Easter Sunday 2021 – “Staying Alive...and then some!” (Please read John 20: 1-18)
I want to ask you some questions. Have you stayed safe this year? During the past year have you stayed with the Lord? Have you stayed alive? Don’t forget these questions...
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Nicky Campbell’s question to the socially-distanced TV audience on BBC’s “Big Question” was, “is religion dead?” The question related to the then upcoming Census of 2021. The previous two censuses showed a decrease in the numbers of people describing themselves as religious generally and Christian in particular. In 2001 73% of people in the UK described their religion as Christian. In 2011 that figure was 54%.
It wasn’t a particularly good debate. No definition of religion was offered. People thought of themselves as spiritual rather than religious. They didn’t feel that going to church would help them. Millions have left the church...few have stayed. Church is boring, irrelevant, out-of-touch, often harsh... and full of hypocrites.
The figures were likely to go down in the 2021 Census and church attendance would continue to decrease. I’d heard it all before. The loudest voices seemed to be those of the humanists who were delighted with religion’s downward trend and the evident demise and pending death of God which the figures indicated!
There’s nothing new about an orthodox elite trying to kill and bury Jesus and trying to frustrate the purposes of the Almighty! They place a huge stone over the entrance to the tomb and posted soldiers on guard...and that failed as well!
But I couldn’t help thinking that, if only the church had the same religious zeal for the reality of God that the humanist evidently has for denying the existence of God, the churches would be much healthier!
There were one or two voices for Jesus. One well-known Pastor from Burnley described organised religion as dead, especially as its churches did little, or nothing to relate to and help their communities. He was right. It made me think that the church may be dying (or, more likely, having to change), but the true Head of the church is most definitely alive. We celebrate that fact today. Jesus is alive. There’s no question about that. He died and was buried and, in fulfilment of the purposes of God and according to the scriptures, he was raised to life on the third day. Aside from the question of what it all means and what it’s all for, there is no question that Jesus is alive forever...alive in a new undying resurrection body...alive in Himself...separately. He is Risen indeed!
In Christian doctrine there can be no question about the fact of an empty cross and an empty tomb and the resurrection of the body. These are unchangeable truths, and these are the promises of a God who never lies...that His resurrection is the beginning of a harvest of future resurrections...for those who believe.
The really big question is not whether religion is dead. The question is: is He alive in His church and in the people? Jesus died and rose again not simply as a demonstration of God’s miraculous power (though it signifies that); He died and rose again to give birth, to give life, to the church which he bought (redeemed) with his blood...HIS LIFE! He was always going to give His gift of life; and He was always going to live His life through them.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness...A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you...” (Ezekiel 36: 25-27)
The life of heaven and earth come together in Jesus...and in His church at and after Easter.
Cowards became courageous witnesses. They are fishers of men. They are not watchers of the aquarium. Dead, bleached bones were filled with new spiritual life. It (LIFE) was a gift given to those who had come to the end of their resources. Mary Magdalene, the first church evangelist, was just such a woman.
She loved Jesus, so she stayed. From the very start...from the moment Jesus freed her from the demons which had tormented her, she stayed by His side. It was loyal love that kept her close. It was love that brought Mary to the terrible cross. When most of the men have scurried away, Mary stays to the “bitter end”. She loved him enough to stand by Him when they took Him down from the tree and sealed Him in a tomb. It is duty borne of love that keeps her awake... mixing spices with which to anoint her friend’s body. Love brings Mary to the garden. I don’t think she ever left. She was the woman who stayed...
“The man (or the woman) proclaims his religion in his life and shows it in his face; worships God in the nobleness of his life, and shows his reverence in the love of man and animals; reveals it in tolerance, kindness, gentleness and strength. Our love of mankind is the measure of our love of God; our faith in the eternal goodness, eternal progress, is the test of our religion” (Anonymous).
In these days we rarely use the word religion, other than in the pejorative. But in the past the term was properly used to describe a person’s walk, their talk (conversation), their observable, lived life of faith in the LORD. The religious man or woman had clearly been with, and stayed with, the Lord; you could tell. You could tell in their exclaiming (preaching) and in their practising. There was no disconnecting between the two.
“True religion is the life we live, not the creed we profess...” (Wright, from the Power Bible)
Mary Magdalene was not part of the religious establishment but, in the proper sense, she truly religious. It is no accident that the Risen Lord first appeared to this woman. It is because Mary had the life of God’s Spirit within. His Spirit, not our strength, keeps us going through thick and thin...keeps us on track...staying the course. Those who stay will, some day, see the same face that Mary saw...and know the real joy of Easter.
In the meantime, we must live the LIFE. A dead or dying church which claims that “Jesus is Alive” will be a place that is not believed because it isn’t growing up into Him who is the Head of the church; a dead or dying church will not attract attention or grow in attendance; a dead or dying church will not worry the enemy in the least...
Every Easter Sunday I remember my Baptism – and the promises I made - and what it meant for my life to go down into the water and come up again in the life of Jesus.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above...Set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3: 1-3)
The Lord alone can help us stay alive! In fact, if we turn to Him, He can help us do more than that!
Lord, make us alive by Your Holy Spirit. Help us to stay close to you, so that your people can know the fullness of life you have promised and to share that life with others. Help us live out the life you have given. Help us do more than simply survive, Lord. Help us thrive. In Jesus’ Name! Amen
Rev Mark Faris-Robertson (01/04/21)