“It’s Good to Be Alive!!”

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Scripture: Luke 24:1-8,

Before Christ comes, our hearts are like an empty tomb, all dead and dark inside. We look alive on the surface of things, but inside, killing sin rules all. Jesus taught that people are just empty inside, keeping up appearances to hide the deadness. It isn’t enough to behave well. Even the most religious Pharisees were called white washed sepulchers, which is to say they were the best looking graves in the cemetery, but still filled with deadness nonetheless.

Then Jesus died and was laid in a tomb. The stone was rolled over the door and the deadness and darkness reigned supreme, but only for a couple of days. Then the victory of Jesus’ eternal life returned to his flesh. The tomb filled with light!  No more darkness, no more deadness in the tomb. Now it was filled with light and life!  All that Heavenly goodness burst forth! The stone rolled away for all to see the miracle!  And that same eternal life fills the heart of every believer now. White washed sepulchers are changed into pitchers filled with light and life that spills over onto others who need a glimpse of the hope we have to share.

The tomb is empty of Jesus. So, my heart is full of Jesus! My heart used to be a dead and empty tomb. Now it is a living room!

The events of this glorious day and Jesus’ other appearances shortly after are often told from the point of view of the witnesses. But for today I was led to relate these things as if it were Jesus recalling how he spent these very busy days. So, though it was quite appropriate to begin at the beginning of that first day, as recorded in Luke 24, really the message is based on Matthew 27-28; Mark 16; Luke 24; and John 19-21. Now I pray, that you will hear the voice of Jesus. Use your sanctified imagination and hear these words as if it were Jesus speaking:

Oh, isn’t it great to be alive?  It was going to be a busy day. I had to get up early. There were so many places to go and people to see. First of all, the girls were coming over bright and early, so I had to get up and get dressed before dawn!  I had a wonderful surprise planned for them. I knew they were too consumed with grief to think about the stone that blocked the entry until they were already on their way to my tomb, so I called in a couple of angels to roll the stone away and make it easy for them to find out what happened. I also asked the angels to hang around to explain things. 

It was still hard on my beloved disciples though. They had a hard time believing the evidence and remembering that I had told them about this. All they saw was that my body wasn’t where they expected it to be and all they could think of was that somebody had taken it!  But the angel would clear things up, except that, at first, they were terribly afraid of him too. Well, after he reassured them that they didn’t need to be afraid, he told them, “I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.””

Those women still weren’t quite sure how to understand all that they had seen and heard. But at the very least, they had a story to tell! They hurried away from the tomb, afraid, yet filled with joy as they ran to tell the disciples. When the guys heard the story, they didn’t believe it either, but at least they had to check it out. So, Peter and John ran to the tomb. And the race was on!

John was actually faster. By the time big old Peter caught up, John was already at the tomb, standing at the door. He looked, but he didn’t go in. Peter however, always one to rush ahead boldly, didn’t even put on the brakes until he was inside the tomb to see what he could see. These details about how the grave clothes were found by Peter and John are important evidence that it wasn’t grave robbers. Robbers wouldn’t have bothered to take any time with those wrappings. Even if they had to do some unwrapping to make sure it was me, they still wouldn’t have taken the time to fold anything neatly! I folded things and left them just so, to help everybody believe!  But that still wasn’t enough for my good friends. Those sensible and careful disciples were going to have to actually see me in person. Well, I could hardly wait!

But first, I just had to speak to Mary. She had come back after Peter and John to see how they would react to the empty tomb. But after they just left again, walked away without saying a word, Mary stayed there and cried. I nudged those angels that were still hanging around. They went and sat where I had been. When Mary saw them, they asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”  See, they knew that this should have been a great day for all my followers, but so far, things weren’t going so well, and the angels wanted to understand why Mary and the others still did not believe.

Mary revealed that she thought for sure that my body had been moved by human power. She was probably thinking about the Pharisees having some crazy reason to take me someplace else, maybe so that there would be no memorial gravesite to visit. She felt it was disrespectful of the dead, and she wanted to know where I had been put. So, I decided to step in myself.

I started out with the same question, “Woman, why are you crying?” And then, as if I had just happened onto the scene I asked, “Who is it you are looking for?” It was a question that would have been asked by somebody in charge of the place, so she thought I was the gardener. But when I spoke her name, well she’d heard me say that often enough to know what it sounds like. Besides, my sheep know my voice. As the recognition dawned on her face, she cried out, “Rabboni!”

And in this way, I gave Mary Magdalene, at one time a most despised sinner, despised by everybody but me that is, the privilege and honor of being the first one to see me alive again after my victory over death. It seemed fitting to me to have one so grateful for the offer of forgiveness, to be the first one to proclaim the gospel message, that the forgiveness offered is not just a humane gesture on the part of a kindly man, but an actual cosmic pronouncement of spiritual cleansing and new life given by God, raised from the dead to prove that I have more than enough life to share and the authority to do so.

So, I sent her on a mission while I went to have a private chat with Peter, the one who had denied me three times right before my eyes, after he had sworn his allegiance to the death. But I’ll tell you more about that later. First, I want you to notice that the very first preacher of the full gospel was a woman. She went to the disciples and said, “I have seen the Lord!”  And she told them what I had told her to say about meeting up with them later. But they weren’t all there. You can take that both ways. A couple of disciples weren’t in the room. But the ones who were there, weren’t all there! They still weren’t getting the picture and doubted Mary’s story.

As for those who had left, two of them, but not two of my first twelve apostles, had already started on a trip to Emmaus. They were going home because their hopes and dreams had died with me. They thought it was all over. That was the next appointment I had to keep, to walk with them on the road for a while and explain all the Scriptures to them so that they could believe and get back to the rest of the disciples, where they belonged. It was like shepherding a couple of wanderers back to the fold and the flock. I am the Good Shepherd.

But I didn’t really want them to know it was me, not right away. If that happened, I never would have had the chance to explain the Scripture to them the way I did, with them wondering what it all meant and me telling them. They would have been too excited with joy to hear anything!  So, this is the way I did it. And it was kind of playful, and fun, for me anyway. I pretended I didn’t know anything about the big news in Jerusalem. I let them tell me what they understood about the events there. Then when they showed me that they had given up hope and had not comprehended what I had told them repeatedly about my death and resurrection, they found out that even if I seemed not to know the local news, I sure knew a lot about the Bible.

I showed them how much of everything, from Moses and all the way through the prophetic writings, could help them understand about me and my mission, even the part about dying and rising again. It’s all there for anyone to see and understand who has eyes to see and ears to hear. Pretty soon we arrived at their little house and they invited me in. According to local custom, I tried to say no and refuse their invitation. Among Middle Easterners you’re not supposed to appear too eager to accept a gift. That looks greedy. Instead, you have to give the giver a chance to show how generous he is and that he is eager to give the gift. So, on that point we were just following protocol before I finally accepted their hospitality.

But at dinner, I let them in on my little secret. Just like with Mary, saying her name in that familiar way, so at dinner, I took over as host and offered the blessing and broke the bread. Then they knew it was me!  You will always recognize my presence most clearly at the communion table. Ha, ha!  A few denarii for the bread; the look on their faces, priceless! 

But I really had to get going. I got out of there in the blink of an eye. Then they really had to get going, back to Jerusalem to share the exciting news that they had seen me. For a moment, they tried to convince each other that they sort of knew all along. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he explained the Scripture to us?”

Back in Jerusalem, they joined up with my ten of my eleven remaining apostles and the other disciples who were hanging out with them. Maybe they were hoping to be the first to break the news that the girls weren’t crazy after all. But they didn’t get the scoop. The wind was taken out of their sails when they heard the conversation they walked in on. It was all about Simon saying he had seen the Lord.

Now let me tell you about Simon. I’m not going to tell you exactly what we talked about. Just think about what it was like for him in that moment when we came face to face again, after the last time we had locked eyes, the time he was in the middle of swearing up a blue streak, insisting that he had nothing to do with me and no idea who I was. I think it’s fair to say that when the women came back and claimed that they had been told by angels that I had risen from the dead, Peter really hoped it wasn’t true. How could he face me again, after what he had done?  He was terribly afraid of what I might do to pay him back for such betrayal. But let’s just say, he was pleasantly surprised to find that I forgave him and welcomed him back into fellowship with me. I wish Judas had given himself that chance.

Now as for these fellows in the upper room, well, I understand how great of a shock it must be to try to believe that a man could be dead for three days and come back to life again all by himself. I mean, even though they had seen me raise others from the dead, and I raised Lazarus after four days, the thing about those is, I rose them. The energy to raise Lazarus came from outside of Lazarus, just like all the other resurrections from the dead throughout the history of Israel.

The flame to light a candle has to come from the match. The same match can be used to light several candles, but once the match is out, well it can’t light itself back up. That’s why they had such a hard time believing that even though I died, it wasn’t really over. In a totally unique way, like nothing that made any scientific or logical sense to them, I came back to life by myself!

So, I had to help them out a bit. Touch me. I’m solid. Give me something to eat. The food goes down the way it’s supposed to, not through any “ghostly” immaterial body to bounce off the floor. Then I reminded them again that I had told them all about it many times. I let Cleopas and the other Emmaus guy fill them in on the Bible study details. But I did give them a little boost to open their minds to understand the Scriptures.

All of that happened in one day!  The very first day after I rose form the dead was a big, busy day!  But it was great!  It’s good to be alive!  The ones who had seen me went to find Thomas and explained it all to him. But, of course, he was just having the same trouble they all had. It’s sad that people call him the doubting Thomas, as if he were the only one. They were all doubters until they saw me. When I said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed” I was really talking to every single one of my living disciples, not just Thomas. They all had the same trouble.

I let them work on Thomas for a whole week, just to show them all and prove that no one could get anyone to believe this incredible story without my help. Can you imagine how they harassed the poor man!  “Come on, Thomas,” they said, “We wouldn’t lie to you. We’re not making this up. We really saw him!”  But he wouldn’t budge, good strong man that he was. No one comes to the Father but by me. So, when Thomas saw me, he believed. But after Pentecost, with my help and by the Holy Spirit, many billions more would be blessed to believe without having to literally see me face to face the way my first disciples did. You are blessed, because you believe this gospel though you haven’t seen me face to face, yet!

Then, I let another week or so go by to see if they would stay in the city as I had told them. It was Peter again that led the way. He said, “I’m going out to fish.”  Hadn’t I told him that I would make him a fisher of men?  But he just couldn’t sit still. So, he decided to settle for the little fish again. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I kept all my fish away from his boat and out of his nets. He had a bad night. But I am not so cold hearted as all that.

I made breakfast for them and got ready to meet them on the beach early the next morning. Oh, I guess I did have to tease them a little bit. I called out from the shore, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered. So, I told them to throw their nets on the right side of the boat and they would find some. They would always remember this event as a little object lesson about how the workers labor in vain if they are not directed by the Lord. But when my servants obey me, the harvest is plentiful!  I sent my fish diving into that net, so many that it was too heavy for that crew to haul into the boat!  I also kept the nets from breaking, to make the story just that much more miraculous. With all that, it finally dawned on John, who announced, “It is the Lord!”  Once again, a familiar scene repeated, opened their eyes to the reality of my presence. So, we had a nice breakfast together.

Then I had to have another talk with Peter, and this time I decided it would be good for everyone to know about it. After all, I had decided that he would be the first leader of my brand new Church. I wanted to make sure everyone knew I meant it. This was a good time to do it too, because instead of an honor that would go to his head, it came at a time that he had gotten off the path and outside of my will. I was there as the Chief Shepherd, to appoint him as a permanent under shepherd of my people.

Since he had denied me three times, it was only fitting that I should ask him three times if he really loved me. That undid him. It hurt him and reminded him of how badly he had failed. But it also reassured him that my forgiveness is never revoked. It was a humbling experience for him, just what he needed.

Soon after that, I felt they were ready to accept the next phase of the mission. I met them in Galilee, to give them one last personal, face to face message. Talk about famous last words!  What would you say if you knew you were leaving your dearest friends forever and that they would never see you again in the way they hoped and expected?  Better things were in store of course, but they didn’t know that yet.

So, I focused on the mission. “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Then I wanted them to see me ascend up into Heaven, so that they would have yet another clear picture of the idea that I truly am God, risen from the dead, risen from the earth, and ascended into Heaven. And even then, they still needed on more nudge. So, a couple of my angels appeared and asked them, “Why are you still staring into the sky?  He will come back, just as he said. But there is work to do in the meantime, just as he said!”

Then they went back to Jerusalem and stayed together faithfully in prayer until I sent my Holy Spirit and they learned about the way I would be with them always. The same way I am with you today, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, with whom you stay connected and are able to hear my voice as you worship and pray together, focused on my Words in the Holy Book of inspired Scripture that has recorded all these things so that you may believe.

So now my sheep, my children, my wonderful family, be not afraid to live the life of a disciple of Christ. You are all to be fishers of men and women, whether directly or in a supportive role. You all have gifts from the Holy Spirit that are given so that you may bless the world in which you live with the faithful proclamation of this gospel that saves from sin and death.

Decide today to be more determined than ever to hear my voice, obey my call, support my work, and welcome new believers into the kingdom, like a miraculous catch of fish that you receive when you do things my way. Amen.