Holy Week - Easter Sunday
April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
Series: Who Are You – Discipleship
Mark 16:1-14
“Who Are You Believing?”
Pause here and talk briefly about the “shorter” and “longer” endings of Mark. What does it suggest if the Gospel really ends here? “Trembling and bewildered, the women FLED the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.” It is telling that the very first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection are women – women had followed Jesus, had supported his ministry and had stood by the cross when even the Eleven disciples had fled or denied Jesus. Every Gospel writer makes the same point – that very early on Sunday, some women went to the tomb and they were the first to hear the news of the Resurrection – “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.He is risen! He is not here!”
Yet who would believe it? Jesus birth is announced to shepherds, some of the lowest of low class people in all of Israel, and now his resurrection is announced to women – people who, in first century Israel, had no true status at all. Who would believe this?
[Continue Mark Mark 16:9-14]
[Women at the Tomb SLIDE]
Who would believe? No one. The women flee the tomb – who would believe them? Mary Magdalene goes to the disciples. They don’t believe her. Jesus appears to two followers – the Eleven don’t believe them. Finally Jesus appears to THEM – and rebukes them…
But, really, who would believe that? When people die, they usually stay dead. There’s a whole lot of human history to back that up. Yes, when Jesus was alive, HE raised people from the dead.
I heard Chuck Swindoll on the radio a couple years ago. He said that it doesn’t take a great deal of faith to believe that Jesus Christ was born. His birth was the most natural thing in the world, and no one would doubt that Jesus Christ was BORN. His conception takes faith — to believe, as Matthew himself puts it, that the child in Mary was from the Holy Spirit. THAT takes faith.
And so too, Swindoll said, it doesn’t take any faith to believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross. That his death was horrible and tortuous, yes, but it takes no faith to believe that he DIED. Death is literally the most natural thing in the world. The death rate for human beings is a hundred percent.Well except for Enoch and Elijah. But EVERYONE ELSE. One life, one death. Period.
But, he said, it takes faith to believe in the resurrection. That Jesus Christ rose from the dead takes faith to believe. Faith that even the disciples lacked early that Sunday morning.
[Faith SLIDE]
So this is a morning of FAITH. And again I ask the question, Who are you believing?
I’m amazed at the faith of these women who come to the tomb very early on that first Easter morning. Oh, don’t misunderstand me – they’re going there because they’re sure that Jesus is still dead – Mark says they want to finish the proper preparations for Jesus’ burial – since they couldn’t do these things before he was laid in the tomb.
But they have faith, don’t they? I mean, Mark makes a point of saying, while “they were on their way to the tomb, they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’”
Lori said last night that she could just see the women bickering about that – you know, why didn’t you think of that before we left the house at oh-dark-thirty in the morning? Couldn’t you have asked somebody? Or whatever. I confess, I never thought of the question in that light before, though. I’ve always seen it as one of those statements of trust in God’s providence.
“Who’s going to roll the stone away? None of us can do it – but it HAS to be moved so we can get in to do this last act of kindness for Jesus. So who’s going to move the stone?” I don’t know…but God will provide.
[Mustard Seed Faith SLIDE]
That’s really how I see it. This is a moment of Mustard Seed Faith – you know what I mean by that?Remember when Jesus said that if you but had faith as small as a mustard seed, if you told a mountain to move, it would move, if you told a tree to move it would move – that’s Matthew 17 and Luke 17. And I’m struck by unbalance in SCALE in these statements – if you have just tiny, tiny faith, you can tell a MOUNTAIN TO MOVE – tiny faith brings ginormous results (no, really, it’s in the newest dictionaries). [Ginormous SLIDE J] Tiny, mustard seed sized faith blossoms into gigantic results.
And these women have that tiny faith – that spark of belief, don’t they? Who will roll the stone away?And the only conclusion that I can draw is that somehow they don’t just hope for God to provide a way for them into the tomb, but they come there EXPECTING God to, KNOWING God will, with faith enough that God will provide.
And God DID provide, didn’t he? And look at the results of this Mustard Seed Faith. They come expecting the stone rolled away – but that tiny faith blooms into the news that not only is the tomb open, but the tomb is EMPTY – that Jesus’ body not only isn’t in the ground anymore – but HE’S ALIVE AGAIN – He is RESURRECTED – death has no victory, the Apostle Paul will later write, the grave has not sting. Jesus, who was crucified, is RISEN. HE IS NOT HERE, the angel tells them.
[Stone Rolled Away SLIDE]
Tiny faith – enough to trust that God will roll a stone away. Who are you believing today?
Mary tells the disciples that Jesus is alive. They don’t believe it. Two other followers tell them that Jesus is no longer dead, they don’t believe it. Of course, then they see him with their own eyes – and they have to believe it, right?
But…
There’s a moment right at the very end – forty days after Jesus resurrection – he has appeared to the Eleven and to others – he has taught them and prepared them. And there’s this moment in Matthew 28 – it’s right before the Great Commission that we quickly and frequently quote – as we should – to make disciples of all the world. There’s a moment there in Matthew 28:
And it’s all good, right? The Eleven have come to Galilee – just like Jesus had told them to. As we do the math based on what happens here we know that this is 40 days out from the resurrection and this isn’t anywhere near the first time that Jesus has appeared to the Eleven – but it IS the last time he will appear to them. And they meet him on this mountain top. And then:
Really? They worshipped him – but SOME DOUBTED. Can you even believe that? Yeah, I know he’s like RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and all – but, nah – I’m gonna take a pass on this one. WHAT?HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?
Well…we’re suspicious creatures, aren’t we? And sometimes even in the face of CONCRETE, UNDENIABLE, ABSOLUTE TRUTH – we’ll say…um, no, I don’t want to believe that… But there was still mustard seed faith. Because those same eleven, the guys who wouldn’t believe the women who came from the tomb, the guys who on that mountain top STANDING WITH THE RESURRECTED JESUS still some who doubted – those eleven turned the whole world upside down.
But all they had was mustard seed faith – tiny faith, trusting in God just enough for God to do what God does best – move in ginormous and unexpected ways.
Enough faith to believe that the stone will be rolled away – God delivers not only a stone rolled away, but an empty tomb, a resurrected savior, victory over sin and even victory over death.
[Who Are You Believing SLIDE – leave up]
So who are you believing today?
Someone said once that the Church – enduring for 2000 years – is the best evidence of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I agree with that statement – but in just a little different way. I don’t believe that it’s the INSTITUTION of Church that is the evidence – but the CHURCH in the way we used to sing in the song when I was a kid – I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together – ALL who follow Jesus, all around the world, YES we’re the church together…
THAT is the best evidence of the resurrection. Transformed lives. People living in the hope and the promise of God.
When Lori taught at Kane, God would always use her not only to minister to her students, but she was like a chaplain to the staff sometimes, too. One of her friends grew up in a church where she was told to never read the Bible for herself – and she would always ask Lori questions about what the Bible really says (still does, I think, if I’m hearing this side of phone calls correctly). A lot of stuff like that. But there was one guy – Steve – who at first would kind of make fun of Lori being “religious.” Not in a mean way – that kind of sarcasm that is friendly banter, you know?
Anyway, Lori just kind of took it all in stride – never got defensive or offensive – just lived her life as in imitation of Christ as she could. And then after a year or so, he asked her seriously, “How can you believe that God is real?” And she said she just did – she grew up in the church, God has always been there. “How can you prove it?” he asked. And she said, “I can’t, I just believe.”
And she came home that night and said to me, “I really need you to get me some stuff to prove to Steve that God is real.” Or something like that, anyway. And we worked a little on it – you know, the Case for Christ, Evidence that Demands a Verdict and that stuff.
But finally, Lori came to the conclusion that she couldn’t argue Steve into believing – he’s too quick, she said – every time I say something, he’s got a comeback right away. She said, all I can do is show him how Jesus is real in my life. And in the lives of other people I know. And the difference he’s made for me and for them.
And that’s what she did – and Steve still, I think about four years later – teeters on the precipice of faith – he’s got mustard seed faith. It’s still being cultivated and nurtured – he has asked us to pray for he and his wife – he has attended church and even sung in church (though he asked Lori for a song suggestion – and this was her big subversive moment – she gave him Casting Crown’s Who Am I? – and Steve said that he wept when he sang it – because the TRUTH of the chorus cut him to his very soul – “Not because of who I am, but because of what you’ve done, not because of what I’ve done, but because of who you are.” And then at the end the statement, “I am yours.”) All she could show him was how Jesus changed her life. It doesn’t matter who believes it – she knows it’s true.
And that is faith in action, isn’t it? Who are you believing today?
Enough faith to roll a stone away – and God shows up mightily – the stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, Jesus is alive.
Tiny faith – but faith enough.
Faith enough to move a mountain – faith enough to roll away a stone – faith enough to transform the Brokenstraw Valley – faith enough for the hundreds of people like Lori’s friend Steve. Faith enough to trust God to do what God does best. To change the world.
Alleluia, He is risen!
He is Risen INDEED!
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