Why Be a Christian? Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011 Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Pastor Scripture Lesson: John 20:1-18

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1 Why Be a Christian? Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011 Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Pastor Scripture Lesson: John 20:1-18 Do you have your cross this morning? We ve been giving Easter gifts here at Peachtree for 11 years, and before that I did the same thing in my previous congregation. The other day I got an from a woman I ve not seen in 15 years: Vic, we think of you often. Thought that you might like to know that you are WITH me (all in capitals WITH me) and have been for the past two weeks. Are you curious? (Well, yeah!) I decided that what I was going to do on my birthday was get a tattoo. I knew that I wanted a butterfly. I looked on the internet and I could not find anything that I liked. And then I remembered: the butterfly pin that you gave everyone one Easter! Sooooooo on the back of my left shoulder is that butterfly. So, you see, you are literally with me! Hope you are doing well. Take care come see us again. Donna My wife was not thrilled with this . Then again, hold that cross up against your bicep or forearm. How much do you really love Jesus? But, of course, the good news of Easter is that the living Christ is with us even without a tattoo. Once again it s springtime: the crack of the bat on opening day, allergies and azaleas and Augusta with the Masters. (Incidentally, a young woman here at Peachtree was at the Masters with her boyfriend, who at the 13 th hole suddenly fell to one knee and popped the question at the Amen Corner.) Men, as of today, seersucker and white bucks are legal and there s a tendency to think, Now we come around again to Easter. But Easter is different from those other things. The only way for Easter to have its full impact on you is if you let it hit you as a total shock, as it was for those who came to the tomb that first Easter morning. The backdrop of Easter is death and tragedy. Nobody goes to a grave site expecting the grave to be empty. 1

2 You go to a grave to remember the one who died, to pay your last respects, to grieve and weep. Look what s in your hand. The cross already had a symbolic meaning in the Roman world, long before it took on a new one for Christians. It said, Don t mess with Rome. If you do, we ll annihilate you and it won t be pretty. Jesus, this young reformer, was dead. A woman, Mary Magdalene, came seeking what we call closure to view the body, and say goodbye. Let s step into that scene. We have the eye-witness account of a man named John on page 1685 in your pew Bibles. John was a disciple, a follower of Jesus, and we have his words in John chapter 20,verses 1-18 on page Let s go back to that morning. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running (This was a sprint-fest. Everyone was running.) So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don t know where they have put him! 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 [John] bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (Note now: what he believes is not in the resurrection but Mary Magdalene s story that the body was gone. Up until this very moment John still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don t know where they have put him. 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. 16 Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni! (which means my dear teacher). 17 Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: I have seen the Lord! And she told them that he had said these things to her. It s the Truth! Our question this morning is Why be a Christian? The first simple answer is because this story is true. These are events that actually happened. The tomb was empty. Today there s this pseudo-intellectual view that ancient people were gullible airheads ready to believe anything. As this thinking goes, back then people didn't have science, which made them very naïve. So, when Jesus died, some people felt a vague sense of his presence still inspiring them. Over time this vague sense of his presence morphed into stories of his being raised from the dead. (John Ortberg) 2

3 C.S. Lewis calls this our chronological snobbery. Ancient people weren t stupid. They grasped the finality of death. You just heard about all the mayhem, chaos, and confusion when they found an empty tomb. It s like the story John Ortberg tells of woman who looked out her window and saw her German shepherd shaking the life out of a neighbor's rabbit. Her family did not get along well with these neighbors, so she knew this was going to be a disaster. She grabbed a broom and pummeled the dog until it dropped the dead rabbit from its mouth. Seeing the dead rabbit, she panicked. She grabbed the rabbit, took it inside, gave it a bath, blow-dried it to its original fluffiness, combed it until the rabbit looked like a rabbit again, sneaked into the neighbor's yard, and propped it back up in its cage. An hour later she heard screams coming from next door. She came out and asked what was going on. "Our rabbit! Our rabbit!" her neighbor cried. "He died two weeks ago. We buried him, and now he's back!" Ancient people knew dead rabbits stay dead. If you were a religious entrepreneur launching a new religion, you wouldn t be real smart to base it on a dead person coming back to life. You d base it on philosophy or ethics or wisdom. And if you were dumb enough to base it on the rising of a dead person, you d be doubly dumb to make that rising from the dead hinge on the witness of a woman. We go right by that today, but in that day and culture women had zero credibility. They could not even give testimony in court. If you mugged or stabbed someone and the all witnesses were women, you d probably go free. Yet John and the other gospels say in a matter of fact way that the first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb and the risen Jesus were women.. Imagine a skeptic back then saying, Number one, you tell me someone rose from the dead? And number two, your star witness is a woman? There were no advantages in making any of this up. The best explanation is that John records what happened. If not, then they are triply dumb to have their star witness a woman with a history of mental problems. Before meeting Jesus, the gospels say Mary was possessed by seven devils seven meaning complete domination by the powers of darkness. She was a poor, fragile creature. If she took her medicine, it was all she could do to get through the day. Nobody in their right mind would make this all up. The resurrection was not created by the church; the church was created by the resurrection. The Greatest Force for Good And that leads to another answer to the question Why be a Christian? Those who believe this story have gone on to be the world s greatest force in caring for the Mary Magdalenes of the world the poor and powerless. Matthew Parris is a British atheist, who in 2008 visited Malawi where, incidentally, we have global partnerships. Afterward he wrote an article titled "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God." He wrote, "I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa. I used to avoid this truth but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it." Did you know why we have hospitals today? Because one day Jesus made the comment, "I was sick and you visited me." So his followers began gathering the diseased into 3

4 their homes. Out of this came the building of hospitals to care for the sick. The whole idea of literacy for all people teaching everyone to read and write began when Jesus said to his disciples, Go into all the world and make disciples teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. So out they went learning native languages, sometimes creating alphabets, translating, in the still unfinished task of teaching all people to read the words of their Lord, from the Irish monks in the Middle Ages who taught Europe to read to today s Wycliffe translator living with a tiny tribe in a remote part of the Andes. Universities began as little buildings attached to the outside of cathedrals. The idea of charity the Red Cross, the United Way, the YMCA, The Salvation Army all grew out of a little story Jesus told one day about a good Samaritan stopping by the side of a road. The abolition of slavery, the outlawing of child labor, the civil rights movement, the human rights movement, the elevation of women when Aretha Franklin sings R-E-S-P- E-C-T it is today s echo of Jesus love for Mary Magdalene and those like her. It is said that one way to gauge the size of an ocean liner that has passed out of sight is to see the wake that is left behind. So with Jesus resurrection. But Mary doesn t yet see it. She s still on her journey of discovery. John and Peter look inside the tomb and mutter something about those blankety-blank grave-robbers They turn and go home, leaving Mary there alone and weeping. Often it s after the funeral when you re home alone in an empty house that it hits you. You see on the table the casseroles friends left you and the house is quiet too quiet. Then suddenly there appear two men in white. They say, Woman, why are you weeping? Meanwhile into her peripheral vision comes another person whom she assumes is the gardener. He too asks, Why are you weeping? This is a great comic scene in the Gospels. Here s Mary sobbing, My Lord is gone, my Lord is gone, I have no hope, while her beloved Jesus stands this far away talking and listening to her. That scene is being replicated this morning in church pews all around the world. It is possible to be here on Easter in the presence of the Risen Lord without him having the slightest impact on you. You can still live a defeated life. You can feel powerless, hopeless and empty. But what happens next to Mary can also happen to you. Suddenly Mary hears her name spoken as no one else could say it: Mary! Today Jesus knows your name. He has his own way of saying your name. Just listen: Mary. Jill. Sandra. Clare. Bill. Cameron. Michael. Again look at your cross. It s unlikely the people on either side of you have the same cross. God meets you where you live, where you struggle. This one who died for you, today lives for you. He s crazy about you. He s got your picture on his refrigerator. He knows your name. The Living Presence of Jesus It s true. It makes the world a better place. And the number one reason I love being a Christian is I have the living presence of Jesus with me every day. That is why these disciples ran screaming through Jerusalem. Many churches today are celebrating the hope of eternal life and that s fine, but it s not what drove these disciples into joyful hysteria on Easter. It never crossed their minds. They didn t run from the empty tomb yelling, Yippee I m going to live forever! What had them delirious 4

5 was, Jesus is back. We ll never be without him again. We give you these crosses on Easter so you ll have something to rub your fingers across, a tangible reminder of the bodily resurrection and the real living presence of our Lord. If you ve not yet embraced him, this morning could begin a new life for you. George Herbert once said, It s never too late to be who you might have been. That could happen today. All it takes is faith. What is faith? No one said it better than my fourth grade Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Manderville, who said, Faith Forsaking All I Trust Him. And know this: when Jesus calls your name, you become a person of destiny. Whenever in the Bible God speaks someone s name it s always a call to mission. There s the burning bush: Moses, Moses tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Simon, Peter you are a rock and on you I build my church. Mary, go tell this good news to the whole world the greatest news they ve ever heard. A biographer of the Kennedys wrote, Some people just have more destiny than others. Nobody has more destiny than a Christian. Years ago, our family was making plans to attend the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Our daughters, Sarah, Jessica, and Amy, were five, three and one. Our older daughters Sarah and Jessica were out of their minds with excitement about going to the Olympics and they let us know. Then one day Becky came to me and said, Vic, we have a problem. She said, Sarah and Jessica have this idea they are going to Los Angeles to be in the Olympics. I overheard them talking. They ve already packed their swimsuits. You have to talk to them. So I sat my daughters down and explained the Olympics to them. They could not conceive of anything dumber than traveling all that distance to watch other people in a pool. I explained, To be in the Olympics, you have to be the best in the world. My five-year-old Sarah looked up and said, So? A Crazy Sense of Destiny You often find a crazy sense of destiny in God s children. Recently the great University of Florida quarterback and Heisman trophy winner Danny Wuerffel spoke to our men. After college Danny played for the Saints and today is a missionary among the poor here in Atlanta and in other cities. Danny told how after he retired as a player they asked him to write a book on how he got so successful. Danny thought, Well, I have been successful. What are Wuerffel s Five Tips on Success? He turned it in and he said he got back a note that said, These are a lot like other people s tips on success. We d like tips that really reflect on you, so go down deep and tell us what makes you, Danny Wuerffel, successful. So Danny thought about it: Okay, there is this voice down deep inside me so that whenever I approach a door the voice says, Danny you are going through that door; you re so strong that if it s locked you can kick right through that door. And when I m facing a test in school there s this voice: You are so smart. You can ace this test. (Danny was an outstanding scholar, as well as athlete.) Then when I run a voice says, Danny you are so fast; you can run like the wind. So he thought, Self talk that s it. Make that voice inside speak. That s my key to success. About that time the Wuerffels had a baby boy and Danny s mother was over at the 5

6 house taking care of the boy. She was upstairs in the baby s room walking around cradling her grandson. Danny happened by the door, and he heard his mom s voice say to his son as she was walking around, Oh, you are so strong! You re the strongest baby in the world. You are so smart. You are going to be so fast, as fast as the wind. Suddenly Danny realized what made him who he is, was the voice of his mom. And coming through her was the voice of God. Then Danny said that some of us have heard other voices that have messed us up. The one thing each of us needs more than anything else in life is to hear Christ speak our name, giving us the confidence to do what he says and to live our destiny in him. Even more, you and I can be the voice of God for others, just like Danny s mom. We can be Jesus to those around us in a world of need. Don t we all love movies with surprise endings? The surprise ending in this story makes us rethink everything about life. What was bad is now good; what was ugly is now beautiful. Today we decorate crosses. The day he died we now call Good Friday. Even nobodies like us now hear God speak our name. The world as of this morning turns upside down from despair to hope, from fear to joy, from darkness to light. For He is risen. What do you say? He is risen indeed.. 6

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