FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF THROUGH LOVE:The Empty Tomb & the Risen Lord, the Cross & the Crucified Christ

Bradley A Berkemeier [4/20/2014]

The empty tomb and the Risen LORD! These are the true foundations of the Easter celebration, yes? They are miraculous to memorialize in our minds…beautiful to believe in within our brains…fulfilling to figure in to our faith. By all these counts, the empty tomb and the Risen LORD should be the logical center of Christianity, shouldn’t they? And yet, when you search a Christian songbook, see a church sanctuary, study the sacred Scriptures even, do you know what you find? For every song, sanctuary display, or verse about the empty tomb and the Risen LORD, you’ll find a handful of songs, more prominent display(s), and a dozen verses calling our attention to the Cross and the Crucified Christ. I’ve only recently, after a good visit with a friend, started to consider the significance of this to my faith…to our faith.

Galatians 6:14-5: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. [The law does not mean] anything; what counts is a new creation.”

What counts is a new creation! That’s the empty tomb and the Risen LORD! But Paul says “May I never boast except in the cross…” The empty tomb and the Risen LORD are so glorious, so beautiful, so victorious, so fulfilling! But the Cross and the Crucified Christ—we are told to glory in them, but, oh, they are more obviously terrible than beautiful, more apparently defeat than victory, and more evocative of grief and sorrow than triumph and fulfillment. The attitude of an unbelieving world—Christians, too, oft times, if we’re being honest—makes me think of a couple of Old Testament characters. Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, complaining to the LORD, cries, “O LORD, you do not listen…you do not save…you make me look at injustice…you tolerate wrong…justice never prevails.” Translation: Life is not fair! And the Cross and the Crucified Christ are just reminders of that! Or how about Job? Talking to God, he finally cries, “O God, …when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.” Translation: This is NOT the neat and happy ending I was expecting! And the Cross and the Crucified Christ are reminders of that, too!

To be fair, though, even when you read the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection morning, you read of followers of Jesus Christ—believers—who didn’t fully understand what was happening…and had something of an unbelieving attitude.

Matthew: The Mary’s went to the tomb, there was an earthquake, and an angel appeared and rolled back the stone to reveal the empty tomb. And the women were afraid! The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus, but He’s not here! He has risen!” (THEN the women hurried away, still afraid but also filled with joy, to go tell the disciples.)

Mark: The women went to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus’ body, and on their way, they were asking each other, “Who’s gonna roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” When they got to the tomb, the stone was already rolled away, and they were alarmed! A young man at the tomb said, “Don’t be alarmed. You’re looking for Jesus, but He’s not here! He has risen!” And the women left trembling and bewildered…and afraid.

Luke: The women went to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus’ body, and when they got there, they found the empty tomb. Two men appeared and said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Mmm…there’s a whole ‘nother sermon in that question!) He is not here! He has risen!” And, in this account, the men even remind the women, “Remember, Jesus told you this was going to happen!” Then they remembered.

John: John records that Mary Magdalene went the tomb, found the stone rolled away, and then came running back to the disciples saying, “They’ve taken Jesus’ body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!” Then the disciples run to the tomb and go inside. And John says one disciple “saw [the empty tomb] and believed.” But then he says “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

You know, I have to confess to you, that a few months ago, when I was asked to bring this message this morning, I immediately—and for quite awhile after that—had it in mind to bring you a message focused on the back end of that Galatians verse I quoted earlier:

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. [The law does not mean] anything; what counts is a new creation.”

A few months before I was even asked to preach, I had written a hymn about that part (What counts is a new creation). And in the past few months, I had gathered verses and thoughts and stories about “new creation”. Then I met with a good friend recently, and after revealing my intent to preach on this passage, he said, “You know, Brad, the first part of that passage is really supposed to have a greater significance to the Christian faith and experience than the last part. You could really build a powerful Easter morning message from that first part.” Excuse me! I don’t mean to be disrespectful, good friend, but “May I never boast except in the cross”? Easter morning isn’t about the cross; it’s about the empty tomb! It’s not about the Crucified Christ; it’s about the Risen Lord! But just so I’ve got this straight: You think I should send people off to celebrate a joyful, beautiful spring Christian holiday by talking to them about Jesus’ painful defeating death on the bloody cross instead of His happy victorious resurrection from the tomb? Thanks, but no thanks, friend!

Much like the women at the tomb on Easter morning—who heard what the angel said but didn’t really understand it—it took me a bit to gain a better perspective on what my good friend was trying to tell me.

Anyone in here seen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie? There is a powerful moment in that movie: Jesus on the road to Calvary’s hill where He would die. Carrying the very cross to which He would be nailed, raised up, and suffocated to death, Jesus is being brutally beaten by the Roman soldiers, the crowds are mocking and spitting on Him, and his mother Mary is close enough to take all of this in. Visibly shaken, she thinks back on her little boy, at a time when he trips and falls, and she runs to her child to comfort him. Finally, she is moved to run to her child again, to comfort him in his time of need. When she reaches him, they embrace, and she, looking upon him with motherly love, but in anguish, says, “I’m here.” Jesus, looking back at her with an eternal love, (as her son but also) as God’s Son, and in the midst of what to everyone else—even his own mother—looks terrible and tragic, says, with the conviction of one who will conquer death, “Behold! I am making all things new!” A little earlier in Galatians, Paul says, “In Christ Jesus…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Faith—expressing itself through love. The empty tomb and the Risen Lord certainly call for faith—“being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1), but viewed without the Cross and the Crucified Christ, you won’t see them as an expression of God’s love. You’d have to ask yourself: What was Jesus making new when He walked out of the tomb? What “new creation” was so important? Without what He did on Good Friday, what Jesus did on Resurrection morning is nice—worth celebrating even—but it’s not really fulfilling.

This is why Paul’s imperative is so important. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

“The Lord Jesus Christ [Galatians 1:3]…gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

And—focus and follow me here—if you believe in the Cross and the Crucified Christ—who gave himself to rescue you from your sins—then you “have been crucified with Christ, and [you] no longer live” [Galatians 2:20]. Well, that certainly explains the importance of the Cross and the Crucified Christ, but if that’s the end of the story—and you “no longer live”—what are you doing here this morning?

Now, you must step into the empty tomb with me—and bring your faith with you! Here’s the rest of the Galatians passage I just cited:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” –Galatians 2:20

See, the Easter Story is a package deal. Yes, it involves faith—believing in the joy of the empty tomb and power of the Risen Lord! But it also involves the expression of God’s love—Jesus the Son’s faith in God the Father expressed in the glory of the Cross and the redeeming love of the Crucified Christ.

Pastor and Author Timothy Keller who wrote a book called The Reason For God put it this way:

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

And here’s an inspiring quote from Dr. J.I. Packer (If you don’t know him, join the club! I didn’t know him either, but apparently he’s well-known; he was one of TIME Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America!) I’ll leave you with these thoughts, wish you a blessed Easter, and encourage you to live today and every day with your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith:

“[Worldly] optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. [Worldly] optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”