Resurrection Life
Delivered on Sunday 23 March 2008 in St Saviour's, Larkhall
Resurrection Life (Luke 24.1-12 & John 11.25-26)
[Show pictures of decay]
This is what happens to things isn't it..? If we take an apple off its tree and leave it, then it goes rotten. If we leave some metal out it will go rusty. Life often seems to be a constant battle against the inevitability of its death. Nothing is permanent; everything decays in the end.
Well this is why the two Marys went to anoint Jesus' body with sweet-smelling spices (24.1). They knew—especially in that hot climate—that bodies begin to smell soon after a person has died. It was the custom to prepare a body with spices, to combat the smell of decay.
Now imagine their shock when they found the tomb empty. They had watched Jesus die on the cross, they had watched Joseph of Arimathea take the body down and bury it. And now his body was gone (24.2-3).
Then they saw two angels, 'men in dazzling clothes' (24.4) and were even more terrified than before. The angels asked, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!' (24.5-6) Those seven words are possibly the most important in the Bible, because they show that everything Jesus said and did was true!
Although those women didn't expect it, and although we might not expect it either, God did something very, very special, and completely new, when he raised his Son Jesus from the dead. People like Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter, and all the others, were resuscitated rather than resurrected: they all went on to die another day. But in Jesus, God did something very, very special, which changed the world completely.
You see, contrary to what many people seem to think, God did not send Jesus into the world to give us rules and regulations. Jesus did not come to make people more 'religious'. No: he came to give us life. God is interested in this world, in you and me, in transforming us, in giving us life. In John 10.10 Jesus says, 'I have come that they might have life: life in all its fullness.' And in John 11.25, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'
Perhaps the older ones among us can remember the revolution of television, and then the introduction of colour television. Many of us can probably remember a time before emails, before mobile phones, before the internet, before cheap air travel. These things have all changed the way we live. But right here, in Jesus, God changed life itself. Suddenly, in Jesus' resurrection body, a bit of God's future, a bit of the new heavens and the new earth, came forward in time.
Think of it like this. I don't know if you have relatives in Australia or New Zealand, but if you did they might forget the time difference and phone you in the middle of the night! I don't know if that's happened to anybody here..? Well, it's a bit like this: our world is on Old Time, say one o'clock in the morning. Evil and death are still at work, we're all asleep. Suddenly we get not a phone call, but a visit, from someone who's living in the New Time, someone who has gone through the night, who has defeated evil and death and sin, and is now in the bright, fresh morning. He has come forwards into our world to tell us that the day is dawning. He has come, not Back to the Future, but 'back to the present', to do two things: to show us the life of the new creation, and to give us that life.
First then, Jesus' bodily resurrection shows us what heaven will be like. Jesus was not resurrected as a disembodied spirit. His friends could touch his hands and side, he ate breakfast with them, broke the bread on the road to Emmaus. His tomb was empty on that first Easter morning. All this tells us that heaven, the new creation, is not a matter of us floating up to the sky, to sit on a cloud strumming away at a harp forever. No: God won't take us 'up' into heaven, but bring heaven to earth. God will come and live with us in a transformed new creation.
Have you ever seen DIY SOS? A team of builders from the BBC are invited into a house, often by the frustrated spouse of someone who thinks they're a DIY expert. They fix all the holes in the wall, the bad wiring, the leaky plumbing, the peeling plaster. It's the same room, but transformed into something very special.
Well that's a bit like the future life we will be given by God, shown us in Jesus. All the bad bits, the sad bits, the evil bits, the tears, will all be 'fixed', redeemed, wiped away, transformed by God, and all the good bits, the beautiful bits, will be made even better, even more beautiful. The most beautiful sunset is ugly compared to the glorious new creation! It'll be the same creation, but rescued from sin and death.
Our hope, the life that God promises us and shows us in Jesus, is for the transformation of creation, not a Great Escape from it.
So, first: Jesus came back to the present to show us the life of the new creation. Second, he came back to give us the life of the new creation.
Jesus' resurrection tells us that the future transformation of creation begins today, on Easter day. God is at work bringing his kingdom 'on earth, as it is in heaven', that is, today on earth, as it will be in the new creation. The hope that God gives us is not simply that one day we will be given everlasting life, but that God wants to give us life now as well, life in all its fullness. God is at work transforming creation now, although his work won't be completed until Jesus returns; that's when he will give us and the whole of creation this new life in full.
Today is the end of the Hope for Life week of mission in the parish. But I think that we shouldn't see today as an end, but a new beginning. In Jewish reckoning, Good Friday was the sixth day of the week, Holy Saturday the seventh day of the week, the day of Sabbath rest; which makes Easter Sunday the eighth day, the first day of the new week. Easter Day wasn't simply a climax, but a new beginning, the start of a new chapter. As we join in God's work, as he transforms people and creation, new things are possible today: we can by God's Spirit transform and regenerate the world around us. The mission here in Larkhall shouldn't end today, but begin afresh, move forward, as St Saviour's takes the message of life to your community.
You know, I didn't read to the end of the verse I read earlier. In John 11.25 Jesus says, 'I am the resurrection and the life.' But he goes on to say, 'Whoever believes in me, though they die, yet shall they live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.'
The message of life is that God offers new life to all. But we must take hold of that life, receive it, believe in it. We must be willing to change, because we can't accept God's offer of new life and expect to carry on living our life in the old way. That might sound scary, and it will be a struggle until Jesus returns (I don't want to make it sound like all your problems will be solved if you become a Christian, because they won't be - Jesus meant it when he said that following him means 'taking up our cross'). But I guarantee that the new life Jesus offers is far, far better than the life this world has to offer. The best this world can do is delay the appearance of aging. The best this world can do is squeeze lemon on the apple to stop it going brown so quickly.
What God has to offer is a brand-new apple, that will never go brown. He offers life that will never end, life that can begin today.
I still haven't read out the whole of John 11.25-26. Jesus says, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though they die, yet shall they live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.' And then Jesus asked, 'Do you believe this?'
Do you believe this? Do you want life in all its fullness? Do you want to live forever with God in the transformed new creation? I know I do! The only place to get this life is at the foot of the empty cross; the only person who can offer it is Jesus Christ, the one who died so we don't have to, the one who died to give us new life.
It's simple: God offers life; if we accept and believe we will live; if we don't, we will only have the life that this world has to offer, and so we will die. Do you want the apple that rots, or one that lasts forever?
Now, I've been told that Bath is a very reserved place. But it is often important to do something outwardly to show what is happening inwardly. I hold my wife's hand to show her that I love her. I smile at someone to show that I like them, and so on.
We are about to celebrate communion, which is the church's way of showing that God offers us life, and that we receive it by faith. If you want to take hold of the new life God is offering you right now, this is an excellent opportunity, whether you've done it before, or not. As you kneel before the empty cross, why not pray, 'I'm sorry for living life my own way; please give me your new life, through Jesus. Amen.'
If you do pray a prayer like this, especially if you do so for the first time, we'd love to pray for you in the side aisle: nothing scary, just that God would bless you in your new life with him.
You don't have to be perfect to receive it - just the opposite. I'm not perfect, I'm no better than anyone here, I need this new life as much as anyone does, probably more. We all need to say sorry to God; we all need the new life he offers, or we will die.
If you are wavering, thinking about committing or re-committing your life to God, there couldn't be a better day than today, as we remember the first day of God's new creation, the day of the resurrection of God's Son Jesus from the dead, the defeat of sin and death once and for all, the beginning of a new chapter. Today could be the beginning of a new chapter in your life, the most important chapter so far, as you receive and begin to live in the new life that God has to offer you, and me, right here and right now.
Let's pray.
Our heavenly Father, thank you for bringing your Son Jesus back from the dead. Thank you for showing us your life in him, for giving us new life in him. We are sorry for the times when we have turned away from you and lived our old life once again. Please forgive us, and help us by your Holy Spirit to live each day in the glorious new life you have to offer us. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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