From the Pastor |
It is Easter Sunday… and although we cannot gather together… Today is STILL a time of celebration. We have joined together online to celebrate that the stone which sealed the life and love of God in a cold, dark tomb has been rolled away…that our hopes are alive in the resurrection of Jesus.
Our story today begins at dawn when it’s still dark… A time much like this… in a 1st century garden where tombs had been cut into the rocks. Second, it was women who first discover the great news… In typical fashion God chooses to focus the greatest events on ordinary, unlikely individuals… and all four Gospels agree that one of those women was Mary Magdalen. Mary was not what you’d call your traditionally religious person… Tradition has always had it that Mary was a sinner, but all we know of her past is that she was said to have been possessed by seven demons. The number seven is often associated with “completeness” which suggests that Mary’s suffering and struggle was complete… pretty severe. She was a woman living a pretty hopeless existence. But that was before the day that a certain man came to town… A man who proved more to be powerful than all the powers that plagued her. Jesus had come to town and saw into her soul. He cast those seven demonic powers out… He had done something for her that no one else could ever do, and she could never forget. He had transformed her hopeless life and filled her with HOPE and she, as a result, became one of the most devoted followers Jesus had. Mary was among the women who traveled across the countryside with Jesus… helping to support and care for the entourage as they moved from place to place. It was Mary who stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother and the disciple John. It was Mary who watched and waited as they laid Jesus in the tomb… And it was Mary who went to the tomb “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark…” She entered the garden where the tomb was located… she was there out of devotion and love… but she was filled with grief and DARKNESS. It had to seem like all hope was gone… Jesus was gone and the world without him was a seemingly dark place. There was no hope to hold onto. Hopelessness is extremely powerful. It can make you feel like you are in prison with a life sentence and no way out; like the walls of life are closing in around you. Hopelessness is like a tomb… dark, and cold… lonely. But when Mary arrived se found the huge stone that had sealed the tomb had somehow been removed from the entrance... and the body was no longer there… She is distraught. Where had they taken his body… what had they done? So she goes to find Peter and John, and after they come running to see that her words were true… that Jesus was missing… they leave again… Peter and John rush in and then rush out again… but Mary stays behind… She is consumed by grief and confusion. She can’t see clearly through her pain and sorrow. Even when she felt someone standing near her… even when the man she thought was a gardener … Spoke to her…“Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” She could not see past the hopelessness she felt: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” But then Jesus spoke her name. Hope surged forward… Her eyes and heart suddenly recognized the truth… Jesus had broken done it again. He looked into her eyes, confronted the grief that held her captive and set her free once again. What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever… and it can change ours. In the risen Christ Mary discovered the living hope. Mary was only the first to see him risen from the tomb, but she certainly wasn’t the last. For hope was alive; it would now transcend time and space as a living hope for the entire world. What is the living hope that changed Mary’s life? …. That changes our life? Webster’s dictionary defines hope as, “a confident expectation that a desire will be fulfilled; wishful trust; something which one longs to see realized” It is a wish. When we hope for something we are not certain it will happen. But that is NOT the HOPE we are given today through Christ Jesus. The Greek word that we translate to hope is used 80 times in NT; it talks about a rock-solid certainty… not merely wishful thinking. This hope is a strong and confidence expectation… it is trust… a life-shaping certainty of something that hasn’t happened yet, but you know will. Now if hopelessness is powerful, this Christian HOPE is even more powerful! For the Hope we receive from Christ brings joy and comfort even in the face of sorrow and pain… And it is tied directly to faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Just like for Mary… The resurrection we remember and celebrate today is also the one thing that truly gives us hope. When we come face-to-face with the man whom death could not hold, we have a hope. As Peter wrote in his 1st letter: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . . Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3, 8-9). Jesus is our living hope! We now have hope… a strong and confident trust… that death is not the end. That through Christ Jesus we are forgiven and loved… That even in times of grief and pain… in times of trial and isolation… we are not alone… that new life is being offered to each and every one of us… that there WILL BE a better tomorrow. We have the hope that evil does not win… that darkness will not overcome the light… All that is required of us is that we believe… we have faith… that we open our hearts to the Lord. Then, like Mary and all the disciples who have gone before us we can KNOW with certainty that JESUS IS OUR LIVING HOPE.
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Yeon Shin
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