Easter 2021: The Day Death Died

When Life Changes

It’s just a normal Saturday morning. I wake up, greeted by my dog who brings me a slobbery tennis ball; dancing in circles at my feet, wanting to play as I struggle to stand up straight. Half awake, half asleep, I stumble to the kitchen, passing Michelle in the office doing paperwork or still in her morning devotions. I get to the kitchen and blindly grab a cup, pour myself a cup of delicious freshly brewed coffee - a bit strong - but this early, the bitterness is delicious.

I settle in to my favorite chair to read my devotions while my dog comes to press into me with all his weight as if to say I’m here and ready to play. Don’t forget me.

We go through this routine daily… there’s nothing special about it. It seems like any other day.

July 11th had been one of those routine Saturdays. My wife and I were on our way back from a cookout with friends and driving home the sunset was beautiful. I snapped a couple of pics with my phone as we drove home. They weren’t good pictures, nothing to upload and get likes on Instagram. Just a beautiful Eastern Shore sunset cutting through the smog of Baltimore and DC.

She and I were talking about how God had blessed our family over the last year and how excited we were about the future for our kids and for ministry… then we got to Double Woods and everything changed.

We were hit head on by a passing driver. Spinning our truck around and over into the ditch. We survived… the other driver did not. Facing the fact that we could of easily died, was one of those moments when life changes.

Hopefully you haven't had a near death experience, but life is full of other moments that can be equally transformational: Birth of children, loss of loved ones, marriage, struggles with illness, coming to faith. Distinct moments in time when the way we see the world changes. Sometimes the change is temporary because we weren’t expecting it.... it was just a shock to our system… but some of these things fundamentally change all of life as we know it.

Our accident was certainly a shock to our system that caused us to reevaluate life and focus on how God is moving in our life.

But not every change that comes in life is a good change.

Not all change is good change.

Over the last year, we have all experienced this in our dealing with COVID.

I have a news app on my phone that I use to read news articles. On the main screen, it has a COVID counter giving me a constant reminder of this fundamental change in our society. Whether we like it or not, realize it or not, the thought of COVID infection has caused us all to be more aware of life and death. Being locked down made us long for the ways things used to be, instead of looking forward to the future; and the constant reminder of death and danger provided by the news media has led to an increased fear of dying as well as a acute longing for safety and security.

I don’t think this is a healthy for anyone. I don’t mean we should take crazy risks, but to be hyper-focused on removing risk from life is a fools errand. As my wife and I learned last summer, that safety and security we want is like a vapor… hard to hold. It can disappear in a moment.

The reality is, something completely unexpected can happen to you and we still have a choice in how we respond. We can do whats best for us in the moment or we can seek to do what God desires for us in the moment.

That’s what the Easter Story is. It’s exactly what no one expected yet it changed everything. It wasn’t just the shock of the event either, scripture teaches us that Easter fundamentally changed everything, and God has a particular response in mind for us to make.

Unexpected Death

It all began with Jesus’s death on Good Friday, it wasn’t expected.

He was the Messiah. The promised one. The one who everyone, well most everyone, thought would deliver Israel from the rule of Rome.

And yet:

Mark 15:33–39 NIV

33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). 35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” 36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. 37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. A few days ago, no one would have expected this.

Exactly what no one expected.

But the moment he was forced to carry the cross everyone knew death was coming. Leaving His followers brokenhearted, dejected.

Left only to ask WHY?

They may not have understood it, at the time, but scripture is clear that it was necessary.

The Prophet Isaiah had written centuries before:

Isaiah 53:10–11 NLT

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.

The apostle Peter wrote to explain to the Jews:

1 Peter 2:24–25 NIV

24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I heard again on Friday… “Jesus died on the cross so we could live for eternity”. This is not true… exactly. Jesus didn’t die so that you could live forever… he died to pay the penalty for our sin. Our atonement. Eternal life is just the result of being restored to God.

Atone - At One

Bearing our sins, Jesus defeated the biggest threat to humanity. Sin, falling short of God’s design results in death. Remember from Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and sin entered the world. Since then we have each chosen our way rather than God’s. Not because we were ‘bad people” although there are certainly some bad people in the world. But we rebel against God because we have inherited the sin nature from Adam and Eve. The brokenness from that first sin infects us today at a rate of 100%.

As of Friday, Covid has approximately 552,000 deaths over the last 15 months or so… but that’s not the biggest killer

Sin is responsible for 155,000 deaths a day … 58.9 mil

Jesus died to set us free from the death sentence of sin by providing a means for our relationship with God the Father to be restored. The curse of sin had been broken. Death has been defeated.

WE aren’t sure what the disciples did while Jesus was in the tomb, but it’s not hard to imagine they were just trying to make some sense of it all.

Maybe you too hear of the death of Jesus and struggle to make sense of it… why would God allow Jesus to be punished for me? How could Jesus’s death help me, today? Questions that deserve an answer, and I believe there are answers in God’s word.

I don’t know where your doubts come from exactly. Maybe you grew up in church, and at some point, you just failed to see how a loving God fit with the pain of life. Perhaps it was the death of a loved one… or it was a broken relationship. Maybe you were confronted with a question of life that seemed bigger than the god you had been told about.

But no matter our doubts, we all believe ‘some’ things. We believe some things we can’t prove. So for people who doubt the resurrection, I get it, it’s a staggering event. But I want us to hear it today from the people who are experiencing it. God works in amazing ways as we hear the truth of the Good News.

Now Remember, they had seen Jesus die just a few days ago. They had taken Jesus’s body to the tomb.

Mark 16:1–3 NIV

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

These women are going to care for the body of Jesus thinking because everything was rushed on Friday, no one had taken the time to do it properly. They had to wait until the evening after Passover to buy the spices and now early on Sunday, they go to the tomb to honor Jesus’s body.

On the way they remember something important. The stone that had been put in place. How would they deal with that? Who would help. Obviously unprepared yet fully expecting to find Jesus dead.

It’s clear they were acting without really thinking. But that’s how we would act when we lose someone close right. We don’t think about all the details… we are just wanting to care for our friend… spouse, father, mother… they saw him die… they aren’t expecting a risen Savior.

When they got there...

Luke 24:2–3 NIV

2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

After encountering an angel from God, they run back to where the disciples had spent the night.

Luke 24:9–12 NIV

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

A lot of running around here. Peter, the one who had denied knowing Jesus a few nights ago was now wondering what had happened.

In spite of Jesus telling them he would rise again… no one seemed to understand what was going on. They thought he had been talking in metaphors… but now they weren’t sure?

John 20:19–20 NIV

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

He’s alive! Jesus is Alive!!!

This was the defining moment for these folks. From this moment on, they were changed.

Maybe this is all too much for you. Maybe. To me makes perfect sense. It makes sense because the Spirit has convinced me of it.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus died to pay for my sin and the empty grave stood as a testimony that death had been defeated.

Sin and death no longer had power over him and by our believing in Him, we too are freed to experience life as God created us to experience - not in bondage to sin and death

It gave new significance to what Jesus had taught when he said:

John 11:25–26 NIV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Life, Fundamentally Different

This is where we understand Eternal Life as followers of Jesus. Those who have heard this good news and responded in faith, trusting Jesus, following his ways, have been born again. What does this mean? Let me explain it this way, there are two births and there are two deaths described in scripture.

First birth is a physical birth, the day you took breath and became a living person. The second is a spiritual birth… what Jesus called being born again. The moment you put your trust in Jesus as Lord. When you turned from doing things your way and begin to live for him. Notice it’s not about baptism or joining a church. No it’s the moment we surrender to his Lordship.

When it comes to death, death is understood in scripture as a separation. Separation from God and a separation from our body. The first death is a spiritual death, a separation from God. This is the one Jesus first experienced on the cross, taking our sin upon him… what pain he experienced that caused him to cry out “My God why have you forsaken me?” He felt the isolation from God. In that moment he experienced spiritual death. The reality of sin is that it makes us spiritually dead.

Physical death comes as the result of sin, this spiritual death.

That’s why all the people Jesus restored to life, would go on to experience physical death again. But those who were born a second time will never experience spiritual death.

This is what the account of Jesus’s death and resurrection are telling me.

Jesus died a spiritual death… taking on our sin.... the sins of the world, which everyone is guilty… and where does he die this death? Between two convicted criminals. Convicted… in our place.

Then look at where he was buried. In a rich man’s tomb. Buried amongst people who live for comfort and convenience… who live for the flesh… the here and now. And God raising him to life from among the wealthy dead is to say, don’t die like this… live for more than this world.

This was the day death died.

From this point forward things are going to be FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT for everyone.

As Peter wrote:

1 Peter 1:3–5 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

By faith, God has granted us access to the same future that Jesus experienced, to be shielded from death as we follow Christ into this fundamentally different life.

Now is the time for Fundamental Change

Yet for many of us, we don’t live fundamentally different lives. Even for many Christians. Our lives don’t look that different from anyone else. Why is that?

I think it’s the same reason that many back at the first Easter weren’t changed.

They found it easier to believe the cover-up.

Matthew 28:11 tells us that soldiers were paid to say that the disciples stole Jesus’s body from their possession.

This is a bridge to far for me. To think these Soldiers, paid Roman soldiers would be over powered or too deeply asleep to allow the disciples to steal Jesus’s body… that’s too much. The only ones with reason to continue in denial is the Chief Priests.

Besides, as we read further, Jesus appeared again and again to prove his resurrection to the world.

So what do you believe? The resurrection or the cover-up?

I believe that there are some of us who spend a lot of energy trying not to deal with the fact that that tomb is indeed empty. Knowing, if Jesus did conquer death, then we have to deal with him.

Don't miss the fact that your reluctance to dealing with Jesus, is still dealing with Jesus, it’s called denial. God created each one of us to have to deal with Jesus. It's the most important question in the world. So let me ask you, what have you done with Jesus?

What's interesting about that question is that if Jesus is who he said he is, the only proper response is absolute surrender. Because, if he conquered death, he's the only One who's ever done that.

No other teacher, no other philosopher, military leader, politician, no one else has ever done that.

I want to encourage you to respond to Him today. If you are here and you have never made that decision to align your life with the Giver and Sustainer of life. If you want to join the one who defeated death, the one who conquered shame and brokenness, if you want to share in what he has done for you… When we think about it like this, being with Jesus is the only logical place to be.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, God will never accept me the way that I am." I thought that. The truth is, He accepts you exactly the way that you are. But what's awesome about God is that He loves us too much to keep us the way we are. He's changing all of us. We never arrive.

We're all a work in process. It's just a matter of if we're going to say, "God, I'm willing to let you do the work you want to do on me from inside, not the outside. I'm going to let you move in and change this life from the inside." God is not afraid of where you've been. What you'll find is that if you turn to Jesus today he has been waiting for you. Just come.

You can pray that as a prayer this Easter… Lord, I want you to do the work on me you wan to do. Come into my life, move in and change me from the inside. I repent of my sin and trust your work on the cross and in the resurrection. Fill me with your power that I might live this life for you beginning today.

Amen

For the rest of us, this Easter, God’s spirit may be challenging you today to move all in for Jesus. You have claimed the name Christian for a while, but you don’t live like someone who is surrendered to God. You struggle with letting go of the world’s ways, with forgiving, with anger, or addictions.

You need an infilling of God’s spirit to empower you to live the life Jesus died to make possible.. freedom from sin.

Today we celebrate holy Communion. In this sacrament, we receive God’s grace through a cup and bread. Receive these elements as empowerment to live God intended them to be. Respond to this special Easter Liturgy.

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Easter Holy Communion

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The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

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Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

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Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

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It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty (almighty God ), creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

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When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and set before us the way of life.

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And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

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Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

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Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

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By your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of your Son from the dead and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

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Once we were no people, but now we are your people, declaring your wonderful deeds in Christ, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

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On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

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When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

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On the day you raised him from the dead he was recognized by his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and in the power of your Holy Spirit your Church has continued in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

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And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

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Christ has died;

Christ is risen;

Christ will come again.

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Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

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By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

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Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and for ever.

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Amen.

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