Genesis 1-3, Matthew 28, 1 Corinthians 15: He is Risen!

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, Resurrection Easter Sunday by Major Michael Ramsay, 20 April 2025.

He is risen! (He is risen indeed!)

 

Easter is the most important date on the Christian Calendar. Do we know why it is the most important date? What are we celebrating? (the resurrection of Jesus) Why does this matter? (it means we can all be raised from the dead)

 

We read the story of Mary and Mary at the tomb today. I think that is a very important story about the first Christian evangelists and preachers: Two women proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Do we know the rest of the story?

 

At the very beginning of the Bible, in the first few chapters of the first book in this holy anthology, we have the story of how God created the heavens and the earth. God created it all and it was perfect. Not only were there no bad things like murder, stealing, lying, etc. There was also no injury, no illness, no decay, no death. Even the trees didn’t die. The animals didn’t eat each other. It was paradise – it was the Garden of Eden.

 

Then the very first people that God created did something – they disobeyed God. This was the first badness to enter the world. The first sin. From that point on all that erodes life and goodness flowed into the world. Not only bad behaviours but also decay of plants, animals, and people; injury, illness and death.

 

The Bible then, as we know, has many books in the Old Testament that tell how people interacted with each other and God ever since. Mostly – but not entirely – after a certain point, the books speak about the family and descendants of Jacob who was called Israel. Many of these books are looking forward to a time when the world will no longer be in the state that it is in – when everything will be finally made right.

 

There are many recorded memories of God’s interaction with people, giving us a glimpse into when and how things might possibly return. Under and after Moses there is the Law that is given to God’s people to help us know how to relate to each other – in short it can be boiled down to, as Jesus later said, ‘love God and love your neighbour’ – while we are waiting for everything to be set right.

 

Before that even, God and Abraham make an agreement, recorded in Genesis Chapter 12, that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham and then in Genesis 15 we get our first glimpse of the cross. There is a ceremony, a covenant and God basically says that if mankind messes up again, like they did in the garden, God will take the punishment, He will die. We do mess up. On Good Friday He does.

 

The word ‘gospel’ that we still use today means, ‘good news’. On Easter – a few days later - we have the Good News. Yes God, Jesus, died. He went to the grave. But then something happened. He came back to life – and when he came back to life, he came back with a body that no longer decays, no longer experiences illness, no longer experiences death. He is the first person to experience life back like it was in the Garden of Eden.

 

Now, I say first ‘person’ for a reason. Jesus is God. Jesus is also a person. He is fully, truly and properly God and he is fully, truly and properly human. At Christmas we celebrate God becoming human – He, who was around at the creation of the world, was also, much later, born. On Good Friday he dies. On Easter He has the first fully resurrected body. His body will now never die, never get sick, never get injured. And when he overcame death on Easter, he really overcame it – not just for himself but for everyone. Jesus never died after his resurrection (like others who have risen from the dead). He went away for a while; but he will come back.

 

When he comes back, he will bring with him the Tree of Life that was in the Garden of Eden and the whole world will be made anew. We spoke about this a few weeks ago while we were looking at Romans 5, Genesis 3, and Revelation 22 where the ultimate return of God is recorded.

 

So that is what we are celebrating today: the first fruits of the resurrection, that the world is set right, and the path has been paved for Jesus’ return. On Easter, God made a way so that we never need to die (again). The Bible says that when he returns, even those who are already dead will raise from the grave and they will never die again and those who are still alive will be changed, healed, transformed into these never decaying, never dying entities that love fully both God and our neighbour forever.

 

Today, as we celebrate His victory over death, decay, and sin; We are even now awaiting Jesus’ return. While we wait, we are we are told a couple of things to do

1.     Never forget what he has done for us and that he will return.

a.     In the Bible they meet regularly over a meal to remember Jesus.

b.     Now we meet on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, and at other occasions, as well as have other ceremonies, to remember what the Lord has done and what we have to look forward to.

 

2.     And the other thing we need to do is to share the love of God with others. We can do this by telling others about God while we take care of one another.

 

So today, as we are celebrating Jesus’ resurrection to eternal life and awaiting his return when the whole world will be set right, let us do our part.

 

God has provided enough to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone in the world; He has given us this beautiful earth to take care of – and He asks nothing more of us that to love Him and take care of each other until He returns  - let us do that until he returns, for when he comes back there will be no more death, no more decay, no more sorrow, no more sadness; only joy, peace and wholeness because He has risen! (He has risen, indeed)

 

Let us Pray

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Genesis 2:15-3:24, Romans 5:11-18, Revelation 22:1-5: Back to the Garden

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, Port Alberni BC, 28 July 2019 by Major Michael Ramsay and 30 March 2025

 

This is the 2025 version; to view the 2019 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/07/genesis-215-3-back-to-garden.html

Doctrine 5: We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

…and/but…

Doctrine 6: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will, may be saved.

 

Doctrine 5 has been referred to as the doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely ‘originating sin’) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine. Doctrines 5 & 6 are how TSA explains corporate (as opposed to individual) Salvation; Corporate Salvation is like getting back to the Garden of Eden – what life was like before the Fall.

 

This is the garden. Reading from Genesis 2:15-18:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

 

Then this is what happened there, Genesis 3:1-6:

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it

 

And as a result of this first/original sin, Genesis 3:21-24:

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

Salvation can be understood then like humanity getting back to the Garden. Salvation is about people and even all of creation returning to our original full and proper relationship with God. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to be in the very presence of the Tree of Life (which was in the garden!) and of God Himself.

 

Some people have asked why do we need to be restored? Why do we need to get back? Why were we kicked out, punished for what Adam and Eve did anyway? I never ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge; how come I have to suffer their consequences? I look at the consequences of the original sin like this: Our lives are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our biological or custodial parents and their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden of Eden; therefore, their children - Cain, Abel, and Seth - weren’t born in the Garden of Eden.

 

I was born and Susan and I were raised on Vancouver Island here – like Adam and Eve were created and raised in Eden. However, Heather was born and our eldest two daughters were mostly raised in Saskatchewan and then Toronto. We left the Island before Sarah-Grace was one year old for our work with The Salvation Army. It wasn’t sin that caused us to move away – like it was with Adam and Eve – but our children had no more say over the fact that they were raised and away from the Island than Cain, Abel, and Seth did that they were raised away from Eden. As our children live with the results of our actions –both good and bad: a life of serving the Lord but also growing up without family nearby – so we all live with the results of our ancestors’ actions – not just moving from one place to another – but the results of all kinds of choices they made over the years: our parents, our grandparents, and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. That is why and how we are suffering the consequences of originating sin. Does that make sense?

 

Walter Bruggemann, one of the foremost OT scholars, has noted that Adam and Eve’s perfect fear here cast out love (Genesis 3:10) and notes that as Jesus sets everything right, perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18-20).[1]          

 

This is the Adamic Covenant. The Bible also speaks about the way in which we can return to perfect love, to the Garden, to Eden. In Genesis 15, through the ceremony of the smoking firepot and the Abrahamic Covenant, we are shown that God (Jesus Christ) will give up His life in consequence of humankind transgressing that agreement with Him; and then Jesus’ death will lead to our Salvation insofar as Jesus receives the consequences for those actions (that of humanity at the time of Abraham, and at the time of Adam, and more) [2] – thus making it possible for us to return to what life was like in the garden.

 

Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army reads: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

 

Good Friday and Easter is all about this and In the New Testament we are told a little bit about this. A few people today have some scriptures to read for us:

·       Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

·       1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

·       Romans 5:6: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

·       Romans 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

·       1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Again:

·       Galatians 3:13 says Jesus became a curse by dying on the cross

·       1 Peter 2:24 says that He bore our sins and we are healed

·       Romans 5:6 says that He who was righteous died for we who were unrighteous

·       Romans 5:17-18 says that Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciles us all, undoing Adam’s death and banishment.

·       1 John 2:2 says that this atonement was for the whole world, all of creation.[3]

 

And let me read from near the end of the concluding book in this more than a Divine anthology, the Bible. Revelation 22:1-5 speaks about at the end of our age when God will come down with Heaven in the New Jerusalem and there once again will be the Tree of Life (from Eden), freely available to all of us:

 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

 

Even though sin and death entered into the world through Adam and Eve and we have been living life outside of the garden, Jesus is the light, and because of Good Friday and Easter morning and more He is returning and bringing back with Him when He does at the eschaton, the Tree of Life from Eden.

 

This is what Easter is about. Last time I spoke we chatted about the Mosaic Covenant and the Law. Jesus died on the cross so that we can return to a time before we even had the Law. Jesus died so that we could return to a time before there was even sin; the Law was trying to mitigate sin’s consequences for us. Jesus’ death completes the Mosaic Law. Jesus’ death fulfills the covenant with Abraham. Jesus’ resurrection removes the cherubim and flaming sword from the Garden of Eden. As Jesus has entered new life for eternity so can we; we can re-enter the garden. We can be welcomed back into the garden and see and experience the Tree of Life and reign with Jesus forever. This was made possible through the resurrection and is what we celebrate at Easter.

 

Would you like to reign with God forever? Do you want to be in the eternal city, with the Tree from the Garden of Eden, where there is no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; no more decay, no more sorrow, where everyone is honest, and everyone is loving, and serving our Lord? Do you want to? You can. Jesus provided for our Salvation between the Cross and the empty tomb on Good Friday and Easter morning and we can start experiencing the beginning of that very Salvation even today which lasts forever in the eternal Garden of Eden.

 

Today, as we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and leader, we can in essence make our way back to the Garden. If we would like to live forever in this place, where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; where we are honest and loving and serving our Lord, we can. All we need to do is ask - Jesus has already done the rest.

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Walter Bruggemann, Genesis (Interpretation: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982), p 53

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today, (Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm

[3] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 369.

1 Corinthians 15: Resurrection Information for Every Body.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 25 April 2022 (the week after Resurrection Sunday) by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Last weekend we celebrated Easter. What is the main point of Easter? Jesus defeated sin and death. He died and raised from the grave; so I thought I would look into resurrection in general a little bit today.

First, I have my only story of someone raising from the dead: from when we were serving in Toronto. In one of the corps we were responsible for – the Warehouse Mission – they had very many great outreaches into the Inner City community. We had talent nights once a month that were amazing – everything from absolutely top-of-the-line professional musicians to people signing their hearts out (and our ears!) or playing instruments that they didn’t necessarily know how to work. It was so much fun! Everyone was so encouraging too. We also had regular meals and did so much more. One thing we had on the wall when you entered our space was a bulletin board where we would place funeral cards and notifications of people’s deaths and memorial services - so we could pay our respects and let others remember those who have been Promoted to Glory. Only once we had to actually take down funeral card – because the person wasn’t dead anymore! Maybe they weren’t really dead in the first place but their information was all on the board and people who remembered them were telling me all about it. You can imagine – it was quite exciting when a number of our people met a friend they all knew, who they knew/thought was dead. That is my only resurrection story. And -according to my wife - they probability they weren’t really dead in the first place but even if it isn’t a resurrection story, it still was more than a little exciting when people cried out that she was alive! (We then took her funeral card down)

It would have been very exciting with Jesus’ resurrection! His friends saw him die and then, after He rose, He actually appeared to hundreds of different people, at different times, in different places, and people touched Him to make sure that He wasn’t a ghost. Paul is writing this letter to people who knew this

Today we are going to ask a few questions of our text, 1 Corinthians 15, about the resurrection at the end of time (the eschaton) as it relates not only to Jesus but to all of us.

 

First: What does it mean to be resurrected?

It means to be raised again… with a body – as Jesus showed everyone again and again. The resurrection is NOT about ‘going to heaven’. When we die, we DO  have the opportunity to go to Heaven. Heaven is where Jesus is. Like the thief on the cross, when we pass on, we can go to Heaven. But that is not what Paul is talking about when he is writing about the resurrection. Paul is making the point in Chapter 15 that the resurrection is something different. The language he uses (in Greek) is quite blunt. He is quite upset that some people seem to think that Heaven was the end of it. Paul says there is still something else. Paul here is talking about what some have called, ‘life after, life after death’ – when we get new physical bodies.  What does it mean to be resurrected? It means to be raised again with a body.

 

How does resurrection and especially Jesus’ resurrection relate to the Gospel?

1 Corinthians 15 tells us that this is the Good News of Salvation. Paul says the Gospel that saves us, as Scripture says, is this (vv. 2-4):

·       Jesus died for our sins

·       Jesus was buried

·       Jesus raised from the dead

So we can have everlasting life: Good Friday is all about Jesus dying for our sins. Easter is all about His resurrection to everlasting Life. But…

 

 Next question: Can people other than Jesus really be resurrected from the grave with a new body and not have to die again?

 

Yes. This is important. The Apostle Paul says (vs 13) that there has to be a resurrection of the dead, because Christ has been resurrected and many people, who are still alive (when this letter was written) have seen Him and touched Him and can verify what they saw and felt. The fact that you have seen Him, Paul writes, proves that people can be raised.

Now when God ultimately raises us from the grave (at the eschaton; at the end of time) we will be free of death. Paul says that if Christ wasn’t raised (which they know He was) than you can’t be free of death. Everything born on this planet dies. Everything. And so, Paul says, that when Christ rose from the grave, He in essence opened the door to the grave and left it open so that we can all walk out, in due time of course. Many of my sermons talk about how God is with us here and now in our daily lives and this is important. But Paul very importantly says here that vs 19, if our hope in Christ is ONLY for the here and now, we are to be pitied more than anyone. So, can people really be resurrected from dead? Yes, many of those receiving this letter had seen the first person who was raised like this.

Okay, Jesus bodily raised from the grave, never to die again. If we are convinced by Paul that He was first and that we will follow with new glorified bodies, a couple of more natural questions arise:

 

Question 4: What will our bodies look like? And,

 

Question 5: How will all this happen?

 

Verse 35-41, Paul says our bodies, such as they are now, are like seeds. Reinhart is away. He is an amazing gardener. I don’t know if anyone else here is a gardener. Paul says we right now are seeds. It is like this room we are in is one big packet of people seeds. When we are dead and buried, it is like God is planting us in the ground. Then one day, at the time of the resurrection, we will each grow from our seed into brand new people. The English translations when speaking about the seed bodies calls them ‘perishable’ or ‘corruptible’ or ‘natural bodies’. When referring to the new bodies that grow from these seeds the English translations call them ‘imperishable’, ‘incorruptible’, and ‘spiritual bodies’. One thing all the journal articles and commentaries I have read recently -after long discussions about Greek words and context - point out is that these new bodies are indeed real bodies. They are not just spirits; they are not ghosts; they are spiritual, incorruptible, everlasting bodies. Just as Christ has a touchable spiritual body – that never ages and never dies, so will we. It is neat here too because Paul speaks about animals and birds and fish all having different bodies too – like they are from different seed packet but one that was planted, like we will be when we are buried, and will grow again. He says the same for heavenly bodies as well; so, who knows? We just buried Sally Dzus’ pets and her second husband in the grave with her next to her first husband’s grave; maybe her pets will be raised again too in new non-perishable bodies! Maybe our pets and livestock will be with us at the resurrection.

So… What will our bodies look like at the resurrection and how will this happen? I don’t know but they will be different – like a seed is different from a plant - and they will be bodies that will not perish.

 

 

The next natural question is when will this happen? 

 

When will we get our new bodies? Verse 51 onwards: this will happen at some undisclosed future date; it sounds like it will all happen at once. Verse 52, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

There is one interesting footnote that I want to chat about briefly today – not because it is particularly important but just because I find it interesting.

 

What about the baptism of the dead?

15:29: “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” Now no one knows what the baptism of the dead is. We can gather from this that baptism is symbolic rather than transformative – because we obviously can’t save a dead person by baptizing them. But I always thought that this would be a  ceremony The Salvation Army might decide do one day (if we ever implement baptism by water) to baptize the relatives of all our unbaptized p-t-g Officers and Soldiers on their behalf. 

 

 Why does our resurrection matter?

 

If we all go to Heaven to be with Jesus after we die anyway, why is this ultimate resurrection so important to the New Testament and Christianity? (See Revelation where Heaven comes down to earth at the Eschaton)

I think it is important because it tells us what the Kingdom to Come will look like when it is fully established at the Eschaton. It lets us know a couple of things:

1)    We won’t just be disembodied ghosts or spirits floating around in the air with no body -like Casper the Ghost or Ghost Busters or something. We will have bodies.

2)    There will most likely be plants and animals and maybe even stars and planets at the resurrection and as they don’t die or age, the lamb can then lie down with the lion (Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 21:1-4) because he has no fear of being eaten

3)    We won’t have our old bodies that just keep getting older with all the ever-increasing aches and pains of aging (unlike poor Tithonus from Greek mythology). This is why Paul can say elsewhere (Philippians 1:21) to live is Christ -which is great! - but to die is gain.

And this is our hope, that at the end of everything God will create new heavens and a new earth where nothing will grow old, nothing will decay. Nothing will die because between the cross and the empty tomb, as Christians around the world celebrated last week, Christ defeated death so we can all have life and have life abundantly!

One last thing: Paul ends our discussion in this way. He writes, vv. 57-58, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we all have the opportunity be raised to eternal life.

 

Let us pray.

---

[1] Richard A. Horsley, Pneumatikos vs. Psychikos Distinctions of Spiritual Status among the Corinthians In The Harvard Theological Review Vol. 69, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1976), pp. 269-288 (20 pages)

[2] Cf. W. Harold Mare, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VIII. The Resurrection of Christ and of the Christian (15:1-58), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 128 and Simon J. Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians (NTC: Grad Raoids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 149: 1 Corinthians is probably the oldest record of the observance of this memorial

[4] Cf. J. Paul Sampley, 1 Corinthians, (NIB: Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 935 for a very good discussion of the intentionality of the use of the phrase,' do this in remembrance of me."

 

 

 

  

John 20: So that You May Believe

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, 17 April 2022 by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Many things happened in our Resurrection Day text. Here we have the first preacher of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus rose from the grave. This woman, Mary Magdalen is the first Christian teacher / preacher / proclaimer of the resurrection. She doesn’t quite get it yet. But she proclaims what she sees to Peter and another person, presumably John.

Next in our Resurrection Day text, after they hear the Good News John and Peter run to the tomb as fast as they can, I assume, to see for themselves! John gets there first and stops at the door, examining the scene and taking the whole thing in. Peter – like a child or younger sibling – comes running up behind him, roars past John, who is stopped at the tomb then seems to call out: “I win! I was here first. I won!”

They take it all in. They see Jesus’ burial clothes lying there – but Jesus is gone. It says John saw all of this and believed but he did not understand. Then the disciples just went home. I can only imagine. What else could they do? …if they don’t understand? They know Jesus is gone and maybe they will know he has raised from the dead but they don’t quite understand, why? How? What next? Where is He? What is happening? They don’t understand

Now it seems that Mary had gone back out to show them the tomb and, of course, the boys went running off ahead. When she gets there Mary stays outside the tomb even after the boys leave. She’s crying, and crying, and crying. So much is going on. She loves Jesus every bit as much as the boys do. I imagine she is completely overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. She bends over to look in the tomb herself again and she sees two angels where Jesus’ would have been laying.

They turn to her -I don’t imagine she recognizes them as angels yet but maybe she does – and they ask her, ‘why are you crying?’ She answers them and then she turns around and when she does, she sees Jesus. But she doesn’t recognize Him at first – understandably: she is crying – she is probably trying to avoid eye contact. And anyway, when is the last time you went to visit someone’s grave and they tapped you on the shoulder and started speaking with you? No wonder she doesn’t recognize Him immediately.

Jesus also asks her ‘why are you crying’? Why is everybody asking her this? You’d think everyone would know why someone would be crying at a graveside, really! Especially if the tombstone and everything was in place but person you went to see wasn’t there anymore. But Jesus does ask her, ‘why are you crying?’

She thinks He is the gardener; so, He asks, ‘who are you looking for?’ I imagine He is just waiting for her to look up and see who He is or even stop crying a bit, take a breath, and listen to His voice. I imagine that is why He keeps speaking to her like this: ‘why are you crying?’ ‘Who are you looking for?’ So she will stop and pay attention. She talks to Him like He is the gardener, probably looking away and the He eventually just says, ‘Mary!’ and then she recognizes Him.

She cries out to Him and I imagine she tries to hug him but Jesus says, “remember to social distance”, “No touchie”. No, that’s not what this means. He says, don’t detain me, I still have to go see My Father, Our Father, My God, Our God.

Mary then begins to understand a little bit about what the boys didn’t’ understand and she runs off to tell them that she saw Jesus. Mary for the second time in our text is playing the part of the first evangelist: sharing the Good News of Jesus being raised from the dead and telling of her interaction and relationship with the resurrected Christ!

That evening many of the disciples are gathered together. They are concerned. They lock all of the doors – in light of everything that has been happening and what they know and do not yet understand, they are afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Picture this with me then. They are trying not to be noticed. They are afraid. They are hiding. The doors are locked. And then in the middle of the room, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “peace be with you”. I picture a similar scene as when He was speaking with Mary earlier. I wonder how long He was standing in their midst before they actually heard, listened to, and recognized Him. After however long, He then shows His hands and His side, with the wounds from His crucifixion. Everyone there is excited! No Kidding! When is the last time you went to someone’s funeral and they showed up at the lunch afterwards?! …showing you the scars from how they died.

He says again to them ‘peace be with you’ – I imagine this is after the commotion has died down a bit and everyone has had their turn touching Him and greeting Him.  ‘Peace be with you’ He says, Verses 21-23, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Now this is very important: On that first day of the week, right at the resurrection, Verse 22, we have the Advent of the Holy Spirit infilling people in the New Testament! Not forty days later in Acts Chapter 2. Acts Chapter 2 is about something entirely different. But also this, of course, isn’t the first time the Holy Spirt shows up in the Bible – He was present at creation – and before. He is there at Jesus’ baptism. He is there in John Chapter One. Here, in John Chapter Twenty, on this the resurrection day, Jesus breathes and His Holy Spirit fills the disciples. They are filled with the Holy Ghost.

Now then Thomas, for some reason, wasn’t with them. They tell him the whole story but he doesn’t buy it. He thinks they are pranking him or something! So he says unless I see and touch Him too, I don’t believe you!

Now Jesus is nice enough to accommodate him. Later they are all in the same house, with the doors locked again – and this time Thomas is with them when Jesus shows up and says, “Peace be with you”. Jesus asks him to touch His wounds, His scars. Immediately Thomas worships Jesus. Jesus then goes on to perform many more miracles and signs and He does this again and again for his disciples. So why does Jesus do all this? Why does John or whomever, and the other Gospel writers, record all this? Verse 31: …These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.

And that is my hope for each of us here. May we know so that we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and as we really are all sent, may we be evangelists like Mary and the other disciples so that others who have not yet seen Jesus may yet believe and so that they and we may all have life in His Name. For now and evermore. Amen.

 

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Luke 24:1-12, 23:13-15; John 12:12-15: The Ups and Downs of Holy Week and the Resurrection

“Hosanna” “My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me”, “He is Risen”. Holy Week is filled with up and down crazy emotions.   

On Palm Sunday we are ecstatic. It looks like the miserable times are coming to an end; it looks like the light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright and we are about to step out into the daylight. “Hosanna”, “Save us!”, we shout!  

On Good Friday it looks like that light of hope is extinguished – and indeed even the sunlight is literally extinguished. There is an eclipse or something: darkness covers the earth (Luke 23:45).  

On Easter Sunday that darkness is overcome in a way that it cannot understand and in a way we should have seen coming but didn’t, and it is a time of genuine celebration – even if there is still a great uncertainty (John 1:5).  

When Palm Sunday rolled around in the first century the Judeans, Samaritans, Israelites, and more were living in occupied territories. The Romans and their military had control over Palestine, the Levant. The people of Israel had been occupied by one military power after another for centuries and they were ready for this to end. They were ready to be free of all the restrictions that are put on an occupied territory by the authorities. They are ready to meet again in the open, with no restrictions and no worries about running afoul of the authorities. They are ready to be free and then here comes Jesus riding on a donkey (Luke 19:28-44). There is hope that they are about to be free! 

This is not unlike our lives here and now during the pandemic. Today our nation -and much of the world- is preoccupied with Covid-19, Coronavirus, the pandemic. At times it has completely stripped us of our freedoms and mobility and in BC even taken away rights that many people thought were protected by the constitution. It has seen us, in the earliest days all of us, even now some of us, locked in our homes not venturing out if we can avoid it. At times we have poked our heads out and wondered why some people are allowed to do somethings and other people aren’t. At times we have poked our heads out and wondered why some activities are deemed unsafe while some activities that seem less safe are deemed not only acceptable but necessary. The same space is allowed to be occupied by hundreds of people at a time to vote, 50 people all day to shop for a charity event, an unlimited amount of people throughout the day to shop if a corporation can make a profit from it, and no people if that space is used for worship and the included emotional and spiritual care needed for the most vulnerable. The inconsistency is frustrating. Covid-19 is frustrating. Covid-19 is occupying our country. And many of us just want to be free of it. We are crying to be liberated from the pandemic: “Hosanna, save us” we cry (cf. Matthew 21, Mark 11, John 12). 

And then there is Good Friday. Jerusalem, who on Palm Sunday went out to meet Jesus calling for him to, “Hosanna, save us!” from the Romans, by Friday was calling for the Romans to save them from Jesus! Crucify him they yell! Crucify him! (Luke 23:20,21) One day they are asking him to save them, the next, the Romans are asking them to save Jesus, but they refuse – calling out “crucify him”! Jesus is then executed at their behest and laid in a tomb. 

This betrayal reminds us of our present time. A week ago we were given the hope that we could gather together publicly, free from discrimination, free from worry, free from the preoccupation with covid-19 and the government regulations that have kept the Church out of the churches. Palm Sunday last week was like Palm Sunday 2 millennia ago in that we had hope. But it turned out to be false hope. We would not be rising again to meet in our traditional ways – yet. Within days Covid-19, the government and their regulations sent us back to where we were. I cannot possibly explain to those who do not already understand the devastation this caused in the hearts of many already hurting people. I sat with, listened to, and prayed with people who were crying as they actually believed that we would be able to return to our traditional ways of worship if only for a little while... only to have the pandemic that occupies our land and the authorities that rule over us, dash that hope. 

In the First Century the hope that the people expressed as Jesus rode into town had turned to disappointment, sadness, and even hate on the part of some people as Jesus was led out to be executed. The disciples fled and went into hiding. They no longer met in public and no longer met in the large groups they had met in before. No more crowds of 5000. No more crowds of 50.

And then came Easter Sunday. The ladies went out to the tomb (Luke 24:1-12). The ladies met an angel, a messenger of the Lord. The ladies were witnesses to the resurrection. Hope was restored. People began to understand what had happened. Jesus escaped death. More than that he defeated death! He did die but he came back from the dead. He conquered death! He actually rose to eternal life! And people saw him! There were all kinds of witnesses! And this, this is our hope! 

Our hope is not only that this pandemic will end and our hope is not just that our people will be allowed to worship in our churches again. Our hope is greater than that. Our hope is this: no matter how bad things get in our world, in our community, in our families, in our personal lives, it will all be okay in the end. Even if we die because of all this, or from other infirmities, or old age; no matter what happens it will be alright. As followers of Jesus we are able to raise from the dead. He will call us out of the grave. One day Jesus will return and then the Scriptures assure us we will all come out to meet him, and the first to meet him will be those who have already passed away (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). 

And when we rise from the dead to meet Jesus it will be a whole new world – there will be no more covid-19, no more death, no more infirmities, no more disabilities, no more sickness, no more sadness, and no more suffering (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 51-58; Revelation 21:4). When we rise with Christ all that will be set aside. And that is our hope. Our hope is that we will all be made new and we will all be perfected. And our challenge today is to live up to that which we have already obtained. Let us turn our lives over to the Lord today (if we haven’t already) and let us experience the forgiveness, peace and life everlasting that comes only from serving our Lord.  

Let us pray. 

 

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