What do you have for us, O God!

John 20:1-12

April 11, 2004

Sunrise Service

The Resurrection of Jesus

Luke 24

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body.^{£ 4}While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women^£ were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men^£ said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.^{£ 6}Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened

A few weeks ago, as the pastors of many of our sister Armenian Evangelical churches got together for a pastors’ retreat down in Mass., Rev. Greg Haroutunian of the First Armenian Church of Belmont, Mass, told us about his little son Mark. 

He told us this story express what he most wanted for his own faith.  He said that each time he came home from the office or from making visitations or from anything that had taken him away from his family for more than a few hours, his son Mark would come tearing across the house and tackle him as he came through the door.

He would come right up to him and ask him, “Daddy, Daddy, what good thing have you brought for me today?”

The moment he told this story, Rev. Hagop Manjelikian, for whom we’ve been praying for some months now as he recuperates from a stroke, told a similar story about himself and his father.

He said that when he was very little, about four or five years old, about the same age as Rev. Haroutunian’s son Mark, every time his father came home from work, he would call out to his son, little Hagop.  Hagop would know every time, exactly why his father was calling him.  He would run right up and stick his hand in the pocket of his father’s suit jacket and every time, he would find a quarter there just for him, his youngest child, his only son. 

As we all heard these stories and imagined the scenes described, of fathers and sons meeting so joyfully, we imagined that for both of these little boys, there was not only great joy and a breathless, hopeful sense that Daddy always had something good in store for him, but also a childlike amazement and a joyful surprise that sure enough a little miracle, a little gift was always in store from daddy for his beloved son.

On Easter morning, it was Peter who was filled with amazement and wonder.  The women came in and had a bizarre story to tell of a missing body and a pair of dazzling white-clad angels.  To most of those gathered ^“these words seemed an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”   But for Peter, this was no idle tale.  He was there in the Garden of Gethsemane and saw Jesus heal the ear of the palace guard.  He remembered the miracles of feeding great crowds with a few handfuls of food.  He remembered raising Lazarus from the dead and the healing of the demon-possessed man, the healing of the man with the withered hand, the lepers and the countless others whom Jesus touched and he knew that God was up to his old ways again.  That Jesus had something in store for them.  So like the little boy running to his father, Peter went running to the tomb.  Like little Mark asking, “What good thing have you brought today?” and little Hagop reaching his little hand into his dad’s pocket, the Apostle Peter, stooped to look into the tomb and was amazed and delighted and glad for what God had shown him and his friends.

Like Rev. Greg Haroutunian who said to all of us assembled pastors, he wished for himself that he could have some of the wonder and hopefulness and expectation of his little son in his own life of faith, I too hope that we each can find some of the wonder and amazement and celebration of an eager little boy and a hopeful disciple running across the city to see a miracle of God.

Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead; imagine what great blessings are in store for each and every one of us.  Imagine what surprises God has in store for us.  Let us rejoice and be glad!