John 20:24-31, Revelation 21:9-11, 22-27
On Friday, we participated in our part of the Crucifixion. On Good Friday, we remember that we crucified him. We remember that He came to give us life, and we gave Him death; He brought us the Light and tried to defeat it with darkness. We remember that He came to show us love, and we showed Him hatred. We remember that He came to make us righteous, and we revealed the depths of our sin. But in the Crucifixion, he took all of our death, and all of our hatred, and all of our sin on Himself. We call Friday “Good” because by taking on our sin, He gave us a chance to be right with God; by taking on our hatred, He showed us that He is Love. And Easter is glorious because in His resurrection, He overcame death forever - Life has defeated Death; and the Light has overcome the darkness. “Death is dead, Love has won, Christ has conquered!” Amen.
This is the story that we participate in and celebrate every Holy Week. All of creation is caught up in this story, and all believers through all time and history have told the same story. He loves us so much that He came to die for us, and in His death he overcame sin; and then God raised Him from the dead and death itself has been defeated. The passages that I read a moment ago place you and I in the story. This is God’s story, but He invites us into it, and gives us a place. This story is not about you and me, but it is for you and me. In this story, we get to participate in the life of God.
Stop Doubting, and Believe!
We enter God’s story when he creates us, and then our sin separates us from him. In the passage I read from the Gospel of John, Thomas was still separated from God. He had walked with Jesus, but had seen Jesus die. When the other disciples saw Jesus alive and told Thomas about it, Thomas didn’t believe. He could not believe who Jesus was, that He has power over death. When Jesus appeared to Thomas, He says, “Thomas, stop doubting and believe!” These are Jesus’ words to us - “Stop doubting, and believe!”
Do you doubt that Jesus is who He says He is? Do you doubt that He really can overcome death? Do you doubt that He really can overcome your sin? Do you doubt that He loves you? Do you doubt that there is a place for you in God’s story? Stop doubting, and believe.
Or, do you believe Jesus’ story, but doubt that it has any affect on your life now? Do you believe that Jesus will reign in the future, in Heaven, but doubt that His life can and will change you here on earth? Do you doubt His power over the rulers and powers of this world? Do you doubt that He cares about this world? Stop doubting, and believe.
Thomas’s answer to Jesus’ command - Stop doubting and believe - is the best description of Jesus given by a character in the Gospel of John: “My Lord and My God!” He is saying - “Jesus, you are Yhwh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Creator of the universe, Lord over everything. And you are My Lord and My God. You are my God, creator of my life, Lord of all my ways and my secrets and my true self. All I have is yours.” Today, again, Jesus calls to us. He is our God, our creator, our redeemer, Lord over everything: over nations, political parties, economic situations, good and bad marriages, good and bad bosses, stock markets, even sin and death and darkness. There is nothing that is not under His control, and that He cannot overcome by His Redemptive Love.
Our lives and this world are in the middle of His story - it’s not about us, but it is for us, and we are right in the middle of what he is doing.
Life in the Name of Jesus Christ
What does it mean that we are in the middle of His story? In verses 30-31, John says to us that he has written this “so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name.” Believe so that we may have life in His name. What does it mean to have life in His name?
Well, the Gospel of John associates life in Jesus with light, with overcoming death, with God’s own life by the Holy Spirit, with eternity with God. Two thousand years ago, Jesus went to the Cross and died, and then was raised to life, and now He offers us life in His name. We live in a world of darkness, sin, death. We even participate in darkness and sin and death. We won’t always get it right - we live in the already, not yet: Jesus has already overcome darkness but the darkness is not yet gone; Jesus has already defeated sin, but sin has not yet been wiped out; Jesus has already defeated death, but death has not yet left us; Jesus is already King, ruling over the world, but His Kingdom has not yet been fully revealed.
But by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we have life in His name and get to participate in overcoming darkness with His light, and overcoming sin with His righteousness, and overcoming death with His life. Life in His name means we participate in His life, in His story of redeeming the world and defeating those powers that threaten His creation. We have His power in us by the Holy Spirit, so that we are no longer slaves to sin and death, but we walk in light. We still sin, but we are being made righteous. We are already walking in His light, but He has not yet fully revealed His glory.
The City Bright with the Glory of God
Already, not yet. Jesus has already beaten sin and death and darkness, but His Kingdom has not yet been fully revealed. But it will be.
Read from Revelation.
This passage points to the fulfillment of the Kingdom. We are right in the middle of the story, but we already know the ending: Jesus will see His Kingdom to fulfillment. And it is a Kingdom of love, life, and light.
Since we’re here watching the sunrise, I want to focus on the “light” part of the Kingdom. The sun that is rising right now is blindingly bright. It gives us light and heat enough that we can live on this planet, even though we are 91 million miles away from the sun. Our sun is the brightest thing we can see, and is brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way. The sun is a seriously bright and glorious object. But the sun’s glory was given to it by God. God created all the stars and is more glorious than any of them. And the New Jerusalem is bright with the glory of God. It doesn’t need a sun because the glory of the One who lent glory to the sun lights up the city. It doesn’t need a moon because there is no night. God the Father and God the Son light up the city just by their presence.
In the New Jerusalem there is no death or sin or disease or darkness. And we can live life in the name of Jesus Christ, believing that the New Jerusalem is coming. We do not need to fear because Jesus has overcome the world. Death, Osama bin Laden, Iranian nuclear capacity, sin, abortion, people who bomb abortion clinics, darkness: Jesus has overcome all of it.
Conclusion
See, the reality is that we are in the middle of God’s story - He is redeeming His creation. He has come and defeated sin and death and darkness; and He will come again to finally reveal His Kingdom. And in the meantime, we have life in His name - life with His power, participating in His redemption in and for the world.
Here’s the best thing about this story: it’s all true. It’s not just a story, it’s reality, more real than the stories you hear on channel 7 or CNN or Fox News, or read online (since none of us gets our news from cable TV). You see, because those stories are about us and the sin and death and darkness and manipulation that we have brought to the world. And sin is real and death and darkness are real. But the really real story is about Jesus Christ and the reality that He has overcome sin and darkness and death, and the real story ends with the New Jerusalem, the city that has no temple and no sun or moon because Jesus is the temple and the sun, and He is brighter and more glorious than anything we have seen or can imagine, much more than this sunrise that we have just seen. O Praise Him - My Lord and My God! Amen.
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