Minister: Kirsten Barlow
Myth Busted: Not! Jesus is Alive! Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008-Woodmen
John 20:1-18 (Today's New International Version)
1 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. 2 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!"
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, [a] why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 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."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").
17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
What is a myth? Well, in today's common use of the word, "a myth is something that is widely thought to be false. This usage, which is often pejorative, arose from labeling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as being incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well. Because of this usage, many people take offense when the religious narratives they believe to be true are called myths. This usage is frequently confused with legend, fiction, fairy tale, folklore, fable, and urban legend, each of which has a distinct meaning in academia.
It is just such things that a Discovery Channel show seeks to address.
Have you ever seen the Discovery Channel show called MythBusters?
MythBusters takes myths, tall tales and urban legends and gives them the scientific treatment to determine their validity. Myths are proved true, probable, possible, improbable or busted.
In this show two Hollywood special effects experts attempt to debunk urban legends by directly testing them. Using modern-day science, they put each myth to the test.
Have you seen these guys? (Show 24 second clip - preview to voice breaking glass - Is it real or is it Memorex?)
Can voice vibrations break a glass?
Can talking on your cell phone while you pump gas cause an explosion?
Can ninjas really run on water as they do in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Well, the myth busters have worked to try to prove or disprove each of these myths. They found out that average humans really can't run or walk on water.
But, Jesus did, didn't he?
I don't think that they'll ever do this episode, but what if they tried to debunk the following: Jesus was crucified, he died, he was put in a tomb-dead. Three days later he rose from the dead...he came back to life.
Some would say that the resurrection of Jesus is just a myth and if it is a myth then certainly the myth busters could try to bust it...to prove that it really didn't happen. But, I don't think they'll ever be able to do this one.
The Romans crucified Jesus. They nailed him to a wooden cross and waited for him to slowly suffocate and die as the air and blood drained from his vital organs. They wanted Jesus dead and they wanted to make sure that everyone knew that their "king", their "messiah" was dead. With Jesus' death they wanted the whole following of Jesus to die with him.
They could have killed him in other ways that were much faster and much less public, but they wanted to make an example of him, to humiliate him as he died a slow, horrible death on the cross.
Perhaps as a concession to what they saw as his now pathetic followers, when Jesus was dead they allowed two of his followers (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea) to take his body, prepare it for burial, and place it in a tomb nearby (instead of the usual leaving it out for the birds to pick at).
In Matthew's gospel, we even see that Pilate sealed the tomb and placed a guard on it because they were afraid that some of his disciples might come and steal his body away because Jesus has said he would rise on the third day.
If the tomb was sealed and a guard was standing by, how did Jesus get out of the tomb? If the disciples had come, overpowered the guard and taken Jesus' body, don't you think the guard would have told his superiors so that they could de-bunk the myth that Jesus had risen from the dead way back then, 2,000 years ago?
If you were going to de-bunk the myth of someone being alive, wouldn't you first try to do it by producing their dead body? The MythBusters would have looked to that as their first avenue for de-bunking the myth.
But, sometimes when someone dies because of foul play the body cannot be found for a long time...if ever. But, if Jesus' body were simply just hidden somewhere, why did so many people say they had seen him alive after he died?
Mary Magdalene was the first one to see him as recorded in our Scripture today from John's gospel.
She had gone to the tomb early in the morning on Sunday, before it was even light outside. She probably wanted to complete the burial rights that had been cut short on Friday night as the Sabbath approached. She saw that the tomb had been unsealed and so she went to get Peter and John. They ran to the tomb and saw that Jesus' body was gone.
As Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb and cried, the angels appeared and asked her why she was crying. She explained that it was because her Lord had been taken away and she didn't know to where.
Then a man she didn't recognize asked her the same question. Maybe she couldn't recognize him because she had tears in her eyes. Maybe because she was standing in the tomb and he in the bright light outside and she only saw a shadow. Maybe she didn't recognize him because he looked different. But, as soon as he spoke her name she knew that it was Jesus.
You know how that goes. You can recognize the voices of your close friends and loved ones even when you can't see them. Even before caller ID do you remember that you could recognize your best friend's voice or your mom's voice on the phone when they called just by the way they said hello? You knew it was them.
Well, Mary Magdalene knew that it was Jesus just by the way he said, "Mary".
Then she ran to tell the rest of the disciples that she had seen Jesus...that he was alive.
Those disciples that had scattered to the four winds that night that Jesus was betrayed...that disappeared and pretended not to know Jesus, because they were afraid and they didn't want to die the same horrible way that he had.
Mary was telling these very disciples that Jesus was alive. And then Jesus appeared to them as they secretly met in a locked room. He again appeared to them in a locked room so that Thomas the Doubter could see and touch him.
He appeared to them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and helped them to fish and stayed and ate with them.
The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) recount several more stories of Jesus appearing to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.
These disciples, who once hid in locked rooms to talk about Jesus, started boldly telling of him in public places in front of crowds of people. They began to risk their lives for him.
Something happened after Jesus died to change them from scared to bold. They saw Jesus! He talked with them, he instructed them, he gave them the strength to carry on his message.
How could the MythBusters ever set up such a scientific experiment? There was no body. But, even if the body was hidden, how was it that so many people saw him alive? How was it that people were so radically changed if they hadn't seen him alive? Wouldn't the disciples continued to hide and the story of their Jesus have died with him?
But, 2000 years later, we still celebrate the risen Jesus! We boldly proclaim the love of God to all that will hear it (and sometimes to those who won't). To me, that is proof enough that the story didn't end in that tomb. To me, that is proof that the myth is not busted, in fact that it is not a myth at all, Jesus did die, but he is alive!
...and because Jesus is alive, we have a chance at new life. Just as Jesus was given new life, so we have been given new life. Our challenge today and each day is how we live that life...knowing that Christ gave his life for us...knowing of God's great love for us...knowing that God was victorious over death...how do we live our lives?
If you are like me, the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin doesn't ring a bell. He was a powerful man, a Russian Communist leader in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. In 1930 he addressed a huge assembly in Kiev on the subject of atheism. He aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.
An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"
I say to you this morning: CHRIST IS RISEN! (congregational response should
be: HE IS RISEN INDEED!). I am convinced! I have faith that Christ was dead and he was buried. That I believe. But, this too I accept as true: He rose from the dead and will come again in glory.
Don't let modern science fool you...don't let the MythBusters fool you...just because you cannot scientifically prove that Jesus did rise from the dead, doesn't mean that he didn't.
Read the Scriptures, learn about what has happened because Jesus came back to life. Rejoice in the fact that, "CHRIST IS RISEN"..."HE IS RISEN INDEED". May your lives never be the same. Amen!
Let's pray: God we thank you for your great love...for the wonder and the mystery and the miracle of Jesus. Help us to live our lives differently because of the resurrection. Help us to live our lives anew, knowing that we have been given a new chance at life and seizing that opportunity. Fill us with the true meaning of Easter. In the name and spirit of Jesus, Amen.