Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Is it True?

Easter Sunday

March 23, 2008

Is it True?

A woman who rarely attended worship stopped before the minister at the door of the church and asked shrilly, "'Why is it when I come to church you're always singing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today!"? One suspects, doesn't one, that that incident speaks more about the woman's frequency in worship than the church's frequency in singing that Easter hymn.

It is true though, that more Christians attend worship on Easter than any other Sunday of the year; and I applaud that. It is not that I believe that attendance at worship is less important the rest of the year. You know me better than that. But that those who have been absent the rest of the year should choose this Sunday to return says something rather important about the message that is proclaimed on this day.

Karl Barth, considered by many to be the greatest theologian of the 20th century, was once asked, "Why do people come to church?" Barth answered, “People come to church asking the question: 'Is it true?'" I believe that is even truer on Easter Sunday. Why do more Christians attend worship on Easter Sunday than another other Sunday in the year? They come, you come, to be reminded (reassured) that it is true.

You see - it is an incredible story, the story we tell on Easter. It says that 2000 years ago walked a man in a remote part of the world called Palestine, who claimed to be the Son of God and the promised Savior of the world. Over a period of three years he preached a message of love and forgiveness telling parables and performing miracles completely consistent with the message of love and forgiveness he preached. There were those in authority who felt threatened by what this man said and did and conspired to have him destroyed. They nailed him to a cross, the cruelest form of execution of that day, and let him hang there until he was dead. In the end, just to make sure, they broke his legs and thrust a spear into his side. His lifeless body was then taken from the cross and laid in a borrowed tomb.

But that story is all just preparation for the Easter story, all completely believable. The incredible part of the story is told today. It says that unlike millions before him this man did not stay dead. When two days later his friends came to visit his tomb they found the tomb empty and standing there the very man whose lifeless form was lain there just 36 hours earlier, now risen from the dead. It is on the basis of this incredible, almost unbelievable, story that the premises of the most populous religion in the world is based.

And so on this Easter morning countless million Christians have gathered, and this year gather, to ask the question "Is it true?" For while for the Easter story to be true is incredible, for it not to be true would be unbearable.

The consequences of the Easter story not being true are frightening. In an article in the April 16, 1990 issue of U.S. News and World Report entitled "The Resurrection", the author writes, "It is Christianity's most irreducible tenet: On the third day Jesus arose from the dead. From the very beginning Christians have proclaimed the bodily resurrection as a validation of all that Jesus taught and all that they believe. It is the foundation upon which all else rests. The Apostle Paul recognized this when he wrote to the Corinthians in A.D. 56 that "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain (and) your faith is also in vain."

What if the resurrection were not true? If the resurrection is not true then Jesus is not who he said he was. Either Jesus is who he said he was - the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior - or he is the biggest liar, the most audacious imposter in all of history. And that which decides which .is truth or falsehood is whether or not the resurrection is true. The same Jesus who said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well "I who speak to you am the Messiah" is the one who said to his disciples repeatedly that he "must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." We must never forget this fact, that there is no instance in the New Testament records of Jesus referring to his cross but that at the same time he also referred to the resurrection. If he is not raised the rest of his claims are also false and he is not God's Son; he is not the Messiah.

If the resurrection is not true and Jesus is not the Messiah, then his death on the cross is meaningless and we are still at odds with God. St. Paul drew the same conclusion: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sin." The power of the cross over sin is that God substituted his sinless Son for us sinful human beings that he should die the death we deserved so that we need not. But if Jesus is not the Son of God, which would be true if he is not raised from the dead, then the power of the cross is empty, the death of Jesus meaningless, and the chasm of sin that separates us from God remains unbridged.

And if Jesus is not raised, and therefore not the Son of God, leaving the cross powerless and us still in our sins and separated from God, then neither is there resurrection for us and our hope for eternal life is mere wishful thinking. Paul writes that if Christ is not raised from the dead, "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished."

We are not the only people to have an expectation of eternal life. The American Indians placed arrowheads and earthen vessels by the side of their dead that they might have weapons with which to hunt and utensils with which to cook in the happy hunting ground. The Greeks put a silver coin in the mouth of their corpses that they might pay Charon, the ferryman, to cross them over the river. The Norsemen buried a fallen warrior's horse and armor with him for the dead hero's triumphant ride into Valhalla. Our only hope that our expectation for eternal life is more than the wishful thinking that is the basis for these is that we have witnessed the first of these in the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus is not raised, then neither is our hope secure

And so on this day every year countless million Christians gather in simple wood churches or soaring stone cathedrals, in front of open air crosses or under thatched roofs, all with the same question: "Is it true? I have heard that there is a loving God who created this universe and who presides over it, who knows when even the tiniest sparrow falls from the sky. I have heard that because he so loved the world that he sent his own Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life, but is it all true? Can I really trust my life and the lives of those I love to His care? Is it true? Can I count on it?

To the three-word question "Is it true" the church has responded for twenty centuries with a three-word answer, "He is risen". The church, faithful to the gospel that God has entrusted it, reports the witness of the women at the empty tomb, the testimony of the disciples of their encounters with the risen Lord, and the proclamation of St. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:20, "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. "He is risen!" It is such a small answer to the questions posed by a world engulfed in death. Can it be enough?

In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany is a grave on which were placed huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together and fastened with heavy steel clasps. It belongs to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. However, she directed in her will that her grave be made so secure that if there were a resurrection, it could not reach her. On the marker were inscribed these words: "This burial place must never be opened.”

In time, however, a seed, covered over by the gravestones, began to grow. Slowly it pushed its way through stones and out from beneath them. As the trunk enlarged the great slabs of granite and marble were gradually shifted so that the steel clasps were wrenched from their sockets. A tiny seed had become a tree that had pushed aside the stones. That tiny seed gave witness that life has indeed conquered death.

"He is risen" three small words that have thrown off the shackles of death. Three small words, "He is risen" and Jesus is named Son of God, the power of his cross over sin confirmed, and our hope for eternal life secured. Too incredible to be true, and yet too unbearable not to be true, we gather again this Easter and ask, "Is it true?". And God answers again, "Yes, it is true. Jesus is risen. Rejoice in the victory I have won for you." Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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