Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Each of us has something in common… we all are slaves to time and we experience life on a day in and day out basis.

We give the days specific names so we can help mark the passage of time.

Some of us live for certain days… Depending on your personality type...

Mondays:

the start of the work week signalling a new week of possibilities and the ability to get things done

holidays often occur on Mondays making it like a half-brother to the weekend

“From 1971 on, Memorial Day has always been on a Monday which signals the unoffical start of the summer, BBQs, movies, and mattress sales” (Allan West)

Monday night football

Tuesdays:

absolute worst day of the week

by its very nature of its place on the calendar, it is the black sheep of the week

Ed McMahon - “there was a time when people didnt’ go out of their house on Tuesday night at eight o’clock because Milton Berle was on”

but Tuesday is now relegated to restaurant specials where you can get good deals (especially if you have kids)… Poor Tuesday… it’s the Kids Eat Free day

Wednesday:

signals the mid-part of the week and brings with the dawn a ray of hope that the ever loved weekend is right around the corner

Thursday:

hope is rising cause Friday is a comin’

so often it is ladies night in certain institutions

and before the kids, Thursday night was TV night for Rachel and I… some of our favorites were on Thursday nights

Friday:

paychecks, high school football, dates with that special one, the end of a school week, blockbuster movie premieres and the beginning of two long days of boredom for those who love school

Saturday and Sunday:

and of course those two make up the weekend

There was a long week that occurred over 2,000 years ago… a week that is unimaginable for most of us… there were not days of eating free or TV shows or movie premiere or ladies night… and certainly no paycheck on Friday… in fact, that Friday was the day Jesus paid out for all of us.

The Friday that Jesus died on the cross for you and for me is the most significant Friday that has ever graced a calendar.

Period.

Yet, we must understand that although Jesus Christ did not STAY DEAD, time marched on while Jesus was in the tomb.

The people that were left behind… Mary the mother of Jesus, all the other Mary’s mentioned in the Gospels, the disciples, the other followers of Jesus… all had to endure a weekend that was unlike any other.

They had to live through Saturday and Sunday.

I wonder what those people who loved Jesus and followed Him experienced on Saturday.

That Saturday was a no hope, no courage, no point, no sense, no work, no solution, no joke, no words, no fund kind-of-day.

These chief priests and Pharisees were celebrating their victory… they had finally gotten rid of this Person they felt was encroaching on their power.

Soldiers were posted at the tomb.

I’m sure the chief priests and Pharisees breathed a great sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Jesus’ disciples were hiding in fear that they, too, would receive a cross and suffer horribly and be killed for following Jesus.

The disciples hid behind closed doors in fear.

The disciples who had walked and talked with Jesus did not understand that He would die and that He would rise again… even though He told them!

This passage and others like and show us that the disciples did not always fully understand what Jesus was teaching, what He was doing, and what the point of their time together would lead to.

And it wasn’t just the disciples...

The women had spent Saturday planning out how they would prepare Jesus’ body for its final resting place.

That had spent all day Saturday focused on grief and thinking about the dreadful task that awaited them the next day at the tomb.

We know of course that Saturday for the Jews was the Sabbath and none of them would have been doing any work or anything like that.

I imagine that Saturday was a discouraging day full of hopelessness because they saw the last three years of their lives come to a deathly end.

They had nothing to do but sit and think and stew in their hopelessness.

Questions filled the air… what would they do now?

where would they live?

how would they avoid the authorities?

how could they hid and then sneak out of the city?

had God abandoned them? is this all there is?

I see in a passage related to Jesus’ resurrection that many of the disciples were going to absolutely drop all that they learned and would try to go back to their old lives.

John 21:2-3

This passage tells us that 64% of 7 out of 11 (remember no Judas!) had absolutely given up and were going to go back to their old lives.

They had no idea what to do.

They gave up to hopelessness to the idea that Jesus was the Messiah.

They gave up not knowing what they were supposed to do with their lives.

They embraced sadness and lost-ness and forgot all that Jesus had taught them by words and deeds.

In terms of worst days, I would say that this Saturday ranked as the worst in these people’s lives.

Jesus had not come off the cross, but had died and was buried.

Jesus had been beaten almost beyond recognition and the followers of Jesus were now scattered and afraid and hiding.

I thought a lot about what the disciples were experiencing on this Saturday… and I hope now you’ve thought a little about that too.

They were living in a Saturday full of no hope and no purpose and no answers.

I don’t know about you (well, actually I think I do) but I can easily get stuck in Saturday, living with a Saturday state of mind - no hope, no courage, no plans, believing that death is the final end or that God has abandoned me to my circumstances.

Yet in all of this, the week marches on for them.

In our lives, the week marches on.

All four Gospels record Jesus’ resurrection and we have four different perspectives to draw on about this significant Sunday.

Let’s read this morning from and we’ll sprinkle some in along the way.

Sunday was a day unlike any other.

This Sunday was a day unlike any other Sunday in the history of Sundays and is perhaps the absolute greatest day that has ever existed on the calendar.

This particular Sunday was Resurrection Day!… a day of eternal love! renewed life! and unending hope!

LIVE IN SUNDAY

Mary Magdalene came to Jesus’ tomb stuck in a Saturday state of mind.

In fact, when she found the tomb empty she said,

The empty tomb did not take away her despair and grief in fact it seemed to magnify because she felt someone had come and stolen His body in an effort to desecrate Him even further than had already been done that Friday.

The angels she met did not take away her grief because I think her mind and heart were swirling with the dizziness of despair.

This woman who loves Jesus dearly had dthe sadness and hopelessness of Saturday shadowing her heart.

LIVE IN SUNDAY

and agree that Jesus, alive from the dead, meets with Mary Magdalene and calls her by name.

Mary thought wrongly that Jesus was the gardener because she did not expect to see Him… at all.

I also happen to think that she was beyond hysterical and just out of her mind with worry.

records for us that Jesus spoke Mary’s name and she realized that Jesus, her Lord, is alive from the dead.

She fell down and worshipped Him.

Relief swept her.

Hope filled her heart.

Purpose energized her soul.

Confidence was renewed.

Faith was again realized.

Safety was assured.

Understanding perhaps dawned a little.

Jesus was calling for Mary to leave the Saturday behind and live in Sunday.

LIVE IN SUNDAY

Author and Minister Max Lucado tells the story of his brother, D. D was an outgoing, friend-making, joy-bringing kind of guy and D was a personal ambassador for his shy, younger brother, Max.

In his teen years D met a bootlegger and alcohol trapped D. For four decades D drank away his health, his friends, his jobs and his money.

At age 54 D made a serious decision to join AA.

His life and marriage stabilized, but the years of alcohol and smoking 3 packs a day left D in very fragile health.

He began to have chest pains.

He was rushed to the emergency room by ambulance.

By the time his wife, Donna, arrived with one of their sons, D was gone.

They went in to see his now dead body.

One of his hands was resting on his thigh with his fingers curled in the international sign language form of “I love you.”