Father, you know how easy it is for us to get distracted.
You know how easy it is for me to get distracted.
You know how easy it is for me to hear something and maybe get offended and then want to stop
listening.
You know how easy it is for me, Father, to cling to my own fantasies and preconceptions
and idols rather than face the real world.
We ask, Lord, that you would gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us this morning,
not just those who are here but those joining with us online and those who will be joining
with us online downstream, not live but downstream.
We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, that you
would form our minds and our wills and our imaginations and our affections and our desires.
So that we might seek to know that which is true and beautiful and good.
This we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
This could easily turn into a rant from an old guy about how the world has changed and
not in good ways.
But I'm going to make my best effort to not do something like that.
It's not becoming of a minister to ever do rants about how one time period was better than
another.
Only God knows that, actually, doesn't he?
But it is the case, I think, for many people in our culture today that they've lost a sense
of honouring the dead.
And I don't mean ancestor worship.
I just mean that the practice is around having a loved one or a neighbour die.
That increasingly, there's no funerals.
Increasingly, there's not really anything at all to mark the death of that particular person.
We pay some money for some professionals to dispose of the body.
And we just sort of keep on with our very life.
And so if you're here and that's sort of your attitude, or if you're watching online and
that's sort of what you think, this next bit is going to be very weird to you.
But it is a very deeply human thing to desire to honour a loved one who has died.
It's, I think, deeply human to want to do this.
And the story that I've heard, and so I didn't hear this directly from the person who did it.
I heard it one person removed.
And it's this.
When I, before this, I looked after four little rural churches in Killaloo, Eganville, Clontarf,
and Tremor.
And three of those small churches had their own graveyards.
They're way up the Ottawa Valley, just small little churches with graveyards.
And I began my ministry there on June 1st, which is, of course, quite hot.
And when I went to the church in Killaloo for the first time, I noticed that there was this shed
just off to the side, a very big shed, but a shed off to the side, very big shed with sort of in the trees.
And I just assumed that that was where they kept the yard maintenance stuff and ladders and all that type of stuff.
I just assumed that was the case.
But in January, I discovered that that actually wasn't the case.
I discovered that that's where they stored the caskets of people who died in the winter.
Because I did a funeral in January, and I went with the hearse, and I went and we put the body in there.
And I discovered that it was sort of like not just an Anglican body storage, but sort of for the community.
That's where we stored the bodies over the winter.
And this is a story that I was told that had happened about 30 years earlier, but it was still very much talked about.
And it's all about honoring the dead.
There was a woman who had a, I guess we'd call it a phobia.
She hated the idea that if she died in the winter, that her body would be in that shed, just with strangers, going down to minus 30.
And she hated the idea that that's what would happen to her body.
And she talked about it a lot.
And as she got older, and as she got closer to death, she asked her sons and her sons-in-law if they would promise her that if she died in the middle of winter, that they would bury her.
Now, some of us are city folks, and we don't know what the ground is like in the winter, but it's frozen.
You can't just dig a hole.
Well, lo and behold, she did.
She died in mid-January, and so even as she died and her sons paid their respects, they left that place and began the preparation and planning to see that their mom would be buried in the hole.
So they knew where the grave site was, and they had the others to make sure it was marked off, and then they cleared away the snow, and they made a very large fire to cover the area.
And they let it burn for a little bit, and then they took the fire away, and they scraped off a little bit of dirt, and then they made another fire, took it away, scraped off a little bit of dirt, another fire, on and on and on.
A long, long day in very, very cold temperatures, standing there, taking away a tiny little inch of earth at a time, until they finally got past that which was frozen, was able to dig the rest of the hole relatively quickly, says George.
She's just standing there.
I mean, now.
And then that next day, they buried their mom.
They buried their grandmother.
They buried their mother-in-law.
They buried their aunt.
Because it was a group of about six or seven men, and that's what they spent the whole day doing, sometimes going back to get warmed up and do all that other types of stuff.
But the women would bring food for them to eat during the day so that they did it.
But that's how they honored their mom.
And I think that's quite a remarkable story about honoring your mother.
The story which we're about to read is a story about honoring the dead.
It's a story about honoring the dead that goes sideways in a very remarkable way.
So if you have your Bibles, we're going to begin reading at Mark chapter 15, verse 40.
Mark chapter 15, verse 40.
And Mark, I mean, there's two ways that you could look at Mark.
On one hand, you could be like a Christian and believe that it's God's word.
But another way to look at it, which would be how scholars or whatever literary critics would look at it, is it's an ancient biography.
It's an eyewitness biography written while eyewitnesses were alive.
And here's the story that they tell.
And just immediately before this, we have the account of Jesus breathing his last.
And the centurion, seeing Jesus breathing his last, makes a comment about Jesus.
And now here's where the story takes up at verse 40 of chapter 15.
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger, and Joses, and Salome.
When Jesus was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him.
And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
And I just sort of pause here.
The women had been observing the crucifixion from a distance.
They didn't want to be amongst the mockers, and they didn't want to be amongst the gamblers,
and they didn't want to be amongst those who, in every culture, there are bloodthirsty.
If we had a public crucifixion, there would be many people who would film it,
because there's always people who like blood and gore.
It's something they enjoy.
And they didn't want to be part of that, but they see him die.
They see him breathe his last.
The story continues.
And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God,
took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Now, once again, it's the body of Jesus.
He's clearly dead.
But just as an aside, why is it that it took courage to do this?
Well, a moment's reflection will help us.
Some of you know this, and some of you don't, but on the 16th of April, 2008,
this congregation voted to separate from the Anglican Church of Canada
and come under a different jurisdiction, still remaining Anglicans,
but not at all connected to the Anglican Church of Canada.
And when we did that, I, as a minister, had a lot of fears about it, anxieties.
I had a peace about it, but I had anxiety, of course, because it's not unusual for people to say,
yeah, we have your back, Pastor, but then when you take the step, they leave the pastor all alone.
And in fact, the way my former diocese talked about it was there was just this one kooky guy named George Sinclair
who wanted it, but the congregation didn't want it.
And they, in fact, sent messages to the congregation assuring them that after the vote,
Jesus, we would just fire George and that we'd provide another priest for all the people
who wanted to stay with the Diocese of Ottawa.
So that was the way that everybody in the diocese expected that it was going to happen.
Maybe they'd know that there'd be two or three other weird people who would go with me,
but fundamentally nobody would leave such a beautiful building
and all of the resources in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.
But, of course, I became persona non grata.
There were well over 100 clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa,
so in the week after I left, how many of them called me up to say anything to me?
I'll give you the answer.
Out of the 100, 120 active clergy and retired clergy, maybe 150, 180, how many called me?
One.
One minister called me and offered to bring me groceries because he didn't want to see me go hungry.
To the rest, I was a leper.
I mean, very truly, most of the diocese would have allowed a Wiccan to speak in church, but not allow me.
But we all know what it's like if you see somebody that they make a spectacular wrong move,
and to associate with them is to be tainted by them.
And so it took Joseph great courage.
Even though Joseph, Jesus, was now dead, the threat was over, they had won.
It takes great courage to want to ask for the body of Jesus.
But you know what?
Joseph wanted to honor the body of Jesus.
Because if he hadn't have done it, what would have happened is what happened to the other thieves,
which was the normal Roman custom.
The bodies would be taken down and they would be thrown in a dump.
And Joseph wanted to honor Jesus.
And so he took this big risk.
Now, Pilate's a bit confused about this.
Look what happens next, verse 44.
Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus should have already died.
He would have seen Jesus as a strong guy, and normally people wouldn't have died so quickly,
and he'd probably forgotten the Jewish custom and the fact that they would guarantee the death.
He'd just forgotten why would he remember Jewish superstitions.
He was a great Roman.
But he's surprised.
Verse 44, Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus should have already died.
And summoning the centurion, sort of like a captain or a major,
he asked him whether Jesus was already dead.
And when he learned from the centurion that Jesus was dead,
he granted the corpse to Joseph.
Joseph.
Now, once again, notice the text continually says dead, dead, body, corpse.
It continually emphasizes the, you know, if I had been doing the scene things for this,
this whole scene would have been called Jesus is dead, dead, dead, dead.
That's what I would have called the scene if I was doing that with scenes.
He's dead, dead, dead, dead.
Now, sometimes people, when they're downstream trying to explain why the grave is empty,
the tomb is empty, they'll talk about how Jesus maybe didn't die.
And they'll say things like, Lazarus wasn't a doctor.
Maybe he didn't really die.
And that sounds very convincing.
But we forget that there's two types of people who are experts in being able to make this determination.
One, of course, is doctors.
And we do know that, in fact, if a doctor makes a mistake and issues, says somebody's dead when they're alive,
there's, I mean, lots of people will make fun of them for a long time,
and there may be some questions of their judgment.
But there's a whole other category of person who's expert in knowing when somebody's dead,
and that's professional killers.
I'm not being funny.
Professional killers are experts.
And the fact of the matter is, if a professional killer makes the mistake,
people don't just make fun of them.
Something far worse could happen to that guy,
because they're paid to make sure the person's dead.
And the centurions and the duty officers connected with the bearer,
and they would have potentially, this same group of guys would have done dozens,
scores of crucifixions,
I think they estimated that when it came time a few years later,
when the Jewish people started to revolt against Roman rule,
they'd crucify a thousand at a time, a thousand at a time, crucified.
So Jesus was dead.
Verse 46,
And Joseph bought a linen shroud,
and he took Jesus down,
and he wrapped Jesus in the linen shroud,
and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.
And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph,
saw where Jesus was laid.
Once again, you notice the language, the tomb,
the laid, the body,
this continuing hammering away at this continuing thing,
which, as I said, if I had done the Netflix things,
it would have been called,
Jesus is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead,
like he's dead.
Now, here's the thing which is going on in the text.
If you could put up my first point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
On Friday afternoon,
April the 3rd,
33 AD,
Jesus died.
On Friday afternoon,
April the 3rd,
33 AD,
Jesus died.
I was talking to somebody the other day
who's sort of friendly towards Christianity.
I'm not sure where they are with their Christian faith,
but they're friendly to them,
and we were talking a little bit about it.
And he assumed,
he was actually completely floored
that, first of all,
the things like the Gospel of Mark
go back to being eyewitness accounts.
He had never dawned on him
that there are ancient Christian letters
that talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus
that go way back.
The first letter,
Christian letter,
which we have,
which is an undisputed letter
from that time period,
is from 15 years after this,
15 or 16 years after this.
And he was floored
that they actually know the date that Jesus died.
And the scholars debate
whether it was the 7th of April,
30 AD,
or the 3rd of April,
33 AD.
But there's enough historical references
in these ancient biographies
connected to Roman emperors
and other historical characters
that they can sort of figure out
that there's only two possible dates
while Pontius Pilate was in that area
where you had the combination
by solar calendar of a Friday,
you know,
the Thursday,
Friday,
Saturday,
when the Passover
and the Sabbath would happen.
And I think the evidence is best
for it being April 3rd,
33 AD.
But the point is
that what's being recorded here
is history.
That's why I can say,
you could say,
on Friday afternoon,
April the 3rd,
33 AD,
Jesus died.
Now,
the next part of the story,
you know,
this is part of the thing about,
and why you might like
want to have a little journal like this
to reflect upon the text.
The next part is deeply human.
At least it's human in my experience.
Maybe it's not yours.
But,
you know,
every one of us
probably knows people,
and hopefully we aren't that person,
who sort of says,
yeah,
you know,
the family members
or my friends,
they can sort of do those arrangements,
but,
you know,
at the end of the day,
they don't really get it quite right.
They need somebody like me there
just to make things better,
just to make them really proper.
They do their best.
They mean well.
But really,
unless I sort of come and,
you know,
fix up whatever,
it's not quite done well.
And that's what's going on here.
Look how it goes.
It's chapter 16,
verse 1.
When the Sabbath was passed,
Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James,
and Salome,
bought spices
so that they might go
and anoint Jesus.
Now,
what's going on here?
Actually,
if you could put up the point,
that would be very helpful.
On Saturday evening,
April the 4th,
33 AD,
some women bought spices
to cover the stench
of Jesus'
decomposing body.
That's what's being communicated here.
On the evening,
Saturday evening,
April the 4th,
33 AD,
some women bought spices
to cover the stench
of Jesus'
decomposing body.
You see,
Jewish people didn't embalm.
And so what they did
is they would put spices
on the body,
if they could afford it,
to help cover up
the stench
of decomposition.
And so what would have happened,
it's not mentioned
in Joseph's case,
is that Joseph,
in another account,
knows that he had
at least one person
helping him
and maybe servants.
And when they had
the linen shroud,
they would have put
the spices down
on the shroud.
They would have
put some spices
on the part of Jesus
that was probably,
you know,
he's probably on his back
facing up.
And then they wrapped
it all up.
And the women probably thought,
well, you know,
those guys,
they're guys.
They meant well.
But, you know,
I bet they didn't get
enough spices
and I bet it's not
tucked in right
and I bet it's just
not done right.
You know people like that?
That's what they were thinking.
And so,
so they went
and bought extra spices
and they weren't
buying spices
to make cookies
to celebrate
the resurrection
of Jesus.
They were buying spices
to put on the
decomposing body
of Jesus
so it wouldn't smell.
That's what they were doing.
And they were doing it
at night
after the Sabbath is over,
the stalls
and the business is open
and they felt comfortable
doing that.
And those of you
who are women,
know what this is like,
you feel comfortable
doing that
because there's lots
of people around
and you feel safe
but the idea of walking
way out to a tomb
in the middle of the night
all by yourself,
just a couple of women
and it's going to be dark
and you can't really do it,
well that's a very,
very different proposition.
So they go home,
they go to bed
and the next morning
they wake up
and here's what they do.
It's verse 2
and 3.
And very early
on the first day
of the week
when the sun had risen,
they went to the tomb
and they were,
notice again the death,
right?
And they were saying
to one another,
who will roll away
the stone for us
from the entrance
of the tomb?
Now if you could just
put up my next point
that would be handy.
With the first faint
light of dawn,
April 5th,
33 AD,
some women left
for the tomb of Jesus
to put additional spices
on his body
to cover up the stench
of decomposition.
They went to honour him.
I mean for us
it sounds pretty gross
that you'd want to
unwrap the body
and touch the body
after it had been dead
for that many hours
and that sounds
very gross to us,
some of us more than others.
But for others of us
you understand
that great desire
to have that one time
to make sure
that you can,
they didn't have time
on Friday
to really see him dead
and just to be with him,
to be with his body.
They didn't have that time
because there's soldiers around
and people screaming
and yelling
and the hustle and bustle
and then it's taken away
and all they can do
is look at a distance.
They don't have that time
and they want that time.
They love Jesus.
They're deeply sad
that he's dead.
And yes, it's gross.
They would have been familiar
with those type of grossnesses
back then
because you can't just,
it was harder
just to pay a professional
to go and do it
and you don't have to be bothered
and they wanted
to unwrap his body.
They wanted to put
the spices down.
They wanted to wrap him back up.
They wanted to make sure
it was done well
and they wanted
a quiet time alone
with him in the tomb.
It's deeply human.
And the text doesn't tell us.
It might have even been
that some others
who couldn't handle
the gross aspect
were planning to come
and do their respects later
as well,
privately, quietly,
just to see him.
See, all of these
are stories
of people who love Jesus
who wanted to honor him
in his death.
And then
the story takes
a weird turn.
And by now,
I hope you've gathered
that what they're making
is a claim
that it goes
really, really, really weird
and completely
and utterly
against what they had expected
and what they were preparing for
and how they were preparing
to live for the rest
of their lives.
Look what happens.
Look at verses
four to seven.
And looking up,
they must have been coming
from the bottom
and the cave
slash tomb
has been cut in the side.
And looking up,
they saw that the stone
had been rolled back
and it was very large.
And entering the tomb,
they saw a young man
sitting on the right side
dressed in a white robe
and they were alarmed.
And just sort of pause here
before I read any further.
It's clear from the original language
and it's clear from the other accounts
that this is a way
of describing an angel.
They're seeing an angel.
Verse six,
And he said to them,
Do not be alarmed.
You seek Jesus of Nazareth
who was crucified.
He is risen.
He is not here.
See the place
where they laid him.
But go,
tell his disciples
and Peter
that he is going before you
to Galilee.
There you will see him
just as he told you.
If you could put up the point.
On the morning of April 5th,
33 AD,
some women found
the stone rolled away
from Jesus' tomb
and his body was gone.
Now up until now,
you could go to the religion faculty
at Ottawa U.
You could go to the ultra-liberal
religion faculty
at St. Paul University.
You could go to the religion faculty
at Carleton.
You could go to just about
any school.
And they would not disagree
with a single thing
of my points
that I've set up until now.
They might,
you know,
my explanation,
they might have different nuances.
That's fine.
But the four points
that I've put up right now,
that would be just,
that's part of the bedrock thing
that nobody would disagree with.
Some of them might disagree
with 33 and 30,
but,
you know,
at the end of the day,
all of this stuff,
I've completely and utterly,
they all agree.
But in that text,
in particular,
in verse 5 and 6,
this is where they lose it.
Okay, George,
you're saying an angel
talked to the women.
Like, seriously?
An angel talked to the women?
George,
and you say it's history?
You say it's biography?
And you have an angel talking?
George,
that's completely
and utterly ridiculous.
Now,
they might say it
with more scorn
and not affection.
And we might get deeply red
in the face
and uncomfortable
and not know what to say.
And I'm not going to give you
a whole account
of what they,
of what to say.
But I am,
if you could put up
the fifth point,
I am going to maintain
that this sentence
makes complete sense
as an historical account
of what actually happened.
Amongst other things,
because I'm not going into it,
the person who is,
well, no,
I'll make the point first.
On the morning of April 5th,
33 AD,
an angel told the women
that Jesus had been resurrected
from death,
from the dead.
Now,
angels,
you know,
that's completely impossible.
It's completely implausible.
Well,
amongst other things,
that only makes sense,
of course,
if angels don't actually exist.
If they do exist,
then there's nothing wrong
with this.
Now,
here's what,
here's what's going on,
you know,
and that's why,
by the way,
this is one of the reasons
I've made all of my points
by giving the actual date
of the resurrection
and the claim
that's being made.
That you can't read
the Gospels
and not realize,
you know,
if you want to think,
if you think
that they may be
trying to just be symbolic,
well,
the Bible has
an account
of Christian truth
which is symbolic.
It's called
the Book of Revelation
and nobody can read
the Book of Revelation
and read one of the Gospels
and think that
they're the same genres.
Like,
early Christians,
just,
they weren't dummies.
They're writing
an ancient biography
and they're making
these claims.
They're claiming
that that's what happened.
Now,
here's the issue
with it
and this is why
on one level,
and I think increasingly
in our culture
there's maybe
going to begin
a new openness to it
and I want to park here
just for a couple of minutes.
I see the time.
I want to park here.
I have,
I know somebody who,
I know several people now
who might have been
a bit far
from the Christian faith
for a while
and I don't know
if they're definitely,
at least a couple of them
that I'm thinking of,
they're definitely
not Christians
but they have a respect
for Christians
that they didn't have before
and that's because
on a very fundamental level
they're starting to realize
and recognize
something which has
always been true
that Christian truth,
the Christian faith
has been a bastion,
has been a bastion
of truth
and of evidence
and of reason
and of what is real.
like I talk to people
and once they start
to realize
what I think about things
they come to realize
that there's people
in our,
like there's actually
people in our
educational institution
that think that
two plus two
equals four
isn't a statement
of something which is true
but is a patriarchal construct.
That there are people
in our culture
who think that
you should have
different ways
of knowing
taught alongside science
because they're both
equally valid
that something
that you get
from a dream
or a legend
is going to be
equally as good
at treating people
or handling things
as evidence-based,
scientific-based medicine
and that's just
completely ridiculous.
And the next bit,
this isn't a political rant
and I know normally
I try to make
a whole pile of covering
for it
and I don't want
to offend
and I'm going to offend
and I'll take you
out for coffee
and I'll give you
lots of nuances
around it
but I know people
who sit through
and these are people
who are scientists
with graduate level
degrees in biology
and they sit through
a workshop
where they say
that you can't refer
to women breastfeeding,
you have to refer
what's the word
to milking agents
like, you know,
chest feeding?
And they sit
through things
where, you know,
you might have seen
an viral clip
that you couldn't tell
in an autopsy
whether the corpse
was a male or female
and they go,
like, what?
And I know several people
who, you know,
ten years earlier
or five years earlier
they would have been
very dismissive
of Christians
but all of a sudden
they just look at Christians
and they realize
that Christians
have had this long tradition
deeply formed
that we're concerned
with evidence,
that we're concerned
with the truth,
that we're concerned
with reason
and they see our culture
getting unmoored
and all of a sudden
they realize
that if they're going
to go and have some people
they can at least
have conversations with
and maybe have,
start to realize
that there's something
grounding,
just actually what's real,
that that's where you go,
that's where Christians
inhabit.
and for some of them
it's a very shocking
realization
that that's sort of
that they're on the same
side of the playing field
with guys like me
and you folks.
You see,
I mean,
you just look at this story.
Christians say
that they didn't roll
the stone away
so Jesus could get out.
They rolled the stone away
so that people could go in
and verify
that the body was gone.
Kathy Keller
has a wonderful line.
She says,
it's always been part
of the Christian tradition
to trust and verify.
Trust and verify.
That that's part
of the Christian tradition.
Even the angel says,
look,
the body's gone.
Christianity would be
a radically,
radically,
radically different religion.
In fact,
it would be like
the religions
of most of the world
if we were to say,
yeah,
Jesus rose from the dead.
Oh,
did he rise from the dead?
How do you know?
Well,
you know,
we know that the body's gone.
Can I go?
No,
no,
you know,
it happened right here
in this tomb.
Well,
can we go and look?
No,
no,
you know,
maybe it's ancient myths
and ancient stories
and I'm not,
I'm not putting them down at all
and ancient practices,
you have stories,
you have myths,
you have practices,
you have legends,
you have,
you know,
poetry,
you have all of these types of things
and the person who follows them
has to follow those things.
You follow the myths
and you meditate upon the myths
and you make them your own
and you do the practices
and that makes you acceptable to God.
But at the very,
very heart of the Christian faith
and this is something
that Protestant and Catholics
and Eastern Orthodox
we all agree on.
At the very heart of the Christian faith
is,
I mean,
it's obviously important to us
what Jesus taught
and it's important to us
that we do what Jesus told us to do
but at the very heart of it
is that God in his son
does something in history,
that he accomplishes something.
That's the heart of the Christian faith.
That on April 5th, 33 AD,
the tomb was empty
because Jesus rose.
That's the heart of the Christian faith.
It's the heart of the Christian faith
that I'm not made right with God
because I'm really good
at keeping the teachings.
You're not made right with God
because you suck at keeping the teachings
and you suck
and I'm way better at it
and so I'm acceptable to God.
No,
that's not what the Christian faith is.
The Christian faith is that
I'm an unworthy person
and Jesus did something for me
that I cannot do for myself
and I receive it by grace
and so right in the very, very center
of Christianity
is a concern
not just with stories and myths
and allegories and symbolism
and metaphors
but of something actually happening
in the real world
which is why Christianity has miracles
and the others don't.
It's all about what happens
in the real world
and it's a very different way of living
but at the same time
and this is what makes
Christianity so weird
to people on the outside.
I had a fellow,
maybe he's watching this
today or downstream
and he's an engineer.
He was from a communist country,
raised an atheist.
He fled the Iron Curtain,
came to the West
and I've had quite a few conversations
with him
and I got him all wrong
for the first three or four months.
I just assumed he was an atheist
and it finally dawned on me
that by his own thinking
he had rejected atheism
and come to believe
that there were beings like angels.
And you see,
the other thing
which is just so weird
about Christianity
is we have this concern
for truth,
for evidence,
for reason,
for thinking,
for being careful,
for being clear
but at the other hand,
we believe there's a soul,
we believe there's angels,
we believe there's meaning,
we believe there's beauty,
we believe there's goodness,
we believe there's right and wrong,
we believe that there's
these transcendent truths,
we believe that
because the creator God,
the triune God
has created all things,
that different things in creation
just aren't mere things
or mere stuff
or mere collections of atoms
but that they communicate
in some ways,
that they point to things,
that they're metaphors of things,
that the body has a type
of a significance to it
and you can't discover that
from science,
from cutting it up
and dissecting it,
that there's this whole world
of meaning,
of beauty,
of goodness,
of dance,
of poetry,
of laughter
and Christianity
is not just the bastion of truth,
it's also the bastion of that
which believes that there is more
and the two are held together
with no contradiction whatsoever,
hence if that statement is up there,
why that statement makes
all the sense in the world
that on the morning
that April 5th, 33 AD,
an angel told the woman
that Jesus had been resurrected
from the dead
and no Christian
has to blush at that
and we say,
yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Don't you believe in minds
and souls
and beauty
and goodness
and love
and truth
and justice?
Don't you believe
there's something more
than what you can just consume
or push around?
Don't you believe
there's something more?
And don't you believe
that in a,
don't you wish
there was a world
where there's both
something more
and something that,
and you can think about it
and there's no contradiction?
There's a coherence
and doesn't that sound
beautiful and attractive?
And if you think
that's beautiful and attractive
then what you are being attracted to
is only Christianity
and nothing else.
If you were,
wish that there was a world
where you could do science
and do art,
where you could
analyze things
very carefully
and think really hardly
and at the same time
recognize beauty
and awe
and mystery
and you wish
there was a way
that both of those things
could coexist
in one,
perhaps one way,
what you are wishing
for is that Christianity
was true,
is true.
And I want to tell you,
friends,
I want to tell you,
brothers and sisters,
it's true.
Go listen to some
of Mike Lacona's tapes
and many others.
There is no better
explanation
for the historical facts
around the death
of Jesus
than that he is
resurrected from the dead.
There is no better
rational,
reasonable explanation
for the facts
than what that angel
just said.
Amen.
I have to wrap things up.
My voice is going.
April showers
bring May flowers
and they also bring allergies.
Could you put up
the next point
just briefly?
Excuse me.
On Friday afternoon,
April 3rd, 33 AD,
death appeared
to swallow Jesus.
I just say it appeared
not because he didn't die,
but it appeared
that death
had swallowed Jesus
and death had won.
On Sunday,
April 5th, 33 AD,
people began to learn
that Jesus
had swallowed death.
This tiny little man
probably wasn't much taller
than five foot tall,
scrawny
and not very good looking.
scrawny
because he was
lower working class,
not good looking
because that's what
the Bible tells us.
He died on the cross
amidst blood
and gore
and jeers
on Friday,
April 3rd,
and on Sunday,
April 5th.
We began to learn
that he
had swallowed death.
Now,
I'm going to go
through these things
a little bit quick.
You know,
for Christians,
this is why
for Christians,
the grave
is a bed of hope
for those in Christ.
the sweetest lie
that Canadians
tell themselves
is that they
will never die.
And the second
sweetest lie
that Canadians
tell themselves
is that even
if they die,
it will all work out.
We know
from the teachings
of Jesus
that those things
are not true.
Of course,
it's just biologically
the case that we're
all going to die.
And for many people,
as their death becomes,
their upcoming death
becomes a reality,
they face terror.
But for Christians,
for those who are
in Christ,
in his finished work,
in his arms,
where he has come
into them
to be their savior,
and they are in him,
the grave becomes
a bed of hope.
If Jesus tarries,
there will be a time
when my eyes close,
and I don't know
what I will see
as my eyes close.
Maybe I will be
in a coma.
Maybe I'll see
the ceiling.
Maybe I'll see
the loved ones
around me,
and my eyes
will close.
And the moment
my eyes close
on my loved ones,
my eyes open
in glory.
And that is
the Christian hope.
hope.
That is the Christian hope.
Why did they go
without fear?
Why did they go
with fear?
Look at,
if you could put up
verse 8,
and they went out
and fled from the tomb
for trembling
and astonishment
had seized them,
and they said nothing
to anyone,
for they were afraid.
I put this,
I had not talked about this
all the way through
Mark's gospel.
If you go,
I'm going to make
this little point.
If you go back
and you read
Mark's gospel
on your own,
one of the things
you're going to find
is his disciples
kept getting it wrong.
They kept not doing
what he wanted them to do.
They kept getting it wrong,
like all the time,
like his mom thinks
he's insane.
I'm not making that up.
Like his sisters
and brothers
think Jesus is insane.
Like, you know,
just after Jesus says
he's going to die
on the cross,
the disciples get
in an argument
about who's going
to sit at Jesus' throne
when he rules the world.
Like they keep
getting it wrong.
And so the gospel
of Mark ends
in the most brilliant way.
How do I believe
that Jesus died?
I couldn't go see
the empty tomb.
I believe it
because the tomb
is empty,
and I've been told
that Jesus rose
from the dead.
That's how all of us believe.
And the question ends
in a bit of an ironic
type of way,
like an odd type of way,
because it's a challenge
to you and me.
Am I going to be
like the woman
and be afraid?
Like, I'll be honest,
when I made that comment
about chest feeding units,
I wondered whether
I should say something
like that in Canada
in 2022.
And you all know.
You all know
that that's the case.
Because we can be afraid
to speak and bear witness
to the truth.
And the text
is calling you,
it's calling me,
to listen to what
the angel said,
to listen to what
Jesus promised,
to trust that it's true,
and to not live out
of fear.
Not be like those women
who obviously changed
their mind later on,
and, you know,
there's all that other stuff,
but not to be like that.
To walk with a confidence
not based in my flesh,
not based on my accomplishment,
but based on Christ,
to not live in fear.
Jesus doesn't want us
to live in fear.
He doesn't want us
to live by fear,
live by fear of death,
live by lies,
live by injustice,
live by hatred.
He wants us to live
by the truth.
He wants us to live
by goodness.
He wants us to live
by beauty.
He wants us to live
by justice.
He doesn't want us
to live by fear.
That's what he wants us,
that's how he wants us
to live,
brothers and sisters.
so the last two points very briefly if you put up number seven Jesus confers grace
triune God-given life-giving grace to the unworthy his grace to the unworthy disciples his grace to
the unworthy Peter the grace to the unworthy women his grace to unworthy George his ungrace
his grace to unworthy Adam I mean Andrew his grace to the unworthy Joe his grace to unworthy
Ken and unworthy Uzo and and and Amy and Deborah and and Diane and Louise grace to the unworthy
George proclaimed and then the final point your only hope my only hope in life and death
is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that is my hope in life and death
that is the only hope and he wants us to live as people of hope and we are people of hope when
the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ become the story that we live by when
we are in him because we trust him as our Christ our savior our Lord and that is a life of hope your
only hope in life and death is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ invite you
to stand please stand let's bow our heads in prayer
father you know how frail we are you know how many fears we have and you know better than even we do
how unworthy we are time and time and time again so father we thank you for grace we thank you for the
grace that comes to us through Jesus we thank you for what he did for us on the cross we thank you for
his defeat of death we thank you that he made sure that people understood that not only was the body
gone but that it was gone because he was alive we give you thanks and praise that even now he is in
heaven and that he intercedes for us that when he's he walks with us and intercedes for us that he is
with us that he still is Emmanuel God with us and that one day he will come visibly powerfully in glory
to bring this created world to its end to to knit together that which should be knit and and and to
put to death that which should be put to death and to bring in the new heaven and the new earth and that
he has died and risen from the dead to fit us for heaven father we thank you for what Christ has done
we thank you for what he will continue to do in our lives and we ask Lord that you help the gospel
to be real to our hearts so that we will not live by fear but that we will live by hope and we ask this
in the name of Jesus your son and our savior and all God's people said amen
Amen