I am the resurrection and the life
RUMC Easter Sunday 2011
(Intro)
No matter how often we read the Easter story it is still strange.
Easter is all so strange to us. It’s all so foreign! Strange Jewish holidays, strange ancient customs, public executions, intentional legally sanctioned torture and death. But the strangest of all might be resurrection. How is it that someone who is dead, dead, dead is suddenly alive and walking around eating, talking, and teaching?
Such scenes just blow out minds and make the familiar Easter story feel totally foreign! We know that once someone is dead he is dead. Funeral homes almost never complain about the deceased walking out on them. In our experience no matter how long you wait, no matter how many tears you shed, No matter how many times you scream into the tomb no one is going to come walking out. We might say that this is totally unique to Jesus except there are a couple of other resurrections in the Bible. Tthis story of Lazarus that Eloise read for us is one of them And it is in this story of the resurrection of Lazarus that , Jesus makes one of his most powerful I am statements. I am the resurrection and the life. Notice Jesus does not say I bring you resurrection. He does not say I promise you resurrection. He does not say I want to teach you about the resurrection. He says I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
This is the last of the” I am” sayings in this sermon series.
(review)
By now many of you know that the I AM part of the saying is a claim to divinity.
By now many of you know that the article “THE” is a claim to uniqueness.
But what about this resurrection? What are we to think about someone who claims to be life itself?? HMMM... maybe that’s exactly the key to helping us understand. We tend to focus on Jesus saying I am the resurrection which seems almost as foreign to us as death itself. What if we were to instead start with Jesus saying I am the life. Turn it around and read “Jesus said I am the life.” “ I am the life and the resurrection.”
Life we understand. Life is something we can all relate to. In fact we relate to it so well that it is almost impossible for us to imagine not having life. Think about it for a minute though. . . imagine death. No breathing. No heart beating in your chest. No moving. No getting hungry or tired. Just the darkness of death.
Imagine death as the end. No more hugs. No more smiles. No more joy. No more hope. No more sunsets. No more babies cooing. No more. . . just no more.
When Jesus teaches “I am the life”
part of what he is saying is that he has overcome these “no mores.” It is not life that will be no more, but death that will be no more.. In Jesus there is no more death. As the book of revelation says, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Instead of no more hugs, Jesus promises no more mourning. Instead of no more smiles, Jesus promises no more tears. Instead of no more joy, or hope, or sunsets, Jesus promises no more pain. For the old order of things has passed away. This is something new.
People look at Jesus’ resurrection and say “we’ve never done it that way before, and they are right! We haven’t! And we never will do it that way again. The resurrection of Jesus Christ- the resurrection we celebrate on Easter is a once in a lifetime—no once in history event and will never be repeated.
Except.. . except in you. Except in me. Except in you.
Today Jesus is not talking in generalities. He is talking about your life and your death and your life. My life and my death and my life. Physically and spiritually.
First physically.
To be quite honest, I don’t have any idea how this works. I have never died. By time I understand it, it will be too late to put it in a sermon. But Jesus promises that death is not the end,. Death is not the end of life for those who believe that he is life. Now I said before that Jesus’ resurrection was unique. And it was. In spite of the fact that I tease Robyn that I will come back to haunt her, I don’t really expect to get up and walk out of the funeral home on the third day. I do, however, expect to experience life in a way I never experienced it when I was alive. I expect to experience joy in a way that I never experienced it in this life. I expect to experience love in a way that I never experienced it in this life. I expect to experience intimacy with Christ in a way that I never experienced it in this life. I expect to celebrate Jesus I a way that I have never been able to celebrate him in this life.
How about you? Do you claim that promise for yourself? Do you believe that even though you die, yet will you live-- in a new way. A better way. A more wonderful and mysterious way than you ever lived when you were alive? That is one of the promises Jesus makes for us today when he says I am the life and the resurrection. That is the physical promise for the future.
The other is a spiritual promise for today.
Ø There is more than one way to be dead. Not all death is of the body.
Ø Hearts die from greed.
Ø Love dies because of egos.
Ø Joy dies because of wishes.
Ø Compassion dies because of selfishness.
Ø Faith dies because of self sufficiency.
Ø Friendship dies to hatred. Peace dies to unforgiveness.
· Or you can choose to let the greed die and live for Christ.
· you can choose to let the ego die and live for Christ
· you can choose to let the empty wishes die and live for Christ.
· you can choose to let the selfishness die and live for Christ.
· you can choose to let the hatred die and live for Christ.
· you can choose to let the unforgiveness die and live for Christ.
That is really the choice of a lifetime. . You can choose to die a thousand deaths by yourself, or life eternal life with Christ starting right now. Each and every one of us has to choose whether we let our old selves die, or let our old selves kill us.
Paul Entreats us to die to our old selves and live in Christ Jesus.
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
(conc)
That is choice for today. WHEN Jesus SAYS “I AM THE LIFE” HE MEANS THAT YOU have a choice-
Life or Death? You can die in your sin. Or you CAN BE DEAD TO SIN AND ALIVE IN CHRIST Jesus. The choice is yours.
These three young people today who are being confirmed and the two women being received into membership have made their choice. And on this day of resurrection they will stand before us and declare that they choose life. They choose life in Christ. They are truly resurrection people.
How about you? To what must do you die- so that you can live in Christ?
Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life.
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