Easter 2021

INTRODUCTION

Generally on Easter Sunday, we know what the text will be. We will find Mary in the garden, staring at an empty tomb, asking where Jesus is, and then jubilantly declaring to the disciples that he is risen. But that is not our text today. Instead, we read words about the beginning. We read words about the Word of God. We read about light and darkness.

We are a people who know darkness. We’ve seen it on full display over the past year. So many of us have seen death up close and personal. A small virus changed rapidly and spread at alarming speeds. We watched as hundreds of thousands of people around the world got infected, got sick, were hospitalized, and died, of- ten without family and friends close to them. We observed, as the pandemic spread, the numerous ways that the darkness of selfishness rose to the surface. We watched—or maybe we even became—people who looked out for their own best interests over the interests of their neighbors.

In the midst of the darkness of a pandemic, another grim darkness rose to the surface in the United States in 2020—the darkness of racism, which is something so deeply embedded into our society that many of us were alarmed to recognize it for the first time as what it was. We watched the darkness of people un- willing to hear, unwilling to see, unwilling to be freed from their own racism. Some of us watched that dark- ness rise up in ourselves. These things are added to the myriad other darknesses we have seen or faced—job loss, illness, poverty, despair, depression, and we could go on and on.

We are a people who know darkness. So maybe of all Easters, this Easter is an appropriate one to stray from the common story in order to be reminded once again that, while we are people who know darkness— as the people of God, as people of resurrection—we also know the light. No matter how deep and vast the darkness is, it will never be able to overpower the light—that is Christ Jesus. Even the darkness of sin and death could not hold him. Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, has overcome those powers.

BODY

1) The disciples were locked in a room, afraid, and in need of the light as well.

a) The disciples lacked hope. Their friend—the supposed Messiah—had just died, and they had wit- nessed it firsthand.

i) They also feared for their lives because of their relationship to Jesus. They had reason to fear both the Roman political leaders who could kill them as insurrectionists, and also the Jewish religious leaders who would view them as blasphemous: Herod was a jealous king who didn’t want any competition; Pontius Pilate was in the pocket of the government, which was why he wanted so badly to remove himself from association with Jesus; Caiaphas, the Jewish chief priest, would view those following after a “fake” Messiah as blasphemous and worthy of death.

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ii) All of these challenges are added to the fact that they lived in a difficult world already. The Jew- ish people lived under the thumb of Roman rule, and life in general was hard for everyone back then: women often died in childbirth, and small infections led to death. Simple survival in the first century took a lot of time, work, and energy.

iii) The disciples were living in darkness, without hope, with grief, wondering if everything they believed was wrong, and feeling as if there were no future.

b) Everything felt like darkness for the disciples. Jesus had been their hope. They had thought he would save them from the trials of the world and free them from political oppression. Instead, they watched him die a shameful death on a cross. Jesus had given them hope for religion, but now they feared the religious leaders who saw them as blasphemous heretics. Instead of peace, hope, joy, love, and light, everything felt dark. The smell of death was all around them.

c) ThenJesus—theLight—showedup. i) Jesus didn’t wait for them to move past their fear on their own; instead, he went to them. He

found them where they were, in the midst of their fear and questions, showing up in the middle of a locked room. He brought the light into the darkness because he is the Light. Light over- came darkness through death and resurrection.

d) The resurrected Jesus pronounced peace over them. He did not question or condemn their fear. Instead he embraced them and delivered words of comfort and shalom over them.

2) The disciples—locked in their fear, locked in the darkness—needed to see once again that Jesus was the Light. They needed to embrace anew the reality of the incarnate God, the Messiah.

a) John 1 reveals in poetic ways the beauty and power of a God who draws near to be with us. The Word (Jesus) was in the beginning. With words, creation was brought into being from nothing. There is an image of the Spirit hovering over the waters. John 1 is an important beginning place be- cause God is three in one—but also because, if we don’t grasp that Jesus is God, then the magnitude of the incarnation is reduced.

b) Jesus Christ is referred to as both Word and Light in this text.

i) Word at creation means he is not separated from the Creator God but is the same as Creator

God. Creation was created with words. The use of the same word is not an accident here but

further emphasizes that Jesus is God and was with God in the beginning.

ii) Light is an image of overcoming darkness, which is important because of the nature of light.

Darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Darkness can not overcome light because it is defined solely by its relationship to light. Light dispels darkness.

c) TheLightcame;theWordmadehisdwellingamongus.Jesusdidnotstayenthronedbutinstead became human. It matters that Jesus put on flesh because it means that he fully knew what it was to be human, and it meant that God wanted to be close to humanity. God did not wait for humanity to come to God. Instead, God went to humanity in the incarnation. When we talk about Easter, and we think about the creeds, we go as far as to say that “he descended into hell.” This is important because there is no distance Jesus wouldn’t go for the sake of humanity. Jesus desires to be with us.

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d) Jesus brought light into the world when he came. He defeated the darkness of sin and death through his resurrection. The fulfillment of light in the world will come at the fulfillment of the king- dom of God when Christ returns.

3) As people who also know darkness, who are often locked in places of fear and weighed down with our own grief, pain, and sorrow, we also need to be reminded that the Light has come into the world.

a) It’s easy to look around at all the darkness and be overwhelmed. Our world has a lot of darkness.

i) Poverty: what can one person do against such a huge problem?

ii) Disease: we have seen this one take loved ones all over the world this past year.

iii) Racism: we’ve watched people cry out in pain and anger over how this sin has impacted them.

iv) Despair: what can we do to help people battle darkness in their hearts?

v) Pollution: how can one person do anything that helps make the world a better place to play, breathe, and enjoy?

vi) There are more: many impact our own homes, neighborhoods, and communities.

b) In the midst of these crushing darknesses, we cannot forget that the Light has come! Jesus did not stay enthroned in heaven but came to earth to live among broken people drowning in darkness.

i) The hope and joy of the incarnation is not something to be left in Christmas carols—it is a mes- sage of hope and joy for all time.

ii) Because light came into the world, the kingdom of God broke into the world, and we can see glimpses of this kingdom even now: (1) While it might seem impossible to eradicate the darkness of the world and the issues it faces,

there are stories of people doing incredible things for others. (2) When we see good, loving, gracious things going on, we know the Holy Spirit is at work. (3) We can be reminded when we see goodness that the Light has come.

iii) The incarnation wasn’t just for the shepherds, the angels, Mary, Joseph, or the disciples hiding in a room. The incarnation is for us. Whatever darkness we are facing, Jesus is there with us. There is nothing that we face that we face alone. We serve a God who is well acquainted with grief and who is with us through all of it.

(1) The line in the Apostles’ Creed about descending into hell means that Jesus goes into all the hells of our lives as well. He joins us in our suffering. He is with us in the darkness. He is seeking to bring light.

c) Jesus declares peace over us in the midst of our darkness, just like he declared peace over the disciples. Jesus’s declaration of peace is a way to bring light into darkness. Shalom is a message of complete wholeness and well-being. This message of peace is light in dark times.

4) As people of the resurrection, we are also people of the light. We then are sent into the world to share the light of Christ with those around us.

a) Jesus commissions the disciples at the end of John 20 to go out into the world. This is a commission for us as well. Those of us who have encountered the peace of Christ are to go into the world and be peacemakers.

i) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

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ii) As the children of God (mentioned in John 1), we are to be peacemakers in the world around us. What places in our world need peace? What are ways we can be actively engaged in peace- making in the world?

iii) Those of us who have encountered the light of Christ are to illuminate the world. We are to be a city on a hill, illuminating the darkness for everyone to see. What places in our world need light? What are ways we can be actively engaged in illuminating the darkness?

b) The kingdom of God is now and not yet. Jesus ushered in the kingdom of God with his incarnation, which means the kingdom of God is at work in our world now. Where do we see the kingdom of God at work? How can we participate in the work?

c) The resurrection frees us from the power of sin and death, it frees us from the darkness, and it em- powers us to live in peace. This is good news for the children of God and for the world!

CONCLUSION

This isn’t a typical Easter text, but it is a message we need. There is light in the midst of the darkness of our lives, and his name is Jesus. There is peace for us, where we are, no matter the darkness, because God left the throne of heaven in humility to enter into humanity. He suffered and died on the cross, and he descended into hell, joining with us in all the hells we experience. Ultimately he rose again, conquering the power of sin and death, conquering the darkness. There is light for the world too. Jesus came into the midst of the darkness to be the light and to dispel the darkness. This is good news for those of us who know dark- ness. It is good news for a world that knows darkness, and we get to join in the work of sharing light in the world. We get to look the darkness of our world in its face and dispel it with love, with grace, and with the light that is Jesus.