The Easter Story

Scripture:

Matthew 28:1-10

Quick Summary:

Jesus dies on the cross for our sins. Then, on Sunday morning, a few women go to the tomb to honor him. There is an earthquake, an angel appears and the soldiers faint they are so scared. But the women or filled with so much joy that the grave couldn’t hold Jesus, that they run to tell everyone the good news. Jesus is victorious over death!

The Point:

Jesus dies for our sins and rises to new life.

Questions for Family Time:

1.     Why did Jesus die?

a.     He died so our sins and mistakes.

2.     Why did he rise from death?

a.  He rose to show he had the power of God in him. Because he rose, all of us can have life forever!

3.     What did everyone feel at first?

a.      scared still

4. What did the women feel next?

a. MEGA Joy!

5. What did the women do because of their joy?  

a. Ran to tell others about Jesus.  

Deeper:

Jesus has died on the cross and been laid in the tomb. This morning, the women are going to pay their respects at the tomb. Then something crazy happens. An earthquake announces the arrival of an angel who pushes the stone away from the entrance. This event is so wild, that the trained soldiers guarding the tomb faint. Actually the Bible says they “become like dead men” because of their fear. That inability to move is everyone’s reaction in Matthew to this kind of fear. The Greek word is actually phobos as in phobia. It is a fear that paralyzes people. It stops them in their tracks. It is a crippling shock that makes us, as we say “a deer in the headlights.”

The soldiers’ reaction is completely predictable, but the women’s response is completely not predictable. Rather than being stuck, we find them running. In fact, we find them sprinting as though they were racing, running to tell the disciples that Jesus is not dead…Jesus is ALIVE.

How did the women, who should have responded with paralysis, RUN with the good news? The answer is right there in our text. They were still afraid, but they also were filled with JOY. This is the same joy that Jesus talks about over and over in his parables…the joy we experience when God’s kingdom breaks through the darkness of our world.

These women had much to fear but their joy in God’s work on earth was greater than their fear. Because of joy, they would run into a dark and broken world. Because of joy they would be the first to worship the risen Lord. Because of joy they would be the first preachers of the Resurrection. Because of joy that God will not let darkness overtake his kingdom. God has broken into the world to save it, and no one can stop him. 

Personal Reflection:

               When has fear stopped you? When has the joy of Jesus moved you forward?

Jesus Healing: Dead are Raised

Scripture:

Luke 7:1-17

Quick Summary:

Jesus brings the centurion’s servant back to life. Then, on the way to the cemetery, he brings the widow’s son back to life. 

The Point:

Jesus can restore our lives, no matter who we are or how we are different.

Questions for Family Time:

1.     What was the miracle today?

a.     Jesus raised the dead.

2.     Who was dead?

a.  The centurion’s servant and the widow’s son.

3.     How were they different?

a.      The centurion was a really good guy who was a VIP. The widow was really poor and not important in her community at all. She was going to have to be a beggar or slave if Jesus didn’t do it.

4. How were they the same?

a. They both needed Jesus help.

5. Do you think Jesus would help you?  

a. YES! Jesus would help anyone, no matter how they are different.

Deeper:

            When Jesus heard about the centurion, he came highly recommended. The chief religious leaders saw him, though he was a foreigner, as worthy of a miracle. By all measures, the widow who lost her son was in more need of a miracle that day. She lost more than a servant who could be replaced. She lost her only son. As the only male left in her immediate family all of her assets were in his name: her land, her house, and her livestock. None of them would be left in her name. Her livelihood relied on her son’s life. With him gone, she was now a ward of the state, a beggar with no resources of her own.

Yet, unlike the Centurion, even though she was Jewish, no one spoke up on her behalf.  While the Centurion may have had merit, she had need.

As I thought about how that is true for our society, I couldn’t help but think of scholarships. I have spent a lot of years filling out scholarship forms, and they basically fall in these two categories. There are scholarships based on merit: how high your grades, how many activities you are in, who you know, and how high you tested. Then there are the need based scholarships: how many resources do you have? The belief is that scholarships will give a person a better future. They aren’t like loans, which you have to pay back, but a free gift.

This man and woman were hoping for a gift too, something they knew they couldn’t pay back. The synagogue leaders put in the centurion’s name on merit. The man knew though, that based on merit, he wouldn’t make the cut. He received something he didn’t deserve, even with his glowing recommendations. And who could have been more in need than the widow? The widow was given something that she needed desperately.

Now my scholarship metaphor breaks down here because the truth about scholarships is that they are an either/or deal. There are limited numbers of scholarships and everyone competes over those scholarships. We make our merits look better, and our poverty look worse because each scholarship is a competition with losers.

But Jesus doesn’t choose the Centurion OR the widow. He doesn’t choose according to a reference letter or a bank account. He chooses BOTH of them.

He chooses to help the faithful Gentile. And he chooses to help the poor Jew. In two stories, Jesus chooses every demographic in his world. He proves what Paul will say when he write to the Galatians: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

           Jesus brings life wherever he goes. He brings it regardless of our merit. He brings it regardless of our poverty. There are no limits put on his gift. We call that gift grace. So whatever you think disqualifies you from the life he offers, you are sorely mistaken. All you have to do is accept the gift.  

Personal Reflection:

               What difference have you thought keep you come from Jesus? How does this passage challenge that?

Jesus Heals: Deaf to Hear

Scripture:

Mark 7:31-37

Quick Summary:

Jesus goes to pagan territory, and heals a deaf man who cannot speak. He is careful to do it a whole different ways than the magicians who just do it for show. 

The Point:

Jesus is no magician! He doesn’t play tricks, but changes lives!

Questions for Family Time:

1.     Who did Jesus heal this week?

a.      The deaf man who could not speak

2.     Who else did healings in the man’s neighborhood?

a.      Magicians would pretend to heal people, but it wasn’t real. It was always a trick.

3.     What did Jesus diferent than the magicians?

a.      He did it in secret, without a crowd. He told the man exactly what was happening as he did it, making sure the man knew it was a healing from God. Then, he told the man not to tell anyone…a magician would NEVER do that!

4.     Did the man keep it a secret like Jesus wanted?

a.      No, he was too excited.

Deeper:

 Zeke and I were watching Arthur the other day. The episode was all about when D.W. heard a secret. It seemed like everyone else in her family had secrets, so she was really excited when she got her first secret. She had gone to the nurse to get a band aid, and one of the little boys in her class had split his pants in the back. She knew that telling his secret would most likely hurt him. But it was so juicy. She had nightmares about telling it she wanted to so bad. She had to let it out. 

Have you ever had a secret like that? Even though you knew you shouldn’t let it out, it just kind of pressed on your insides. Every conversation you have seems to connect with this little bit of information. In fact, when someone says “I have a secret” our natural instinct is not to turn away, but to lean in.

This story is all about hearing. But not just hearing. It’s a story about hearing the secret of Jesus. In this story, Jesus is far from home when some of these people bring a deaf man to Jesus, and they beg for Jesus to heal him. Jesus knows these people. He knows about how these same people crowd around magicians who put on a show for the people as they provide “cures.” How the audience loves a good show!

He looks at the deaf man and he sees not a man waiting for a performance, but a man wanting to hear. So he takes the man away from the crowd and he starts to communicate to the man. Now this was before American Sign Language, but Jesus signs to the man what is happening. He puts his fingers in the man’s ears, he spit and puts the spit on his tongue. Then to make sure the man knows where the healing is coming from, he looks up to heaven. The man hears, for the first time, at Jesus’ words, “Be opened!”

But then Jesus tells them: Keep it a secret. The scripture tells us, they couldn’t do it. The more sternly he told them to be quiet, the more people they had to tell.

Why does Jesus ask them to keep this secret? It seems like a pretty unlikely request right from the start. After all, what does he expect when he heals a mute man but that he would start talking? If he really wanted the man to be quiet, don’t fix his ability to speak!

This request to keep a secret is a pattern all the way through Mark. The word “commanded” in Greek is used more in Mark than anywhere else in the NT combined. All but once it is used as Jesus tells people not to tell. It doesn’t seem to fit. After all, we are always trying to share the Good News of Jesus. So why here does it seem that Jesus is encouraging the opposite?

I have a few guesses. Jesus did the healing in secret- just the man and him. So perhaps he was trying to separate his ministry from the magic of the day. But perhaps, there was more than that…

After all Jesus had to know what his popularity meant…He had to know that as the crowds increased, the established leaders grew more jealous of him. He had to know how indignant they must have been at the idea of him teaching in Gentile territory. He had to know it wasn’t just the Jewish Pharisees, Sadducees, and Synagogue Leaders. He had to know the pagan priests and magicians weren’t too happy about his presence either. He had to know that he was taking a risk. He had to know that with every leader he enraged, he stepped closer to his own death.

So why? Why would he not just avoid the secret all together? Why not just leave the man deaf and mute? Why bother?

Perhaps Jesus’ sacrifice didn’t start on the cross. Perhaps, Jesus sacrificed each time he healed someone. His sacrifice in this story, isn’t just for those gathered in the synagogue or the temple or those filling the established church. His sacrifice in this story is on the other side of the river. It is with those who believe in magic incantations. Who worship false gods. This sacrifice is for the outsiders, too.

       

     Maybe that is you. You believe in God, but you are not what I have heard called a “churchie.” You aren’t one of those people who gather together. You are an outsider who feels more comfortable in the magician’s crowd than in Jewish territory.

    

        Jesus sacrificed for you. His followers are those of us who have been rejected by “The Joneses.” We don’t fit in. But then, Jesus calls us together. And because of his sacrificial love, we find meaning. We find each other. We find life. And we can’t keep it to ourselves. If that is what you are looking for, I want you to find that kind of love and belonging with us. We meet after KICK in the sanctuary from 5:15-5:45 and then share a meal together. Usually we are done around 6:30, so there is still plenty of evening left to get homework and baths done before bedtime. Join Us.

Personal Reflection:

              How is Jesus different than a magician? How has the secret of Jesus sneaked out of you?

Jesus Healing: Lepers are Cleansed

Scripture:

Luke 5:12-16

Quick Summary:

A man with a skin disease came to Jesus all alone and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus said, “I will, be clean.” The man was cleansed from his disease.

The Point:

Jesus healed the leper, even when he was all alone.

Questions for Family Time:

1. Who was healed this week? 

         a.      The leper

2. What is a leper?

         a.  It is someone with a contagious skin disease (called leprosy)

3. Did his friends bring him to Jesus like the lame man’s friends did last time? 

         a. No, he came all alone. Jesus loves us even when we are all by ourselves.

Deeper:

            This time, the healing is just between Jesus and the leper. That is fitting with what we know about leprosy. It was a disease that according to Old Testament Law required complete separation from society. Even knowing that, this man is eerily alone because in other places in scripture we find groups of lepers. Not this man. He is by himself when he comes to Jesus.

Even though most of us don’t suffer from something that requires this kind of isolation, we understand what it means to be alone in our illness. Even when we are surrounded by support, there is a loneliness in suffering. There is the reality that I have to tough it out, I have to deal with the pain, and I am the one facing the uncertainty of mortality. There is a loneliness of suffering.

And this man, in his aloneness, finds his way to Jesus. He falls on his face and begs Jesus. And what he says is so profound: “Lord, If you will, you can make me clean.” There is no question here of Jesus’ power to heal. There is no question of what Jesus is ABLE to do. Jesus CAN make him clean.

There is just recognition that though he can, he may not. This is the tricky thing about faith, isn’t it? We may come to Jesus begging for healing and we have faith that he can do anything. Yet, he may choose not to heal us. Recognizing that is not a lack of faith.

            There is another text in scripture where these words are almost exactly the same. In this other story in Luke, a man says, “If you are willing, remove this cup from me.” The second was Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane hours before he suffered and died on the cross. In the story of the Leper, God was willing and healed the man. In the second, God did not will for the cup to be taken away, and Jesus ultimately died.

And that is true in healing today. God still heals.  He hears our prayers, sees our faith, even when we come alone, even in our isolation, and immediately we are healed. Immediately our leprosy leaves us. But sometimes, even though we come with prayers and faith knelt before God, our pain doesn’t leave. Sometimes, we remain by Jesus in the garden, sweating blood.

But even though God did not remove his cup, God did answer Jesus prayer. The scripture says, right after that prayer, “There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.”

This is the promise God gives us: even when we are utterly alone, God can heal us. And even when he chooses not to, he doesn’t leave us to suffer alone. He sends his angels to strengthen us.

Personal Reflection:

  When have you felt alone in your suffering? How did God heal you? How did he “send his angels to strengthen you?  

Jesus Healing: The Lame Walk

Scripture:

Luke 5:17-26

Quick Summary:

Four friends put the lame man on a cot and carry him to Jesus. When they can’t get into the house, they dig a hole in the roof and lower him in. Jesus heals the lame man while the religious teachers watch.

The Point:

We can carry our friends to Jesus with faith.

Questions for Family Time:

1.     How did the friends help the lame man.

a.      They carried him to Jesus. When they couldn’t get through the door, they went through the roof!

2.     Did Jesus heal him right away?

a.  No, first he forgave his sins. But the teachers didn’t think he could do that.

3.   Did the teachers’ lack of faith keep Jesus from healing the man? 

a.      NO! He healed the man, right before their unbelieving eyes.  

Deeper:

             The man healed is a minor character in this story. He never shows any sign of faith in Jesus nor asks to be healed. In fact, he never speaks. The only time we see him do anything, is when he stands up and carries his mat away. 

The men who carried him are the ones with faith in this story. They carried the body. When the doors and windows of opportunity were closed, they didn’t give up. They dug through the roof and lowered him to Jesus. 

Their faith moved them into action. Their faith was not for their own well-being but for their friend. Have you ever been unable to move, but a friends’ faith, not your own, got you going? Who is that for you? Who is the person who has faith in you? Who carries you when you can’t stand on your own? Who digs through roofs when the doors and windows of opportunity are all shut? Who watches from the roof when your miracle happens? When I went to answer these questions, I thought of my mother. And I hoped that one day, my kids would answer these questions with “my mother.” I hope I am a source of faith in the midst of the doubt. 

But I also know my parents are not the only ones who have carried me. Many, many times it was my church family. A small group sent me notes of encouragement when I was in college and serving my first church. The old ladies brought food when my children were born. The friends my own age  helped me plan outreach events I couldn’t do on my own. In the church, I have found a community that has faith for me in the midst of depression, doubt, and fear. 

There is one more group who takes center stage in this story, though. It’s the haters…the doubters. The religious teachers tell Jesus, “You can’t do that.” After the lame man’s friends did so much work, these teachers say what Jesus did is impossible. Jesus doesn’t have the authority to forgive sins. 

And we all know people like this too, don’t we? People who only see impossibility, never potential. They steal the faith right out of us. But here’s the cool thing about Jesus. The healing of this man did not take place because of the lame man’s faith. It didn’t take place because of the friends who got him there. Jesus healed this man because of the doubt of these teachers.

Often we treat Jesus’ power to perform miracles as solely an effect of the faith present. We think that his power is only as strong as our faith. And as important as it is for us to carry each other, there may be times when we feel surrounded by Rabbis, who say Jesus can’t do it. A miracle can’t happen. All of your cheering section, is stuck on the roof, while the vultures circle around you. But Jesus is there. And no one can weaken Jesus’ power. Jesus has a way of showing them up.  

Personal Reflection:

  Who has faith for you when you can’t move? Who do you have faith for to help them move forward? Do you think God is limited by our faith?