Easter Sunday 2022
Song:
Man of Sorrows
Call to Worship:
Hosea 6
Pastor Kevin McGuire
Historical Reading:
Apostles’ Creed
Song:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Confession & Pardon:
From the Book of Common Prayer
Pastor Brett Eckel
Song:
Doxology
Song:
O praise the name
Sermon:
Easter 2022
Dr. Alex Loginow
Introduction
What is the meaning of life? According to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the answer is 42, which is another way of saying the quest for any once-and-for-all explanation for existence is absurd and arbitrary. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.” The Dalai Lama said, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” Buddha said, “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” Joseph Campbell wrote, “Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of existence? Is there meaning in the universe? What is the point of history? Is there intention in how history has unfolded? The Apostle John gives us the answer here in John 20. This narrative reveals to us the center of why God created all things. The answer is found on the very first Easter Sunday morning.
We’ve all come to church this morning this different physical, emotional, spiritual, and philosophical baggage. To some degree or another we’ve all wrestled with questions of meaning and purpose. Maybe you’re like me and you’ve come to church deliberately this morning. Maybe you’re here out of some cultural or family obligation, but you really don’t want to be. Maybe you were invited here this morning even though you’re skeptical.
Regardless of how you ended up at Christ Community Church this morning, I invite you now to open your heart and mind up to this Scripture. I can’t convince you that this text reveals the meaning of life, only the Holy Spirit can do that, my aim is to clearly explain the meaning of this passage. My contention is that upon seeing the meaning of this passage you will find the meaning of life. My prayer is that the Spirit will open your eyes to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and that in doing do you will find the meaning of life.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
The first thing we notice about this text is the setting. This historic event occurred on the first day of the week, Sunday. All four Gospels attest to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth resurrected from the dead on Sunday (Matt 28.1; Mark 16.2; Luke 24.1; John 20.1). This then changed a liturgical reality for the people of God. Ever since YHWH gave Israel the 10 Commandments God’s people gathered for worship and rest on Saturday. The fifth commandment says, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exod 20.8).
With the resurrection of Jesus Christ the day of gathered worship and rest for the people of God has changed from Saturday to Sunday. Sunday is now the new covenant Sabbath. The weekend of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only weekend in history with two Sabbaths. The last old covenant Sabbath was Holy Saturday and the first new covenant Sabbath was Easter Sunday.
For 2,000 years plus now the church has always gathered for worship on Sunday. Is it wrong to also gather for worship on another day of the week? Of course not! We did so Friday night for our Good Friday service. But we do not gather for worship on another day in place of Sunday. Sunday is the God-appointed day for his church to gather for worship and rest.
The church gathers every Sunday around the Word and the sacraments because Sunday is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus was not resurrected on Saturday, or Wednesday, or on any other day of the week. Jesus rose on Sunday. We gather for worship and rest on Sunday because Sunday was the first day of the new creation. Jesus inaugurated the new creation on a Sunday morning.
There is no shortage of books, articles, and tweets giving time management advice. The best advice I can give you from the Bible about scheduling and time management is to view your week like a Christian. Sunday is the first day of the week. Live that way. Regardless of what your work or school calendar tells you, Monday is not the first day of the week; Sunday is. Begin every week gathering for worship and rest with God’s people, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ around the Word and the sacraments at church.
The second thing we notice from this pericope is that women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb. John only mentions Mary Magdalene in his account but the Synoptic Gospels reveal that there were other women with her. This is an important point in defending the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the first century women were not valued as full citizens. They were not even legally allowed to give testimony in a court of law.
But God doesn’t view women that way. In his providence he ordained these women to be the first witnesses of the empty tomb and resurrection of Christ. In a sense these women were the apostles to the apostles. If John were making this story up he would not have made women the first witnesses to the resurrection. The story would have been far more culturally palatable if John had used Peter or James or even himself as the first witnesses but he didn’t.
Why not? Because it’s not the truth. The truth is that these women were the first ones to see the empty tomb. Keep reading John 20. You’ll see that Mary was the first person to speak to the resurrected Christ. Jesus values women in a way that this 1st century Greco-Roman culture did not. Women are equal image-bearers and full citizens of the Kingdom of Christ. They were the first to see and the first to speak. Thank you Jesus for my wife, for my daughters for my mother, and for all of the faithful women of Christ Community Church.
After Mary finds the empty tomb she runs to Peter and John to tell them what she found. As he does throughout his Gospel John never refers to himself by name but calls himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Man, there’s some beautiful theological truth here, isn’t there? John did not find his identity in his family heritage, his work, or his ministry. John finds his identity in the fact that Jesus has loved him. If you’re a Christian, that’s your identity too. Regardless of whether your married or single, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, famous or obscure, athletic or crippled, if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are the one whom Jesus loved.
Here we find another proof for the historical reliability of the empty tomb. In Deuteronomy 19.15 Jewish law demands the witness of two men to establish credible evidence. Even though the women were the first witnesses, here we learn that two Jewish men also witnessed that the tomb was empty. Peter, John, and the other Apostles would contend for the rest of their lives that they not only saw the tomb empty but also that they saw Jesus physically resurrected for 40 days after. Church tradition tells us that Peter was crucified upside down because he would not deny that Jesus saw the resurrected Jesus.
Upon hearing Mary’s news John and Peter then run to Jesus’ tomb. There’s more running in this passage than in all of the rest of the Gospel narratives combined. John flexes a little here letting us know that he outran Peter and reached the tomb first. But when he got there he froze. He didn’t go in. He looked in but he didn’t go it. In true Peter fashion when he gets there Peter does not hesitate to enter the tomb.
Which brings us to the third thing we notice in this passage, namely what Peter found when he entered the empty tomb of Jesus of Nazareth:
He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself (John 20.6b-7).
I love that verse 7 says that the face cloth of Jesus had been folded up in a place by itself. This is another argument for the historical reliability of the resurrection of Jesus.
If grave robbers had stolen the body of Jesus or if his followers had moved his body they would not have unwrapped the cloths. That would have been too time consuming. If Jesus did not actually die on the cross but swooned he would have woken up in immense pain and there would have been sign of struggle on his way out of the tomb. But that’s not what happened.
Jesus was resurrected. We can’t know for sure because no one was there but Jesus, and Scripture doesn’t explicitly say, but several commentators think that the language in the narrative implies that the linen cloths were laying as the would’ve been on Jesus’ body. Normally the cloths would be unwrapped from the body but they contend that the text implies that the body of Jesus was somehow translated through the cloths; that the cloths supernaturally fell through the resurrected body of Christ. No one knows for sure, but what we do know for sure is that Jesus folded up the face cloth that had been on his head and set it down. What a picture of his humanity. Jesus intentionally folded up the face cloth as if to say, “I was here and I’m tidying up before I go.”
Jesus folding up the face cloth is also a picture of calm control. His death wasn’t a surprise to Jesus. His resurrection wasn’t a surprise to him either. If you read the 19 chapters of John preceding this pericope you will see that Jesus preached over and over again that he came to die for sin and resurrect on the third day. The face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, [was] not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Jesus was calm, cool, and collected because his work was finished. As Psalm 22 predicted, He had done it.
That brings us to the final thing we see in this Easter text in verses 8-9:
Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
When John saw the empty tomb he believed. NT Wright paints a beautiful picture of the evolution of John’s faith:
“[John] had faith before. He had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. He had believed that God had sent him, that he was God’s man for God’s people and God’s world. But this was different. ‘He saw, and believed.’ Believed that new creation had begun. Believed that the world had turned the corner, out of its long winter and into spring at last. Believed that God had said, ‘Yes’ to Jesus, to all he had been and done. Believed that Jesus was alive again.”
John’s vocabulary is intentional. He makes it a point to reveal the moment he believed in the resurrection of Christ because the reason he wrote his Gospel was so that you might believe in Jesus Christ. He writes the purpose of his book in John 20.30-31:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The purpose of the Gospel of John is that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Throughout his Gospel, John told us that Jesus is truly God. He is the Word who was with God in the beginning and who is God himself (John 1.1). He also revealed that Jesus is truly man. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14).
John tells us that Jesus understood himself to be the Christ. He is the anointed one of God. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism (John 1.29-34). He is the one to whom all of the prophets, priests, and kings in Israel’s history pointed to.
Jesus is not only the Christ; he is the Son of God. When Scripture calls Jesus the Son of God it is not only saying he is the eternal second person of the Holy Trinity, but he is also the true Israel. At the Exodus YHWH calls Israel his son (Exod 4.22-23). Jesus applies that language to himself because he is the true and final Israel. He is the meaning of their existence and history.
Not only that but Jesus is also the last Adam. Luke ends his genealogy of Christ by calling Adam the son of God (Luke 3.38). Jesus is the last Adam, the true Son of God. He came to right Adam’s wrong. As the federal head of humanity, Adam’s sin cursed the world. Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom 5.12).
As the federal head of the new humanity, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection un-cursed the world. The reversal of the curse began with the resurrection of Jesus and has been spreading into the hearts of all who have believed for the last 2,000 years. The world will finally and fully be un-cursed when Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. Jesus is the last Adam and the true Israel. He is the Son of God.
This is the story that the Bible has been telling the entire time. That’s why John gives this parenthetical statement in verse 9: for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. At that point John had believed that Jesus had risen from the dead but he still didn’t understand that the Scripture had been teaching all along that Jesus Christ must rise from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is woven throughout the entire narrative of the Old Testament from beginning to end.
We see shadows of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the very beginning when God caused life to rise up from the ground on the third day of creation:
God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day (Gen 1.11-13).
We hear it for the first time explicitly in Genesis 3.15 when YHWH promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. We catch a glimpse in Genesis 22 where Abraham is called to sacrifice Isaac and they get to the mountain on the third day. We see it in Exodus 19 when Israel comes to Mount Sinai on the third day after their Exodus. We hear it in the Prophets. In our call to worship this morning we read Hosea 6.1-2, which predicts that YHWH will resurrect Israel on the third day:
Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
There are shadows in the writings. Esther prepares the banquet for the king on the third day (Esther 5.1). On Friday night at our Good Friday service Pastor Kevin preached from Psalm 22 and we saw how it points us to the death and resurrection of Christ. And that’s just to name a few! The entire Old Testament is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is fulfilled on this very first Easter Sunday.
And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John tells us all of this so that we might believe and by believing, have life in Jesus’ name. The call of the gospel isn’t merely to know all of these truths about Jesus Christ. It isn’t even to assent that these things are true. Knowledge and assent are both necessary components of faith but the final component is to trust – to believe. The only reasonable and acceptable reaction to the empty tomb of Jesus Christ is to believe.
Conclusion
Are you looking for meaning or purpose in your life? The answer is found outside of Jerusalem in a tomb that is still empty. He is risen indeed! The one true God who created all things created you in his image. The Westminster Catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That is why you were created.
You don’t glorify God and enjoy him because you’re a sinner. From conception you have inherited a sin nature. You sin in word, thought, and deed. Earlier in our confession and pardon we read together from the Book of Common Prayer, which says that we have sinned by what we have done and by what we have left undone. You have offended the one true holy God because you have missed the mark. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3.23). You will die because of your sin. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6.23).
The Son of God took on humanity in the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. He lived without sin, died in the place of his people on the cross, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day. If you will place your faith in him he will forgive your sins and you will inherit the hope of resurrection and eternal life. The resurrection of Christ is the turning point of history; it is the center of the reason why God created all things. Look to the empty tomb this morning for there you will find the meaning of life!