Sermon: "He Saw and Believed"

Scripture: John 20: 1-18

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

 

 In Orlando, Florida, Jesus gets crucified -- and resurrected -- six times a week. It's his job. What does the resurrection tell us about our vocation as Christians?

Les Cheveldayoff gets crucified six times a week.

It's not that he has a bad job, it's -- well, it's that getting crucified is his job. He gets resurrected six times a week, too, so it's all good.

Les Cheveldayoff is Jesus. At least he portrays Jesus at a park in the midst of the vacation land of Orlando, Florida. Les is a ruggedly handsome guy with long wavy and sandy hair, a full beard, smiling eyes and six-pack abs -- the prototype of the popular picture of Jesus (at least in this part of the world).

For six years, Les has been part of the cast at The Holy Land Experience -- an interactive living history park/ministry that was the dream of founder Marv Rosenthal, a man who, although born into a Jewish family, converted to Christianity and became a Baptist minister. The Holy Land Experience, which opened in 2001, is no bathrobe biblical drama. It was designed by Orlando-based ITEC, which worked on nearby projects like Disney's Mission: Space and Universal Studios' Spiderman experience. When Les gets crucified every afternoon except Sunday (the day Jesus is resurrected, not crucified, after all), it's a spectacle worthy of anything the folks at the Magic Kingdom can dish out.

The management at The Holy Land Experience wants to make it clear that they are not a theme park like the others around them in Orlando. There are no rides, for example. They prefer to refer to the park as a "living biblical museum" where people do indeed encounter the particular spiritual theme that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In other words, this isn't Disney World and Jesus is no Mickey Mouse. The disciples, townsfolk and Roman soldiers in The Holy Land Experience are there to interact with the visitors and mug for all those digital cameras, but they do so as living historians. They act in the first person and must know all the details about life in first-century Israel.

Jesus, on the other hand, retreats behind the scenes after a morning show called "The Ministry of Jesus," reappearing again only once in the afternoon as he drags the cross down the faux Via Dolorosa while actors portraying Roman soldiers appear to kick and spit on him. Tourists line the streets taking pictures, some licking the "milk and honey" ice-cream cones they bought from a nearby concession stand (we're not making this up). The action moves to the "Calvary's Garden Tomb" area of the park where Les/Jesus is "nailed" to a large cross that is lifted up by hydraulic motors. Later, he appears from the tomb that sits immediately below Calvary's hill.

This sort of thing might not be your chalice of wine, to be sure, because the whole thing may appear from a distance as a cheesy Easter pageant gone Hollywood. But Cheveldayoff sees it differently. Every time he is hoisted up on that cross during that intense 20-minute presentation, he sees the outpouring of emotion among many in the crowd. "I notice it so much that sometimes it throws me off my lines," he says. Taking people back to the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection has a visceral impact, even if the rumble in the background is the sound of trucks barreling down Interstate 4 instead of a divinely generated earthquake. People not only want to read the story in the Scriptures -- they want to experience the Cross and the Resurrection for themselves.

We may not have hydraulic crosses and scale model tombs in our sanctuaries on Easter morning, but we preachers still try to give our people an opportunity to experience the events of that morning. We work hard to re-create the scene in our sermons, we make sure that the music and the mood are right, and then we open the doors to the hordes of people who will fill the pews on Easter Sunday morning. We hope that it will touch you in such a way that you will join us for the weeks that follow this glorious celebration. After all, what good is it to witness the resurrection if you are not going to live the resurrection?

Many people on Easter morning are looking for a seat, however, are kind of like spiritual tourists. They drop in, look on, have a pleasant experience, but then it's on to brunch. For them the Resurrection is the greatest comeback story of all time, but one confined to the time and space of Easter itself. Oh, they'll be back at Christmas for another play, another pageant, but otherwise it's all a nice memory.

This may sound harsh, but statistics will show that, in almost all congregations around the world, the churches are packed for Easter and Christmas, but it soon subsides. Now, I know that many of you worshipping with us this morning are visiting relatives or friends, and we welcome you. But, far too many around the world are just that, C and E Christians. It is the job and commitment of the regular church goer to be like Jesus to those who are infrequent worshippers and to help them to understand what Easter is really about.

If people treat Easter Sunday like a tourist attraction, maybe that's because we in the church haven't done enough to point out the real message of Easter as an ongoing reality that continues beyond the historical event. The resurrection of Jesus marked the triumph of God over evil and death, but it also marked a fundamental change in the relationship between God and humanity. It signals a reconciliation. "We have peace," Paul writes in Romans, "with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

The empty tomb means that as Jesus is, we also can be: selfless agents of love and reconciliation.

The resurrection story in John 20 is a familiar one -- Mary Magdalene discovering the empty tomb, Peter and John seeing the folded grave clothes, the visit of the angels, the risen Jesus calling Mary's name. These are the stories the crowd gathers to hear on Easter morning. What we sometimes miss, though, is that the real thrust of this passage points toward the ascension of Jesus as the seminal event that will activate and empower his disciples.

Mary moved to embrace the risen Jesus, but he said "Do not hold on to me" because he had "not yet ascended to the Father" (John 20:17). It's not that Jesus had some kind of dangerous spiritual aura about him or that his resurrection body could not be touched by human hands. Mary wanted to hold on tight to her Teacher and Lord, but Jesus reminds her of the bigger picture. The focus of Jesus was not on basking in the glow of the resurrection event, but on getting word to his disciples and getting them moving out on the mission of taking the message of the risen Christ into the world.

In John's gospel it's the ascension of Jesus that will empower the disciples and enable the mission to move forward. Notice the message that Jesus instructs Mary to carry to the disciples. It's not about giving them a meeting point for his post-resurrection appearances (as in Matthew 28:7 or Mark 16:7), but instead it's a message about his ascension, which John sees as the completion of Jesus' glorification and his identity as the true Son of Man (John 3:13; 6:62). The Ascension was the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus would "prepare a place" for those he loves (14:2). That "place" has most often been equated with a faraway and future "heaven," but the context here seems to be grounded more in the present. The image of the Father's "house" in John's gospel is used to describe the nature of a divine-human relationship as well as a physical location (John 2:16; 8:36-38). The "place" that Jesus was preparing and making possible in the Ascension, then, was not so much a heavenly mansion but rather a new relationship, a new "house" where the followers of Jesus would enjoy the same indwelling relationship with God in the present that Jesus himself had enjoyed. Jesus' return to God would be the event that made it possible for the disciples to join in the relationship shared by Jesus and God the Father (John 20:17).

What was true about the relationship between Jesus and God ("my Father" and "my God") would now be true of the disciples ("your Father" and "your God").

As if to signify this change in relationship, Jesus instructs Mary to bring the news to "my brothers." The disciples, both male and female, were to be the new family of God and the representatives of Christ to the whole world. When Jesus appeared to his disciples for the first time, he confirmed that mission -- "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21).

So here's the scoop for the Easter crowd: The glory of Easter, the glory of Jesus, was to be acted out by disciples. They were to be Jesus' hands, feet and voice serving people everywhere.

For 21st-century disciples, being Jesus isn't about beards, robes, six-pack abs and twice-daily shows, but it's about walking the talk, dying, being raised and being in relationship with God, whom Jesus called "Father."

Walking the talk: Being Jesus every day means that as Jesus walked among the people of his day, showing mercy, healing the sick, interacting with others with respect and love, we, too, get to live in the world walking the talk, making a difference, healing the wounded, binding up the broken, blessing those around us, lifting up the fallen. We get to do that.

Dying daily: We may not get crucified on a hydraulic cross six times a week, but we do "die" to an old life, and chances are we go through a good crucifixion every day. The apostle Paul said he "died daily." What makes us think we can get off with less? "Dying daily" means that there are bound to be those moments when our natural, base, selfish interests rear up, like Glenn Close in the bathtub scene of Fatal Attraction, refusing to die. Being Jesus means we go through a dying. We say "no" to those selfish interests as we put the needs of others first. Tough to do. Painful. No one said crucifixion was easy.

Buried: Being Jesus means we may feel like we've been buried and forgotten. We live faithfully and no one notices, no one cares. People throw a few daisies our way and move on. Big deal.

Resurrection: Being Jesus means that the power of God energizes us afresh each day and each moment of the day. We're alive to a new life, and we are alive with a new life!

Easter morning is our reminder that we're called to "be Jesus." And not only called, but empowered to be what we've been called to be.

This call cannot be made with reference to any other person. We can't make this a sermon about "Being Mother Teresa," or "Being the apostle Paul," or "Being Angelina Jolie." It's not about adopting 25 kids, writing theological essays, or working in the slums of Kolkata.

Being Jesus is much more. It's about recognizing our new relationship to God as a child of God, reconciled to God through Jesus -- a turn of events which allows us not just to act the part, as does Les Cheveldayoff, but to live the life day after day.

If Jesus is born anew in you today will you shout  Alleluia?

Will you??? Alleluia!!  Amen!! Amen!!