Easter 3                                           Luke 24:36b-48                                        4/30/06

                                                            Witnesses

 

Say, remember Easter – the crowd, the breakfast, the spirited singing?  HE  IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN, INDEED! 

 

With the rush of life, it may seem like two months ago rather than just two weeks.  We’ve gotten so used now to putting yesterday behind us and hurrying on frantically to the next event. 

 

But, wait a minute!  We were witnesses to a divinely cosmic spectacle – a once in a lifetime – once in history happening.  We were there.  We witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to earth to live a human life, suffer and die for our sins.  That’s got to make us stop and wonder.  That’s got to change how we live our lives.  That’s got effect how we see all of life.  HE IS RISEN...and we are witnesses!

 

Let’s go deep inside for a moment.  I have rarely known a person who if you really got to know them didn’t reveal the existence of a little devil hiding in some dark place in their hearts.  I’m not talking here about a devil that makes us do bad things, but rather a devil that tries to spread doubt, shame and fear, like a cancer in our innermost being.

 

That devil tries to make us question whether we are really saved.  It challenges God’s promise of salvation freely given.  It puts thoughts in our heads like, “Am I good enough?”, “Will God really forgive every sin I’ve done?”, “Is salvation by grace alone really what God wants us to believe?”

 

That devil tries to make us believe that that sin we do, be it a tiny bit of gossip or grand theft auto means we are totally bad and irredeemable.  It exaggerates every criticism we’ve ever heard to the point where we secretly believe we are defective and unacceptable even (or maybe especially) to God. 

 

That devil stirs the fires of fear and anxiety in our hearts.  It builds on the doubts and the shame to make us question whether we can really have hope of going to heaven.  Deep, deep inside so many people, even good Christian people, even at times this pastor is the fear that somehow, someway something is going to go horribly wrong and when we/I die the door to heaven will be closed.

 

But, that is the wonderful, spectacular, miraculously awesome thing about getting to celebrate Easter each year...and not just each year, but since Sunday’s are “little Easters”, each week. 

 

Each week, and especially during Easter season, we witness Jesus resurrection again. 

 

Each week we get to witness the marks in His hands. 

 

Each week we get to hear Him say, “Peace be with you.” 

 

Each week we get to eat at His table – a meal hosted by Him and made up of His body and blood assuring us that our sins are forgiven no matter what. 

 

Each week, whether aloud or silently to ourselves, we can witness to this with, “HE IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

 

Then, having absorbed that reality into our being, we are prepared to hear Jesus say to us, that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations, beginning from Venango, Cambridge Springs, Edinboro, Erie or wherever we are.  For we are witnesses of these things.

 

Having been given the great privilege of being witnesses of the resurrection we go out into all the world and witness to what we have seen, heard and experienced, so that others may repent and hear the great Good News.

 

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say in the last verse of our text, “Oh please go be witnesses to others about repentance and forgiveness”, nor does He say, “I command you to be witnesses.”  Jesus says, “You are witnesses of these things.”

 

We are witnesses, but it is up to us what testimony others will see and hear, and whether they will experience Christ in our witness.  We choose moment by moment, day by day by our words and actions whether others will have the opportunity to repent and experience forgiveness.  Being witnesses to others is our privilege and our calling.

 

And the world desperately needs our witness today.  The greatest and most common sin today is not lying, stealing, killing, adultery, covetousness or rebellion against authority – though there’s certainly plenty enough of that too.  The greatest and most common sin today is indifference to God’s will.

 

People have become so out of touch with God’s grace that they just don’t care what He wants for them or for the world.  Even Christians fall victim to this indifference.  And this is the sin that can most surely lead believers away from the experience of God’s love.

 

Therefore, it is up to those of us who continue to be witnesses of the resurrection – Easter people – to call our brothers and sisters to repentance.  We do this, not by telling them how bad they are and thus adding to the doubt, shame and fear hidden deep inside them, but by witnessing to the joy of knowing that we are forgiven because Christ rose from the dead.

 

This may be an old old story, but if we remember that we were and are truly witnesses of God’s greatest miracle and act of love, we will tell it like we were there.  If we tell it like we were really witnesses, the story will be fresh and new.  If our witness shows it is fresh and new, others will witness Easter through us.

 

Let us proclaim, “HE IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!”  Amen