Easter 2024

So I love Easter (for a lot of reasons) but for those of you who know me I have 3 kids that are 4 and under

And my youngest Eden is a little angel

But my two boys can get a little wild. You can probably tell… (show picture)

And one thing my boys love to do whether its intentional or unintentional is they love to hide our stuff.

Around Christmas this past year I had my keys go missing.

And I asked the kids about it and Liam actually helped me look around the house.

And so fast forward 3 weeks I saw something in the Christmas tree.

And I ask Liam about it and He goes “Dad hide and seek”

So all of that to say when it gets to be around Easter I get to help the Easter Bunny hide eggs and I love it.

But you know with all seriesness when something goes missing or we can’t find it, we get frustrated don’t we?

And I think about this today, because the truth is today is a beautiful day, because we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, which changes our lives and our world. It gives hope, it brings life to our dry lives, it changes us doesn’t it?

But here is the thing because it doesn’t take long for us to live, and things are hard, theres pain, brokeness, family drama, hurt and all these things start to ware on us and before we know it we start asking ourselves where is God, in a world that seems so broken.

Where is Jesus in all of this? Because I don’t see Him.

And heres what we are going to do because we are going to dive into the Easter story in John 20:1-18 and you are welcome to follow along on the screen or with aa Bible.

But what I love about this passage is at first glance it starts really dark and these follower of Jesus are catching themselves going where is Jesus?

So we will start in John 20:1-18 and we will just be starting in the first half. And look how the first Easter starts out:

John 20:1–10 NIV

1 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 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 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

So I mentioned this but the first Easter its starts out dark doesn’t it?

Because it is focusing on this woman Mary of Magdeline. And Mary was not a disciple, but she was one of Jesus’s closest followers and most likely a friend.

And over the past few days she has witnessed this man who she followed, that she believed to be the Messiah tortured, killed and crucified.

And now she is on day three where the story picks up and we learn its early in the morning (the text tells us its still dark out) and Mary is heading to tomb that Jesus was buried in.

And really she is heading to a place where it seems there is no hope

I mean if you are heading to a hospital to see someone it can be scary but there is hope there right?

But she is heading to a tomb or a grave what happened happened right?

And you can just picture on this long walk to the tomb the weight she would have felt.

She is probably asking her self “What happened the past few day?”

“What am I going to do?

How am I going to keep going?

And to make everything worse she arrives to the tomb to discover Jesus’s body is gone.

And really ultimately you can picture Mary just in this dark place, where everything is broken, everything has gone wrong. This was not how it was supposed to be.

But as we unpack this story can I just ask you. Have you been in a place like that?

A place where it feels like there is no hope

And a place where you catch yourself going God, it does not feel like you are here!

I did this a few years ago during a service, but I think what we happens when life starts to feel this way and we get to a point where all the stuff in our life piles up to the point where it builds a wall where all we start to see is the brokenness in front of us.

because we begin to feel SEPERATED from God and this makes us feel start to be seperated from others.

ISOLATED

We feel ASHAMED and and hurt of things that we have done

It might make us feel UNLOVED like no one cares about you or what happens to you

You feel BROKEN where we look at the mess we are in and think will I ever be fixed

Maybe there is somthing that we feel CAPTIVE to, where we are just stuck in something and we cannot get out.

We might feel UNFUFILLED where there is a void in our life where something is missing.

And can I just be honest because what happens is life builds a wall so high (whether its things we have done or just life circumstances) and we catch ourselves going where are you God?

Where is Jesus right now? Because all I see is this wall.

And in this story I kind of think they are in a place like this. Not where they may have made poor choices, but they are beat up and all they see is this wall in front of them.

And I want us to look at this next part of this passage because this is a rough start isn’t it?

But look what happens John 20:11-18

John 20:11–18 NIV

11 Now 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 He asked her, “Woman, 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 “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending 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.

So the story starts to change, doesn’t it?

Because all of the sudden, as Marry is sitting outside the tomb crying there are two angels,

And not just that but Jesus walks behind her and says why are you crying?

And she turns around and doesn’t recognize its Jesus.

You know its amazing the what we can miss when all we see is this wall.

But heres what I want you to get because you might be starring at the wall this morning ut the beautiful thing is that even when all you see is the wall.

God is still moving.

And what I want you to catch here is that in the most broken point in Human history, where Jesus was dead, He was risen came back and met Marry right where she was.

And so this morning you might feel like you are stuck behind this wall.

But can I just tell you that while you might be in a place where you are going where are you Jesus,

Jesus will meet you there.

And I want you to notice what happens when we lean into this, Because instead of us being seperated from God we have Him living in us. (In Christ).

instead of us feeling unfilled we can be made whole in Christ

Instead of us being captive by our sin or addictions we have been made free

Instead of us having to live with this inner brokenness, we can come to Christ who is putting the broken pieces back together and creating something new.

Instead of us saying we are unloved, we realize we are actually so loved that that our God wanted to be in a relationship with you so badly that He sent His son to die for you.

Instead of feeling ashamed you can now become a child of God.

Instead of being isolated we are Unified in the body of Christ

because the amazing news of Easter is that we are not left stuck staring at this wall, but Christ has torn down this wall that separates us from Him and if we let Him He is building us into the people He has called us to be.

Can I just say that is really good news isn’t it?

And I know this is a little bit shorter of a message, but I want to be really intentional this morning because life can feel dark, even if you consider yourself in a relationship with God its easy to catch yourself in a place where you are wondering where Is Jesus here?

And I do not make promises a ton, but can I just make a promise this morning that you might be there, but God wants to take these broken pieces and make something new.

The empty tomb is no longer a place of no hope, but it is a place where we go to come alive in Christ.

This morning as we close can I just ask where is God calling you to come alive this morning?

And what if that place where it looks like only death could come from is a place where God brings life?

Will you pray with me?

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at where is Jesus? And we are going to be looking at a few passages where people are in these questing spaces but we see Jesus meet them where they are so we would love to have you join us for the next few weeks.