Message 04-16-06 – Resurrection Sunday
Series: Lectionary
Scripture: Luke 24:36-49 [off Lectionary]
Title: Proof
Intro:
The day of Resurrection is upon us.
This is a great day for the planet Earth. This is a day that says that life is not just what we look at and taste and feel, but that there is a greater power behind the life we live. There is a loving heart at the center of the universe that cares for us, knows us personally, intimately and enjoys us. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day of resurrection.
Too many times, when we come to Easter, we think that we need to focus on “proving” the resurrection. This is difficult. What are you going to do to make someone else believe in God’s work?
I know a man who, as a college student, was open about being a Christian. He had an atheistic professor who challenged him whenever he could. One day the professor said, “Listen. If God’s really there, like you say, then why don’t you just go out to the main street and build a big altar to him and pray that he sends fire down to burn it up. Elijah the prophet did that. Why don’t you do that so that people can see that God is really there?”
My friend, as a young Christian said, “Well, suppose I did that. Suppose I built a big wooden altar and prayed for God to send fire and suppose that flames flashed out of the sky and burn the altar to dust; what would you say then, professor?”
The professor smiled and said, “Well, I would say there had to be some other explanation for it.”
Too many times, as people who know God and worship God, we get caught up in trying to prove the resurrection.
A short time ago, I was talking with a young woman one day about faith and belief and she was expressing her questions about Jesus. So I started by asking if she believed that Julius Caesar lived. She said, no. And, you know, if you don’t believe that Julius Caesar was a living person on the planet then it’s pretty hard to suggest that there’s even more proof that Jesus lived. Some people are just not going to believe.
So what are you going to say to prove the resurrection?
I think the arguments are sound, but I’m not the one worrying about it. I think we should leave it to Time Magazine. Let them argue over it once a year. For followers of Jesus, the question is not how do we prove the resurrection? The question for Christ followers is what does the resurrection prove?
Study:
If the resurrection is true it proves Jesus was right.
That’s more than simply saying Jesus had the right idea.
What it means is that the way Jesus lived and what Jesus taught was right. Jesus says “I am the living, true way” which is a different, but legitimate way of translating “the way, the truth and the life.” When Jesus says “I am the living, true way,” and that no one gets to the Father but by him, he is saying that his way of life, following his example and his teaching is the only way that gets you to God. The resurrection proves that.
The resurrection proves that Jesus was telling the truth. It proves that the truth will set you free. It proves that we should treat our neighbors the way we want to be treated.
Do you get that? It’s not just a good idea. It’s not just a catchy phrase. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s not a golden rule. It’s the truth about how life works. This is how life works, the way Jesus told us to live it. This is how we get to God, get to know God, the way Jesus went, the way Jesus is, we get to know God as our parent who loves us.
The resurrection proves that God is a Father to us.
The resurrection proves that our lives should change. Do you remember learning to ride a bicycle? I’ll bet that most people went through the struggle of learning to ride a bicycle. The first goal of learning is to get to a place where you don’t have to think about it while you do it. You want to get to a point where you can just do it without thinking about balance and coordinating your movements and breaking and turning. You just want to “get it” so you can just do it without thinking. Once you get to that point you can enjoy it.
That’s one of the first goals for learning to ride a bicycle and that’s great for bicycles, but it is not that good for other areas of life. If your goal is to get to a point where you’re comfortable, where you don’t have to think about it any more, then you’re missing life. Life is all about learning and growing. Life is about change.
The resurrection proves that our lives should change, that we need to grow into new understanding. The resurrection proves that our hearts need God.
The resurrection proves our ideas of goodness should change. We tend to have ideas on goodness that are similar to “perfect.” Something is good if it falls within the lines, lives by clear rules and definitions. But the resurrection proves that Jesus was good. The resurrection says that Jesus should be our definition of good. Jesus had a righteousness that the religious leaders of his time couldn’t grasp. They were very clear on following all the rules. They were like those teenagers who ask for clearer and clearer definitions. “If my curfew is midnight and I get in at 12:01 am I okay? What if it is 12:02?” That was the way the religious leaders of Jesus’ time talked about being good. The rule was “don’t work on the Sabbath.” So, what is work? How much can I lift? How far can I walk? What can I do before it becomes “work”, before I cross the line and I’m not ‘good’ anymore?” Jesus said that our righteousness has to surpass the righteous of the Pharisees.
The resurrection proves our ideas of goodness should change. It proves that our righteousness should affect other people to make their lives better. The resurrection proves that Jesus was right and the way he lived was to make other people’s lives better. His righteousness made others better. Roger Sullins and I talk each week about the Scripture we are looking at as we pick songs and look at how the message should go for each service. As we talked about this idea Roger summed it up by saying, “Our idea of righteousness means we keep our hands clean. Jesus’ idea of righteousness is if our hands aren’t dirty then we’re not living righteously.” Then we fell into this conversation about “The Mod Squad” and using words like “righteous” and “solid”.
But the resurrection proves that our righteousness should be like Jesus’ righteousness. Our righteousness should provide others with education and healing and food and clothing and shelter and companionship. Our righteousness is not about us looking good or even being good. The resurrection proves our righteousness should radically alter the lives of others.
I mentioned a young woman I spoke with about faith a moment ago. She had trouble believing in Jesus and didn’t really have any faith that anything in history was real or even relevant. But her chief problem was that was struggling with pressure from her family. They wanted her to express faith in Christ, but she didn’t see any evidence of faith in their lives. They wanted her to come to the church and to become a member because it was the right thing to do. “It’s what we do.” But she didn’t believe in it and she didn’t find that her family did anything that showed they believed in it either.
Our righteousness should be tangible to others.
Jesus’ righteousness brought him alongside of prostitutes and homeless and mentally unbalanced and demonically possessed people. Jesus’ righteousness had him get into real life with real people. The resurrection proved this was the right thing to do.
Real life is tough. In one of the churches where I used to work four times a year we had breakfast together on Sunday morning as our worship. Picture coming into the gym here and instead of finding the chairs all set nicely, it was all tables and chairs and people were cooking up pancakes and bacon and eggs and there were bowls of fruit and bagels and different choices of cereals and sweet rolls and Danish and donuts. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? We would all gather around the tables and talk and sing and pray and worship together. And there was also a chance to talk with and get to know the other people at your table.
One day at the end of one of those breakfast worship services a woman in our church came and told me she couldn’t do this anymore. She told me how she was seated across from a man she had gotten to know a little but didn’t really know well. She’d asked him how things were going and he told her. He told that he and his wife were having trouble in their marriage, lots of disagreements, but they were working on it. But then, just as they were getting things together there were money problems and then her son from a previous relationship was getting out of prison. He didn’t want him coming to their home but she did. It all went like that until he seemed to finish. The woman telling me all this said, I was looking for some bright spark and so I asked him how work was. And the guy just went into another litany… It had been good even though he was commuting two hours each way every day, but he’d just learned that his six month contract was being discontinued. And he’d thought that might happen so he’d sent up some “flares” looking for new work because his present company was saying they weren’t going to be able to keep him on once the contract was finished.
The woman said again, “I just can’t do this. It’s too real.”
Real is hard. The resurrection proves that you can survive and you have the resources to deal with “real.” Jesus knew real. Jesus dealt with real. Jesus played by all the same rules we live by. He showed us that he couldn’t do it alone. He needed to pray for help, too. The resurrection proves that you have someone to talk to. There’s someone there who knows who you are, who knows you and enjoys you. At the heart of the universe there is a loving heart that is ready to help you face the day.
No matter what you have coming tomorrow. No matter if it is death or taxes. No matter if it is inevitable and it is placing you in jeopardy. The resurrection proves that you don’t face it alone.
My friends Jesus did not die on Friday to make us Christians or to start a religion. He died for us to become true human beings back in touch with our creator. He died to cleanse us and remake us so that we could hear God and know God. He died so that we could know the love of God and be changed. And the resurrection, the resurrection proves that.
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
