Archive for April, 2009

Five Resurrections

April 25, 2009 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Resurrection of Jesus, The hereafter ·Tagged , , ,

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Introduction
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live.” 
(John 11: 25)

For the last few weeks we have been reminding ourselves of the Easter story. This Sunday let us consider five great resurrections. The first three are recorded in the Gospels – they are resurrections which Jesus performed in his lifetime. On each of these occasions Jesus raised from the dead someone who was close to someone else. His motivation for this was compassion, but in doing so he showed forth the power and glory of God.

 

Resurrection No 1 – Someone’s daughter ( Mark 5:21-24, 35-43)

Jairus was an important man, the ruler of the synagogue,an influential and wealthy man. He came to Jesus distraught with sorrow and worry.

“My little girl is dying. She’s only twelve years old and she is about to die. Please come and help her.  Please lay hands on her and heal her.”

Jesus saw the man’s need and agreed to go with him to his house. But on the way they were delayed -  another needy person, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years. She touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and she was healed. There was quite  a lot of fuss then, while Jesus spoke to the woman in front of the crowd.

All this time Jairus was waiting for Jesus to come to his house  – he was on tenterhooks. He was deeply anxious and he feared that his daughter might already be dead. When they got to the house Jairus’s worst fears were realised. A man came out of the house and said, “Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more?”

Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid: just believe.”
Jesus then went into the house accompanied just by his closest disciples. There was a tremendous commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. Jesus went in and said to them, “The child is not dead, but asleep.” They mocked bitterly at him.  Jesus gave an order to clear the house of the weeping and wailing people. Then just with Peter, James and John, and the child’s parents, he went into the room . She was lying there, dead on the bed. Jesus gently took her by the hand  and said, “Little one, get up.”  Immediately she sat up! She looked around in a puzzled way, then walked about the room. They were all completely astonished, amazed and overjoyed. “Give her something to eat,” Jesus said, “and don’t tell anyone else about this.”

So it was that Jairus and his wife and three of the disciples were the only witnesses of this amazing miracle. The time had not yet come for Jesus to proclaim openly  his power to raise the dead.

 
Resurrection No. 2 – Someone’s son (Luke 7: 11-16)

On another occasion Jesus came to the town of Nain in Galilee. His disciples were with him and a large crowd of people were following him. They had seen some of his miracles and heard his wonderful teaching. As they approached the town they met another crowd coming in the opposite direction. It was a funeral procession on their way out to the cemetery. Tragically the deceased was a young man. It was particularly sad also that he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So now she had no one in the world. The Lord saw her situation and his heart went out to her.

“Don’t cry,” he said. Then he went up and touched the funeral bier, and the pallbearers stood still. They were aghast – this was an act of profanation. To touch a body, or a coffin, or a funeral bier, was to incur ritual pollution. None but a close relative would do that.

Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

And the man who had been dead sat up in the bier and he spoke some words. Jesus gave him back to his mother. The crowd were filled with awe: “a great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people!”

The news was getting out that Jesus was a mighty man of God.

 
Resurrection No.3  – Someone’s brother  (John 11:38-43)

Martha and Mary were two sisters who lived at Bethany. They were friends and disciples of Jesus.  So when their brother Lazarus became desperately  ill they sent for Jesus to come and heal him. But Jesus waited two days before making the long journey from Galilee to Judea. When they got to Bethany they found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Against the wishes of the sisters Jesus had the tomb opened, and with a mighty word of command brought Lazarus back from the dead.

“Lazarus come forth!”

The people  standing around the tomb were transfixed with amazement as they saw a flash of something white at the entrance of the tomb. Next moment, there was Lazarus standing at the mouth of the tomb with his grave-cloths still fluttering around him, and  a napkin wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave-clothes and let him go.”

As a result of this miracle many of those who had come to visit Martha and Mary in their sorrow came to believe in Jesus. And the religious authorities, when they heard about this, plotted to kill Jesus.

Now this was definitely a real resurrection. Yes, to the sceptical mind Jairus’s daughter could have just been in a deep coma (and after all Jesus did say she was only sleeping). Likewise, the widow of Nain’s son had only just been declared dead. In those days people were buried as soon as they died. It was just possible that this  young man was not actually dead, but in a coma.

Yes, to the sceptical mind I say these things might not seem to be real resurrections. But the raising of Lazarus is a different thing -  he had been in the tomb for four days. His body had started to decompose but Jesus reversed the process and brought him back to life. An amazing miracle! No wonder Jesus had said,

“I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  (John 11: 25)

 

 
Resurrection No. 4 – God’s Son

In the Easter season its not the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, or the widow’s son, or Mary and Martha’s brother we celebrate, but he Resurrection of God’s Son.

All these people Jesus raised were brought back to physical life, only to die a natural death later. (The girl probably married and had a family, the young man was able to support his widowed mother, Lazarus was returned to the bosom of his family but al three of them died later.)

But the Resurrection of Jesus is totally different: he rose with a new, spiritual, glorified body. In his risen form he could appear and disappear at will -  even behind locked doors. He could veil his appearance so that people did not recognise him. But he didn’t return as an apparition, a phantom, a ghost. No, he had a solid existence. He was there in the body. People walked with him on the road, they sat at his feet, they ate and drank with him. On one occasion he sat by a campfire on the lakeside and served them fish and bread cooked on the hot coals. Imagine: a barbecue with the risen Jesus!

At the end of forty days Jesus was taken from their sight to heaven. He is risen and glorified – he will never die again.

 
Resurrection No. 5 – Our resurrection

This is the bit I’m looking forward to!  Jesus raised the three people mentioned in the gospels and he himself was raised from the dead on Easter day. But the good news of Easter is that we shall be raised too!

 We too, on the day of Resurrection, will be given  wonderful, glorious, Resurrection bodies. Like the Lord we shall no longer be limited by the physical constraints of this material world. And yet we shall not be mere disembodied spirits, insubstantial wraiths. No, we shall be more solid, more real, than we are in this life. We shall have entered the ultimate reality of God’s presence.

Now this is all a great mystery, we can not imagine what it will be like,  but the Resurrection of Jesus guarantees it.
The Tomb was empty, the Body was gone -  and Jesus appeared to his disciples.

 The Lord is risen  – he is risen indeed!

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Saint George

April 24, 2009 at 10:54 am · Filed under Christian living, Uncategorized

Talk given at  Brecon Scouts St George’s Day Service 2009

No doubt all you scouts, cubs and beavers know the story of Saint George and the dragon. He’s the Patron Saint of England, but the English don’t pay as much attention to him as the Welsh, Scots and Irish do to their patron saints!
St. George is also the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal,  Russia and Serbia. And, of course, of the Scout Movement.
A lot of the stories about George were made up in the Middle Ages – especially the one about him slaying the dragon.
What do we know about him historically?

 

The story of George

George was a Roman soldier who lived at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century. He was born and brought up in Lydda in Palestine, but he served as a soldier in Asia Minor ( modern day Turkey). George was a very good soldier and he rose to become an officer in the bodyguard of the Emperor Diocletian.

George was a Christian, and there were many other Christians in the Roman empire at the time. There were plenty of pagans too, who worshipped the old Roman gods, but generally the Christians were allowed to practice their religion  in peace. But then, in 303 AD, the Emperor Diocletian banned the Christian  faith and started torturing and killing Christians.

 

A choice

George had been a good soldier of Rome and a faithful servant of Christ, but now he had to chose between the two.  If he remained a soldier he would have to deny Christ and worship the gods of Rome. Then he would be allowed to live in peace. If he remained faithful to Christ he would have to disobey the Emperor and face the consequences.

George set out to the Emperor’s court to plead for the law to be changed. His friends begged him not to go. They could see it would end in his death. When he got the message the Emperor Diocletian refused to see George and handed him over to the governor of the city of Nicomedia. There George was condemned to death. He was tortured and dragged though the streets of the city. Eventually he was beheaded. This happened on April 23rd. – St George’s Day.

 

Make a stand

So George was a great soldier, a brave man, a faithful servant of God. Perhaps the story of his slaying a dragon is just a way of saying he stood up against the “dragon” of paganism and of tyranny.

We can all learn from George. We all have our dragons – those bad things in our lives we need to struggle against – things like cruelty, unkindness, greed, laziness selfishness.

There are also many temptations to do wrong  – to steal, or to  lie, or to take drugs. There are also evils in society we should fight against – such thing as ignorance and poverty and corruption.

Sometimes we have to make a stand for truth or right or justice – even when it costs us. To speak up for the weak and the oppressed. To be a follower of Jesus, even when no one else  seems to want to follow him. To not be afraid of being unpopular or appearing uncool because we stand up for what we believe.

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Christ our Passover

April 13, 2009 at 12:29 am · Filed under Jesus Christ, Old testament, Sacrifice of Jesus, Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

 

Passover ceremony

Have you ever wondered why the date of Easter jumps around so much. There can be as much as a month’s difference from one year to the next. Easter is what is known as a “movable feast” – but why?

The simple answer is that it is connected with the Jewish Passover, and that varies from year to year because it always occurs at full moon. Jesus died and rose at Passover time, and so Easter is always held a this time of the year. But it does not always coincide with Passover. For some reason the Church leaders in the Middle Ages decided to use a different method of calculating the date to that used by the Jews. Possibly they were motivated by anti-semitism – I don’t know. I think it would be a very good idea if we kept the same time as the Jewish Passover, or alternatively  kept a fixed date for Easter. This year Easter does coincide with Passover, and so I thought it would be a good thing for us to see the parallels between the two.

Jewish passover rituals

The Passover has been celebrated for thousands of years by the Jewish people. It is a retelling of how God rescued his people from a life of slavery in Egypt. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in a hurry after the last plague fell  ( the Death of the Firstborn). The original Passover ceremony involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the  daubing of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. Then the lamb was roasted whole and eaten by the members of the family. They also ate unleavened bread as a reminder that, when they fled Egypt, they had not had time to wait for their bread to rise,  but ate it without yeast.

In the modern Passover ceremony there is no lamb – for since the destruction of the temple in AD 70 there have been no animal sacrifices in Judaism. A shank-bone of a lamb is always present on the table as a reminder of the sacrificial lamb but no lamb is eaten at the modern Passover meal.

 

Christian significance

“Well,” you might say, “that’s all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with us as Christians?”  A lot actually!

In the New Testament Christ is spoken of as the sacrificial lamb of God through whom the sins of the world are take away. John the Baptist  spoke of him in this way and Paul spoke of Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. It is very likely that his Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover meal. His use of bread and wine in the Sacrament he instituted comes from the Passover.

Not one bone broken

When the Passover Lamb was sacrificed it was important that none of its bones were broken. Its blood was poured out, but its bones were not broken, and it was roasted whole.  In Psalm 34: 20 it is prophesied of the Messiah that “not one of his bones will be broken”. During the crucifixion the soldiers came to break the leg bones of the victims as a means of hastening their death. (It prevented the man on the cross from being able to push up with his legs to take a breath. With their legs broken the poor victims could not breath and were soon asphyxiated.) But when the soldiers came to Jesus they found he was already dead, and so they did not break his leg bones. Thus the prophetic words of the Psalmist were fulfilled.

Passing over

The original Passover lambs were slain so that their blood could be daubed on to the door posts and lintels of the houses of the Israelites. It was said en that when the destroying angel came to strike the firstborn of that house he would stay his hand when he saw the blood on the door posts. God and his destroying angel  would “pass over” that house. Hence the term Passover.

It is from this incident in the Old Testament that we gain our Christian understanding of the work of redemption which Christ did for us. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His blood was shed for us. When we trust in him and in the power of his blood we are, as it were, putting the blood on the doorposts and lintel of our lives.  God passes over our sins  and refrains form punishing us. Instead the punishment falls on Christ the sinless victim on the cross.

First fruits

As part of the Passover festival the Israelites would take some of the first fruits of their barley harvest and bring it to God’s Temple to offer as a sacrifice.
(There were two grain harvests in the land, one a barley harvest, which began at the Passover, and the other a wheat harvest, which began at Pentecost.)

They brought the first fruits ( i.e. the first sheaf of barley they harvested)  to show that they trusted God to provide for the rest of the harvest. How appropriate it is that it was at the time of the offering of the first fruits of the barley that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul tells us that Christ became the first fruits of those who are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:  20 ) -  i.e. the first one to rise from the dead and a guarantee that we also shall rise on the Last Day.

Resurrection

In the Passover ceremony today there is a fascinating ritual carried out by the head of the household. Three matzos ( pieces of unleavened bread) are taken and placed together. After a while the middle one is broken, wrapped in a cloth and hidden away while the ceremony proceeds. Later it is brought out and shared between the participants. It is thought that this was the unleavened bread which Jesus  broke and shared with his disciples saying, “This is my body which is broken for you”.

If you ask a Jew what is the significance of this part of the ceremony they will not be able to tell you. But Jews who have become followers of Jesus see a great significance in these actions. For them the three matzos represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The middle one is the Son, Jesus, whose flesh was broken on the cross. It is hidden in away, just as the body of Jesus was hidden in the tomb, and it is “resurrected”  just as he rose on the third day.

 

Christ our Passover

In the Passover ceremony four cups of wine are drunk. The third one, which is taken just after the meal, is known as the Cup of Redemption. It was this cup which Jesus raised when he said “this cup is the New Covenant in my blood”.  For his followers it represents his blood shed on the cross so that we could be forgiven. The New Covenant – the New Agreement – between God and his people, sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ. Through his Death we are cleansed of our sins and through his Resurrection we are raised to newness of life. So this is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. But every Sunday is a kind of mini Easter, a celebration of his Resurrection on the first day of the week. And every time we share in Holy Communion we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. In the worlds of the Apostle Paul:

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.      

 (1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 )

[Sermon preached at Brecon Presbyterian Church, Easter Sunday 2009 ]

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Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged , ,

Palm Sunday

Just five days before he died, Jesus came riding on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. Crowds came out to meet him and his followers from the country came behind him in procession. The crowd was ecstatic: they waved palm fronds, they carpeted the ground beneath his donkey’s feet with branches and with robes, they shouted his praise.

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The little children also joined in the praises. Later that day they were seen running around in the Temple courts, shouting excitedly “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

All this happened to fulfil the words of the prophet Zechariah: “Fear not, O daughter of Zion. Behold your King comes, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

The disciples at the time didn’t understand the significance. But later, after Jesus had returned to the Father, then they remembered how they had done all those things the prophet had spoken of.

 

Now, what does Hosanna mean? Isn’t it just a shout of praise – a bit like hallelujah? True, there is that aspect of it – the word Hosanna by the time of Jesus had come to be used as a general acclamation or praise to a conquering hero. But originally the word had a very specific meaning: Hosha-na – “save us, we pray”. It was a cry for help, a plea to be rescued from their enemies.

I’m sure many of the people in the crowd on Palm Sunday were thinking that Jesus had come to rid them of their enemies, the Romans. So they were very pleased to welcome him. But they didn’t seem to notice he wasn’t riding a war horse with armed men marching behind. He was on a humble donkey, the symbol of peace! Yes, Jesus was coming to save his people, but it wasn’t to save them from the Romans. It was to save them from their sins and from their spiritual enemy, the Devil. Jesus wasn’t going to bring in the Kingdom by force. No, he was going to die on a cross for the sins of the whole world. And even as the crowd was crying Hosanna there were some in Jerusalem plotting to destroy him. Already they were planning to bribe one of his disciples to betray him.

 And so Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. On Monday he cast the money changers out of the Temple. Then he spent time in the Temple courts, teaching about God and his Kingdom. In fact, many of the parables and teachings of Jesus we are most familiar with were given at this time – during the last week of his life. On Thursday he shared his last supper with his disciples and washed their feet. Then Judas went out into the darkness to betray him. And so, on to Good Friday:

 

Good Friday

 

 When Jesus was nailed to the cross the sun was darkened for three hours – even the world of nature was affected by the great events that were happening.

 

Criminals

Alongside him were crucified two other men – criminals who had committed violent offences against the state. Jesus had done no harm in his life but was punished and died the death of a criminal. One of these men reviled Jesus and mocked him: “Are you not the Messiah, save yourself – and us!” But the other said: “Don’t talk like that. Aren’t you afraid of God? We are being punished because we deserve it, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Enemies

Now there were other people by the cross that day – the enemies of Jesus were there. Many of the passers-by mocked him. “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” they said. And the Chief Priests were also there mocking him. “He saved others but he can’t save himself! Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we might see and believe!” Such cruel mockery. But it was not weakness that kept Jesus there on the cross. It was his love for these very men, and for all the world, that kept him there.

 

Friends

But it was not just the enemies of Jesus who were present. Thankfully some of his friends were there too – particularly the women among his disciples. There at the foot of the cross were Mary, his mother, and John, his beloved disciple. Jesus looked down at Mary and said to her, “Behold your son!” You might think he was referring to himself and to the terrible plight he was in upon the cross. But he then looked toward John and said, “Behold your mother!” Thus he indicated that, after his departure, John should be like a son to Mary, and Mary like a mother to John. And we are told that from that time John took Mary into his house as a member of his family. Even in his deepest pain and sorrow Jesus found time to think of his mother and to make provision for her after his death. It must also have been a comfort to him to see some of his friends watching at the foot of the cross.

 

Believing

And even some of those who were supposed to be his enemies were drawn to him at the foot of the cross. They found themselves believing in him. The Roman Centurion, for example, and some of the other people there. There were awe-inspiring occurances when Jesus breathed his last. There was a mighty earthquake and, in the Temple the veil separating between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. When the Centurion and some others with him felt the earthquake and saw the way Jesus died they were filled with awe. “Truly this man was the Son of God!” So even the Centurion and the other Roman Soldiers began to see who Jesus was. After he died his body was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. There he rested until the third day, the day of Resurrection. And we shall celebrate that next Sunday. Amazing love Meanwhile, in the coming week we shall reflect on the amazing love of God that brought his Son into the world to be our Saviour.

“How deep the Father’s love for us,

How vast beyond all measure,

That he should give his only Son

To make a wretch his treasure. “

 

[ Address given on Palm Sunday 2009 at a service of all-age worship at the Brecon Presbyterian Church. The talk was illustrated with felt board figures.]

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