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Showing posts with label Eastertide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eastertide. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2022

Beautiful Scars, part 2

Introduction
There are actually seven Sundays of Easter.  The resurrection is so powerful, it takes Seven Sundays to express it fully.  In addition, every Sunday of the year is considered a “little Easter”, the Lord’s Day, the day we worship the resurrected Christ.

However, Eastertide is seven Sundays and 50 days from the first Sunday of Easter until Pentecost Sunday.  Eastertide is like Lent, which is a time of repentance and spiritual preparation, except Eastertide is filled with more wonder and excitement and joy than Lent, which tends to focus on penitence.  Eastertide is a time of anticipatory waiting and expectant prayer and reveling joy that Christ is risen indeed.  Recall that the resurrected Jesus told his followers to stay in Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit came to fill them with power (see Luke 24:49).  Today, I want us to consider the beautiful scars of Jesus and what we could gain by rediscovering the practice of the Eastertide tradition as many of found in the Lenten observance.

John 20:19-24
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 

Christ is Risen, and He Appears to Many
One of the key things that happened during Eastertide, the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, is Jesus appeared to many people.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:5-6 – “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.” 

What would it be like to see the risen Christ?  I know we can see Him in many different ways However, what was it like to seem Him in bodily form?  Perhaps that is something you could strive for during Eastertide.  Let’s examine what it was like for the Disciples to see Him.

Behind Locked Doors
The disciples were afraid.  Even after we’ve walked with the Lord for a long time, we can still experience fear.  So, the Disciples we hiding behind locked doors.  Christians were never meant to meet behind locked doors.  We don’t need to be afraid of rejections, persecution, intimidations, sickness or tribulation.  In Christ, we have nothing to lose.  We’ve already won.  In Christ, we are accepted, valued, and protected.  Even if we die, we’ve lost nothing.  This world has nothing for us and when we die we are raised to new life, true life, eternal life in Paradise.  Therefore, we don’t need to hide behind locked doors.

Jesus is Here, in the Flesh
The Disciples plainly see Jesus is alive!  Even though He is a physical being, He can somehow still come to be among them.  No matter where you are or where you try to hide or what experiences you feel separate you from Christ, nothing can keep Him from you. 

Furthermore, Jesus is the first fruit.  That means, His resurrection is the example of what our resurrection will be like.  We will have bodies like Jesus had a body.  But our bodies will be new and improved.  You think the next version of yoru smart phone will be something great?  Wait until you see the second version of your physical body in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Apparently, if Jesus is the example, locked doors will not be able to hinder your passage. 

We All Have Wounds & Scars
Jesus had scars, but His scars were not shameful or disfiguring.  Jesus’s scars were glorious because they tell the story of who He really is.  He can show them to us and prove that it’s really Him.  He’s the one who loved us so much He laid down His life for us and won our freedom from sin and death!  And so, the sight of His scars brings us joy!

 What stories do your scars tell?  It could be that they tell the story of foolish choices.  You did something stupid and have scars (whether physical or emotional) to prove it.  I hope more of my scars will show how I sacrificed for others.  A few weeks ago, a Christian came from Pakistan to tell how He runs a Christian school in Pakistan, a country that is 97% Muslim, where Christians are persecuted and even killed for their faith in Jesus.  The man told me, “Chris, real Christian love always hurts, because it means you must sacrifice like Jesus sacrificed.” 

To love like Christ means being vulnerable.  Sometimes when you love others, they will use or abuse your love and it hurts.  You will be tempted to withhold love next time, but don’t do it.  Real love hurts sometimes.  It may even leave you wounded and scarred.  But don’t’ give up.  Jesus will heal you and empower you to love again.  And the scars you bear will tell the glorious story of how you loved like Jesus loves.  Your scars will be a beautiful crown of glory!  So just keep loving!

Peace & Forgiveness
At first, it puzzled me that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit.  I always think of the Holy Spirit coming to the Disciples at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, which happened 50 days later.  However, then the Lord reminded me, the Holy Spirit comes at many different times for many different reasons.  In this instance, the Holy Spirit was given to impart peace and the ability to forgive.  In Acts 2, Spirit imparted the power to speak boldly in ways that everyone everywhere could hear and understand the Good News about Jesus Christ.  God gives us His Holy Spirit when we believe in Christ to help us overcome any obstacle.  If you ever feel inadequate to complete a task God gives you, do not fear.  God is about to show His power through His Holy Spirit! 

The Disciples need to be able to forgive.  Even though it was an amazing revelation that Jesus was alive and not dead, the Disciples still had a lot to be angry about.  The were angry at the Romans and the Jewish leaders for crucifying their Lord.  They must have been hurt and angry that one of their own number—Judas Iscariot—betrayed them and Jesus and then committed suicide.  They were surely also angry at themselves for their own shameful behavior, fleeing in terror, abandoning their Lord, and Peter denying he even knew Jesus right after boldly telling Jesus he was willing to die for him.  The Disciples need the Holy Spirit to help them forgive others and even themselves.  So Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and gave them the power to forgive.

Have you eve considered what a tremendous privilege it is to be able to forgive?  One of the reasons the religious leaders criticized Jesus was he forgave people’s sins.  They scoffed, “No one, except God, can forgive sins!”  So to prove that He had the power to forgive sins (and that He was God), Jesus did something dramatic.  In Luke 5, a some people brought their paralytic friend to Jesus for healing.  Jesus told the man, “Your sins are forgiven.”  When the Pharisees scoffed, Jesus said, “Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”  25 And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 

So you see, Jesus is God and has the power to forgive sins (and heal a paralytic).  And now, Jesus has given His followers the power to do something that formerly only God had the power to do.  When you forgive, you are doing God’s work by the power of His Holy Spirit.  It is a tremendous privilege.

Poor Thomas missed out on this whole episode.  Apparently, he was away doing someting else.  We don't know what.  Thankfully, Jesus came back another time so that Thomas wouldn’t be left out.  no one gets left behind in God's Kingdom.  We will look at Thomas' the story next time. 

Invitation
I want to challenge you to devote yourself to spiritual renewal as we lead up to Pentecost on June 5th.  Pentecost is six weeks away.  Pray each day about how God wants to transform and empower you.  How might God want you to serve Him this summer?  Pray about it and let Him tell you.  And I also challenge you to read the Book of Acts.  If you read one chapter per day Monday through Friday (taking the weekends off), you should finish the 28 chapters of Acts by Pentecost Sunday.  Acts is the story of the earliest believers going out to tell the world about the risen Christ.  As they did, they transformed the world.  And the cool thing about Acts is, it is an unfinished book.  It’s unfinished, because we are writing the last chapters today.  We are the people of Acts and we are continuing their mission—sent by Jesus Christ to tell the world God’s Kingdom has come.