Easter 2025
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 19:25
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Isaiah
Isaiah
We read from the scroll of Isaiah this morning. A most unlikely verse:
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Can you imagine -
A wolf, a lamb, a lion - all standing together - feeding at a trough full of hay.
If every you saw such a thing you would say no its not real - it must be AI.
It is too weird to be true.
It is just not natural - not normal.
One of them will eat the others.
Well - Isaiah didn’t have AI - his work was original.
And through the Spirit he anticipated what God was doing in the world.
Verse 17 -
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
I would love to see a new heavens and new Earth.
We’ve messed this one up - can we start again?
A new heavens.
A new earth.
Former things forgotten.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
A new creation. One where Lion’s Lambs and Wolves are at peace.
One where the usual order of things is undone.
Sunday
Sunday
On that first Sunday when Jesus rose.
Mary found the tomb empty.
The stone removed.
And assuming that things were the way they should always be.
Assuming that lions and wolves eat lambs - she assumed that some mischief had taken place:
2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
She assumed that the cruel Roman soldiers might have taken Jesus body and hidden him away. Perhaps to add insult to injury. Another cruel trick of their scheme.
She would assume that quite fairly because that seemed to be the way things were done.
Lion’s eat lambs.
Thats just the way the world is.
They ran back to look again.
And outside the tomb - Jesus appeared to Mary:
15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Still - Mary - with Jesus right in front of her. This is a world where Lion’s eat lambs. A world where all is as it is expected to be.
Therefore in her mind - as in ours - the person standing next to her - speaking to her - ministering to her - just can not be Jesus.
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Teacher
Teacher
The teacher who showed that the world could be different.
The teacher who fed 5,000.
Who healed lepers.
Who forgave sinners.
Who showed people like Mary that things didn’t have to always be the same.
That the world could change.
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
It is no coincidence that resurrection happens on a Sunday.
The first day of the week of creation.
The day on which God said: “Let there be light.” (Gen 1:3)
On this day we see everything in a new light - in a new way. God has done something new. Opened up new possibilities for us - and for all the world.
And according to Isaiah - it is not just Lion’s, Wolves and Lambs eating straw together… It is a whole lot of other miracles:
Verse 18-19 - No more weeping in Jerusalem.
Verse 20 - People will live long lives. Children won’t die as infants.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Through Isaiah God speaks of many miracles - not just lion’s eating with wolves and lambs - but changes in the world.
The elimination of infant deaths.
People living joyfully into old age.
People enjoying the fruit of their own labours.
A just world - a different kind of community.
A new creation.
New possibility.
Jesus is Alive
Jesus is Alive
Mary’s first thought - just like our most negative and anxious thought: “They’ve taken his body…”
But in the new creation - “He is risen…”
Mary’s first sight in the early dawn - of this stranger talking to her. A gardener - it can’t be Jesus.
But in the new creation - It is Jesus.
What was impossible is now possible.
So something new begins.
As Peter will preach:
39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree;
40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear,
41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
As Peter testifies in Acts - we will read in Acts of the amazing things that God did in that early church… and God continues to do in each of us - a new beginning a new hope - new life.
