the
end. Crucifixion is not the last
word. Resurrection is the last
word. Death is not our only
destiny. Life after death is what we
are destined for, that is our future.
All of this points
us to the notion that despite the desperate and horrendous circumstances in the
final hours of Jesus’ life, that there is a larger reality. The story is not over. His work is not done. The kingdom has not come on earth, as it is
heaven. So, the women are told that
Jesus is risen, he is not here. He is
out in front of you. The same is true
today. Jesus is still leading the way. We have been invited to follow him. We are invited to be a part of this
coming kingdom of which he speaks.
If you have not made
a commitment to follow him, you can do so today.
If you have not
fulfilled the commitment you made in the past, you can renew it today.
If you are following
him and want to know more of him and experience even more of the abundant life
he promised, you can ask for that today.
But not just today, be here next week and the next and as you walk the
talk you will come to know life at its best.
The nurse led the
young Marine to the bedside. "Your son is here," she said to
the old man. She had to repeat the
words several times before the patient's eyes opened.
Heavily sedated because of the pain, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine
standing outside the oxygen tent. He
reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old
man's soft and weak ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a
chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. No more words were exchanged.
All through the night the young Marine sat there in the dimly lit ward,
holding the old man's hand and offering him a constant sense of comfort and
strength.
Occasionally, the
nurse suggested that the Marine take a break and rest awhile. He refused.
Whenever the nurse came into the room, the Marine was oblivious to her
and of the night noises of the hospital.
He was intently focused on the man.
Along towards dawn, the old man died.
The Marine had seen death before; he knew this was the end. He finally released the now lifeless hand he
had been holding and went to tell the nurse.
While she did her duties following such an occurrence, the Marine
patiently waited.
Finally, she
returned. She started to offer words of
sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
"Who was that man?" he asked.
The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.
"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before
tonight."
"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his
son, and his son just wasn't here. He
needed someone and I was the one here.”
God saw us and knew
we needed someone and sent his love through his son.
We gather on this
glorious Easter morning to proclaim that he is still alive and here today,
standing by our side, holding our hand, never letting go – this journey with Jesus is not over, it has just
begun.
Mark
16:1-8
6:22
a.m. – Jesus Risen 4/8/07
…the
rabbit is ________.
It reads,
“________ __________: Restores life to
dead hair –
Adds permanent
________.”
Do not be
alarmed, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who
was
crucified. He has been raised; he is
______ here. (v. 6)
v. 7
He is alive and
has gone ahead of you. Jesus is on the
________.
Are you ready to
encounter the risen Christ? He is going
ahead
of you… follow
and you will ______ him there.
Don __________
The pastor felt
compelled to go and pray for the ______…
…tells
what happened to him after the __________.
…this is not a
resurrection; this is a resuscitation.
…there is
________ after death.
We are invited to
be a part of this coming ______________…
The
nurse led the young Marine to the ______________.
…this journey with Jesus is not over, it has just
__________.
Kid’s
question: Is the journey with Jesus
over?