Sermons

A Meditation for Easter Sunday

Text – John 20:1-18

Do you remember the film ET, about the pint-sized extra-terrestrial visitor? There wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the end of the 1982 film. In the story, ET is stranded on earth when his spaceship for some reason leaves in a big hurry. The cutely grotesque visitor is found and then befriended by a young boy named Elliott.

Throughout the film, Elliott has to hide ET – first from his mother, and then, more seriously, from a horde of nosy government investigators, who (we may presume) would like nothing more than to cut the alien apart, in order to find out what makes him tick. The feds are closing in on Elliott and ET as the film builds to its climax. Elliott shows ET to his buddies, and explains his space friend’s desperate need to be reunited with his mother ship. Once he gets over his initial shock in response to all this, one of Elliott’s friends suggests, “Can’t he just ‘beam up’ or something?”

Elliott replies, disgustedly, “This is reality, Joey!”

At that everyone in the theater chuckles. Caught up as we may all be in Steven Spielberg’s cinematic magic, we all know full well that, whatever the film may be, it’s not in the same time zone as reality!

No doubt we’re tempted at times to treat the Easter story as a bit of holy science fiction. And the beautiful way a choir sings the old story set to appealing music may only make that error all the more likely.

But I’m here to tell you: This is reality, friends! The Lamb of God is alive, and He has been crowned King of kings.

That amazing reality draws a great dividing line right through the middle of the whole human race, in all times and all places. So here’s the question of the hour: On this Easter Sunday, on which side of that great divide do you stand?

Maybe you’re among that vast throng who have never trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior. If so, the Bible holds out to you the most important decision you can ever make. To stand apart from Jesus Christ is to face the certainty of eternal condemnation before a holy Creator God. To stand with the risen Christ is to be forgiven, and to receive the gift of abundant, eternal life in Him.

And what does it take to cross that great divide, to stand with Jesus? In answering that most momentous of questions, the truth of Easter is absolutely crucial! The Bible says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

(Romans 10:9 NRSV)

We heard in the New Testament lesson for today (John 20:1-18) that on the first Easter Sunday, the disciple John saw the empty grave clothes of his crucified Lord, and he believed. Now the sort of belief we’re talking about here goes far deeper than any mere intellectual acceptance of fact. It’s a belief that involves trusting in Christ – and in Him only – as Savior. It means surrendering your whole self to Him as your Lord.

If you can fall before Him now and say, with our cantata, “All Hail, King Jesus,” I can promise you that you will be able to face the very worst this life can

throw at you – even death itself! – with absolute confidence, trusting in your Savior Jesus, the One who has conquered death.

Or if you stand on the other side of that great divide, if you already know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I just want to remind you of one thing. The abundant life – even the eternal life He has promised to all who trust in Him – that life does not begin after you die! It starts the moment you trust in Him.

Through these weeks of Lent, we’ve been considering the hard subject of human suffering. Easter speaks the absolutely final word on that sobering topic. The resurrection of Jesus Christ cries out to us that sin; suffering; even our final enemy, death itself – they do not have the last word!

Nowadays we know the name of Phillips Brooks best because of a poem he wrote that became a beloved carol. It spoke words that Brooks was inspired to pen after he spent one Christmas Eve worshipping in the little town of Bethlehem. But Phillips Brooks was a great preacher of the Gospel, so of course he turned his gifted mind to much more than just the Christmas story. When he reflected on the wonder of Easter, this is what he wrote:

Let us pray. Almighty God, especially on this Easter Sunday we praise You for the power You showed in raising Your Son Jesus up from the dead. And we thank You for the promise You give that, if we trust in Him, we can share in His eternal life. In Your great mercy, please help each of us to do just that now: to trust in Him and Him alone, to the saving of our souls. Grant that we might know victory in Him, and proclaim to all the world, with our lips and with our lives, that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! We ask it in His conquering name. Amen.