Buried, He Carried My Sins Far Away

When our human parents first sinned, two things happened. First, the holy God who created us was offended. This offense had to be remedied through a perfect sacrifice. The expiation of our sin and the propitiationof God were accomplished by the vicarious death of Christ that we studied last week. I know I have used some big words in that last sentence, because I believe precise doctrine is important and I am confident you are capable of teaching beyond the basics.

The second thing that happened when Adam and Eve rebelled is that they were introduced to shame. They had always been under the covering of God’s protection, and they had only known pure innocence. When they stepped out from that place of protective covering, they discovered that they were uncovered for the first time and they felt shame.

Many parents of toddlers have experience between the feelings of innocence by a child who has been freed from a diaper, and the shame of a parent who observes his or her child’s uncovered state. While I can neither confirm nor deny the truthfulness of the claim, I have been told that 56 years ago congregants of First Baptist Church in Minneapolis, KS were entertained by this very phenom on the porch of the parsonage one Sunday morning.

This week we are told in the Scriptures of the burial of Christ which not only pays our debt, but takes away our shame.

The Ancient Problem of Shame

Debt or Shame

I have 4 friends who moved from Wisconsin to Canada to minister among the First Nation people of the Chilcotin Tribe. One thing that Steve and Don (and their wives) reported is that the Chilcotin are similar to many Asian peoples who value the tribe/family, more than the individual. They learned that the Chilcotin valued honor/shame much more than debt/or personal possessions. Resources belong to the Reserve, not the individual.

1. If I take something from you, I’m indebted to you until I give you something equal in value. The Socialist nature of First Nation (along with many Asian and ancient tribal peoples) don’t see personal debt.

2. When we sing “He paid the debt he did not own, I own the debt I could not pay; I needed someone to wash my sins away; And now I sing a brand new song, "Amazing grace"; Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay”, people from tribal societies have no idea what we’re talking about.

3. To ancient people, they don’t think in terms of transactions, payments, or scales of justice. In their mindset a person is either honorable or shamed, and remains shamed until honor is restored.

God provided skins (Gen 2:25; 3:7-11, 21)

The earliest chapters of the Bible deal with this shame problem with a condition of nakedness.

Genesis 2:25 ESV:2016

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Before sin, Adam and Eve are described as Exposed without shame (Gen 2:25)

Genesis 3:7–11 ESV:2016

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

After sin, they feel intrinsically that something has changed, Now their exposure brings shame/feeble attempts to cover (3:7-11)

Genesis 3:21 ESV:2016

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

3. God involves Himself with their sense of shame by re-covering them by sacrifice of another (Gen 3:21) [snakes are the only animal I know who can shed a skin without dying]

4. Somewhere between Eden and Egypt (Lev 19:19) the Israelites learned to make textiles that eliminated the need for death.

The Day of Atonement involved 2 Goats (Leviticus 16:6-10)

1. Aaron first offered a bull for himself and his family.

2. Then Aaron offered 1 goat for the sins of the people.

3. Then Aaron transferred the iniquities of the people from the previous year to the 2nd goat (Azazel/scapegoat) who was sent away from the people into the desert.

Personal Repentance for Group Shame (Luke 23:41-42)

1. From we to me (we are guilty, I trust)

2. Jesus died for our guilt and our shame. But the transfer must be personal. Aaron could transfer iniquities to a goat, but only you can transfer your sin to Christ and receive his righteousness.

Transition: Because we often have trouble believing for ourselves what God grants by grace, God arranges for a specific burial that will provide evidence of shame being removed.

The Jewish practice of Preparation (23:50-56)

His personal tomb (Mt 27:60)

1. This act of respect cost Joseph significantly.

· Touching a dead body rendered him ceremonially unclean and unable to participate in Passover observance according to Numb 19:11-22.

· It would be similar to one of us being quarantined on Christmas and not permitted to be with the family.

2. We don’t know if Joseph expected to need his own tomb within 3 days or 30 years, but verse 51 clearly states that he was looking forward to the kingdom of God in some form.

An unused tomb (v.53)

1. The ancient traditions of burial were designed to keep wild animals from disturbing a corpse as it decomposed.

2. In Egyptian burials, often the internal organs were removed and preserved apart from the skeleton.

3. The reason for leaving a body undisturbed was a recognition of some form of bodily resurrection or some sense of needing one’s body in the world to come.

Let me advise you that the time to have this discussion with your family is NOT when you are in crisis or grief. This week I renewed my Driver’s License and when asked if I want to be an organ donor, I was able to give a quick reply because Ann and I have already had discussions about God’s ability to reconstitute a body from either burial at sea, earthly decomposition, or cremation. You may come to different conclusions than we have, but we are at peace that our choices reflect the truth that one died so that we may live, that God will re-create our heavenly bodies, and that we maintain respect for the body that has been vacated until it is resurrected.

The exact tomb (v.55)

1. Some have tried to deny Christ’s resurrection by claiming that the women went to the wrong tomb, or that even the disciples thought this might be the case, which caused them to immediately check for themselves.

2. I believe v.55 precludes this argument. While v.49 indicates the watched the finality of the crucifixion from a distance, this verse clearly states that they noticed how his body was laid, which would have required entering the tomb itself to see the final rest.

3. This cannot be done from a distance, it requires proximity, so I conclude the women knew even better than the soldiers who were outside or the disciples who verified their testimony later, that the tomb the women entered on Friday was the same tomb they entered on Sunday.

Transition: Each of our ranchers can testify about how aggressive wild animals can get with a carcass. So, any stone used to secure a tomb would need to be heavy enough to resist ravenous, hungry animals. Therefore it is significant that all four gospels mention…

The Stone was Rolled Away (Lk 24:2, Mt 28:2, Mk 16:4, Jn 20:1)

The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out, it was rolled away to let the witnesses in!

Forgiveness on Display (Lk 24:1-8)

1. When I received a spanking Dad always put away the belt (punishment is complete) then gave me a hug (relationship was intact) before sending me to my room to think about the process.

2. The ripping of the veil and the rolling of the stone were both gracious acts of God giving access to those who would glory in forgiveness.

3. It was God’s way of saying, the offense was real, the punishment was required, but the relationship is now restored.

Faithful Witnesses (Lk 24:9-11)

1. Telling what they had seen

2. You don’t need to be a theology expert to tell of what Christ has done in YOU.

3. The women were perplexed (v.4) and frightened (v.5), but when they remembered his words (v.8), they told all these things (vv.9 &10).

4. Notice the response in v. 11. Even though the women were telling them exactly what Jesus had told them several time before, their testimony was not believed.

You have heard me several times in the last couple weeks speak of the 50/5 challenge. The Challenge is not for you to become any type of expert. The Challenge is not for you to convince everyone. The Challenge does not permit you to be unnecessarily rude. The Challenge is to take Christ at His word that the harvest is ripe and that He calls us to be witnesses. The Challenge realizes that the response is not your responsibility, but we are trusting God to reward the faithful witness of those who have been changed.

From Weeping to Amazement (Lk 22:62; 24:12)

1. Popular psychology is hesitant to acknowledge genuine change. The best they can offer is some form of behavior modification. But the Word of God describes true change.

2. Notice the first clause of v.12. Where was Peter the last time Luke mentioned him? The last time he was mentioned he was weeping alone bitterly because he had denied 3 times, just as Jesus had predicted.

3. V.9 indicates that the eleven (everyone but Judas) were gathered on Sunday morning. While we tend to get very concerned with hypocrites, there is no mention of Peter being excluded from the rest because he had said one thing and done another. Maybe this is an unworded message about how true communities overlook one another’s faults, because we are all imperfect disciples.

4. When Peter heard, he investigated for himself.

· Luke uses an interesting word here. He had various words he could have chosen to speak of a grave. He even used another word in 11:44 where Jesus spoke of unmarked graves. But here the word for tomb means a memorial chamber.

Our culture has all sorts of memorials. If you travel about 4 blocks North of us you can find parks and ball fields named in memory of individuals. You can find monuments with names of veterans who are now gone. Whether the person is there or not, the place is designated as a place to remember.

5. Luke’s word comes from the same root as a mnemonic device—a trick that helps us remember. When Peter heard the witnesses, he went to a place that would trigger all of his memories of Jesus. All the times that Jesus had gently corrected him, but never gave up on him.

6. When Peter went to the place of remembrance, saw and weighed the evidence, he went home marveling.

Conclusion:

When we recall, remember, or come to understand the great love of God for us. That He knows our shortcomings, and loves us anyway. It should cause us to wonder.

When we consider that He would separate us from all our guilt and our shame, it should cause us to worship and surrender.

Our final song this morning retells what Jesus did on that weekend. If you have never surrendered to His forgivenss, today can be your day of salvation.

If you, like Peter, are being reminded of the many times he has forgiven your shortcomings, let this song renew your wonder and your worship.

Song of Response ......... “Glorious Day”

Benediction: Romans 6:4 (ESV) — We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.