Easter Sunday

There’s a story of two road workers. Working side by side, digging and shoveling, they got to talking about vacations. One said he was looking forward to his vacation. The other said he wasn’t going on vacation this year. “Why not?” “I went on an exciting trip last year, skydiving.” “Sounds like fun!” “Well, it was, until I realized my chute wouldn’t open. I plunged to the ground and died.” A little stunned, the first guy said, “What are you talking about? You aren’t dead. You’re sitting here living!” The other fellow looked down at his shovel, looked at the pick axe in his friend’s hands and replied: “You call this living?”

Do you ever look at your life and ask: You call this living? We carry around needless burdens. We worry about things. We are stressed out by life. We are spread too thin. We wonder what we are doing in our careers. Our children drive us up the wall at times, and we might wonder when we can get away from it all. You call this living? Are we really living?

Look at the women who came to the tomb early on Easter morning. They were carrying supplies to finish burying Jesus. Dragging these big loads to the tomb, absolutely distraught over Jesus’ death. Numb with grief. They were worried about how they might roll the stone away. However, when they arrived, two angels, sitting on the stone that had already been rolled away, asked them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” What they were saying was, “Why are you living and acting as though Jesus were still dead?”

Like those women, do we also sometimes live and act as though Jesus were still dead? Do we worry about things we really don’t need to worry about? Those women were worrying about rolling away the huge grave stone. There was no way they could have done it by themselves. So they worried. The whole time, it had already been rolled away! Rolled away by God. Rolled away by the only One who can roll our problems away.

How much of your life do you spend worrying about big “stones” that block your path? Problems to solve? Difficulties in life? Stones that you could never roll away on your own? If you are worrying about them, then you are living as though Jesus were still dead. As though God hadn’t solved our biggest problem for us. As if God wasn’t able to solve your smaller problems. Why do you look for the living among the dead? Jesus is risen! He conquered death! He can conquer your little problems too! He can roll away your stones!

The Saturday Evening Post once ran a cartoon showing a man about to be rescued after being ship-wrecked on a deserted island. The sailor in charge of the rescue team stepped onto the beach and handed the man a stack of newspapers. "Compliments of the Captain," the sailor said. "He would like you to glance at the headlines to see if you'd still like to be rescued!" Sometimes the headlines do scare us. Sometimes our worries overwhelm us. Sometimes we feel that evil is winning, but then along comes Easter, to remind us that there is no grave deep enough, no stone heavy enough, no evil strong enough to keep Christ in the grave. So let’s stop living as though Christ were still dead! We have a risen Lord who is with us every day!

The women walking to the tomb on Easter morning were also carrying some needless burdens. They were lugging a bunch of burial supplies to finish preparing Jesus’ body. It was completely unnecessary! They hauled it there for no reason! Do you and I ever do that? Carry around needless burdens? Do we drag around the needless burdens of guilt and shame over our sins because we think God can’t forgive us? Well, Easter assures us how useless that is! Christ is alive! That means, in the strongest way, our sins are forgiven! Our loads of guilt are as useless as the women’s loads of burial spices! Stop living as though Jesus were still dead!

A young boy’s father died in a car wreck when he was twelve. He went into the shock of grief. Strangely, one of his very first feelings was guilt. He remembered how a couple months earlier at a family picnic he hit his dad in the hand with a baseball and broke his thumb. The young boy felt horrible: “What a terrible son I am! I have caused my dad great pain.” And that was all he could think about after his father’s death—the pain he caused his dad. Finally, the boy went to see his pastor and told him about the deep feelings of guilt and breaking his dad’s thumb.

His pastor sat down with him and said: “Now, Jimmy, you listen to me. If your dad could come back to life for five minutes and be right here with us, and if he knew you felt guilty about that, what would he say to you?” “He would tell me to quit worrying about it,” Jim said. “Well, all right,” the minister said, “then you quit worrying about that right now!” “Yes sir,” he said, and he did. The pastor was telling him: “You’re forgiven. Accept that, and start living your life again.” The young boy did. Today, he is the pastor of a 9,000 member church.

That’s Easter. The Risen Lord came back to life to assure us to quit worrying about our sins! We are forgiven! If Jesus were still dead, then we would have something to worry about. Our sins would still be with us. But He is alive! You are forgiven! Accept it! Dump your unnecessary burdens of guilt! Stop living as though Jesus were still dead! Jesus died to take away our sins, but rose again to assure us He had done it! We were set free.

They say that when the slaves in Jamaica knew they were to be set free on a certain day, they spent all night getting ready. While it was yet dark they began moving out of their huts and streaming toward the highest hill, climbing in darkness and crowding together at the top, waiting for the day. As the first strands of dawn began to show on the horizon, a ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. Then a shout went up and they began to sing in their distinctive rhythm, at last lifting up their hands into the sky at the rising of the sun and crying, "Free! Free! Free!"

They were free from slavery. Easter means that we are free from slavery to sin! We don’t have to do what the devil wants us to anymore! When the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon on Easter morning, we no longer belonged to sin – we belonged to a living Jesus!

But have we been living like it? Or have we continued to permit sin to rule our lives? Have we got caught up in pettiness, gossip, anger, grudges, lust, greed, and selfishness? If so, we are living as though Jesus were still dead! Why do we look for the living among the dead? Jesus is alive! He has set us free from a life of sin! Don’t let your lives be unchanged by the wonderful news of Easter! This true story has the power to break us free from the bonds that enslave us! Stop living as though we are enslaved to sin. Jesus freed us! We have a risen Lord who gives us the power to say “no” to sin. Let’s not live as though Jesus were dead!

A father and his little girl were staying in a hotel. During the night the girl became very ill and without warning she died. The father was heart-broken. He had already lost his wife and now his precious little girl was gone. Only two people followed the body to the cemetery; the father and a pastor. The father’s grief was great. At the grave he took from his pocket a key, unlocked the casket and looked on the face of his child once more, then silently closed the casket and handed the key to the keeper of the cemetery.

On the way back to the city, the pastor quoted Rev.1:18: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death…” “What is that about the keys?” asked the grieving man. “It means this,” said the pastor, “You think the key to your little girl’s casket is in the hands of the keeper of the cemetery. It isn’t! The key to your little girl’s grave hangs at the side of the Son of God. And He will come one morning and use it to open that casket!” That man was able to start living again – because Jesus was alive!

The women on Easter morning came to the cemetery with great grief. They came expecting to find a dead body. They were grieving over their loved one. Do we do that as we stand in cemeteries, too? Do we often act as though Jesus were still dead? Grieving for our loved ones who have died as if we have no hope? Dreading the day of our own deaths? Friends, Jesus is risen! He is alive! We have a risen Lord who has broken the power of the grave so that we can look forward to rising from the dead with our loved ones one day!

I have heard that possums are smart animals. You wouldn’t think so because you hardly ever see one except when it’s dead on the road. Have you heard the joke, “why did the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum that it could be done!” But possums, it turns out, are smart! They won’t enter a hole if there’s just one set of tracks going into it. They know there’s something in there. But if there are two sets of tracks, the possum will enter and not be afraid!

Easter lets us know we can enter the grave - we don’t have to fear death because there are tracks leading out of the tomb! Jesus’ tracks! Paul preached, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the message that we need to hear on Easter! Jesus is risen!

So Why Do you look for the Living among the Dead? That’s what we’re doing when we poke around in life as if we have no purpose here or no reason for living. Jesus has risen; we do have a reason for living! It is to glorify Him in all that we do. Our Saviour is alive; He lives to comfort us in life’s troubles, to give us peace in life’s turmoil, to walk with us, and to help us carry our burdens. So why do you look for the living among the dead? We have good news to tell! Let’s get out there and start really living! Telling others the good news that Jesus is alive!

Some of you may have heard of Clarence Jordan. He will probably be remembered most for his home-spun translation of the scriptures which he entitled: The Cotton Patch Version of the Bible. He died in 1969 after a lifetime of sharing the gospel with others. They buried Clarence Jordan’s body on a hillside at a farm. At his funeral, a beautiful thing happened…

People were sobbing and grieving as men shoveled the soil on top of his casket. But just then, a little two-year-old girl name Faith Fuller, unprompted and spontaneously, stepped up to the grave and sang her favorite song to Clarence. She had sensed that this was a special day for her friend Clarence. So boldly and loudly in her little two-year-old voice she sang: “Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, dear Clarence, Happy birthday to you.”

Little Faith Fuller was right, wasn’t she? She led those grieving people into the presence of God with her song. She reminded them that death is not the end for the Christian. No! It’s just a beginning! It’s a birthday! She reminded them of what we celebrate this Easter morning: that God has the power to bring us out of the tombs of guilt, despair, defeat, and even death. Christ is risen, and He has the power to raise us up! So, friends, stop looking for the living among the dead! Amen.

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