Matthew 28:1-10 “To Live Again”
Let me start with the central question of Easter: What is life?
The other day I was heading into the Home Depot in Lihue, and I think they must be on a new service-centered program over there. A man stood right there at the entrance with a basket for me. He asked me right away, “Do you have any questions?” I thought that this was a unique thing to ask. Usually service help asks, “Can I help you?” No, he asked if I had any questions. And, I did. I had been thinking about this central question of Easter, and so I asked him: “What is life?”
Well, he looked at me with his head somewhat tilted to one side and an unknowing smile and said that he could not help me with that. I understood. It is not like I could go find “life” on aisle four next to the electrical supply and power equipment.
So, I ask you this morning: “What is Life?” And, what should it mean that Christ lives again? I do want to point out straightaway that when we say “Christ lives” we are not meaning that he is on life-support in ICU barely hanging on! In fact, on Easter the traditional greeting is not “He Lives.” The greeting is what? “Christ is risen.” He is not just alive, he is risen from death and has risen over us in our lives as well! He is not just alive. He is ALIVE.
When we think about this we come up with a new question: “Is there really life after death?” I think some of us struggle with the question if there is even life before death! That is the right question to ask. In the Tuesday morning Bible study we had a prayer request for a family member of one of the attendees. “Please pray for so-and-so who is on the mainland trying to work hard at her job. Working on the mainland is just no life for her.” Yes, working on the mainland is “no life.” I had to write that down immediately in my sermon notes. Anybody here from the mainland who can affirm that?
What is life? The answer for us is that it is an absolute precious miracle of God! What does that mean? Right? Look, I am one of those people who see that there is really no such thing as “nature.” When we look at the creation story in the Bible, we see that God created everything out of nothing. It is not so that nature just created itself. Nature was created. So, we should drop the term “nature” as such and use the term “creation” instead. Life is creation. Life is that same miracle that God did on page one of the Bible.
I know that you believe this, to. I will prove it to you. Last week we celebrated Mike’s 70th birthday here in the worship service. We sang “Happy Birthday.” Why did we do that? His birth was just nature taking its course! And, 70 years? That is just the earth taking its course around the sun 70 times. That is also just nature! Why do we celebrate birthdays? Because in our hearts we know that every birth is a miracle from God and that every year is a miracle from God. In fact every second is a miracle from God! That is why we don’t waste a second of our lives! Just like during a birthday celebration we celebrate the miracle of life, at Easter we celebrate the greater miracle of life everlasting.
Now, at Easter then we are left with the further question as we see Christ’s resurrection: What is the afterlife? The answer is for us that it is an absoluter more preciouser miraculouser of God! Excuse my lack of English skills here. And so, the even greater thing that we can do on this planet besides create new life is to create new afterlife!
This new life does not start upon one’s death. It is not such that if we want to start the new after life miracle that we should just go out and knock people off. That is what those strange cults do! It is not so that one has to stop the one miracle in order for the second miracle to take place. God can do two miracles at once! Your life in this world already is one miracle. Your afterlife is the second.
A recent poll that was published in Newsweek Magazine shows that just about 80% of Americans believe in Heaven. That is down from earlier polls; however, I am satisfied that most people I meet on the street do believe in heaven. So, let’s take a look at heaven. By the way, a recent poll was taken in heaven that showed 100% of the people in heaven believe in heaven. I think that is the more important statistic! That was a joke.
This is where we tend to get lost. You see, there are not a lot of shows on television about heaven. Have you noticed, for instance, when Jennifer Love Hewitt as the Ghost Whisperer talks to ghosts on television and finally gets them to “go into the light” that we never get to see what is on the other side of that light? The Reverend Billy Graham once noted in a sermon that he thought he would be driving a yellow Cadillac in heaven. That is a rather strange image if you ask me. I would not want a Cadillac in heaven. It would be murder trying to get spare parts.
I do want to make a personal witness on this point as well. As a pastor, I have attended many deaths. Besides a hospice worker, a pastor is probably the person who sees more death than anyone else in our society. And, it is out of this experience that I can say that life is a miracle and the afterlife is a greater miracle.
I recall being with one particular woman and her family when she left this life behind. The hospital room suddenly filled with a warmth and light that is truly indescribable—so I won’t try—but it was something like jello. Everything was moving slow. There was a sense of great love and well-being. Everybody felt it. Everybody realized that they were witnessing this miracle. The Holy Spirit was absolutely present in that moment. It is just one of the experiences that no one could ever forget.
I also recall being at a few deaths where there was no such feeling of the coming of the Spirit. No warmth. No anything. There was no second miracle. It was only the end of the first miracle. And, I have asked myself why it is that with some I have seen the miracle of the afterlife and others I have not.
About a year ago, there was a woman who passed away here on–island. Before she went , she started speaking to someone. She was having a regular conversation with someone, but with no one in the room. She called out Jesus’ name. She was talking with her Lord. And, again, there was that great sense of the Holy Spirit being there with her.
I was talking to a nurse about this recently, too. She affirmed for me that in her experience with people facing death that over and over again those with a strong faith in Jesus were able to find peace in the last moments of their earthly lives. They were able to find peace in the fact that the second miracle of life hereafter had already taken place.
Hear me on this: The afterlife, in spite of what we call it, does not start after this life. It begins now. It begins when we accept that second miracle. It begins with the resurrection of Jesus!
Warning! Here comes one of those moments where the pastor lays it on the line: In no other religion on this planet does the central figure of that religion actually die and come back to life. Jesus dies on the Cross, is buried, and then shows up again to first the women at the tomb and then to his disciples. He breaks bread with people in Emmaus. He has a fish-fry on the beach in Galilee. Everybody sees for a fact that Jesus is indeed resurrected! Beat that! No really! Beat that.
I do not mean to denigrate other faiths. God forbid. I just am trying to point out a major difference between Christianity and other belief systems. Let’s look at it like this: Buddha is dead. Moses is dead. Mohammed is dead. Jesus is alive and well, thank you. I talk with him everyday!
You know before worship on Thursday, Eles, the exchange student staying with Joanne Watanabe asked this question to me that is very telling: “Why do Christians worship Jesus?” I ran out of time before the worship then to really answer him. Just as well, for I would like to share my answer with all of you. We Christians pray to Jesus because HE IS ALIVE.
We have had a lot of windy weather of late. The wind actually blew down a telephone line near our house—it was not our line fortunately. I reported it the phone company and they came out and fixed then on Friday morning. But, I got to thinking that praying to anybody other than Jesus is like trying to call out on a broken phone line! You’re prayer is just not going to go anywhere. The line is down! Jesus’ line is still good. He is home. He will pick up! If you are calling from Kauai it is a local call, too!
When you accept Jesus into your heart, you accept the everlasting life. When you take the communion, you take his life into you! The molecules of Jesus body and blood mix with the molecules of your own body and blood and that everlasting life gets stuck in with your mortal life. Two miracles become one! The natural and supernatural become one! Once that happens, all we have to do is present ourselves before God.
I am usually whipping around the scriptures a lot, not so much this morning! I do want to close with Romans 6:7-11, “For whoever has died is free from sin, but if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
All life is a miracle, but the everlasting life with Christ is a more preciouser and greater miraculouser thing than the first. It starts today. It starts with Christ living in your own heart this morning. Accept Christ and live with God forever.
Amen.