March 23, 2008

It Feels Like Easter

Luke 24

The title for my message this morning is, “It Feels Like Easter.” Let me start by asking you a question. What does Easter feel like? As I think about that question I am taken back to the very first Easter. What did that first Easter feel like for Jesus’ followers? It is interesting to read the accounts looking specifically for “feeling” words or descriptions that might give us a sense of how they were feeling. What I found was that the first Easter was a day of wildly fluctuating emotions.

Look at Luke 24:2-3. (Read) This discovery led to a feeling described in verse 4: They were wondering. The word mean to be perplexed, at a loss. They were bewildered.

Then the angels appeared to them: Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. V. 4b. This also led to a feeling. They became frightened as we read in verse 5.

Later the women reported what they had seen to the disciples. Their story produced a feeling in the disciples. According to verse 11. (Read). They were skeptical, unbelieving, the story seemed like nonsense to them.

A little later we have the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What were they feeling as they walked along? Verse 17 describes them as having their “faces downcast.” They were sad and depressed.

In verse 21, they explain why they were sad. “But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” It is a word of hope, but it is in the past tense. We had hoped, but now we have lost hope. Now we are disappointed. What he had hoped did not come to pass.

In verse 22, they report, “Some of our women amazed us.” The word amazed means literally to be knocked off balance.

Then when Jesus appeared to his disciples on that first Easter night, we are told in verse 37 that they were “startled and frightened.” They thought they were seeing a ghost! Something spooky was happening!

Verse 38 Jesus asks, “Why are you troubled?” The word “troubled” describes feelings that are in motion, in an uproar. He also asks, “Why do doubts arise in your minds?”

That is quite a list of emotions, isn’t it? Bewildered, afraid, disappointed, knocked off balance, in an uproar, doubtful. That is what the first Easter felt like to Jesus’ followers. These were the natural, human responses to a supernatural event. But as the reality of Christ’s resurrection dawned on them we see those emotions shifting as faith gave rise to a whole new set of feelings.

The first and over-riding emotion they felt was one of joy.  It was a mixed feeling at first. Matthew 28:8 says that the “women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy.” Luke 24:41 says that “they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement.” But gradually the fear and the unbelief faded and only the joy remained. Luke 24:52 says “they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” Joy is one of the dominant emotions of Easter for us as Christ’s followers. “Christ is risen! Hallelujah!”

The second emotion is a little harder to describe. Let me try to use a word picture. Many years ago, as a boy, I went along on an expedition to climb Mt. Suswa, an extinct volcano not far from where we lived in Kenya. To get there, we followed a long, winding dirt track across the valley floor. We were riding in the back of a Land Rover. There was no air conditioning, so all the windows were open. It was dry season. As we drove, the red volcanic dust just billowed in and around and over us, until we were covered with red dust. Then we arrived and hiked for several hours, adding more layers of dirt and grime and sweat. After the hike, we got back into the Land Rover and retraced our journey along the dusty track, once again unable to see each other for the dust that enveloped us. By the time I arrived home, I was not sure I would ever be clean again. My skin literally felt thick with dust and grime that covered every inch and filled ever crease and crevice of my body. My hair (which I did have at that time) was stiff with dust.

It took several bathtubs full of water, and hard scrubbing with soap and shampoo. But gradually the dust and grime was washed away. As I finally emerged from the bathroom after the final washing, I felt “clean.” Can I suggest that this is one of the feelings of Easter? Feeling “clean” spiritually?

I often think of Peter and his feelings on Easter. Remember how he denied Jesus three times? Remember how Jesus turned and looked at him? Remember how, we are told, he went out and wept bitterly? I can’t help but wonder if Peter didn’t think to himself on that bitter night, “I will never be clean again!” Yet, when Jesus rose from the dead, the first instruction the angels gave to the women at the tomb was, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter.” (Mark 16:7). And in Luke 24:34, the disciples announced, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” We don’t know exactly what was said at that personal appearance. But we do know this. When Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost to preach the very first Gospel sermon, this is what he said in Acts 2:38: Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” And he said it again in Acts 3:19: “Repent, then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out…”  This was also the message we looked at last Friday in Acts 10:43: “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” This was more than dry theology for Peter. This meant that his sins, his denial of his Lord, his awful failure at the moment of crisis, was forgiven! He was clean. Why? Because Jesus died for him and the sacrifice for sin was accepted.

“Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone!” What a wonderful sense of cleanness that brings. We are forgiven!

The third emotion that dawned in the hearts of Jesus’ followers was peace. Jesus said it in Luke 24:36: Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” It took a little while for that peace to settle and become real in their lives. But look at Paul’s words in Romans 5:1: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace is both an emotion and a legal standing. There was enmity between us and God because of sin. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can now be reconciled to God by faith in Jesus. When we trust in Christ, peace is declared between us and God. That is first a legal standing, and then an emotion. It is the dawning realization that all is well between me and God.

The fourth emotion that arose on that first Easter was hope. Remember what the two disciples said on the road to Emmaus. “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” The crucifixion of Jesus had dashed those hopes. But the resurrection of Jesus restored them. The resurrection declared with authority that Jesus is the Messiah, the redeemer, the Son of God. Not only that, but this risen Lord has promised to come back. In Acts 1:11, the angels announced to Jesus’ followers, “This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back…” This is our hope. Jesus is coming back. And all who trust in Christ will be raised and live together with him through all eternity. That is why Paul instructs Christians who grieve at the graveside of a loved one, “We do not grieve as those who have no hope.” This hope, this confident expectation of eternal life and bodily resurrection is ours because Jesus rose from the dead.

What emotions do you experience at Easter? Are you still with the disciples early on Easter morning; perplexed, skeptical, sad, troubled, bewildered? Or has the reality of Christ’s resurrection truly broken in upon you, flooding you with joy, the sense of sins forgiven and peace with God, the sure and certain hope that we shall also be raised to live forever with Christ.

Some years ago, Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote a song that has become a favorite Easter hymn for many. It is called, “Because He Lives.” The song mentions each of the emotions we have looked at in the sermon.

There is the clean feeling of sins forgiven in the first verse: “He came to love, heal and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon.”

The second verse speaks of the peace that we can now enjoy in spite of living in a troubled world when it describes the “calm assurance that our children can face uncertain days, because he lives.”

And then the final verse explodes with hope as the song takes our thoughts forward to eternity when pain and death will give way to victory.

“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.”