The Rock of the Resurrection

Christ is the rock on which we can build our lives. On Easter, we learn that his promises and work can be trusted since God raised him from the dead. 

Transcript

A week ago we gathered to talk about building our house on the rock or on the sand. We realized the difference between the two houses was not what they were subjected to, but rather what they were built on. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians (and we’ll hear a lot from 1 Corinthians today), 

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,  and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,  and all ate the same spiritual food,  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:1-3)

Christ, his salvation, his peace, is a rock and a solid place on which we can build our house. A house built on that rock will withstand life’s storms and winds and floods.

Thursday night we heard how  Christ the Rock gave us a physical sign to build on, the sign of the Lord’s Supper.  He urges us to make use of the Sacrament to bolster our faith and connect ourselves with him through his body and blood in bread and wine. On Friday morning we heard how the cross is a rock we build on when things seem unfair and unjust. We were reminded that there was no way to save the world without suffering through these death, even for God. Last night at our Easter Vigil we were reminded that the Bible gives us the Word – the Promise – of God. Those who hear the words of Jesus, the Scriptures, and do them are building on the rock that is Christ.

Today the rock we are given is the rolled away rock in front of the empty tomb. It is the rock of the resurrection. The dead body is gone, the linens cloths are carefully wrapped up and left behind. Two men stand by the empty tomb and ask the women that strange and wonderful question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Without the resurrection, we would have only Jesus’ word about his presence in the Sacrament, his speaking through the prophets and apostles, his crucifixion as the victory over sin and death, and the defeat of Satan. But the resurrection is God’s seal on all these things. His promises to us about eternal life and forgiveness are certain. We can speak of them and say, “this is most certainly true.” We can believe them and know we are building on a SOLID ROCK.

There is a hymn I often use at funerals, especially when I know there will be many non-Christians, called “If Christ had not been raised from death.”  It builds on this idea of the resurrection as the seal on Christ’s promises:

If Christ had not been raised from death our faith would be in vain,

our preaching but a waste of breath, our sin and guilt remain.

If Christ still lay within the tomb then death would be the end,

and we should face our final doom with neither guide nor friend.

If Christ had not been truly raised his church would live a lie;

his name should never more be praised, his words deserve to die.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth Paul hits on all the rocks we’ve been talking about:

The Cross

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1–2, ESV)

The Message translation puts it this way: “You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.”

Christianity is a victory announcement – a Good News – that in what would seem like Satan and sin’s victory – Jesus dead on a cross -was actually God’s victory after all. Even when it seems like the Church is losing, it is actually winning!

The Supper (Holy)

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.  For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal… I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:20–24, ESV)

The Message translation puts it this way: “And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship—you come together, and instead of eating the Lord’s Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can’t believe it!”

The rock of the Supper is meant for unity, not division. We better be sure when we come up here that it is WE who are communing, not just ME who is communing. That’s why we insist on people making a public confession of faith before coming to the Altar. Otherwise the rock-solid gift of the sacrament can become the quicksand that buries us all. As Paul puts it, in the Message translation: 

“Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. That’s why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-32)

The Love (Maundy)

It was at this supper that Jesus gave his bedrock commandment. So simple, it fit on my father’s tombstone – the only words he wanted there: “Love one another.” We build up ourselves in the knowledge of the depth and breadth and height of Jesus’ love for us, so that we have the strength to do what does not come naturally – love even our enemies. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  (1 Corinthians 13:1-6, ESV)

At the end… the Scriptures and the Resurrection

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 

The Scriptures – the promises and will for our lives that the Lord spoke through prophets and apostles and evangelists – God speaks to us through them still. 

·         He appeared to Cephas (Little Rock – Petros – in Aramaic – Peter), then to the twelve.  

·         Then he appeared to more than five hundred at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep (you can check with them!).  

·         Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles (James – his brother, who denied he was the Messiah when he was alive but admits it now that he has risen. And the apostles – not the same as the twelve! These are the greater group who will testify to the rock.)

·         Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (He wasn’t predisposed to believe – the appearance converted him). (1 Corinthians 15:1–9, ESV)

The martyrs drew their courage from, and built their faith on, the rock of the Lord who was no longer among the dead but among the living. What else could get you to face lions in an arena? 

What are your lions? What are you afraid to face? I told Deb the other fear that I have only ONE WORRY: That I am not saying or doing what honours my Lord in my work. That’s it. Because it was the apostles’ only worry.

Build your life on God’s promises to you. That there is peace between you and God, not by what you’ve done, but by what Jesus has done. That that peace is available here every week – as you pass the font, as you hear your sins forgiven, as you eat and drink Jesus that he might live in you by the Spirit. Build on this rock, and your house will stand firm. Amen.