DEFINING MOMENTS

FACING NEW LIFE—WITH, & THROUGH, JESUS!
Easter Sunday 2005  Part 4
John 20:1-18

How about that drama! A little bit out there… But the one line I really appreciated was when the woman said, “If we ignore this thing”--- This 10 foot HUGE cross in the middle of the Dining room table—“it will go away.” AS IF…! You know, that line kind of unmasks a human tendency I’ve come to find in myself—and I’ll bet you’ve found in yourself. It’s called “avoidance”

We talk sometimes about conflict-avoidance or just general avoidance. Some of us are quite good at it. A six-year-old child starts acting out and having serious behavioral problems. Sometimes parents look away, “It’s just a phase.” Sometimes there’s a distance in a marriage. People are sleeping back to back. There’s a problem that ought to be explored. You say, “Well, things will improve.” Avoidance.

After a stressful time at work you begin to have some chest pains. “It’s probably just indigestion. It will go away.” Avoidance. Again, I’ve done it and you’ve done it. Now along these lines, the Scriptures teach that there’s a deeper and even scarier kind of avoidance pattern that many of us engage in. It might be called “spiritual avoidance.” If you want to really get focused, it might just be called “God avoidance.”

Rather than give you a textbook definition of the problem, I’d like to illustrate how this spiritual avoidance thing works in real life—so would you come with me on a couple of walks through life to see how we avoid God, even though he is trying to speak to us and get our attention.

The first walk I want to take you down is the nature walk. When you are a little child you begin to notice the world around you and you begin to explore—to touch, and taste and feel. You begin to ask those exhausting questions to your parents—“What is this? Who made it? Where did it come from??”

You go to elementary school and middle school and high school and keep asking those questions and eventually somebody tells you that the short answer is you’re sophisticated pond scum that evolved out of a big bang—and then when you ask the follow up question “And where did the big bang come from??” You’re told not to ask that question!

Well, the Bible teaches that at a certain point and time along life’s path, you’re going to come to a place where an idea comes crashing into your mind. Here’s what it is: There is a God, and he made all this. It’s the best explanation for all that is. The other theories are not scientifically substantial. Anybody with a brain can really tell that there is an intelligent design behind all we see in the created realm. Someone with great power had to pull off that design.

When you think that thought, a second thought comes crashing into your mind: If there is a God, and he made all this, and he made human beings as well--- Maybe he has a claim on my life. Maybe I’m accountable to that powerful, divine being. Maybe his agenda is important in this world, and I need to figure out what it is.

Well, when you’re right in that spot saying, “Maybe there is a God and maybe I’m accountable to him in some way,” I’m telling you right then for a lot of people the spiritual avoidance patterns come rushing in. The Scripture says in Romans 1:25 that sometimes people at that moment will do a very sinister thing. Here’s the exact quote now from the New Testament: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” Sometimes people in that particular moment and time will exchange the truth of God for a lie.

Here’s the motivation. If I can explain away the universe, the created realm, if I can attribute its cause to some random explosion of gases two billion years ago, then I absolve myself of accountability to this divine being. No God--no accountability. No stake or claim on my life--I don’t have to deal with the whole God thing anymore.

But here’s the tragedy that goes along with that exchange of the truth for a lie: If you really believe that life is just an accident and all we are is sophisticated pond scum, then if you’re honest in your thinking you can’t avoid the conclusion that life in general—and your life and mine in particular—are ultimately random and meaningless.

But a giant thing crashed through that lie on Easter morning! It’s called the resurrection of Jesus Christ! The empty tomb; the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, the forever and incredibly changed lives of people like Mary Magdalene… When Jesus burst forth from that tomb Easter morning, it proved unmistakably that life is not an accident—it comes from God, it continues into eternity, and it’s such a big deal that God is willing to rescue that life for you and me-- Your life and my life, for which Jesus was willing die -- our lives matter to God! And that means they are of infinite worth!

When Peter and Mary looked into that empty tomb, a giant God thought crashed into their lives! It took a while to dawn on them, but if Jesus is alive, it means that his words about my life and yours-- his diagnosis about our flaws, our possibilities and our future—everything Jesus said, however fantastic it seems, is true!!

But I want you to notice the difference between Peter and Mary. Peter went in the tomb and examined the evidence for himself. He saw the linens that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body now lying folded up and separate—like the empty chrysalis of a butterfly that has emerged! It was enough to prove that SOMETHING had happened! But then Peter did what many of us will be tempted to do this morning-- it says in verse 10—“and he left and went back home.” Something as important as that, and he left without even coming to a conclusion as to what had happened!

Not Mary! She hung around. She asked questions. She searched for Jesus—until she found him and encountered him personally! If Peter had hung around just a little while longer, if he had asked some questions, he too would have experienced the same life changing, miraculous encounter that Mary had with Jesus. And it begs the question: Are you going to hang around and explore the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. Are you willing to ask questions, to read the bible and explore the extraordinary claims and promises that Jesus made…? Are you willing to seek until you find Jesus—or are you just going to go home?

Think about that for a second, and let’s go on another walk altogether. This is the relationship walk. As you grow up, you realize that you are not alone! You’re in a family…There are other people that you are given to relate to. And as you get a little older—and especially if you’re in a high functioning family—you begin to realize that you were created for relationships that are deep, and rich, and full of meaning and purpose.

But if you walk through life long enough, you’re also going to understand the limitations and flaws of relationships. They give a lot, but sometimes they take a lot. And sometimes there is hurt and damage associated with them.

Some of you learned pretty early on in your life that family wasn’t going to be a safe place for you. It wasn’t going to be a loving environment. You got out in the workplace and found out that there’s a business partner who was a dangerous person. Some of you got served divorce papers along the way and your whole trust level about relationships went down.

Here’s what I’m driving at: Somewhere along the line if you live an honest and courageous life and you think deeply about things, you will stand in a place motivated by relational disillusionment, and a God sized thought will come crashing into your mind: Might God be personal? Might God be relational? Might God be offering to me a higher and purer form of love, a more consistent understanding and listening ear, just the opportunity for a relationship on a soul-ish level that might be available to me through the limitations and the flaws of human love?

Have you come to that place yet? Peter did! He walked with Jesus. He talked with Jesus. He hung out with him. He experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ personally; he knew his love, and he recognized him as the Messiah, the son of God! And then, in that moment when Jesus needed him the most, Peter turned his back on him.

Peter had the evidence that you can have a personal relationship with God, a purer and more consistent love, through Jesus Christ! And when he looked into that empty tomb he had the evidence that that personal relationship cannot be destroyed even by death itself! But he walked away..

Why? I think Peter walked away for the same reasons that many of us are tempted to walk away. It’s called avoidance: the fear of facing Jesus. The fear of facing our own relational failures…and the sense of guilt and shame we feel about those failures. So we do what Peter did—we banish the thought that God is reaching out to you and me personally through the risen Jesus. Avoidance. We walk away.

NOT MARY! Mary is driven NOT by a preoccupation with herself—but by love for Jesus! For Mary, it’s not about “Mary”—it’s about Jesus! Seeing the Lord – that’s what Mary wanted more than anything else. She wanted to see Him so badly that when His body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb by Joseph, she stayed. (Mt. 27:61) And then, when the tomb was sealed with the stone rolled to the entrance, she sat outside the tomb…watching. The only thing that could pull her away was the Sabbath. But as soon as the Sabbath was over, she was back at Jesus’ side again. Mary wanted to see Jesus… And Jesus met and called her by name because she was seeking to find him.

And that’s exactly what Jesus Christ, risen and alive, will do for you and me if we seek to meet him personally! What is so life-giving about biblical Christianity is that at the root of it all is not a self-improvement plan. At the root of it all is not just a lifeless set of creeds and doctrines. At the root of it all is relationship--God knowing your name, knowing your story, reaching out to you saying, “I’d like community with you. I’d like to hear your thoughts and feelings. I’d like to have you know mine. And I’d like to walk with you through this life.”

Friends, that’s the heart of biblical Christianity. You say, “Well, how do I get going on that?” The next time a God thought comes crashing into your mind, don’t banish it! Just stop and say, “God, I’m open. Show me what the next step is on how we can relate.” And the adventure will begin.

OK—let’s take another walk. This one is a little heavy and I know it’s Easter and we’re supposed to be happy, so I won’t dwell here long. But this is the morality walk. You know, you’re born, you think life is great. The food is free. You can load up your diapers and someone else will take care of it—you know, life is good… Then you get a little older. And as you go on you find that there are some dangerous, even evil people in this world… and it bursts the bubble…

Then again, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll begin to notice that there

‘s a streak of darkness in you! There’s this “untamable” kind of rebellion in you.. With some people, it comes out in the form of controlling others. With some people it’s anger. With some it’s overspending. With some people it’s greed—or a lust for power. Or addiction to food, alcohol, internet pornography. And at some point if you’re honest with yourself, you’re going to come to a place where that streak of darkness is so serious that you’re going to shake your head and say “You know what? Another self-improvement book isn’t going to help me overcome this. Another day of will power is not going to tame this monster.

Then one day a God thought is going to come crashing into your mind, and it’s going to be this: It’s going to be God saying: “I know that streak of darkness in you. I know it. And I can help! I can give you the power beyond your self to overcome that darkness in you. I can if you’ll let me.”

Mary was a person who had a streak of darkness—a really deep streak of darkness! The Bible says that when she encountered Jesus for the first time, he cast 7 demons out of her (Luke 8:2). So when Mary saw Jesus arrested before her very eyes—and then tortured, crucified and killed—she felt both grief and fear… GRIEF, that if this world was the kind of place where Jesus-- the most perfect, morally pure life in history-- could be overcome by the streak of darkness in others—including herself, and you and me—if that was the kind of place you and I live, what’s the point of living? She felt FEAR, because with Jesus gone what assurance was there that those demons wouldn’t come back?? With Jesus gone, what assurance did she have that she could ever overcome the dark streak in her own life?

But when she looked into that empty tomb, and found Jesus alive, and encountered him personally-- She knew that he had the power to keep those demons at bay, and to change that streak of moral darkness in her forever… A God sized reality came crashing into her life: Jesus’ resurrection proved that nothing—no power, no experience in the past or present or future, not even death—NOTHING can stand in the way of his loving power to overcome the things that you and I can never change in our own strength!

OK—two more walks and then we’ll close it up. There is a fourth walk. It’s the walk of pain. Sometimes pain finds people early. Sometimes you’re 15; sometimes you’re 25; sometimes you’re 45; sometimes you’re 65. But nobody gets out of this life without getting whacked. It’s just the way the game is played, friends. There’s going to come some time when the phone is going to ring, and what is said to you from the other end of the phone line is going to change your life forever.

There’s going to come a medical report someday that’s not good. It’s going to change everything. There will be papers served to you someday, and you’ll feel like you got kicked in the stomach. The vice-principal might call your home someday and tell you what’s really going on with your kid. Nobody gets out of life without getting whacked.

What do you do when the level of pain gets so heavy on your life that you feel like your shoulders can’t take the weight? What do you do? Do you just buck up? Grit your teeth and hope for the best? At some point a God thought is going to crash into your mind, and it’s going to be this: You know, God suffered too. He lost a son. And he did it by choice when he parted with that which he loved most dearly, to rescue you and me.

And at some point that God thought crashing into your mind is going to be God speaking to you, saying: “I know your pain. I already took it upon myself IN JESUS when he suffered on the cross… You’re not alone! I can help you through this pain, if you’ll let me!” It’s the same words Jesus spoke when he said “Come unto me if you’re weary and heavy laden.” Those of you whose shoulders are sagging under the pain—he says “I will give you rest!”

That’s what Mary was feeling on Easter morning: She was “heavy laden”, her shoulders sagging under the weight of grief, and fear, and disillusionment. ***But when she looked into that empty tomb and found Jesus alive, she knew that Jesus’ promise was not empty words and wishful thinking! He had carried our pain—ALL OF IT!—and though it put him in tomb IT COULD NOT HOLD HIM DOWN! Because Jesus Christ is greater than all the sin, all the pain, and all the death the world can pile onto you and me.

Some of you desperately need rest for the burden you’re carrying. You find it in God. You don’t find rest by just bucking up. You don’t find it down the pathway of rugged individualism. You find it in a relationship with a load-bearing God who proved through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that he can carry ANY pain you bring him!

One last walk and then we’ll close. It’s the walk of mortality. I know—when you’re young, mortality is a distant thought. You think you’re invincible and you’re never going to die. I certainly thought that way—and I did some pretty stupid and dangerous things along the way! But as I went along in life the reality of death came crashing in... First it was the death of an elderly gentleman who I saw every Sunday at church… then it was the death of a 19 year old mother whom I was called to pray with on a code blue as a chaplain in a hospital, right before she died from cancer—and having to walk out and tell her husband and two year old child… and then it was the death of one of our children at birth.

Now the death rte has always hovered at around 100%. But there’s this kind of banishment of that thought that you and I indulge ourselves in. We call it avoidance. We think that we’re the exception. And then one day you get your mortality bell rung and this God thought comes crashing in: “Is there life beyond the grave? Are we all just headed for this kind of extinction, this blackness forever and ever after we live as robustly as we do in this life?? Is that what’s going to greet us on the other side? Is the candle just going to go out? Is that the deal??

And then another God thought will come crashing in right behind it—and it’s going to be God whispering to you—THAT’S NOT THE DEAL! Death is not the end of all things—it’s just the beginning. Your life here on earth is a dress rehearsal for something so beautiful, so incredible, so full and rich by comparison that words can’t even capture it—you can only imagine! And life here can be a beginning of the experience of that life that will never end—significance instead of just success, relationships with a love that is deeper and richer than anything you have ever experienced, and purpose that will carry you daily beyond any pain that you bear…

Friends, one of the most important issues that you can sort through throughout the course of your life is what you believe about life after death. And the Bible speaks with great authority on this, and says because Jesus Christ not only went to the cross, but because on the third day--resurrection day--he burst forth from the tomb, and he conquered the power of death, there is life beyond the grave!

And those of us who trust Christ, who have a relationship with God, who walk with him through this life will be invited into a conscious, vital existence with God forever. Which is why there is such optimism in the Christian faith. It’s a good news thing. It’s a faith filled with bright hope for this life and even greater hope for the next. But you’ve got to sort this out.

When you get your mortality bell rung and you’re standing in a quiet place, at some point you’ve got to say, “God, I believe. And I’m asking you to take me into your presence in the next life.” Friends, there is a God, and he loves you. He wants to spend each day of this life in relationship with you, and he can’t bear the thought of eternity without you. So he has done everything possible, including the giving up of Christ, his Son, to make redemption available to you. Stand in that quiet place and ask for it.

For any of you who wonder, the door of heaven is open to you, and you gain assurance of your place there through simple repentance and faith in Christ. And here’s how we’re going to end the service today. I’d like to give you the gift of just a couple moments of reflection. It might be the only quiet time you have on Easter Sunday. I’d like you to just bow your heads with me now.

Before we pray, I’ll bet God has talked to you even in this service. Some of you haven’t been in church for a long, long time. Maybe God is saying to you right now, “Welcome to my house, son. Welcome to my house, daughter. This is a good place.” Do what Mary did—hang around for awhile. Look into the empty tomb. See the evidence for yourself. Search for Jesus, He’s looking for you, and you’ll find him!

For some of you God has been trying to lift a burden over the course of this last hour. Let him lift it. Some of you desperately need the power of God to overcome something that’s been pulling you down. And he’s been saying, “My power is enough. My power is available. Grab hold of it. Take it. It’s there for you.” Do what Mary did—don’t just go home. Bring your grief, your pain, your fear, your disillusionment-- bring it all to the empty tomb of Jesus!

Some of you have fears of dying. Maybe God has been saying to you, “The door of heaven is open. Come on in.” I’ll be quiet right now, and you just let God talk to you for a moment. Then I’ll pray.