Are We an Easter Church? Part II: Are We Clothed by Jesus?

We are in the middle of a series that seeks to investigate whether we are a people who live Easter and worship in an Easter fashion ... or do we simply show up at church dressed in nice, new Easter clothes and hunt Easter eggs?

Part II: Are We Clothed by Jesus?

There is an article that appeared in Slate Online entitled "Happy Crossmas!" written by James Martin (http://www.slate.com/id/2186633/). He seeks to find out "why Easter stubbornly resists the commercialism that swallowed Christmas." Certainly, has found the prize egg on his insights. Listen to his words:

"So what enables Easter to maintain its religious purity and not devolve into the consumerist nightmare that is Christmas? Well, for one thing, it's hard to make a palatable consumerist holiday out of Easter when its back story is, at least in part, so gruesome. Christmas is cuddly. Easter, despite the bunnies, is not .... How pleasant it is in mid-December to open a Christmas card with a pretty picture of Mary and Joseph gazing beatifically at their son, with the shepherds and the angels beaming in delight. The Christmas story, with its friendly resonances of marriage, family, babies, animals, angels, and--thanks to the wise men--gifts, is eminently marketable to popular culture. It's a Thomas Kinkade painting come to life. On the other hand, a card bearing the image of a near-naked man being stripped, beaten, tortured, and nailed through his hands and feet onto a wooden crucifix is a markedly less pleasant pieced of mail."

In other words its a bit easier to miss the heart of Christmas than it is for Easter. Yet, he adds a corollary to this. In essence Martin says that missing the heart of Christmas is easy because its message can be secularized to mean love and warmth ... without having to profess faith in Jesus. Easter is different. The Jesus of Easter cannot be secularized, for the Jesus of Easter was crucified to pay our Sin, so that we might be reconciled to the Father. Martin deftly points out, "Easter is an event that demands a 'yes' or a 'no.' There is no 'whatever.'"

Yet, my contention is that so many of our precious people attending the gazillions of churches across our fruited plain have said "Whatever" to Easter and her Jesus. Let's take a look at Luke 24:36-53.

Luke 24:36-53:

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!"

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, "Have you anything to eat?"

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God (ESV).

The first thing we can notice is that the emotional status of the disciples is markedly different in verses 36 & 37 than in verses 50--53.

36 & 37.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!"But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit (ESV).

50--53.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God (ESV).

We surely love Easter, with all of the pretty clothes, pretty flowers, pretty eggs, and the cute & cuddly kids hunting those pretty eggs with pretty flowers in their hair, and wearing pretty dresses. We love our Easter services. After all many of us feel that if we come to church on Easter Sunday, that service is powerful enough to carry us through out the rest of the year ... at least until Christmas Sunday! Some of us even love to sing the Easter carols and hear Easter sermons.

However, many of us are still holed up in verse 36 ... too afraid to move to verses 50--53. The disciples has reason to fear, for in their culture an individual does not carry a separate identity from his group. As it is with the individual, especially the leader, so it is with the group. As it is with the group, so it is with the individual, especially the leader.

Jesus was crucified by both the Romans and the Jews. The Romans crucified him perhaps as a messianic pretender vying to usurp Roman power. (Granted Pontious Pilate attempted to free him.) The Jews crucified him because they were jealous of him. They also crucified him because his flavor of Judaism (Christianity) was radically different from that which would restore their nationalistic hopes and dreams. At any rate the disciples might well have feared that the Jews and Romans were coming after them next.

In a similar but twisted fashion, many of us know that Jesus has been raised from the dead ... and as such has conquered Sin, Death, and the Devil. The disciples knew that Jesus had been raised (see 24:1-12). However, we like to stay holed up in verses 36 & 37, afraid of our culture. We much prefer to stay away from people of different races, different socio-economic stati, different walks of life. We certainly want to avoid Sinners. After all people who look, taste, smell, and sound different than us are obviously in Sin. So we stay holed up in our holy chambers hoping the world will go away. We don't wish to be tainted by their sin. We unplug our TVs, hoping the MTV generation will go away. We sing of our conquering King, but we are conquered by our own fears of the unknown.

Jesus asks us today, as he asked them so long ago, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" Because you see, we sing of our risen Lord, but we live as if he were still dead. What we need is for Jesus to come to us and reach out his nail-scarred hands and feet. We need to touch them. We need to feel them. Jesus bids us come to him, as he bid Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe" (John 21:27, ESV).

What would happen if we believed as you are saying that we should? What would our lives resemble if we lived Easter as you say we should? I'm glad you asked!

You see we tend to live in another part of this passage. Jesus reassures them beginning in verse 44, " 'These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead .... "(ESV)

We tend to stay camped out there in our cozy little fundamentalist forts. We sign our names to statements of faith and sing and celebrate that we have certain truths and you don't. We're going to heaven and you ain't!!! While we're hunting our Easter eggs in our pretty dresses with pretty flowers we chant and sing, "Nanna nanna boo boo, go stick your head in Hell-fire doo doo!" We tend to camp out in the above verse.

Let's finish what Jesus was saying that the Scriptures said about him beginning in verse 46 and carrying through verse 47, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (italics mine, ESV). We love to emphasize our fundamentalist beliefs, but we neglect the command of Jesus to go to all nations. To be an Easter people, to truly celebrate the risen Lord, we are to joyfully go into all nations (regardless of race or creed or Sin status), taking the nail-scarred hands and feet of Jesus.

You might say that I'm not comfortable going to drunkards or druggies. You might say that I'm not comfortable going to black people or Mexican people. Let me ask you, how comfortable was it for Jesus to hang on that cross, so that you can chant and sing: "Nanna nanna boo boo, go stick your head in Hell-fire doo doo!" No, Jesus didn't pay our Sin debt just so that we can be comfortable. Jesus paid our sin debt to reconcile us to the Father ... and so that we can be his nail-scarred body going into risky places full of depravity and pulling people out of that depravity into reconciliation with the Father.

I'm afraid, you might say. Yes, I am too. However, that's why Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem. Listen to his encouragement in verse 49, "And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (ESV). Thus the title of this sermon. Jesus has them to wait in Jerusalem to be baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

What is Pentecost? and what does that have to do with the Holy Spirit and what does that have to do with my fear? I'm glad you asked!!!

Pentecost was a traditional Jewish festival that was celebrated 50 days after Passover. As you may or may not know, Passover was the celebration of God's miraculous deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. At the first Passover each family took a lamb, killed it, spread its blood on the door frame, cooked it, and ate it. The Angel of Death went throughout the land of Egypt to take every first born person and animal. Those with the blood on the door frame the Angel of Death passed over. Those without the blood, the Angel of Death took, including Pharaoh's son. This was the 10th plague, and the Egyptians asked the Hebrews to leave. God miraculously delivered them.

Fifty days later, they came to Mt. Sinai where the people of Israel entered into a covenant marriage with God. They received his Law/Teachings. Pentecost celebrates this event at Mt. Sinai. Yet the people could not keep the Law. The prophets promised that one day God would write his Law on the hearts of his people, thus transforming them into a people who could keep his Law.

At that first Pentecost following the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church. This was the promise from on high to which Jesus was referring. The Church would be clothed with Holy Spirit power, not only to be transformed into people who could keep the Law of God, but also into people who could go in power unto all nations ... unto all people regardless of their desirability. We can read of this in Acts 1 & 2.

So what is another way in which to know if we are truly an Easter people? Are we seeking the Holy Spirit? Are we seeking for Jesus to clothe us with the Holy Spirit's power from on high? Are we seeking not only to believe with our minds in the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also to take his nail-scarred hands of redemption and healing to all peoples on the face of the earth (regardless of their race or Sin-factor)?

If so, then we might well be an Easter-Jesus people. If not, then we are merely an Easter-bunny people.