Resurrection is…Recreation.

“Peace be with you.”

“Father, may your will be done. Jesus, may your word be proclaimed. Spirit, may your work be accomplished in us we pray. Amen.”

I. Resurrection is…

First Sunday of Easter- we learn that Jesus is resurrected and offering, to those who believe in him, resurrection. So we have set out this Easter Season to learn what Resurrection is and how we can experience it in our lives.

Second Sunday of Easter, we learned that Resurrection is… Peace with God, Power of the Holy Spirit, and a message to Proclaim.

Third Sunday of Easter, we learned that Resurrection is… the purpose to which God has called us.

Fourth Sunday of Easter, we learn that Resurrection comes to us by faith.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection is… Loving others the way Jesus loves us.

Sixth Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection is… further up and further in. Discovering more of what our lives will experience when we are in Christ.

So here we come to the final Sunday of Easter, the Seventh Sunday where we will learn our final lesson for what Resurrection is.

II. Resurrection is… Recreation.

A. Pop Quiz

Before we jump into today’s lesson, I want to give a little pop quiz. I want to see if you can give me the genre of movie or the kind of movie you would expect to see if I give you just a few images.

Rolling tumbleweeds, swing saloon doors, and a five shooter. What kind of movie do you expect to be watching?

rolling thunder, flashes of lightning, and a dark silhouette of a victorian house. What kind of movie do you expect to be watching?

It is interesting how when you watch enough movies, you learn that there are certain things that make up the different kinds of movies. But what is more interesting is that it is the same way with the scriptures. When you become familiar with the scriptures you are more familiar with its stories. These stories have certain details or clues that reveal the kind of story you can expect to be reading. In our Gospel lesson today, we encounter this very thing. Jesus’ prayer is pregnant with details and clues that tell us how to understand Jesus’ prayer.

B. A creation story.

Throughout Jesus’ prayer there are refrains or repetitions that pop up that operate as details or clues on who we should understand what Jesus is doing and what is taking place in that moment. Theses clues are:

Giving his disciples a name

Giving his disciples his glory.

Making his disciples one with him and the father.

A Name, Shared Glory, and Unity.

But what do these three clues point us to? They point us to a creation story.

Adam and Eve

At the beginning of Creation, God made everything and declared it to be good. At the Climax of creation, God makes man from the dust and breathes into him His life, setting him in a garden to image and work like His Creator. But of all the things that God himself declares good, we encounter the first thing that isn’t good in this seemingly “good” creation—that Adam is alone.

To resolve this, God caused Adam to fall into death, a sleep so heavy that it is like death. Then he opens Adam’s side, and pulls from Adam, a piece of Adam, a rib, and fashions for Adam a wife.

When Adam rises from this deathly sleep, he discovers the woman and gives her a name. The name itself reveals that Adam understood that the woman shares in what he has from God. He was made of dust and formed into a body, and from this body, not dust, was woman formed. And “Ish” names the woman “Isha”, bone of my bones, to signify this sharing of his body and their life. Having given some of himself to the woman, and having named her, God then blessed this created union between man and woman by saying, “For this reason the two shall become one flesh.” So at the first creation of humanity we have:

Alone not being good.

A sleep like death.

An open side

A sharing of essence to create something new.

A naming of that something new.

A blessed union between two that becomes one.

It is this story that informs our reading and understanding of Jesus’ prayer. It is a moment that is calling for a recreation. A final Adam who prays for the final Eve.

C. A Recreation Story.

In Jesus’ prayer we have these similar details and clues but in a bit of a reverse order.

Throughout his prayer, Jesus:

Gives his disciples and who will believe in Him by their word a name. Jesus repetitiously says I have given “Your name to them.” (v.6, 26)

Then Jesus says he has given to his disciples his glory. The glory he gets from the father he gives to them. Jesus shares with them what fills him—glory. (v.22, 24)

Jesus requests union with his disciples, that as the father and him are one that He and the disciples maybe one and one with each other. (v.21, 23)

We have Jesus praying to the father that he has given his disciples a name, share with them his essence (glory), and requesting that the father bless the union between him and the disciples by making them one.

In addition we know that what happens after this prayer, is that Jesus is taken into custody, suffered a trail and beating, and give up his life on the cross. To prove that he was dead, his side was opened and both water and blood poured out. But the saga doesn’t end there in death, Christ rises from the dead, and immediately reveals himself to his disciples over the next several days and weeks. At Pentecost, when Jesus returns to his Father’s side, the spirit is send signifying the Father’s approval and answer to Jesus’ prayer for his Eve to be given a new name, his name, to share in his glory, and to forever be in union with him. On that day, the bride was born. The final Eve was made, and The Church began.

Jesus’ prayer wasn’t just for his disciples in that room that night. It was for us as well. For all who would come to believe in Jesus by their word (v.20).

D. Resurrection is…recreation.

Resurrection is recreating us to become the bride of Christ.

We learn from this prayer, that resurrection is recreation. Jesus has prayed for us who believe in him, to be recreated into the final Eve who is born from the final Adam. Our final and true identity has been prayer for and achieved through Jesus. It is not good for us to be alone, but now belong to Christ. The church is being fashioned by Christ into a bride fit for him. That is what we are being recreated to be. It is in this that we must live into.

Resurrection is…Recreation

Application:

We are not our own.

If we are betrothed then stop dating around.

How can we grow into what we are being recreated to be?

Jesus’ prays get answered.

Water and Blood poured out of his side. The Symbol of a Kiss and the thing that happens in baptism and communion.