Easter 2026

Folded Laundry Can Change Your Life

I want to share with you this morning how folded laundry could change your life.

Before the moms in the room get too excited, I didn't say how "folding laundry" could save your life.

I used a noun, not a verb.

Stand as we read God’s Word John 20 1-10

John 20:1–10 CSB

1 On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”

John 20:1–10 CSB

3 At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5 Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there.

John 20:1–10 CSB

7 The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8 The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying.

PRAY

Aliens, UFOs, and other thing that don’t matter

Back in February, president Trump announced that he was directing government agencies to begin to identify and release files on aliens, unidentified ariel phenomena (UAP), and UFOs.

In 2021, the Pentagon releases a UAP report that basically said “We have seen a lot of weird things and can’t explain them all, but we have no evidence they are aliens.”

I would imagine most, if not all, of us in this room have paid little attention to any of these stories.

Sure they are interesting, even making us a bit uneasy, but they haven’t affected our lives really at all in the last 5-6 years.

The reason we don’t care is that we can’t really draw a line from the possible existence of aliens to our every day lives.

Whether they exist or not, it doesn’t make much difference to me.

Now if an alien space ship rolls up like in Independence Day (the 1996 one, not the second one), then all of us would start paying real close attention.

Easter kinda Matters, but not really...

You didn’t show up to hear about whether aliens exist or not (or maybe you did, in which case I have just peaked you interest only to change the subject).

You showed up because today is Easter, the day we Christians celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave.

The day we believe death was defeated for those who trust in Christ.

The day we believe was the greatest day in human history.

But does it really matter?

Preachers often spend Easter Sunday presenting the evidence that the resurrection is historically believable.

Pointing to the reasons that the empty tomb wasn’t just a fabricated story by Jesus’s followers that has been repeated for 2000 years.

Debunking all the theories given over the years for why Jesus didn’t rise from the grave.

Even the History Channel gets in on the debate most every Easter season.

But heres the reality: Most people in our world aren’t all that concerned about the historical evidence for or believability of the resurrection.

They are more concerned about the relevance of it...

WHY should I care? What difference does it make in my life?

If it seems like it doesn’t, then I will just view it the way I view UFOs and possible life in some distant galaxy—

If we can’t draw a line from the resurrection to our every day lives, then who cares if it is true or not?

God wrote John 20:1-10 to draw the line.

And strangely enough, part of that line runs right through a folded piece of laundry in an empty tomb.

An (almost) empty tomb points to:

Mary (and likely other women too as the other gospels tell us), comes to the tomb early in the morning of the 3rd day after Jesus’s crucifixion.

She intends on continuing the burial process on Jesus’s body.

But when she gets to the tomb she sees the stone has been rolled away, and immediately assumes the worst:

‘They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him.’

She runs to Peter and John, who are back at the place they are likely hiding.

John tells us that he and Peter run to the tomb, adding in that he is the one who gets there first, stoops, and looks in.

Verse 5 says he ‘saw the linen cloths lying there.’

Peter arrives, goes in, and ‘saw the linen cloths lying there, and the wrapping that had been on his head… folded up in a separate place by itself.’

These are strange details if you’re making up a story.

Who cares who outran whom? Who cares who went in first? Who cares about folded cloths?

But eyewitnesses care about details. John is telling you what he saw.

Think about it:

The stone is moved, but the grave is not ransacked.

The body is gone, but the grave clothes are not dragged off with it.

The head cloth is not tossed aside, but carefully folded.

If grave robbers came, they wouldn’t take time to unwrap a the body, fold the cloth, and leave everything neat and tidy?

They’d grab the body and go.

What John sees is not a stolen body.

He sees is a risen body.

1) A RISEN BODY

Those empty grave clothes show us that Jesus didn’t rise as a ghost or ‘spirit.’

He rose in a real body—touchable, recognizable, and yet completely and totally new, never again to die.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20 that He is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”, meaning Jesus is the first one to experience a new, resurrected body.

And His new body is the beginning of God keeping a very old promise: that all the brokenness sin has brought into this world—into our bodies, our minds, our relationships—will one day be made new.

[Hold up the dirty, ripped shirt.]

For for all of us, in some way or another, this is how life feels.

Torn, stained, and messy...

We all feel like something is wrong, that the world and our own bodies are somehow broken...

[Hold up the clean shirt.]

The (almost) empty tomb is God’s answer to that ache.

The empty grave clothes is God’s announcement that there is a solution to our brokenness and there is a hope for sadness

The resurrection life is like this clean shirt. It’s God’s promise that this brokenness is not forever.

If you belong to Jesus, your future is a resurrection body in a renewed creation—a world where there is no more sickness, no more sin, and no more tears.

So the resurrection matters because it tells every weary, hurting, broken person in this room:

This is not as good as it gets. God is not finished.

But there was more in the tomb...

2) A FINISHED WORK

It wasn’t just the grave clothes that were left behind.

John points our that the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’s head wasn’t with the linen cloths, it was “folded up in a separate place by itself.”

[take another shirt and start folding it folded shirt]

I’ll be honest, I don’t do a lot of laundry at home, so I am no expert at folding clothes.

But I do know what a folded shirt signifies.

It means that the shirt was once dirty from all that been done it it.

Maybe it had food slipt on it, or the person wearing it fell in the mud, or wore it while they were working or playing a sport.

It means it was washed in the washing machine, thrown in the dryer, and came our fresh and clean.

A folded shirt tells a story. It was dirty. It’s been washed. The work is done.

No one folds a filthy shirt and puts it away. You fold it because it’s clean and the job is finished.

The Bible says God has written His law on every human heart.

Romans 2:14–15 CSB

14 So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them

That’s why even people who’ve never opened a Bible, or don’t believe in God, still lie awake at night replaying things they wish they hadn’t said or done.

Our own thoughts ‘accuse us or even defend us.’

We have this inner courtroom constantly running—trying to convince ourselves we’re good people, then suddenly feeling exposed and condemned.

You don’t need to be religious to know the feeling of a guilty conscience.

Walter J. Chantry writes,

“Conscience is a friend to hurry you into the arms of the only Savior from the broken law and its curse.” — Walter J. Chantry

That heavy feeling that something is wrong with you and in you is meant to drive you somewhere—to Someone.

On the cross, Jesus cried, ‘It is finished.’

He wasn’t talking about His life. He was talking about His work—bearing the judgment our sins deserve.

On Easter morning, the folded cloth is like God’s exclamation point:

The work really is finished. The payment really is accepted. There is nothing left to add.

Some of you walk around wearing this dirty shirt of guilt and shame. You say:

‘If you knew what I’ve done…’

‘If you knew where I’ve been…’

‘If you knew what I still struggle with…’

You’ve tried to wash it yourself—working harder to be a better person, doing good things to hopefully outweigh the bad, numbing the pain, blaming others—but your conscience won’t let you rest.

And that is why the resurrection matters.

The blood of Jesus can wash your guilt away. His righteousness can clothe you. His finished work can quiet that courtroom inside your heart.

To become a Christian is not to promise God you’ll clean yourself up;

it is to admit that you can’t, and to trust that Jesus’ death and resurrection are enough to make you clean before God.

But there is one more thing that folded laundry points to...

3) A CONQUERED FEAR

John saw the grave clothes, the folded face cloth, and the empty tomb, took it all in and realized something extraordinary.

He hadn't worked it all out in his head (v9), but he understood and he believed...Jesus wasn't dead anymore!

He had began to understand that the enemy that every human being in all of history, since Adam and Eve, had feared.

The enemy who had led all of Jesus's disciples to run away in fear just a few days before.

The enemy no one had ever be able to conquer, had been conquered.

John began to understand and believe, that the enemy of death was no longer something that needed to be fear, because Jesus had defeated death.

Hebrews 2:14–15 CSB

14 Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

The author of Hebrews says, Jesus became human so that ‘through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death… and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.’

That’s all of us.

We might avoid thinking about death, but we can’t erase the fear of it.

It shows up when we someone we love gets a hard diagnosis and begins to get weak.

It shows up when we go to a funeral, pass by a cemetery, or read an obituary online.

It shows up in the quiet moments, when life slows down enough for us to wonder, “what really happens when we die?”

[Take the folded shirt and begin to move toward the dresser]

When laundry is washed and folded, the next step is: you put it away.

The work is done. You can rest.

The Empty Tomb proclaims that Jesus has done that with death.

He has faced it, carried its full weight, come out the other side, and now for those who belong to Him, death is no longer the end—it’s a doorway to life with Him.

Many of us knew and loved Bobby Roberts.

A couple of Sundays ago, Bobby died during the church service at Hartford Baptist.

It hit me hard, Bobby was only 46 years old, 4 year older than me.

He worked hard in those 46 years to raise 2 kids, making a living for his family, and build a strong marriage.

After all those years of work, parenting, stress, trials, struggle… Bobby was in a season of peace.

The thought that came to my mind: “It is a bummer he didn’t get to enjoy that season, reaping the harvest of all the Lord had done in and through him.”

But it hit me as I prepared this message: that is a saying that what Bobby left behind is greater than what he is gaining.

“Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” CS Lewis

FOMO is unfortunately a real thing when we think about death, because we don't understand the promised hope of resurrection and the defeat of death.

Paul says in Philippians 1:21 “to die is gain.”

It isn’t death itself that is a gain to us.

It is Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, who has removed death’s sting and swallowed it up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–55)

It is Jesus in whom we are receiving an eternal inheritance beyond our wildest dreams (Ephesians 1:11), and in whose presence we will experience unsurpassed joy forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

He is what ought to be most precious to us. He is our great gain in death.

“The best moment of a Christian’s life is his last one, because it is the one that is nearest heaven.” Charles Spurgeon

Some of you have lost people you love—maybe even recently.

You had plans that were cut short. It feels like their story was ripped away.

If they belonged to Christ, their story didn’t end; it opened. 

They stepped out of the grave clothes of this life into the presence of the One who is the Resurrection and the Life.

If you are in Christ, that’s your future too.

That doesn’t mean we stop grieving.

But it means we grieve with hope.

It means we don’t have to spend our lives enslaved to the fear of death.

The resurrection matters because it tells you: Death will not have the last word over you. Jesus will.

How can folded laundry change your life?

Because in John 20, that folded cloth is preaching the best news you’ll ever hear.

It tells you Jesus really rose. Grave robbers don’t fold linens. A living Savior stepped out of those grave clothes, and that changes what’s possible in your broken life.

It tells you His work is finished. Like a basket of clean, folded clothes after all the washing and scrubbing is done, that folded cloth says the stain of sin has been fully dealt with. There’s nothing left for you to pay.

It tells you death is not the end. The One who calmly folds a head cloth in a borrowed tomb is utterly unthreatened by death. If you belong to Him, you don’t have to be owned by the fear of it anymore.

So how can folded laundry change your life?

Because the folded cloth in that empty tomb means there is a risen Savior who can take your dirty, torn life, wash it clean by His blood, fold it in His finished work, and one day lay you to rest in the sure hope that He will raise you up with Him forever.

All that’s left is the question John leaves us with: Will you believe in this risen Jesus and have life in His name?

My prayer for every person in this room today is that you wouldn’t leave still thinking of the resurrection like you think of the existence of aliens...

It matters...

It matters today, it matters tomorrow, and it matters for all of eternity.

If you’re not a Christian, your first step is not to walk out of here and try harder.

Your first step is to come to the risen Jesus with your brokenness, your guilt, your fear, and say, ‘I need You. Wash me. Forgive me. Give me the life You died and rose to give.’

If you are a Christian, Easter is not just a day on the calendar; it’s a reality to live in:

You don’t have to believe that this broken world is your final home.

You don’t have to carry guilt Jesus has already paid for.

You don’t have to be enslaved to the fear of death.

Because the tomb is empty, the cloth is folded, and Jesus is alive.