“Happy Birthday”| John 20:1-18 | Kobe Union Church | March 31, 2024 | Preacher: Rev. Mark Bartsch3/30/2024 Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Today is not only my birthday but everyone's birthday who has accepted the love of Christ into your hearts. Because we know that “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. Not you might be saved or you could be saved but that you will be saved (period)!
We all have personal birthdays but today with the resurrection of our Lord, today is our spiritual birthday. I always thought it was weird that we celebrate our birthdays with cake and presents and that we get to blow out the candles on the cake. We were born but we did not do the hard work on the day of our births. In my case, Evelyn Bartsch on Jan 5th, she did the hard work while Karl (my father) waited in the hall. With my two boys, I was in the room, going “Hi Hi Wo” with all my might but Stephanie did all the hard work. You have accepted Christ as your Lord and savior and you WILL be saved, but it was Jesus that did the heavy lifting to allow us the opportunity to be reunited with God. 1 John 5:11-12 "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." Years ago, there was an advertising campaign that simply said, “Got Milk”. But if you have accepted Jesus into your heart, you Got Life. (If you have not accepted Jesus into your heart, talk to one of us and we will tell you about this amazing life). To our passage today. Mary Magdalene and a few other ladies walked up to the tomb to pay their last respects to the one that loved them so much and in return they loved him. On the day of the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus got permission from Pilate to take Jesus' dead body and bury it but because his death was running right up to the Sabbath of Passover. They placed Jesus' body into a tomb that Joseph had bought for his own family and yet gave it for Jesus. Let’s face it men, the women usually pay more attention to details and care for things and the women thought that the men probably did not do a very good job of the niceties in caring for Jesus’ (what they assumed was his dead) body. So, the women walk up to the tomb that is being guarded by soldiers to ceremonially wash his body not even thinking that they were not strong enough to roll the rock that covered the entrance to the tomb away. (When people are experiencing grief, they do not always think logically). They walk up the hill to the tomb while it is still dark and as they approach the tomb, the guards were gone and the stone had been rolled away. The first thought was not the 31 times that Jesus either outright said or implied that he was going to be raised from the dead. At least 31 times you would think that they were listening. No. Their first thought was that this was one more trick. One more indignity that the powers that be (Jewish leaders, Romans) were doing to them. Not only did they kill Jesus but now they would not even allow them to say “Goodbye”. It was too much. There are times in life when life is just too much. When life is too much for you, don’t turn to bitterness. Don’t turn to the bottle. Don’t ignore it and shove it down. Turn your pain over to God. He knows. One of the most profound verses in the Bible is “Jesus wept” (Jn 11:35) because our Lord knows pain, knows loss, knows what it means to be sad. Mary M. ran back to the place the disciples were staying and told them. Being mad that someone had taken their lord and teacher Peter and John raced up the hill. John being in better shape than Peter made it to the tomb first but Peter being Peter raced into the tomb to find that Mary M. was telling the truth. The stone had been rolled away and Jesus’ body was gone. An interesting detail that is given in the biblical story. But Jesus would make a good house guest. See when they went inside the tomb, the linen cloth that was covering his head and was folded up and was laying apart from the other cloth that was probably covered in blood. The men seemingly have wondered away, and Mary remains by herself at the tomb and wept. She wept for the man that pulled her out of so much pain and now was lost. She wept for all that she had hoped for. Remember this is Mary Magdalene one rumored (rumored) to be in prostitution before Jesus saved her not only from this degrading profession of selling herself for men’s lust but also from possession of demonic spirits (Luke 8:2) not one mind you but seven. She must have been wondering what happens now to me that Jesus was gone. Would the old life come back? Would the demons return? What will happen to me? I liken Mary and all of us Mary’s to a broken pots or dishes. And as I said last week, we are all tied down by something and we need deliverance from those unhealthy things that bind us. Well, we are all broken too. Almost 11 years ago many of us did volunteer work in Tohoku after the earthquake. On one of my trips, I helped a woman clean her house full of seawater and broken dishes. She had lost her husband in the earthquake, and I was assisting her in cleaning up her house. As we picked up broken dish after broken and shattered dish. I think it was helpful that my Japanese was not great because she could mourn. From time to time, she would pick up a dish and stare at it for a time before breaking out in tears and I would make the sign of the cross and then she would put it in the trash and pick up the next dish. It reminded me of when Ezekiel the OT prophet was asked by God if this field of bones could live? He responded, “You alone O God know if they can live.” Because of Easter we have confidence through the resurrection that yes, these bones can live. We are all broken in some way shape or form. Some of us just hide it a little better than other people. Jesus’ ministry was focused on repairing the broken dishes of our lives. Jesus said, “I have come to comfort the broken hearted” (Lk 4:18) In Japan, we have the amazing art of Kintsugi. I saw a demonstration in Kyoto once on a student field trip. The art of Kintsugi is taking pieces of pottery that have been broken sometimes even shattered and instead of throwing these pieces of pottery away like I did in Tohoku and going to the 100 Yen shop and buying another dish. This art restores the pottery by melding gold in between the cracks. It not only makes the bowl useful but more beautiful than before it was even broken. The day I saw the demonstration I saw a bowl that had just happened to be broken in Tohoku earthquake and the master was painstakingly putting the bowl back together again. Interestingly with Kintsugi and also faith you do not cover up all the cracks like you do if you superglue it. No, instead you see the cracks but instead of being ashamed of our cracks we say thank you God. For healing and restoring us. For I was once lost but now I am found. I was blind but now I see. I was dead but now I can live. When Mary M. saw Jesus she became to the first witness. The first evangelist to share the news that Jesus lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow, because he lives all fear is gone, because I know, I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives. Let’s pray
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
English ManuscriptsHere you can find the English manuscripts for our sermons. Archives
May 2024
Categories |