First Presbyterian Church Carson City

Pastor Bruce Kochsmeier

Purpose: For people to realize and understand how Jesus’ resurrection makes it possible to live daily life with hope, power and freedom because we have been redeemed and reconciled to God!

We’ve all heard this or something like it before. Maybe we’ve even been part of the frenzy of excitement over an event sporting or otherwise that completely captures our spirit, if only for a moment. But have we ever thought of the resurrection this way?

If we do I don’t think we experience it enough. And I think this is largely because we don’t stop to consider just what took place. In a baseball game or any sporting event or any time in life where our hearts are on the line we know what will make the difference for us to experience victory. We know the circumstance; down by two runs in the ninth; down by two points with seconds left in a basketball game where a three-pointer will win it; one phone call away from the job we’ve always wanted; one letter away from hearing we got into the school of our choice; one x-ray away from hearing there is no more cancer. But what about the resurrection of Jesus? Is it possible that this most talked about event in human history goes BEYOND all other hopes? Can it really conquer the deepest debt in our hearts? Will we let the resurrection overcome all our fears and anxieties and carry us to where we need to be NOW?

Is it really possible that the love and power God displayed in this solitary event can come into the midst of and heal the loss of children or dreams; the fear of not having enough whatever, and the disappointment that life hasn’t turned out “right”?

I think the answer to this depends on what happened. Just what did Jesus do? And what does it have to do with ME; with YOU; with US? The first thing we need to consider is what happened. John tells us, The stone was moved from the tomb. Was it? Has it been? Will we let the stone be moved away from our heart? John says, “He did it.” Can we let ourselves believe that this means something for each of us? What circumstance in life is this symbolic of that would cause us to say, He did it? Where do I need Jesus to push aside stone where something has died and bring new life? This is what the Gospel is about and it has HUGE implications for those who will allow the stone to be moved.

It does because when we say Jesus rose from the dead what we are really saying is that the impossible took place. LIFE was not just given back, but the threat of death was eternally defeated. The threat of ever having hope taken away was GONE!

We don’t stop to realize this. It’s why we don’t get as excited as we could all the time as Christians. Like Peter and John, we don’t understand yet the scripture that said Jesus must rise from the dead. He did it. And for us it is to understand that HE and WE have to die so that resurrection can take place. The old life has to end so that the new life can begin. He did it so that we can.

When Bobby Thomson hit that home run it was over. It was what we call a “walk off home run” meaning that not only did the runners on base get to glide around without having to worry about being tagged out, but that the game was over! There was no more question about the outcome which Russ Hodges has become famous for announcing, “The Giants win the pennant!” Even if you don’t know much about or even care for baseball it is nearly impossible to not be captured by the triumph of this announcement.

Please permit me the metaphor. Jesus hit the consummate home run and you and I were on base. Far more than a baseball game was at stake. Our hearts, our hopes, the very meaning of life hung in the balance.

WHY?? Because what Jesus did changes the whole way life is lived IF we let it. I think the reason we don’t realize this; the reason we are still stranded out on second base a long way from home is because we have not considered what our situation is and what Jesus did.

What is our being stranded? Not enough money, lack of health, people failing us, us failing, the death of a love, of a friend, of a dream? No, this isn’t what our being stranded is about. As much as it might seem that if these were defeated life would be just right, it is not what Jesus did for us. He did so much more because we needed so much more.

Our being stranded as persons and as a people is that we aren’t who we know we need to be and we aren’t connected to the ONE we need. This is the mystery but the reality of the Gospel. What Jesus did speaks to what I don’t think we can describe, but that everyone one of us knows. And what we know, each of us in a different way is that we are afraid that what we think we need most will not be ours no matter how much we earn; no matter how much control we think we have; no matter how careful we are. This is a longing God placed within us. But we have become blinded to what will satisfy this longing. We think it is something we can hold on to; something we can describe; something we can define; something that blocks out all the pains of this world. But it isn’t any of this.

What God placed within us is a longing for himself. Only as the old life; our way of thinking dies can we be open to allowing God to satisfy this longing. Jesus came as the ONE who could do this for us and HE DID IT! Jesus died because we would not. And he rose because we could not. And because he did it we can allow all of our longings and limitations; all our griefs and losses to be buried and raised with Jesus.

Here are examples of what this means: parents can stop worrying about not being good enough for their kids…kids can stop trying to grow up and be something they aren’t; they can stop trying to find answers in experiences that only disappoint and hurt them. People moving to what is called the end of life can rest in the assurance that the ONE who gave them life in the first place will continue to make life meaningful on God’s terms right into his presence even though our bodies quit on us; even though our hearts break at the lose of those who go before us.

Our problem is like Mary’s. We say, “They have taken away my Lord, (my hope) and I don’t know where they have laid him.” We say with her, I just don’t know what is going to make things right because this has gone wrong; because things didn’t turn out right.

And all the time Jesus is asking the Mary in you and me, Why are you crying? It’s a good question!! Here is God standing there in front of us having conquered our greatest enemy; our greatest fear, and we are saying, “I just don’t know what to do!” And like Mary, we think he’s only the gardener. And in many ways Jesus IS the gardener. He is the ONE who is responsible for cutting off dead branches so that new life can come. William Barclay points out that Mary couldn’t recognize Jesus until she turned away from the tomb; from her disappointment and looked Jesus straight in the eye.

This is what Jesus did for Mary and you and me. He looks us straight in the eye; straight in the heart. He is the gardener all right because only he can cut off all our dead definitions of what makes life whole and re-define hope and meaning by BECOMING our hope and meaning!

It is when we let this happen that we begin to realize the power of Easter. It is as we let the power of what Jesus did penetrate the particular realities of our daily experiences that we will say with Mary, “I HAVE seen the LORD”.

This whole life is about learning to live into this reality; this new definition; this ability to say with increasing understanding and excitement, “He did it!” Jesus did it! He taught me how to live. He taught me how to face EVERYTHING that happens in this life with the joy and grace that comes from knowing that belonging to him is higher than my greatest satisfaction and deeper than my deepest disappointment; that NOTHING is as vital; as life-giving as knowing and serving; dying and rising again in and with him.

Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."

And as God intrudes in Jesus Christ he offers to make REAL differences in us. He offers to change us so that we see life through his resurrected eyes; in a way that changes the way we live. So that we say of our redeemed lives, “He did it!” This really can happen to us if we will stop to let the reality of God’s love touch our lives like the woman for whom this happened.

Following an Easter service in 2003, a woman approached a pastor I know and asked, "So what happened with Jesus after the Resurrection?"

"Well, he ascended into heaven and he's still alive," the pastor said.

"I know he was resurrected, but he's alive?" she said.

"Yes, he's alive."

"Alive? ALIVE?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

For the next two weeks, she telephoned everyone she knew and exclaimed, "Jesus is alive! Did you know he's alive?!"

May this be the day on which Jesus looks you straight in the eye and you believe him when he says, DEATH HAS NO POWER!! This is what the “He Did It” is all about! May we live into this reality as those who have gone before us.

May this be the Easter that our story becomes THE story of the resurrection. May this be the day you and I learn to say “He did it! He did it! I DO believe it!” May it be so for YOU! Amen.