Victory

Job 19: 25-27

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11

John 20: 1-18

Victory

The fog lifted.  It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies (British, Dutch, and Germans) under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.

Late in the day it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - - D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog-clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- - T-H-E- - -E-N-E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!

So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had steeled in on the friends of Jesus. They had "read" only part of the Divine message. "Christ defeated"

In a churchyard in England, stands one of the largest trees in the country. It stands as a great four-trunked tree growing out of grave. Its presence there has given rise to much speculation. The grave from which this mammoth tree grows from is that of Lady Anne Grimston.

Lady Anne Grimston did not believe in life after . It is reported that when she lay dying in her luxurious home, she remarked to a friend, “I shall live again as surely as a tree will grow from my body.” At her , Lady Anne was buried in a marble tomb. The grave was then marked by a large marble slab and surrounded by an iron railing.

Years later, the marble slab was found to be moved a little. Then after time, it was cracked and through the crack a small tree began to grow. The tree continued its growth, tilting the marble stone and breaking the marble until today it has surrounded the tomb with its roots and has torn the railing out of the ground with its massive trunks.

To the unbeliever, this may be only viewed as a coincidence. However, to the believer, it is viewed as providence. God took her up on her challenge.

In the church of Corinth a controversy began, a discussion where those in the church, some of them, started to say, "You know this deal with resurrection is too much to believe. We like Christ. We like what he taught. We like what he stood for. We like gathering as a community. We like worship. We like even the morality, the idea that life can be different, but don't make us believe or try to believe in this idea of resurrection."

Paul wanted to make sure they understood the significance of the resurrection. He wanted them to know that if you take Christianity seriously, it will ultimately always lead you to Easter. You will have to wrestle with whether to believe or not. For me, for just one piece of evidence, twelve men are not going to give up their lives to simply perpetuate that which they know to be a hoax. Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stonings, execution. Every single one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.

Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. You see, men will give their lives for something they believe to be true they will never give their lives for something they know to be false. We know historically, all of the disciples met terrible deaths for their certain knowledge that God’s promise had been fulfilled through the resurrection. They believed in God’s promise as shown to them by the risen Jesus.

Christ is risen!  Flowers adorn our sanctuary; people are dressed in their finest attire; everyone has a smile on their face. It is a holiday!! For some that is all it is—a holiday. But for those of us who believe, we are here to celebrate the resurrection in grand style.

Christ is risen! And because Christ is risen, we too have the promise of eternal life. Because the tomb was empty on Easter, we know that no obstacle is too big for God. No matter how final death may be in our human reality, it is not the end of it all. For those who believe, God offers eternal life.

Crucifixion

Isaiah 50: 4-9

Philippians 2: 5-11

Luke 23: 32-43

Crucifixion  

Crucifixion was a horrible, cruel way to die. Burning at the stake was equally horrible, and cruel. Both were intended to inflict maximum pain while making a spectacle of the one being executed.

They are two of the greatest love stories ever told. The one, at Camelot; the other, at Calvary. Two of the noblest kings ever to live. The one, King Arthur; the other, King of the Jews. The one is adorned with a jeweled crown; the other, with a crown of thorns.

The comparisons and contrasts between Camelot and Calvary are many, but we will look at two.  Prior to his appointment with destiny on the brow of that fateful hill, Jesus agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done".  Understand, on an emotional level, this is the very human pleading of a son to his father. But Jesus chose to accept the cross, because God had promised he would accept Jesus into his arms. Jesus had free will, and chose to die on that cross.

"Is there no other way?"  The Son is betrayed, arrested, deserted, denied, beaten, tried, mocked, and finally crucified. God allows the crucifixion. He allows the consequences of all the actions of all those who brought Jesus to the cross. And he allows Jesus his choice to die,

In a scene from Camelot, the adulterous relationship between Queen Guinevere and Arthur’s most trusted knight, Sir Lancelot, has divided the Round Table. When the scheming Mordred catches them in a clandestine encounter, Lancelot escapes. Guinevere is not so fortunate. She faces a trial. The jury finds her guilty and sentences her to the stake to be burned.

As the day of execution nears, people come from miles around with one question in their minds: Would King Arthur let her die? Mordred gleefully captures the complexity of Arthur’s predicament:  Arthur! What a magnificent dilemma! Let her die, your life is over. Let her live, your life’s a fraud. Which will it be, Arthur? Do you kill the queen or kill the law?

Tragically but resolutely, Arthur decides: "Treason has been committed! The jury has ruled! Let justice be done!" High from the castle window stands Arthur, as Guinevere enters the courtyard. She walks to her unlit stake, where the executioner stands with waiting torch. Arthur turns away, emotion brimming in his eyes.
A herald mounts the tower where Arthur has withdrawn: "The queen is at the stake, Your Majesty. Shall I signal the torch?"

But the king cannot answer yes. Arthur’s love for Guinevere spills from his broken heart: "I can’t! I can’t! I can’t let her die!"  He chooses to let her live.

Seeing Arthur crumble, Mordred relishes the moment: "Well, you’re human after all, aren’t you, Arthur? Human and helpless." Tragically, Arthur realizes the truth of Mordred’s remark. Being only human, he is indeed helpless, and cannot let her die, even though the law demands it.  

Jesus broke no laws, was found innocent by Pontius Pilate, but was put to death. Guinevere was certainly guilty, sentenced to death, but was allowed to live. Arthur loved her too much to let her die.

Then, as now, the world is separated from God who created it, loves it. Like Guinevere, then, as now, an unfaithful humanity stood guilty and in bondage, awaiting judgment’s torch. Should God turn his head from the demands of the law and simply excuse the world’s sin? If not, then could he turn his head from the world he loved? Which will it be, God? Do you kill your world or do you kill the law? God so loved the world—us—that Jesus died.

Because of Arthur’s love of Guinevere, she lived. The story ended. Because of God’s love for you, and me, and for each and every person on this earth, Jesus died. But here, the story doesn’t end.  Three days later Jesus arose.

The Gospels are the greatest love story ever told. But it is a story that goes on, and it is a story in which we are included. Today we come to the Communion table to remember that Jesus was crucified for each of us. But Christ lives, for each of us.

                                                                      

Humility

Isaiah 52: 13-15

Hebrews 2: 5-9

John 18: 19-24

Humility

Three boys in the school yard were bragging about who had the better father. The first boy says, "My Dad
scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, and they give him $100." The second boy says, "That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, and they give him  1000." The third boy says, "My Dad is even better than that. He scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon, and it takes four men just to collect all the money!"

A  United Methodist pastor, a Presbyterian pastor, and a rabbi were having a conversation one day over lunch. The Methodist pastor proudly proclaimed, “One of my ancestors preached alongside John Wesley.” The Presbyterian pastor said, “One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence”. They both thought the rabbi would be very impressed by this. To his chagrin, the rabbi responded, “I understand your pride. One of my ancestors signed the Ten Commandments.”

One of the problems with pride is that there will always going to be someone who can top you. They will run faster, jump higher, win more, be more beautiful, tell a funnier story, receive more applause and go one step farther than you did. Even if no one beats your record in your lifetime, someone eventually will.

But an even greater problem with pride is that it puts you in opposition against God. He is the only one who should receive glory, and when we try to steal some of his glory for ourselves, we commit a sin. That is why God did not choose those the world saw as wise and the beautiful and those who had everything together to do his work. He chose the weak because they would be smart enough to understand that the only way that they could ever accomplish anything of any value would be through God’s power. And so, whenever something good happened, they knew they had to give all the glory to God.

Sometimes, we forget our weakness and start to allow pride to creep into our way of thinking. When we do, we are in for a downfall, sooner or later. We are opening ourselves to humiliation, which is to be shamed, or disgraced, or at least to be taken down a notch or two.  It is something we do to ourselves, not something done by others to us. We cannot be humiliated by someone else.

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The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court that demanded Jesus’ death and the Roman soldiers who carried out the execution, all tried to humiliate Jesus. They beat him, spit on him, taunted him, and tortured him. But nothing they could do would humiliate him. Why?  Because Jesus was humble.

There is a huge difference between humility, which is the quality or condition of being humble, and humiliation, which is the self inflicted result of too much pride and self confidence rather than recognizing our place in God’s work. Humility is freedom from pride and arrogance.

There are some things we need to consider or remember about our judge and reward giver the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to do what he commands us to do. We will not be rewarded according to what our circumstances were, how hard the work was, how long we had to endure rough conditions, or what the results of our labors were. Jesus who was humble in the face of death, and who offers us salvation, has called us into his service and will judge us according to how faithful we were to do what he asked us to do. 

It is Jesus who chooses the field of service for each of us if we will allow him to, and he will reward according to our faithfulness in that field. It is not how successful we are in doing good works, as we can never earn our way into heaven. It is in our humble service to God that counts. It is our acceptance of Jesus not just as Savior, but also as Lord. 

The biggest obstacle to serving Christ as he wishes is pride. Not pride in the pursuit of excellence. In fact, not to pursue excellence is a sin. It means accepting mediocrity, and not doing our best on behalf of God with the gifts he gives to each of us. Pride is sin when it’s a God-defying and neighbor-disdaining arrogance. The key is the distinction between excellence and arrogance.  If we consider our success in our work for God all our own doing, we are being arrogant, not humble.  As long as we think there is anything in us that God can recognize and reward, we are pride-deluded.

The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond. They were great friends and enjoyed playing together. When the hot days of summer came, however, the pond began to dry up. They soon realized that they had to move. This was no problem for the ducks because they could just fly to another pond. But the frog was stuck. So they decided to put a stick in the bill of each duck that the frog could hang onto with his mouth as they flew to another pond. The plan worked well ­ so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and said, “Well, isn’t that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of that?”

To which the frog said, “I did…” Be careful of pride ­ it can cause you to fall. 

Trade Offs

Proverbs 8: 8-11

Hebrews 11: 24-26

Luke 23: 13-25

Tradeoffs

Every day we make many, many choices. Sometimes we make tradeoffs. There is a major difference.

A few years ago, a very rich businessman decided to take a vacation to a small tropical island in the South Pacific. He worked hard all his life and decided that now was the time to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He was excited about visiting the island because he’s heard that there is incredible fishing there. He loved fishing as a young boy, but hadn’t gone in years because he had been so busy working to save for his retirement.

So on the first day, he had his breakfast and hea ded to the beach, at about 9:30 AM. There he spotted a fisherman coming in with a large bucket full of fish.

“How long did you fish for?” he asked. The fisherman looked at the businessman with a wide grin across his face and explained that the fished for about three hours every day. The businessman then asked him why he returned so quickly.

“Don’t worry”, says the fisherman, “There’s still plenty of fish out there”.

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Dumbfounded, the businessman asked the fisherman why he didn’t continue catching more fish. The fisherman patiently explained that what he caught is all he needed for the day. “I’ll spend the rest of the day playing with my family, talking with my friends and maybe drinking a little wine. After that I’ll relax on the beach.”

Now the rich businessman figured he needed to teach this peasant fisherman a thing or two. So he explained to him that he should stay out all day and catch more fish. Then he could save up the extra money he made and buy even bigger boats to catch even more fish. The he could keep reinvesting his profits in even more boats and hire other fisherman to work for him. If he worked really hard, in 20 or 30 years he would be a very rich man and retire.

The businessman felt pleased that he had helped teach this simple fellow how to become rich. Then the fisherman looked at the businessman with a puzzled look on his face and asked what he would do after he became very rich and retired.

The businessman responded quickly. “You can spend time with your family, talk with your friends, and maybe drink a little wine. Or you could just relax on the beach.”

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Some things need to be turned down or turned away for other more important  things to be gained. That is what a tradeoff is.  When we go to a grocery store for bread we have a lot of choices. We can choose one brand or another. But in the end we still go out with bread. We may go to a car dealer to buy a car and realize we cannot afford exactly what we want but we buy a different model instead. We have made a choice, but we still go off the lot with a car. 

A tradeoff is very different. In making a tradeoff a person gives up something much desired for something completely different that is much more important.

In this passage Jesus says that we must make a tradeoff. We must deny ourselves in order to gain some other things. What does he mean?

Well, one example is, we might give up buying a car at all, to help a child pay college tuition. Or, if you want to pursue a certain career, you might have to deny yourself time spent on vacations to devote your time to learning what is needed for that career. A young person might deny themselves marriage, or starting a family, or even dating in some cases, to go to college. Or, he or she might give up going to college right away to take a job or go into the military gain income for college later.

Pontius Pilate offered the Jewish leaders and the crowd a tradeoff. He didn’t have to. He found Jesus had committed no crime. But he wanted to avoid problems with those leaders and the crowd. They chose Barabbas over Jesus, and Jesus went to the cross.

When Jesus told his disciples that they must deny themselves, he was saying they must deny things that were very important to them, such as time, energy, even the careers they had, to follow him. They had to be willing to give up their very lives if necessary. Eventually they all traded their lives to follow Jesus, even to death, because they had the promise of the resurrection.

Our society and culture today gives us many choices and makes it hard to make tradeoffs. But just as Jesus called his followers to make a tradeoff, he calls us to do the same. Jesus himself made a tradeoff.  He went to the cross for us. What are we willing to do for him in return? How willing are we to give him our whole lives, wherever he leads?

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