Easter For You

Who is Easter really for? The first Easter morning wasn’t filled with strong, certain, put-together people—but with the guilty, the doubting, and the weeping. Through Peter’s guilt, John’s uncertainty, and Mary’s grief, we see a deeply personal truth: the resurrection of Jesus is not just a historical event—it is for you. Because Christ is risen, your guilt is gone, your doubts are met with truth, and even in your deepest grief, Jesus still calls you by name. 

Transcript

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In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He calls you to be that disciple. To hear his word, to receive his promises, to repent, to believe. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that by believing you have life in his name. Now here are the good news of Jesus for you. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Who is all this for? Who is Easter for? The empty tomb, the stone rolled away, the running, the weeping, the confusion, the announcement that he's not here, that he's risen. Who is all this for? Sometimes it feels like Easter is for a certain kind of person. The person that's strong in faith, the person who didn't fall away, the person who stayed, the person who believed without hesitation, without any questions. And everything about the day sort of reinforces that idea. You show up and it looks like everyone has it all together. The clothes, they're nicer than usual. The colors are bright, they're so bright. The sanctuary is full. There's energy, there's celebration, there's smiles, maybe even a little pressure to look a little nicer, to smile a little bit more, to act like everything in your life is great. There'll be egg hunts and family meals and pictures and laughter. It feels like a day where life is supposed to be polished and put together and joyful. And that can make you wonder. Do I fit? Do I fit here today? Because maybe that's not how you walked in. Maybe you walked in carrying something heavy and you don't feel like you can show what it is that you're carrying with you today. Or you have something that is unresolved and you need to hide it on a day like today. Or maybe you have something you wish you could undo, or something you wish you could take back, and you don't know what to do with that on a day like today. Maybe your faith doesn't feel strong, it feels shaky. Maybe you don't feel certain. You have doubts, you have questions. Maybe you're not celebrating. You're just trying to hold it all together. And the problem is when you look around, it can feel like Easter then is for other people. It's for those people, those people who have it figured out and who believe without any struggles or doubts or concerns, the ones who didn't fall apart all along the way. But take a look. Take a look at that first Easter. No one is dressed up. No one is celebrating. No one is saying, ha, I knew this would happen. Easter morning is filled with people who feel guilty, people who are doubting, people who are weeping. First, there's Peter. He may not have been the first one to the tomb that morning, but he eventually does get there, and when he gets there, he enters in. He runs to get to the tomb. But when he's running, he's not just running towards something. He's running with something. He's carrying something with him. And we know what that is. It's guilt. Peter is carrying his failure from just a few days earlier. He's replaying that memory around the fire. The questions that were asked to him, the denial that he gave. Do you know this, Jesus? I don't know him. I'm telling you, I don't know the guy. Three times and the same answer. And now, now Jesus is dead. And you know what that feels like? Because that means that Peter can't take it back, what he said. He can't go back and fix it. He can't make it right. And see, that kind of guilt that stays with you. It lingers, it presses in on you, it follows you wherever you go. I would ask if you've ever felt that, but I know that you've felt that before. Where you did something wrong or you said something wrong. You made a choice. And those words and that choice, it just kind of sits with you. No matter where you go, it always has this way of finding you. That choice, those words, it finds you wherever you go. You think about it. And you'd like to take it back. You'd like to take back the words. You'd like to make a different choice, but you can't. And you know it. You know you can't. That's Peter. He certainly wished he could go back to just a few nights earlier. And when they said, Do you know this Jesus? And he said, Yep, I know him. But he can't. He can't take it back. Neither can we. Even though sometimes we'd like to. And Peter doesn't realize this quite yet on Easter morning. But long before Peter runs to the empty tomb, Jesus has already gone somewhere else, down, into death, into judgment, into that place where our guilt belongs. And Jesus himself says what this all means. He calls it a sign. He points to the sign of Jonah. And we know what happens to Jonah. Jonah went down, down to Joppa, down into the sea, into the belly of the fish. Like it was feeling like he was living in a grave. He says this. He says, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. We can hear this kind of language, it's kind of burial language, death language, like he's buried, he's cut off, he's done. And that's what guilt does to us. It cuts us off, it buries us, it holds us down, it drags us down, it makes us feel like we're buried and gone forever. And again, Peter doesn't realize this. But the whole reason that Jesus goes to the cross, the whole reason is for that regret. For that regret that Peter is carrying with him to the tomb on that morning. He goes to the cross and he dies. So that Peter's guilt doesn't have to stay with him forever. Easter is confirmation. It's confirmation that the cross actually accomplishes what Jesus said it would, what it was supposed to do. That when Jesus said it was finished, that meant it's all done. It's all finished. Your guilt, your sin, your shame. Gone. That's why Easter is for the guilty. Then there's John. He beats Peter there. And he gets there. And he sees. And it says that he believes. But it doesn't stop there because Scripture points to a little bit more than just that he sees and he believes. It says, they still did not understand the Scripture. You see, they see, John sees, but he didn't fully see. And John believes, but he didn't fully understand. And that's how faith often looks. It's not polished or complete or nice and tidy. It's not certain in the sense of the word that we would like it to be. But it's real, it's fragile. And that's not just John, that's the rest of the disciples. And that's us too. The questions that you have, the ones that you carry, the doubts that you have and you wrestle with them, the quiet questions that you have that go unanswered and you don't say them out loud, but you keep them with you. Is it true? Is all of this really true? Can I trust this? Can I trust the Bible? Is it for me? And here's something that we need to understand and see in this story: that this is not just some kind of cute and meaningful story. This is a real event. Christianity doesn't rest on just an idea, it rests and it is confirmed on something that actually happened in history. John even tells you that. He says, These things are written. He wrote them down. They were recorded and witnessed and then they were passed down. And he goes on to say, why? So that you believe. And notice the things that he includes in his story. He doesn't clean up the story to make it all nice and neat and tidy. He tells you that when Mary went to the tomb, she thought that somebody stole the body. And when the disciples get there and they see and they believe, they still don't understand. He adds that into the story because that's the truth. And he tells you that even when they heard the news, they still struggled to believe it. You see, if you were writing this story to make it up as a feel-good story, you wouldn't write it like this. You wouldn't write it with your key witnesses all confused and misunderstanding. You wouldn't make yourself to look foolish and doubtful and slow to understand, but he does. Because this isn't propaganda. This is testimony. It's the witness of God's people and the witness of scripture. And by the way, this isn't just in the Bible. There are extra biblical sources that point to this story as well. The Roman historian Tacitus he records that Jesus was executed, he was killed. And the Jewish historian Josephus speaks about Jesus and the movement that followed because of those who saw him crucified, and then said everyone, told everyone that he was risen from the dead and the movement that followed because of it. Even those who were hostile to this story admit that something happened. There was a movement that took place. That the people who knew Jesus were convinced. And then here's the part that you can't ignore if you look at this story. It's that those first Christians, they didn't just say Jesus rose from the dead. They staked everything on it. They suffered for it. They were rejected for it. Most of them died for it. And people might die for something that they believe is true, but you know what they won't do? They won't die for something that they know is a lie. So when those doubts begin to come in, and they do, and you wonder, is this all really true? You don't have to pretend that they aren't there, that those doubts, those questions aren't there. The disciples didn't. You don't have to pretend like they aren't there. In fact, it's good that they're there. It makes the story even more true. But you also don't have to let those questions and those doubts and those answers go unchallenged. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not just floating out there like some kind of myth or some kind of imagination. It's rooted in history, witnessed, proclaimed, preserved, an empty tomb, a risen Jesus, a message that spread not by force, but by people who said, You don't understand. We saw him with our own eyes and we touched him with our own hands. And I'll stake my life on that truth. Easter is proof that when Jesus told his disciples three times that he would die and he would rise, that he was not a liar. And if he wasn't lying about something so significant as that, then that means that everything else he said is also true. That what Jesus says about eternal life is true. And what Jesus says about faith in him is true. And what Jesus says about following him is true. And what Jesus says about the fact that he is the way and the truth and the life, it's true. All of it. That's why Easter is for the doubting. And then there's Mary. She's standing outside of the tomb. And she's weeping. She's grieving. Because, as far as she knows, Jesus is gone. And he's gone forever. And now, she went there to prepare his body. And his body's even gone now. Everything. Everything has been taken from her. That's why she weeps. And she doesn't do it quietly or neatly. But it's the kind of weeping that comes when there's nothing left for you to hold on to. And you know that kind of weeping. It's the kind that sits with you. And it sits heavy. It's heavy in your chest. And that's the kind of weeping that it'll catch you off guard sometimes. And it shows up in places that you don't expect it to. When you're driving down the road and all of a sudden you start weeping. Or you're lying awake at night and you start crying. Or in a moment when you're around people and you're laughing, then all of a sudden it hits you. And it's in that moment that it should feel normal, but it doesn't. You know that. It's the kind that comes from loss. The loss of a spouse or a parent or a child or a loved one or a friend. It's the kind of loss that comes from disappointment because things didn't turn out how you thought they would. It's the kind that comes when you pray to God and you pray day in and day out, and those prayers don't seem to be answered in the way that you think or the way that you'd hoped. And then you begin to wonder, what's next? See, that's Mary. And what does Jesus do? He comes to her and he calls her by name. Because he knows her. He says, Mary. And the very moment that he says her name, she knows. Because there's no doubt in her mind, she has heard him say her name before. This is not a stranger, this is not the gardener. This is Jesus. And he knows her. And once he speaks her name, that's enough. And the reason for that is because the resurrection is not just an event to observe. The resurrection, don't miss this, is a person. Jesus himself said that. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. The resurrection and resurrection has a name. And that name is Jesus. And because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, that means that when Jesus rises from the dead, there is hope. In fact, that's the definition, the very understanding of hope. That enemy, every enemy, and including the final enemy, that death itself has been defeated. It no longer has its sting. That's why Easter is for the weeping. So who is all this for? Who's Easter for? Not the strong. Not the certain. Not those who get it right. It's for the guilty, the doubting, the weeping. It's for people like Peter and John and Mary. Easter's for people like you. And by the way, John says this. He writes every detail, every moment, every part of this story, every witness for you. He says that. So that you may believe that all of this is real. And that Jesus, he says, is the Christ. The one that God promised would come all the way back in the beginning. That you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, God's only Son sent into the world to save sinners like you and me. So that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing that all of this is real and it's true, you'd have life. Real life. Eternal life in his name. And not just in the future. We like to think of it that way. But that you'd have it today. This Easter. The tomb is empty. Jesus isn't there. Because he's alive. And that means your guilt is gone. And your questions and your doubts. Well, Jesus is real and he is the answers to those. And your grief, Jesus comes to you. He knows you by name. And it's for that reason that we can say with certainty and hope and joy, Alleluia, which means praise God. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. Don't just say it. We're gonna say it again. Don't just say it, but know it to be true. He is risen indeed. What does that mean? It's certain. This is real. He is risen indeed. He rose for you indeed. In Jesus' name. Amen.