Easter Sunday ~ If God Can Do This!

It’s fascinating to me that the single most defining moment in our faith, really, the single most defining moment in all human history does not have one clear story. If you read the resurrection account in each of the 4 gospels (and I would encourage you to take some time today to do that!), you will find that each one of them is different. Each one looks at the story from a different perspective or highlights a different detail. While they are all different, they do all begin the same way.

Matthew: at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

Mark: When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might anoint Jesus body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.

Luke: On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

And as we heard from John: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.

While the details that follow are all a little different, each account of the resurrection begins the same way, on the first day of the week, early in the morning, thee women go to the tomb of Jesus. They don’t go expecting or even hoping that Jesus is alive. The women go to the tomb with spices to properly prepare Jesus body for its final burial. Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped the body in some linen, but because it was sundown and the Sabbath was approaching they were not able to properly wrap Jesus body. So the women go to the tomb expecting to do that. They go expecting to find Jesus to be dead. In fact they ask themselves how they are going to roll away the stone from the front of the tomb because they are anticipating that the tomb is going to be sealed and they fully expect Jesus to be in the tomb still wrapped up in the grave clothes.

Even when they arrive at the tomb and find the body gone, they aren’t thinking that Jesus is alive. Look at what Mary says to the disciples when she tells them that the tomb is open. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him. Mary isn’t thinking that Jesus could be alive – the only thought is that Jesus is dead and so if he isn’t here, someone moved him, or worse yet, someone stole the body. Even after Peter and John race to the tomb and find the grave clothes lying there they can’t bring themselves to think that Jesus is alive. It says in John 20:8 that they saw and believed, but what they believed was the message of the women that Jesus body was gone, because in John 20:10 it says, They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. So standing in the tomb and looking at the grave clothes that would have been wrapped around Jesus body, all they can think is that someone has taken the body of Jesus. In their minds, Jesus is still dead. In their hearts, there is no hope. All they see there are grave clothes.

How often in our own lives do we do the same thing? When we look around at our lives, all we see grave clothes. When we look at the problems of our families, or our community, or our world, all we see are grave clothes, dead ends. Too often we make our way through life like the women making their way to the tomb, without hope, but here’s the thing, the deeper message of Easter is that Jesus left the grave clothes behind. Jesus left the grave clothes behind because they couldn’t hold his body in death, so if God can do this… if God can raise Jesus from the dead… if God overcome sin and if God can leave grave clothes behind … think of what God can do in our lives.

If God can do this, then God can forgive us for our sin. If we have come here today feeling burdened by our own sin and weighed down because like the Apostle Paul, the good we want to do we don’t do - but the evil we don’t want to do is always what we seem to be thinking and doing. If that’s how we fee today, wrapped up in the grave clothes of sin, then we need to understand that our sin does not get the final victory. The empty grave clothes tell us that sin has been overcome, so we can experience the new life of forgiveness. It doesn’t matter what we have done in life, it doesn’t matter where we have been or even where we are today, if we are willing to come to God in faith we can experience the new life of God’s forgiveness, because if God can do this… then God can forgive us.

If God can do this, then God can also turn our failures into opportunities. Too many times in life we allow our failures to define us, but there is no failure that God can not overcome. Think about the disciples, the cross and the grave were symbolic of failure. As far as they knew, the movement of Jesus had failed, their mission to bring the kingdom of God and the love of God into the world died with Jesus on the cross and it ended when the stone sealed off the tomb, but if God can do this, if God can raise Jesus from the dead then there is no failure that is final. We might fail in life, no let me correct that, we will fail in life, but if God is for us then who can be against us. If God is for us then he can turn those failures into opportunities. In Philippians 4:13 it says, I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength, so while we might fail the first time, it doesn’t mean we can’t get up and keep trying. Failure does not need to define us and our failures do not need to be final, because if God can do this, then we know that God can turn any of our failures into opportunities. The empty tomb and the empty grave clothes tell us that we can have a second chance, or a third chance, or a 200th chance.

Think about Peter, he had failed Jesus miserably. In fear for his own life he denied that he even knew Jesus, he disowned him three times. He failed, but again on that resurrection day we see that Jesus comes to Peter and forgives him. Jesus stands in the upper room with his disciples and Peter is there and Jesus doesn’t just say, Peace be with you and just offer them forgiveness, it says that Jesus breathes on them, he fills them with the gift of new life so they can go out and continue to build the kingdom of God. Peter’s failure and then the forgiveness of Jesus shaped Peter’s heart and life so that in time he became an even stronger leader in the movement Jesus started. So if God can do this… then God can overcome our failures and our weaknesses.

If God can do this, then God can also restore broken relationships. That’s what is so clear in the story of Jesus and Peter after the resurrection. During Jesus arrest and trial, Peter failed Jesus miserably and their relationship was broken. I’m sure Peter thought, how can Jesus ever forgive me, how can Jesus ever love me again, how can we ever be as close as we were before. I’m sure Peter thought his relationship and friendship with Jesus was over forever. But if God can do this… then God can restore relationships. If there are relationships that need to be mended or if we have relationships that need to be strengthened – there is hope today. No relationship is beyond repair if we are willing to ask God to bring us forgiveness and understanding. No relationship is beyond repair if we are willing to confess our own shortcomings and in humility reach out to the other in love. Every relationship can be restored, because if God can do this… God can do anything.

We begin to see the power of the resurrection when we simply say to ourselves, If God can do this… then God can…
If God can do this then God can bring hope into the despair of broken dreams and shattered lives.
If God can do this then God can bring peace and understanding into the chaos and depression we suffer through.
If God can do this then God can lead us out of financial struggles and into a place of financial peace.
If God can do this, then God can bring joy into sorrow and light into darkness and yes even life into death.
If God can do this, then God can change our lives and help us find victory in all things. In Romans 8 it asks, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine, or nakedness or danger or sword? Is there anything that can overcome us? The answer of course is NO, for in all things we are more than conquerors because if God can do this… then God can do anything.

So how do we get to the place where we are able to these as anything other than grave clothes? How do we begin to see the hope and the possibility that the resurrection of Jesus brings to our lives? Well let’s go back to that first Easter and see what it was that turned things around for Mary. After Peter and John leave the tomb and return home, Mary lingers in the garden and she is actually talking to Jesus and yet she doesn’t know it’ s him. It’s only when Jesus calls her by name that Mary’s eyes are opened and she begins to see things different. It’s when Jesus calls her by name that she knows her relationship with Jesus can be restored, her sin can be forgiven and her entire life can take on new meaning. It’s when Jesus calls her by name that things begin to change and the grave clothes take on new meaning, and it’s when we hear Jesus call us by name that we can begin to see things differently

God calling us by name changes our lives because it’s in that moment that we know we are loved by God and accepted as his child. It’s in that moment that we know that the God of the universe knows who I am and that my life matters to him and so the God of the universe is right here, with me and he is the one who is for me. In Isaiah 43 God says, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through h the waters, I will be with you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. Hearing God call out our name changes us because it tells us that we belong to God so God will be with us forever. If it has been awhile since we have heard Jesus call us by name, then we need to listen for him today because he is right here, he’s right here to love us, he is right here to forgive us. Jesus is right here to bring us peace and to breathe on us and into us the breath of new life. Jesus is right here and he has the power to change our lives. We know this because God has done this.