Happy Endings

Matthew 28:1-10, 16-20

April 11, 2004

¹After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he^£ lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,^£ and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” ⁸So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Commissioning of the Disciples

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”^£

What is Easter All About?  After all this somber and sad and yet reverent period of Lent, when perhaps the most popular topic of conversation for faithful Christians has been, will you subject yourself to the violence and brutality of the Mel Gibson movie, “Passion of the Christ?”  After a heavy and dark period of passion and suffering, Lent has come to an end and Easter is now upon us.

What is it all about?  What does Easter bring?

A father took his little boy to a pet shop to pick out a puppy for his birthday present. For half an hour he looked at the assortment in the window. "Decided which one you want?" asked his Daddy. "Yes," the little fellow replied, pointing to one which was enthusiastically wagging his tail. "I want the one with the happy ending."

Easter is about happy endings.  It is about the end of a long dark period of trial and tribulation, followed by a sunrise, a new dawn and the freshness of spring.

Easter is described by an African American jazz musician and gospel music writer this way:

Back in 1932 I was 32 years old and a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie, and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago's South Side.

One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis, where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting. I didn't want to go. Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child.

But a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis. I kissed Nettie good-bye, clattered downstairs to our Model A and, in a fresh Lake Michigan breeze, chugged out of Chicago on Route 66.

However, outside the city, I discovered that in my anxiety at leaving I had forgotten my music case. I wheeled around and headed back. I found Nettie sleeping peacefully. I hesitated by her bed; something was strongly telling me to stay.

But eager to get on my way, and not wanting to disturb Nettie, I shrugged off the feeling and quietly slipped out of the room with my music.

The next night, in the steaming St. Louis heat, the crowd called on me to sing again and again. When I finally sat down, a messenger boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. I ripped open the envelope. Pasted on the yellow sheet were the words:

YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.

People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out.

I rushed to a phone and called home. All I could hear on the other end was "Nettie is dead.  Nettie is dead."

When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy. I swung between grief and joy. Yet that night, the baby died.

I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket. Then I fell apart. For days I closeted myself. I felt that God had done me an injustice. I didn't want to serve Him any more or write gospel songs that I knew so well.

Easter?  No this is not Easter.  This is the darkness of Christ’s passion…  Easter is the dawn that comes after the murk and shadow of midnite.  Thomas Dorsey, continues…

As I hunched alone in that dark apartment those first sad days, I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis.  The last time I saw my wife alive.   Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie. Was that something God?

Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day, I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died. From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him.  But still I was lost in grief.

Everyone was kind to me, especially a friend, Professor Frye, who seemed to know what I needed. On the following Saturday evening he took me up to Malone's Poro College, a neighborhood music school.

It was quiet; the late evening sun crept through the curtained windows. I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to browse over the keys.

Something happened to me then.  I felt at peace. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I'd never heard or played before, and words came into my head-- They just seemed to fall into place: 

Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand.
I am tired, I am weary, I am lost.
Through the storm, through the night.
Lead me on, to the light

Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me on.

When my way is unclear, precious Lord,
linger near, When my time it is almost gone.
Hear my prayer, hear my call
Take my hand, lest I fall
Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me on.

Precious Lord, take my hand

As the Lord gave me these words and melody,   He also healed my spirit.   I learned that when we are in our deepest grief,   when we feel farthest from God, this is when   He is closest,and when we are most open   to His restoring power.

And so I go on living for   God willingly and joyfully,   until that day comes when   He will take my hand and gently lead me home.

The song "Precious Lord" was made famous by Elvis Presley and has been translated into more than 32 languages and published in many countries.[1]

This is Easter.  This is what it means that Jesus rose from the grave and spend a door for us to pass through grief to a happy ending ourselves.

Columnist Philip Yancey, in an article titled "A Russian Resurrection," writes of his visit in October 1991 to the former Soviet Union. He says that it "would be hard to overstate the chaos that he found when he arrived in the Soviet Union, a nation that was about to shed its historical identity as well as its name." Yancey reports that one day the central bank ran out of money. Several days later the second largest republic withdrew from the union. There was a sense of crisis everywhere.

Doctors announced that the best hospital in Moscow might close its doors for lack of money. Crime was increasing nearly 50 percent a year. No one knew what the country would be like in a year or even six months. Who would be responsible for controlling the nuclear weapons? Who would print the money?

Certainly this once great empire was in confusion and turmoil. And yet Yancey found something else in his visit to Russia in the midst of chaos and financial hardship. A young woman who was in charge of cultural affairs summed up the new attitude in Russia toward Christianity.

This Russian woman said softly but with great emotion: "We have all been raised on one religion: atheism. We were trained to believe in the material world, and not in God. In fact, those who believed in God were frightened. A stone wall separated these people from the rest."

Then she said, "Suddenly we have realized that something was missing. Now religion is open to us, and we see the great eagerness of young people. We must explore religion, which can give us a new life, and a new understanding about life."

There are now Russian language Bibles on display in the Kremlin government building. The church bells are sounding again, and the churches are full of worshipers. Elderly women who were the only ones who worshipped in secret, hidden, underground churches for 70 years are publicly kneeling in prayer outside the great cathedrals, an act that just a few short years ago would have required great courage.

So here it is. Here is a genuine miracle of God in our time. As Philip Yancey concludes, here, in the former Soviet Union, which was officially atheistic until 1990, here in perhaps the least likely of all places, here were the unmistakable signs of an authentic spiritual awakening. Here were the signs of spiritual resurrection.[2]

Here is the Happy Ending of Easter.  Do you believe in Easter?  Do you believe in Happy Endings?  Or is it just a hokey, unbelievable story the followers of Jesus made up centuries ago to help each other feel better?

A college student once came by his pastor's office to discuss theological issues. That sort of thing does not happen often. I hope it will not disappoint you to hear that most of the pastor's days are spent in meetings and with budgets, and staff issues and reports and not discussing theology.

Eventually the conversation came around to the subject of Easter. After all, if you take Christianity seriously, it will ultimately always lead you to Easter. "What do you think of the resurrection, he asked. The pastor replied: I believe that it happened in reality and not just in the minds of men. What is your evidence, he asked, like a professor prodding a student. The pastor presented as Exhibit A: the disciples. Twelve men are not going to give up their lives to simply perpetuate that which they know to be a hoax.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "I just don't know." There was his problem. He was seeking knowledge, not faith. You do not say: resurrected Christ, appear to me and then I will believe. It is just the opposite. The resurrected Christ appeared only to those who did believe. He did not reveal himself to the Caiaphas and Pilates and Herods of the world.[3]  He revealed himself to those who believed and who went the extra step to see what had happened to him and what he still had in store.  For those looking for the happy ending and who believed Jesus could still provide it.

But if you read the story from Matthew chapter 28, what we find there is not just a happy ending is it.  Frankly, the story does not end here in this chapter.  The story continues.

Yes Jesus is alive after an impossible and horrible sequence of events, and that is a happy end to the story of his death.  But Jesus and his disciples don’t just go skipping off into the sunset, happy and content to be alive.

Look at verse ten, . ^“Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”  Jesus makes an appointment, a date with his disciples.  And when they get there, he sends them on a mission, a journey towards the end of the earth and that takes all the rest of the time remaining on the clock of this planet.  A mission that continues til this day and continues with us.

So after the dark and somber mood of preparation and evaluation of Lent, Easter is a happy ending, which is not really an ending, but a new beginning.

What a joy and a privilege to be able to begin anew, but to have that appointment with Jesus to have that mission, that journey appointed to us and to have the promise of Jesus companionship along the way.

At the happy end of the Lenten darkness, we enjoy Easter and enjoy the light and brightness and glory of Jesus continuing with us as we travel further together with each other and with him.  Amen.