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“Easter
Sunday 2006" |
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“Easter
Sunday 2006" |
Rev. Dr Robert Iles
The morning after you have lost a loved one is the coldest, emptiest,
Most painful of times. The reality of the loss hits you after your restless night, like of Kosta Tzu uppercut.
You are numbed, lifeless, indecisive, bewildered, lost.
You relive all the last moments and days, the shock, the finality of it all.
This was how Sunday began for Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome. These women represent all who walk through life disappointed and hurt, let down, powerless.
The one who had healed them, given them hope, who flooded their lives and homes with divine love had been brutally battered and humiliated.
Their hearts are grief stricken. What do they think of the 12 disciples?
One of them led his tormentors to him, for money,
And the others fled from him in his darkest hour,
Even sleeping when he needed prayer and friends in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Well it was all over now.
But the least they could was a little ritual of grief healing,
To anoint his body with spices.
The body had been laid in a tomb by a generous Jewish leader, Joseph of Arimathea, a Jewish councillor who had not approved of what happened to Jesus.
He was a follower of Jesus in that hostile environment, as you sometimes are, at work or with friends or in a family.
Joseph’s influence is such that he can walk into see Pilate and ask for Jesus body
And have his request granted.
He is then part of one of the most moving verses in all of Scripture, as Luke puts it
In Ch. 23:53 Then he took the body down. Can you imagine the course physical
Nature of that act. He and his servants removed the nails.
That is so graphically portrayed in Gibson’s movie, the tender handling of the deceased Jesus .
The Romans and Jews couldn’t conquer his heart, mind, message so they settled for conquering his body.
Joseph then wraps him in an expensive linen shroud
And places him in his own costly tomb, hand hewn out of rock.
Then everyone thinks it is all over. Well not quite everyone. Amazingly it is the Chief Priests and Pharisees who are most worried.
They remember that Jesus said, “After three days I will rise again”.
The disciples had no such recollection of this teaching.
Jesus persecutors had more faith that he might be resurrected than his followers.
So Pilate agrees top have the tomb sealed and guarded.
The
disciples have so little faith that Jesus might be resurrected that when these
women tell them of his resurrection Luke’s Gospel says
”these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them”.
Maybe that has been you.
You have believed the resurrection is an idle tale.
You have been sceptical and slow to believe.
You have not seen the kind of study that the jurist in our ns refers to.
Well stick with us on this journey to and from the grave.
The grieving women are up early, probably sleepless.
As they walk a practical detail occurs to them, something easily overlooked
When you are in grief. Who will move the stone?
And is it fair to ask, without incurring an offence under some discrimination act, that women sometimes think of details that men don’t?
David Hurcombe often says how he makes the big decisions in his family.
Whether the dollar should still be floated, whether
Our trade deficit needs attention, whether the UN Security Council should meet over Iran. Whereas Maureen makes the minor decisions,
Where they will live, when to change cars and how they should fill in the day.
So here the women think of the “minor issue”, who will move the stone?
Overlooking that detail is a reflection of people in grief,
Obvious things disappear in the quicksands of grief.
But as it turns out, the massive stone has already been rolled back.
Romans 1:4 says the Holy Spirit has been at work in
this.
and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of
God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
In fact they are about to discover that not only has a physical stone been rolled away,
But the mountain of death itself has been pulverised.
As they approach the tomb they see a young man.
They so remember the detail, it is an eyewitness touch,
that he was sitting on the right side.
He quietly but enthusiastically explains what’s going on to the grievers:
“Do not be amazed” (that’s a tall order)- “you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him.”
Now that that has all been settled he gives them a job,v.7.
Go and tell his disciples and Peter (a special mention for the one who feels his failure most acutely) that
He is going to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.
Suddenly these dignified women turn into a Women’s 4oo metre sprint team. They burst out of the starting block of the tomb.
And, I note without any passing comment, in v. 8, the women were speechless. For they were afraid. Mark abruptly ends his Gospel on that note.
Luke tells us that they eventually got to the disciples
And told them this “idle tail”.
John tells us they dashed to the tomb, not believing a word of the women,
But saw for themselves.
And before long he appears to them, in Galilee and Jerusalem and on the road to Emmaus.
He shows himself for 40 days according to Acts 1.
His resurrection schedule is listed in the Bible:
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
He went to all who wanted to see him and who would be helped to believe and obey. It’s left to John’s Gospel to fill out some details about a couple of other appearances.
Now be clear on tings:
1. We are dealing with resurrection not resuscitation. Jesus was dead, stabbed,
whipped, beaten up, blood deprived. Experienced Roman guards,
professional killers, ensured he was dead before he was entombed. Any failure in
this regard would cost them their lives.
Karma is buried by grace. Resurrection also shows that that a soul does not migrate to another body but that the resurrection body is based on the one we have here.
One of the truly amazing programmes on television concerns
A tribe of people found in Turkey last year.
The Ulas family, two parents and 18 children
are like quadrupeds. They walk on all fours.
. Their wrists and bodies have adapted to their way of moving.
After helping them use a $30 walking frame they are nearly all walking upright.
Through Christs cross and the resurrection he has raised us up from
Being spiritual quadrupeds, scrabbling amongst the dirt and rocks, to being people who are upright in him by grace.
We were below our potential, we had become used to living on a lesser level, crawling spiritually instead of walking. But becomes Christ has risen, so do we.
Rev.
Dr Robert Iles
Golden Grove Uniting Church