Easter 2020
The Nature of Daylight
A couple of days ago, I was bored enough to start organizing my shoe closet. As I was sorting through my junk, I happened to find an unopened Amazon package. So I took it out, and asked my wife what it was. She sighed, and told me it was supposed to be Glory’s Easter Sunday dress. Glory is my two year old daughter, and my mom had bought her, and her one year old cousin Leah, matching dresses for Easter. I opened it, and took in this beautiful little dress, realizing that my baby girl will only be a two year old on Easter morning once, and she would never get a chance to wear this dress to church on Easter. It all caught up with me in that moment, the loss overwhelmed me. What I felt is known as grief.
Various forms of grief, big or small, have been hitting us all lately, haven't they?
In crisis, it feels as if the nature of time changes. Things slow down, we forget what day it is, everything seems upside down, disorienting; I feel like I have aged ten years in a month.
We hear the news of the sick and dying and we grieve; we hear about the destruction of our economy and we grieve; and we hear there is no solution, medical or otherwise, that will rescue us today, and we grieve. It is a time of great sorrow.
So what does Easter look like today? What are we hoping for in a time like this?
Why get up; way too early in the morning, hoping to catch the sunrise, even if there’s a bad weather report?
A friend of mine and mentor, Pastor Dave Worth told me he used to host an Easter sunrise service every year, and people would get up extra early, wipe the sleep from their eyes; hoping on this day, they would see all the glorious colors that shine through as the Sun rises. Trouble was; some years it rained.
Inevitably; someone would say, “Pastor the sun didn't rise this year.” Then he would remind them, “the Sun still rose, you just didn't see it.”
There is this false, twisted view offered by some, that somehow you have to have it all together; to have a relationship with God. That somehow God only cares about the people who look like they already have it all figured out.
If you don’t have 2 1/2 kids, a white picket fence, and a cheesy Christian smile on 24/7, God doesn’t know you. Why bother seeking God, He obviously doesn’t know you. But the Truth is, The Bible paints a completely different picture.
The scriptures are filled with tears, desperate pleas for rescue; salvation. The first time God shows up for the Israelites, it is because He has heard the cries of His people, their lamentations. Yes, there is an entire book called Lamentations; it is filled with vivid imagery of what it means to experience grief.
In Lamentations; Jeremiah looks upon Jerusalem after it has been decimated by a foreign army. As he looks out upon a sea of destruction; all the things he has given his life to lay in ruins; and he tells us,
I am a man who has seen affliction… I know nothing but darkness, it feels like my skin and flesh are growing old, and my bones are breaking. I have been deprived of peace and I don’t know what prosperity looks like any more, it is as if a lion lays in wait for me, ready to pounce when I least expect it. Lamentations 3:22-24
There are seasons in life where the long walk from night to day seems like it will last forever, aren’t there? The entire world right now is on this kind of a long walk. Barely able to put one foot in front of the other, wondering if daylight will ever come.
Thankfully, it did for Jeremiah;
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:21-24
What Jeremiah is describing is the coming of daylight. No matter how dark the night, we must remember the merciful light of morning is on its way.
"Weeping may endure for a night," says the Psalmist, "but joy cometh in the morning.” This is an eternal truth; no matter how dark it is, light will conquer darkness. Jesus is that light, He is the Light of the World, He has come before, He will come again.
This was especially true on that first Easter.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
John 20: 1-2. ….
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). John 20:11-16
Now if you are not careful, you will miss an important detail in this story. It is found in verse 15; where Mary mistakes Jesus for a gardener.
Mary Magdalene is the first person to encounter the risen Christ, and it happened in a garden. At first, Mary thought Jesus was the gardener. A logical mistake? A prophetic mistake? A beautiful mistake? Or, perhaps it’s not a mistake at all.
The story teller, in this one detail, brings together the past, present and future, of all of human history.
It reflects the past, when Jesus was present in the Garden of Eden, before those first humans made that fateful decision, selfishly choosing for themselves against the peace of God, the sin that leads to death. A choice that touched us all, as we have similarly chosen, to separate ourselves from God with sin.
It tells of Jesus in the present, as he has risen from the grave, the risen Savior of today and always. He remains the gardener, planting our souls with eternal truths, pruning our character to His purposes. Jesus is a gardener! A gardener cultivating salvation; resurrection of life for all who seek him. Jesus is the gardener who makes wastelands into luscious gardens.
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John: 12:24
It looked like sin and death had the final word on that fateful Friday, as Jesus died on a Roman cross, but instead a seed was planted. A seed that was watered by Mary's faithful tears, until that magnificent first Sunday of Easter. That promised third day, when we learned that new life was possible, planted in our souls is the seed of eternal life; for all those who chose it, by placing their faith and trust in the resurrected Christ.
Lastly, there is the garden of the future, the one our holy gardener has prepared for us.
Eden Restored;
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5
What does it all mean? It means that we are in; the in between, the time after the first garden, and before the last, a time when pain and suffering fills the world we live in.
But the light of day still breaks through; again, and again, and again, until someday it will break through in all of its fullness; for all who put their faith in the gardener of our salvation, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To our surprise Jesus tells us that the sunlight of our garden is within us. Jesus told his disciples, “you are the light of the world.”
The light of the world looks like this;
Like Gia Boysen who marched into Costco determined to endure the angry looks of those who might think she was a hoarder; in order to provide over 1,000 lunches, personal items, and canned goods, for the poor, the oppressed, the homeless and disabled. Gia is a light in our world.
My neighbor, dressed up like superman, handing out free face masks. My neighbor is a light in our world.
o tirelessly serve us in groceries stores, deliver anything and everything, they are a light in our world.
Those who protect us, respond first when we are in trouble, injured or afraid, they are a light in our world.
Those working in health care, the doctors, nurses, ambulance workers, and all who courageously assist them, they are a light in our world.
Those who encourage others, like our bothers and sisters who held up signs of appreciation at our local hospital, thanking those doctors and health care workers who daily risk their lives for us all, they are a light in our world.
Beloved brothers and sisters of Redondo Beach take another step, in defiance of the oppression of a pandemic, and add a ray of light to our world.
You see Corona virus is not the only thing that is contagious, courage is contagious.
It is as Kipling once told us, If you can;
Watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools, we will then know what it is to rise again. Because, He is risen! He is risen indeed.
And lastly know this, Glory wore her new Easter dress today, so is she to me, as we are all to each other, the light of our world.