The Pastor Appearing As the Disciple, John

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Easter 2017

John 20: 1-18

From Devastation To Delight

(The pastor appearing as the disciple, John)

We were devastated. Last Sunday Jesus came riding into Jerusalem to the sounds of “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”

Many were certain he was coming in to throw the bums out. Rome has been on our necks for what seems like forever. Egypt kept our people as slaves for years and years. We’ve been an oppressed people waiting for someone to come. God help us. God help us. Send the Messiah.

And it looked like the Messiah had come. He came in and took charge. It looked that way when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. He drove out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. He was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of robbers.’

You go, Jesus. For as long as we can remember those moneychangers have been taking advantage of our people’s need to worship and offer sacrifice for sins, but they were in our pocketbooks a whole lot more than necessary. Throw the bums out!

And then it began. You get in someone’s pocketbook and just see what happens, you know. The chief priests and the scribes heard about it and right away began to plot a way to destroy Jesus…..why? Well, bottom line also was that they were afraid of him. He was drawing big crowds - a whole lot more followers than the leaders of the temple ever drew. They were jealous. They were afraid. They had to get rid of Jesus because, well, what will happen if they don’t? Strike one.

Jesus went on to do some other remarkable things last week. We were walking with him and he saw a fig tree and wanted some fruit. But the tree had nothing, maybe it was like the temple leaders – bearing no fruit from their ministry – anyway, Jesus cursed the tree, and get this….the next day it was toast…all withered up.

Then Jesus was put on the hot seat by the temple leaders who questioned his authority. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? He comes in riding on the colt of a donkey like some king coming in for coronation, then he drives out the moneychangers, he kills off a fig tree – what’s your authority to do this, they ask? He doesn’t really tell them. Instead he turns the tables on them. He just challenges their small-mindedness. Like the fig tree, they aren’t bearing fruit in the Kingdom of God. They deserve to die. Strike two at least, I’d say, causeof course they didn’t like that, either. We see them pretending to be sincere in listening to him, but we know now the bottom line was just to catch him in something he says, so they can turn it against him – even against Rome. And we all know what going against Rome gets you here. Going against Rome for sure gets you killed – maybe in the most painful, gruesome manner – you might get flogged within an inch of your life and then hung up by nails on a cross till you asphyxiate or have a heart attack and the birds come and eat your flesh, or you’re thrown into the garbage.

Then Jesus challenges them again saying the very temple they’re hiding behind is going to be destroyed. He says, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be let here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down….and he even goes on to say, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ By Jesus death, burial and resurrection – 3 days. Strike three.

Yea, and there’s lots more that happens this week, but here’s the crux of it. The temple authorities got one of our own, Judas, our treasurer, to accept 30 pieces of silver in exchange for ratting Jesus out when we were together in the garden….that’s the Garden of Gethsemane….where we went after Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with us.

It was different because when we ate bread and drank one of the cups he said, “This is my body, broken for you. And this is my blood, shed for you.” What’s up with that, we wondered.

Then Judas, one of our own turns against Jesus. He leads the temple authorities to us and arrested Jesus.

None of us were really in the room when they put him on trial in the middle of the night. We were too afraid for our own skins, you know. These temple authorities had power – and they were in ca-hoots with the Romans, so you just don’t stick your neck out too far with any of them or it might get chopped off.

I was talking to Peter who I remember telling Jesus that even if everyone turns against him, he’d never do it. I remember Jesus telling him, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you even know me.” And that’s what Peter has told me actually happened. He was so ashamed of himself. He couldn’t believe it….but when push came to shove as he was outside the high priests’ house where they had Jesus on trial, he was approached three times….and three times he said he didn’t even know Jesus.

Well, the worst has happened. They declared Jesus guilty of blasphemy – Blasphemy is where you claim to be God and you’re not. But you know, friends. Jesus really was God. Better yet, He really is.

What happened next, you ask? Well, they took Jesus to the Roman governor early the next day and told him, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” Wow, where did they get all that?

Pilate has questioned him a few times but Jesus isn’t really talking. He even had Jesus drug over to Herod but Jesus didn’t answer any of his questions either. Back to Pilate.

Pilate says he hasn’t found anything to convict him of….certainly not anything worthy of death, for sure. So he punishes Jesus – which would almost kill a person in and of itself – he has Jesus floggedthinking that’s going to satisfy the thirst for blood by the temple authorities, and then Pilate plans to release him. That doesn’t work.

After Pilate has Jesus flogged he tries to get Jesus off the hook again, asking the people if they’d like to trade him for Barabbas– a known criminal awaiting execution for insurrection against Rome. The crowd, maybe even some in the crowd who were there less than a week before praising Jesus with “hosanna” is now asking for Barabbas.

“Give us Barabbas.” And what do they say about Jesus? “Crucify him, they’re saying -- screaming it.

And Pilate acquiesces to the wishes of the bloodthirsty crowd and condemns Jesus to death – even death on a cross, the gruesome and torturous Roman means of executing criminals convicted of high treason.

And Jesus, bloodied and battered from the punishment, the scourging, is drug through the streets of Jerusalem…..has his hands and feet nailed to a cross….and iscrucified.

I was there. It was horrible. But even as bad as it was we could hear Jesus asking the Father’s forgiveness for what they’re doing to him. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

At one point Jesus, who could barely speak anyway….tells me to look after his mother, Mary. And soon after that Jesus gave up his spirit. His body dies. A solder even pierced his side and a mixture of water and blood come out - he was dead.

And we are all devastated. He was the righteous one. He never did anything wrong in his entire 33 years of life. He was perfect. He was the Christ of God – couldn’t he have done anything to stop all this? He intentionally walked into the arms of his betrayer, Judas, without resisting arrest. He didn’t defend himself at his trial but willingly subjected himself to humiliating and agonizing forms of torture. What could possibly have motivated a person – especially an innocent person to allow this to happen? Jesus was God. He could have called the angels to rescue him and destroy this whole thing. Jesus knew what was coming and was willing to go through the pain because this was the only way to do it.

To do what, you might ask? To redeem us…..by serving as our substitute and paying the death penalty that we deserve because of our rebellion against God.

This was his whole mission in coming to Earth. What motivated him? I guess the only answer I can come up with is this. One word – love. What motivated all this? Love.

And he allowed them to kill him like they killed the lambs – sacrificed for the sins of the people. In love with you. In love with me. A love I don’t deserve and I can’t earn….no one can….no one ever will.

And we go into hiding. Who knows if the temple authorities or the Romans are searching for us now.

It’s been devastating. Tears can’t wipe away the vision of seeing him die in such a way.

It’s daybreak on Sunday – the first day of our week. Folks are going back to their business. Probably many never even knew what had happened….oh, the rumors would have been out there. Jesus – the prophet, the miracle worker – killed by the Romans – egged on by the temple authorities. Probably deserved it. Lots of would-be, self proclaimed kings have died at the hands of the Romans. Jesus lifeless body, now buried in a donated family grave site, a cave with a stone sealing the grave and even Roman guards put there to be sure.

But now it’s the first day of the week. And I remember he said in three days he’d rebuild the temple. What did that mean? The one we thought would be the Messiah – the real temple leader – maybe even the one to overpower the Romans – he’s been dead since Friday….three days now. Dead.

Mary comes running to our door. What did she just say? “I have seen the Lord.” I can’t believe my ears. “I have seen the Lord,” she says.

I can’t believe it. Sure he’d told us the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Is this it? Could this be what he was talking about?

Could she be right? Is this really happening?

Well, I’ve got to see this with my own eyes. My buddy Peter and I race off to the tomb. I win the race, you know.

There’s no guard here. There isn’t even a stone covering the opening. I look in…..there’s the linen cloths that they wrapped his body in…. lying there. But I don’t see any body.

Peter rushes by me. No linen cloths. Even the face cloth is there…folded up in a place by itself.

No body. He told us this was going to happen! It’s unbelievable! Or is it?

(The pastor returns to the pulpit)

Could the empty tomb merely be a legend that developed so long after the death of Jesus that the location of the tomb had been forgotten? No, the authorities knew where the tomb was. We knew it. No one went to the wrong tomb. There had been guards put there. Rome knew about his prediction about that three days….the temple authorities made them post a guard. The guards bailed out when an earthquake – the second one since Friday happened……the stone was rolled away. The guards reported Jesus was gone. Had the disciples stolen the body? Do you think up to 11 men could so quietly tip toe to a grave, roll away a huge stone, past the guards, take the body and get away without waking them up? Oh, yea, and don’t forget the disciples were so afraid they were the next to die most of them had gone into hiding even as Jesus was arrested.

The option supported best by the evidence is that the crucified Jesus had, indeed, returned to life – a conclusion some people find simply too extraordinary to swallow, so they rule it out just because they decided to rule it out, even against the evidence.

What other evidence is there concerning Jesus resurrection? Noted author whose life story is now being displayed on the big screen in the movie, “The Case For Christ,” Lee Strobel researched to find that the risen Christ – ALIVE -- appeared to a lot of different people recorded in the Gospels and in Acts – more than 500 at one time to be exact…some just as individuals, some in groups, sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors, to softhearted people like my friend John, and to skeptical people like Thomas, best known as Doubting Thomas.

Scripture records many times where the resurrected Jesus appeared to folks - to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus, to Peter, to 10 apostles and others with Thomas absent, to Thomas with other apostles, to seven apostles, to eleven apostles, to the apostles at the Mount of Olives before he ascended to the Father.

These were not merely fleeting observances of some shadowy figure by one or two people. There were multiple appearances to numerous people, 500 all together at one time, and several of the appearances were confirmed in more than one Gospel. Scholar John Drane says, “The earliest evidence we have for the resurrection almost certainly goes back to the time immediately after it happened. It’s recorded, it’s been historically challenged and affirmed. The evidence is testified to by many who spoke boldly, even at the risk of their lives. Most of the disciples and oh so many other believers died with the conviction that Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus was resurrected and even ascended to the Father after his many appearances.

Paul in a speech recorded in Acts 13 said “God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem They are now witnesses to our people.” Paul would say to you and me today – now it’s our turn. We are the witnesses.

The resurrection was undoubtedly the central proclamation of the early church from the very beginning. I still stand by it today. The earliest Christians didn’t just endorse Jesus’ teachings; they were convinced they had seen him alive after his crucifixion. That’s what changed their lives and started the church. Certainly, since this was their centermost conviction, they would have made absolutely sure that it was true. There have been doubters, and there always will, but evidence clearly shows Jesus is resurrected from the dead!

All of the evidence from the Gospels and Acts – incident after incident, witness after witness, detail after detail, corroboration on top of corroboration – is extremely impressive. There may not be any more thoroughly attested event in ancient history.

Who wrote the words I’ve just spoken? Not me. It was Lee Strobel, former atheist, turned believer, follower and witness even today because of the evidence – the author behind “The Case For Christ.”

Friends, I was a journalist too.For years I was a guy that was to report the news – just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. The fact is that as a young boy I was confronted by this very truth. I have never doubted it. Sure, I may have had times when it wasn’t the most important thing on my radar as I put career after career before these last 12 years, as I married, helped Melissa raise our two daughters, who with their husbands have now blessed us with three grandchildren and another on the way.

But I’ve never doubted that Jesus lived, performed miracle after miracle – one being the fact I stand before you today. It’s a miracle. It’s a God thing…and it’s not about me. It’s about what God does and can do in your life.

The disciples, who so many times we look back at and kind of chuckle when we see that so many times they just didn’t get it….until they got it. Jesus was alive…..Jesus returned to the Father before their very eyes, and they immediately began to spread the good news of Jesus and his certain return, risking their very lives to defend what they believed to be true.

What happened after the crucifixion of Jesus that changed the minds of the disciples, who had denied, disobeyed and deserted Jesus? Very simply, what happened is similar to what Jesus experienced at his baptism, when he heard God the Father say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” and with that Jesus launched into his public ministry – it was confirmed to them, and it is my heart’s desire that it is confirmed to you as well – that Jesus was….no, Jesus IS, who they knew he was……who I pray you know he is.

He is the one who loves you!

Church, “He Is Risen”…..Let the church respond, “He is risen indeed.”