Easter Sunday 2023

So after Jesus dies, the authorities rush, they put Jesus in the tomb.

The Romans seal that tomb, they guard that tomb.

And the next day, is this John 20, where Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and hopes to prepare the body.

John 21 and 2, and read some of this reading that we had for today and ponder it.

Verse 1.

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it's still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

Two summers ago, some friends and I were hiking in Grand Teton National Park, one of my favorite places in the entire world.

Here's a picture of me up at Delta Lake.

That big peak behind that behind my big face is uh that big peak is Grand Teton Peak, 13,775 feet.

If you care, you probably don't care, but that's what it is.

Beautiful lake up there in the Teton, unbelievable place.

Now on the way back down, my friends and I are hiking back down, and we're talking to each other, hiking and talking, hiking and talking, we're just having a good time, talking about all sorts of things.

Just hiking along, and on the way back down, suddenly we cliff out, which means we we came to a dead end.

This trail we were on just ends of the cliff, and that's it.

Dead end, nowhere to go.

So in our expert hiking skills, we had not been paying attention, and we took a bad trail.

And so many people had taken this bad trail over time that it looked like a good trail, it looked like the trail, it wasn't the trail, it was a bad trail to a dead end, but it actually just keeps leading moron hikers like myself, maybe you, I don't know, maybe in on that cliff out situation, into a dead end.

Now, to avoid all of this, all we had to do along the way at any point was slow down.

And ask, is this the path that takes me home?

Is this the path I came on?

Is this the right path?

Will it take me home?

And I think this is what Easter gives us.

Easter does this and Christmas does it, really any Sunday or like a Thursday when you're just like at the end of yourself, right?

Is this the path that I'm on?

Will it take me home?

Or is it leading me just to another dead end?

So we repented of our horrible hiking skills, repented of our hiking sins, we turned around, backtracked, that humble backtrack, and walked back another 45 minutes to turn around and walk back on the good trail another 45 minutes.

So we all run out of our resources.

At some point, we get to the end of ourselves, the end of our rope.

And we ask questions like, will this be okay?

What do I do?

Is it possible for me to be okay or content or at peace or known and loved?

Known and loved.

Where is this victorious life?

Where is this new life?

And that's why we've been saying what we say for 10 years, that we're more broken than we originally thought, because we're discovering that more and more and more.

And yet we are loved by God more than we dare to dream.

So where is this new life?

Paul wrote this in Romans 8, 31 through 35.

What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Point number one is this the resurrection is the story of God's victorious and lavish love to us.

Lately there's been a lot of online videos describing women describing their moms as almond moms.

Do you have a few of you know almond moms?

You know, this term this came from a 2013 episode of Real Housewives, quality, quality television show, train wreck.

You have to have about five quiet times afterward to kind of cleanse yourself of the trash.

So this term almond mom has become an online sensation, this term, you know, it's anytime a mom is so controlling over their daughter, particularly, you know, in this ultimate value of like being thin or sculpted.

Author Sarah Condon writes this these observations are meant to be relatable and funny, but they also feel deeply sad to me.

Because I have my own inner almond mom, just like my mother did, just like her mother did.

And if we think these almond moms saying this to their kids is terrible, and it is, just imagine what they are saying to themselves.

And of course you can imagine, and I can.

Because we have inner almond moms, right?

It's it's that voice of performance and never enough.

It's the pressure to be something or to be something else.

Whatever you are now, it's just not quite it.

So you need something else.

It's the voice that pushes and condemns, but it never loves you.

Never loves you in your actual messiness or weakness or need.

And we all have this inner almond mom, and yet we want to be accepted, forgiven, loved, affirmed, approved.

About a year ago, Scotty Scheffler, the pro golfer, he went on a tear.

He won three pro golf tournaments in a six week's space.

Now, just for a pro golfer to win any tournament is amazing.

For most of us just to hit a golf ball is amazing.

Like just hitting, just hitting it at all is an amazing feat.

But he wins the WGC tournament, becomes the number one golfer in the world.

He's the best golfer in the world.

And in that moment, his dad says to him, I'm more proud of who you are than your golf.

You're a wonderful young man.

I mean, who doesn't want that hug, right?

Like if that dad's in the lobby, if he's in the lobby, we're lining up.

Like we're leaving to shut down the service and let's go on out there and get a hug, let him say that to us, right?

To be loved and affirmed deeper than our performance and our record.

And of course, this dad, he knows his son can be selfish and snotty and sinful, just like you, and just like me, right?

Our families know our families know the truth about us.

Last week, my family informed me that I breathe heavy.

Nobody told me that yet.

Apparently, y'all are aware, I guess.

I don't know.

My shorts are too long.

It used to be cool, it's not anymore.

And I'm a nerd.

That I am, in fact, a nerd.

And that's worse is that I tell myself all sorts of things as well.

I really did think at 43 that I would be able to handle like the responsibilities of life better.

Like I just don't handle them all that well.

I get very anxious.

And I thought I'd be more successful.

I don't even know what that means at this point in life.

But I did think that.

Probably with bigger muscles.

I thought that too, but this is it.

But none of that is a final enduring word upon me or my heart.

So in John 20, Peter and John, they rushed to the tomb because they didn't believe what Mary said.

And even when they saw the empty tomb, they didn't believe that Jesus was alive again.

They had all this disbelief in these days right after the resurrection.

What's so wonderful is that Jesus pursues his followers in their disbelief to help them believe, that we have a heavenly father who pursues his worn out and wandering children.

I love this quote by priest and author Robert Capin.

I've read it before.

Trust him, no matter how many waverings you may have, no matter how many suspicions, no matter how much heaviness and sadness your lapses, vices, indispositions, and bratty whining may cause you, you believe simply that somebody else, by his death and resurrection, has made it all right.

And you just say thank you and shut up.

The whole slot closet full of mildewed performances, which is all you have to offer, is simply your death.

It is Jesus who is your life.

If he refused to condemn you because your works were rotten, he certainly isn't going to flunk you because your faith isn't so hot.

You can fail utterly and still live the life of grace.

You can fold up spiritually, morally, or intellectually and still be safe.

Because at the very worst, all you can be is dead.

And for him who is the resurrection and the life, that just makes you his cup of tea.

In Colossians 3, Paul teaches the implications of this radical grace, this life in the resurrection, new life.

And so at this point in the Colossian letter, in chapter 3, there's a major shift.

Colossians 1 and 2 are the extravagant promises of Christ's work for us.

Just a showering of promises, fully forgiven, fully righteous, secure child, all through Christ's work.

It's given to you, it's indicated to you.

And then chapters 3 and 4, the shift over to the implication of Christ's promises in our lives.

So those indicatives in chapters 1 and 2, those lavish promises we have in Christ, out of come these imperatives, the implications for our hearts and lives.

Colossians 3, 1 and 2, here's where the shift happens.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory.

So we could say it this way.

Theology of glory goes like this.

If I get my act together, when I get my act together, if I keep it together, God will save me and have me and sustain me and be pleased with me and smile upon me.

If I earn more, have more, pray more.

Then I will really be whole.

Then I could really be his child, really be right with God.

And the problem with the theology of glory is that it creates performance.

And because it creates performance, it will create pretending.

And when we have pretending, we're going to have dishonesty and eventually we will have exhaustion.

And because you are told that you should be and you are always getting better.

And what we know to be true is that we are not always getting better.

But the theology of the cross is the way of faith, it is the new life.

God provides salvation and wholeness as I die into Christ.

The Baptist preacher I grew up listening to as a child would say, we are buried in Christ as to walk in the newness of life.

Colossians 1 and 2 give us the implications in 3 and 4.

And God doesn't just endure you.

He's not enduring you, He delights in you through Christ's sacrifice.

Any justice is absorbed into Christ.

That's the love that we have.

And he is at work in our hearts and lives.

Verse 5, Colossus 3, 5.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual or morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming.

In these you two once walked.

When you were living in them.

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

See, the human heart, my human heart, is always searching for acceptance and a validation, a justification.

And when I don't trust that I'm justified by God and Christ alone, I look for that in other ways, and I can do some, and you can do some crazy destructive things.

That's what verses 5 through 8 are.

But Paul calls us to live according to how we have already been deemed, Colossians 1 and 2.

And so point number two for us is the resurrection welcomes us into a new and free life of resting and growing in Christ.

Paul goes on in Colossians 3, 9.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

So we could say this looking at the book of Colossians, which is helping us make sense of the resurrection, the new life, the resurrected life of people of faith.

As we grow more alive to the fullness of God's love for us, we grow in the implications of that love.

So we are not guilt-driven, we are not performance-oriented.

We're free from that.

We are grace-found, we are grace-centered, we are grace-empowered toward godliness.

Not perfect, perfected in Christ, but not perfect yet.

So we are free in becoming free.

And we're not even as free as God intends or wants us to be.

But he is at work in us.

This is the new self, the resurrection life.

That is the victorious life, not a perfect life, but perfected in Christ and growing.

Back to John 20.

Mary is distraught.

Verse 11, she's weeping outside of the tomb, and two angels come and they speak to her.

Woman, why are you weeping?

Then Jesus comes and she thinks he's a gardener, which I love that because it's kind of what he's doing here, is he's tending to her.

John 20, 15.

Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking?

Supposing him to be the gardener.

She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary.

She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Riboni, which means teacher.

Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

Point number three is this Jesus loyally pursues you, calls you by name, your name, which means he really does know you, calls you by name, as to welcome you to the Heavenly Father.

So there's no almond mom condemnation here.

He calls you to your identity as a child of God of the loving Abba Father.

Three weeks ago, right when spring hit, I was out of the Kinesaw Trails, maybe four weeks ago out of the Kinesaw Trails.

See this picture?

Climbing that great mountain.

Not Grand Teton, very similar.

It's our Grand Teton.

We'll be proud of us.

There's really only one tree blooming at the time.

It was pretty amazing as hiking through the forest because there was just this one tree over and over again.

You'd see nothing else was blooming except this one tree.

It's like pinkish purple blooms.

And because apparently I am a nerd, is what I was informed a couple weeks ago.

Because of that, when I got back in my truck, I'm like, what's that tree?

And I'm like, oh, that's amazing.

You know, so it's the eastern redbutt, is what it is.

Maybe you knew that.

Most of you don't care.

That's what it is.

It's the eastern redbutt.

Now, over the years, a legend formed about the eastern redbutt.

No, it's not Bible, it's not like a chapter in the Bible.

It's just a legend, a story formed, because it was believed that Judas Iscariot hung himself on an eastern redbud.

And so the tree became known as the Judas tree.

And so the legend says that the tree used to be tall and strong and put together like an oak tree.

But it became short and twisted.

And just when we wonder whether winter will ever end, right?

Like, is like is it possible for my heart to know new life when life is messy and disappointing?

Just when we think that, the red bud blooms in the forest, the first to bloom.

And then the leaf arrives after the bloom.

A heart-shaped leaf.

It's a legend group.

That a tree that should be forgotten, too twisted, too short, not impressive.

It's covered with the Creator's heart.

Now that's a beautiful image for us.

It's a beautiful image for our hearts because we know the feeling of not being put together.

We know the feeling of being all twisted up, or maybe too short.

Maybe you really do know that.

Too skinny, too whatever, something.

We're just not what we wish we were.

We're not what God has asked us to be.

Yet, yet, and this is why this is a gospel image for us.

Yet, his loving heart for us is like a papa to a dearly loved child.

See, the final word, this is what the tomb, empty tomb, gives us.

It gives us a final word that is not the death of the cross, which is beautiful.

We don't understand the resurrection without the cross, these two things put together.

Our sin is put upon him, his righteousness given to us, the work of the cross, and then the final word upon us in our hearts is not death, despair, or disappointment.

They are not the final word on your heart.

The final word is a victory outside of yourself and given to you.

Something that we trust in and we rest in, and we're freed within.

It is lavish love now.

There's a heart where there should be a thorn, or there's a heart there where that twisted tree should just have nothing.

And there's a hope for heaven for us.

That there is a life beyond this world and this earth.

And all the brokenness will be undone, and all the tears will be wiped away.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace to us.

That while we are clearly more broken than we originally thought, messy, disappointed in a disappointing world, and yet there's an empty tomb which says there's a final word from you for us, and it is one of victory that's given to us while we are messy.

And for those of us in this room this morning who are perhaps even painfully aware of how messy they are, broken, sinful, or the broken world put upon them, would you grant the relief of hope, the relief of comfort, the relief of acceptance, the relief of approval and affirmation and welcome that is not earned by their performance, but is earned by the cross and the resurrection, a work given to them.

We pray this in the cross and in the resurrection, and by the power of Jesus.

Amen.