Resurrection
From Luke 24
17th April 2020
The last week had been unimaginably awful. It had started so well, with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that donkey. The crowds cheered Him, and broke off palm branches for the donkey to walk on, and shouted "Hallelujah! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
And Jesus went to the Temple, His Temple, and taught the people, and threw out the corrupt money changers. The King was in His capital, and the people - even the children - came to see Him, to hear Him, to pay Him the homage due to the King to the Jews.
And then Jesus was arrested. And given a show trial - a farce, really. He was convicted and handed over to the Romans - the hated occupying foreign army. Because the Romans didn't allow the Jews to execute their prisoners, the Jewish leaders had to get the Romans to do their dirty work for them.
The Roman Governor tried to get Jesus released, but the Jewish crowd wouldn't let him. They shouted "Crucify Him! Crucify Him". The governor, Pontius Pilate, had Jesus flogged, then the Roman soldiers marched Him to Golgotha and crucified Him there.
Simon Peter had denied Him three times. Most of His disciples had abandoned Him. So far as we can tell, only John and a few of the women stayed with Jesus to the end.
It was an agonising death. Towards the end Jesus even cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But then He said, "Father, into your hand I commit my spirit" and then "It is finished", and the Son of God died.
In those last few days, Jesus's disciples, the people closest to Him, would have asked the same sort of questions you and I ask when things seem to go wrong. "If God loves Jesus, why does He let Him suffer?" "If God is in control, how can the Romans kill His Son?" "How can what's happening possibly be good?"
But on the night before He died, at the Last Supper, Jesus had told them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." With hindsight, we can see why He said that, but in the middle of the chaos, the bewilderment and the pain, the disciples wouldn't have understood. I'm sure they would have forgotten that He'd told them to continue to believe, despite what was going to happen.
Sometimes things happen that are so horrific, so heartbreaking, that it's very difficult to continue to believe. But God knows what He's doing, even though we usually don't.
God even had a plan for that dreadful week. God had planned before the beginning of time to send Jesus to die for the sins that He knew you and I were going to commit, so that we could be forgiven and set free.
But the disciples were in no state to remember the theology, no state to remember Jesus's words when He'd told them, several times, that it was necessary for Him to die, no state to remember that He'd told them to trust Him, no state to realise that if He tells us we can trust Him, then we can trust Him.
Do we, can we, trust God even in the times when we don't understand, when everything seems to be going wrong?
Early in the morning, three days after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and a number of other women went to the tomb. They saw the stone had been rolled away, entered the tomb and found that Jesus's body wasn't there, and then encountered two angels, who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. The angels reminded them of what Jesus had already told them, "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again".
If only they'd trusted Jesus in the first place, how much anguish, pain and sorrow would they have avoided!
If only we would really trust Jesus, how much pain would we avoid?
The women went to see the 11, the apostles, to tell them the wonderful news that Jesus had risen from the dead. The 11 didn't believe them. Sometimes good news seems too wonderful to be true.
If we don't see how a thing can be true, we can make the mistake of thinking it must be untrue. It's better to remember that we don't understand everything, and that God can do whatever He likes. Of course God can raise Jesus from the dead. God can do anything. God can heal whatever is broken in your life.
The women's testimony of the empty tomb and the angels seemed like nonsense to the 11. It seems like nonsense to most British people today. Most British people in our generation have been taught that if something can't be explained scientifically then it doesn't exist or it can't happen, it's nonsense. But the God who created the universe, who defined the way it works, can do whatever He likes with it. It's His. Just because a scientist doesn't understand resurrection doesn't prove anything, except that God is rather more knowledgeable and powerful than scientists.
Then, as now, people have a choice. We can stay within our existing limited understanding, or we can step out in faith, and trust that creator God is way smarter than we are. Of course He is.
Simon Peter took a very sensible approach to the situation. The idea that Jesus had risen from the dead seemed like nonsense to him, but he knew these women. He knew they weren't daft. He knew they wouldn't like about a thing like this. And he'd seen Jesus perform many miracles. Peter went to see for himself.
Maybe somebody reading this thinks the idea that Jesus is God, come in the flesh, that He lived a sinless life, that He died to pay for our wrongdoing, that He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven, seems like nonsense. But sensible people, normal people, ordinary people, millions of them, for 2000 years, have claimed to have experienced the love and power of the risen Christ. May I suggest that you do as Simon Peter did? Find out for yourself. Maybe there's more going on in the universe than you yet realise. Maybe the scientists can't discover or prove everything.
Simon Peter went to Jesus's tomb, went inside, and looked at the slab where Jesus's body had been laid. He saw the strips of linen lying there. He saw that Jesus had gone. And Simon Peter was no fool, he knew that any grave robber would have taken the linen as well as the body. Linen has resale value. Dead bodies don't.
I expect Simon Peter and the others sat together for a while, trying to work out what was going on. Soon, Jesus met with Simon Peter. Although that meeting is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15v5, we're not told anything about what they said to each other. Perhaps it was too personal. It would have been the first time they spoke after Simon Peter had denied having anything to do with Jesus. He'd thought he was Jesus's best and most committed disciple, and then discovered that he was weak and selfish, as we all are. But he was the first man that Jesus spoke to after rising from the dead.
However you've failed Jesus, it's never too late. Your friendship with Him can be restored. He's waiting to talk to you.
Some time later, two travellers who had been walking to the village of Emmaus came to see the 11, to tell them that Jesus had met them on the road. When the travellers arrived, the 11 were saying "It's true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon". And then the travellers told their story of how they'd recognised Jesus when they broke bread together. What a meeting that must have been! So much joy, so much bewilderment, so much praise and worship to the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Maybe, so much embarrassment when they realised that Jesus had told them beforehand that all this would happen, and they hadn't really listened.
How much has God told you, through the Bible, through your teachers, and directly by the Holy Spirit? How much did you really listen? How much did you accept? How much have you more or less managed to ignore?
The resurrected Jesus's first words to His gathered church were "Peace be with you". The church, especially when gathered for prayer or worship, should be a place - a community - of peace.
We're the followers and the family of the Prince of Peace, and every one of us is called to be careful that every word we speak works peace for our brothers and sisters. Grumpiness, argumentativeness, stubbornness and selfishness should have no place in the church. God gives peace to those who ask Him, who are willing to be people of peace.
At first the disciples were startled. Although they'd heard that the women had visited the tomb and found it empty, and been told by the angels that Jesus had risen from the dead, although Jesus then revealed Himself to Simon Peter, although the two travellers had told them the story of meeting Jesus on the Emmaus road, they hadn't processed it. They hadn't thought it through, they still thought resurrection was impossible.
That's remarkable, because many of them had seen Jesus raising Lazarus, and the son of the widow of Nain, back to life. How slow we can be to believe! How much God has to demonstrate His love and power to us, before we truly trust Him. There's more to this universe than the scientists will ever be able to explain to you.
Jesus encouraged His followers. He showed them His hands and feet, with the nail marks. He ate with them. Again, he explained to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you". They really shouldn't have been surprised, but I would have been, you would have been, because we've been trained not to believe in miracles. But miracles are real. The resurrection of Jesus is real. The Good News is real, trustworthy and powerful.
Jesus proved all this from the scriptures, and then he began to explain that these few, frightened, bewildered people were the beginning of the church - the greatest movement in the history of the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
You and I are privileged to be part of it. We're witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the love of God, to the forgiveness of God for all who believe, to eternal life. We live, because Jesus lives. We will live for ever, because Jesus lives for ever.
Do you sometimes feel like everything's gone wrong? Like God has deserted you? Like everything you've ever believed has been undermined and brought into doubt? So did the apostles. But God is in control. His plan is perfect. We can trust in God and in Jesus. He does know what He's doing.
Do you sometimes feel like you've let Jesus down so badly, doubted His goodness and power so profoundly, perhaps even denied that you belong to Him? Have you gone back to your own human, flawed way of thinking so quickly, that you fear God might abandon you and find some better disciples? We can trust in God's forgiveness and His faithfulness. Jesus promised He would never leave you or forsake you, and He will keep His promise.
God had always planned that Jesus would die for us and rise again. What seemed like the ultimate defeat was the ultimate victory - victory over Satan, victory over sin, victory over death!
And what seems like defeat in your life can turn to victory through faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.