Hilton Head Island, SC – April 8, 2012 - Easter
The Chapel Without Walls
Luke 24:1-12; Luke 24:13-31
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Mathew 5:10 (RSV)
It was the most heart-breaking, spirit-wrenching, despair-producing day any of them had ever known. That Friday of the crucifixion almost two thousand years ago was a colossal disaster in the lives of the followers of Jesus. They had pinned all their hopes on Jesus. In some way they could not imagine but which they also could not doubt, Jesus was going to manifest himself as the Messiah of Israel, and then the kingdom of God would be ushered in with divine glory. On Palm Sunday it looked like the whole magnificent operation had begun in a spectacular parade. And just five days later it was all over. Jesus had been crucified. An enormous depression fell over the small company of committed believers on Good Friday.
And then there was Sunday, Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection.
* * * * *
The Chapel Without Walls has always had the highest percentage of regulars and the lowest percentage of visitors on Easter of any congregation in which I have ever served. That includes four churches as pastor, four as interim pastor, and one as an assistant pastor. I don’t know why it is true, but it is true. In attendance, Easter here is almost like any other Sunday.
I tell you this in case you are a visitor, or a very irregular regular. The regulars know that for the past six Sundays plus this Sunday, I have been preaching a series of Lenten sermons based on the Beatitudes of Jesus, which are found in Matthew, Chapter 5. Now all of you know what I have been doing, and what I am about to finish today, for we come to the last of the eight Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus followed the last Beatitude with the only commentary on what it in particular meant: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt. 5:11-12).
Jesus pronounced the Beatitudes at the beginning of his ministry. By Holy Week, he was certain that he would not be allowed to live any longer; his days were severely numbered. He was about to experience the ultimate form of persecution.
However, even back at the beginning Jesus may have anticipated that his followers would also face persecution because of their devotion to him. Anyone who knows even a smattering of early Church history knows that to be the case. It isn’t as though hundreds or thousands of 1st and 2nd century Christians were being put to death every year, but over the course of those two or even three centuries, an undeterminable number, certainly in the thousands, were killed. The early adherents of every religion have had a hard time of it from forces seeking to exterminate them before they have a chance to spread. It is a sad facet of human behavior. Regardless of what you may think about Mormons, for example, their treatment by 19th century mainstream Christians was appalling.
Nonetheless, no one was more persecuted in Christian history than Jesus Christ himself. Without fully knowing the depth of what he was saying when he proclaimed the Beatitudes, Jesus was describing what would be his own bitter experience regarding persecution. As soon as he started preaching and teaching, theological enemies began appearing who took note of his every word. They shared their information with one another in order to build a case against Jesus at whatever time they deemed it necessary to initiate the case against him. They sprang their trap only three years after Jesus started his public ministry. Then, with the necessary acquiescence of the Romans, Jesus paid the ultimate price for his supposed irreverence at the time of the Passover holiday sometime between the years 29 and 33 of the Common Era.
Although on the first Easter Sunday after the first Good Friday Jesus was raised from the dead, on this Easter Sunday we are going to be focusing on Jesus as the Persecuted One more than on Jesus as the Resurrected One. As a preacher, it is a pleasant change this year not to have to plow the same ground as on other Easters. I didn’t think of that when I started this sermon series several weeks ago, but I did when I started to write this sermon several days ago. You have all previously heard many times about the resurrection on Easter. This is probably the first time you - - - or I - - - have heard about persecution on Easter.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” I am sure he was thinking primarily about other people in the near or distant future. But the eighth Beatitude is quintessentially appropriate for Jesus himself. He died because of what he perceived to be the sake of righteousness. He paid the ultimate sacrifice. Surely he didn’t want it to end that way. In the Garden of Gethsemane he said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” But if there was no way to avoid it, he was reluctantly willing to go to the cross.
By Good Friday mid-afternoon, it seemed obvious to Jesus and all his disciples that the most lethal of persecutions had won the day. For them it was not Good Friday; it was Bad Friday, Horrible Friday, the worst of all Fridays.
However, there was a precedent for persecution which resulted from God’s people trying to pursue righteousness. Jesus referred to this when he commented on the eighth Beatitude by saying that the prophets had also been persecuted.
Psalm 119 is by far the longest of the Psalms. It has a total of 176 verses. Nobody knows what person, or what people, wrote it. It follows a unique pattern among all the Psalms. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and there are 22 sections in Psalm 119. Each section begins with a word whose first letter is from the Hebrew alphabet in order: aleph, beit, gimel, daleth, hey, etc. It is almost inevitable that in 176 verses, the subject of persecution was likely to come up, and it did. In the next to last section, the one whose opening word begins with Sin or Shin, which is our English letter “S,” the Psalm says, “Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of thy [God’s] word” (119:161).
When anyone suffers persecution from purportedly religious people, it is because those people think the one who is persecuted deserves it. Those who opposed Jesus and finally engineered his execution thought they were doing God’s will. It has ever been thus in the history of religion, any religion. Certain people think certain other people act against the will of God, and they take measures to stop them by one means or the other. On Good Friday, Jesus was persecuted by the most drastic possible means. When that happened, it looked like it was all over.
And then there was Sunday, Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection.
Why was Jesus resurrected? Did you ever ask yourself that question? I realize that some of you do not believe he was raised from the dead. If so, that certainly doesn’t mean you’re not a Christian, and in some respects your conviction may make Christianity more credible to you.
But if you do believe that God raised Jesus from the tomb, why did He do it? Well for one thing, if the Gospels are to be trusted, Jesus said God would raise him from death. But again, why? The traditional view, or at least a traditional view, is that if Jesus was resurrected, it is an indication that we too shall be raised when we die. Thus, according to this notion, Easter isn’t only about Jesus; it’s also about us.
In the For-Whatever-It’s-Worth Department, I agree with all that. I hope you do too, but if you don’t, it’s OK. However, for purposes of this particular Easter sermon, which is based on the eighth Beatitude and not a normal Easter text, there is yet another “Why” to explain the resurrection of Jesus. It powerfully illustrated to people who would eventually be under serious persecution themselves in later decades and centuries that persecutors don’t have the last word. God has the last word. New life after tragic death is God’s promise to everyone who is hatefully discriminated against for their faith in God and in Jesus Christ.
We are greatly blessed to live in a country where there is virtually no discrimination against Christians like us. At times in our history that happened, but not now. However, there are places and nations in this world where currently Christians are being severely threatened.
Let me give an example. Under Saddam Hussein, Christians in Iraq lived in safety. As bad a dictator as Saddam was, he protected Christians during the years he ruled Iraq, and he persecuted Kurds and Shiite Muslims. When our military captured him, and he was executed, Christians began to have their churches bombed, and many Christians were killed. While Saddam was in power, Christians represented 5 to 10% of the population. Now there are almost no Christians left in Iraq. Some have been murdered, but most have fled the country as refugees.
In Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, the ten million Coptic Christians were safe. Now their churches also are being bombed, and many are being killed.
In Indonesia there are at least 10 or 20 times as many Muslims as Christians, and Christians are being persecuted. But in certain communities, where there is a higher percentage of Christians, Muslims are being persecuted. In Nigeria the situation is similar in some areas. Where one religious group dominates, the minority group is victimized. It works both ways.
Easter is the best news possible for all those who suffer for their faith, especially if they suffer unto death. Death shall not be the end for such people. With Jesus, they shall rise from the dead. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The Road to Emmaus narrative is found only in Luke’s Gospel. I presume you know the story well. Two of Jesus’ followers were walking home to Emmaus from Jerusalem. The resurrected Christ came and walked with them, but they did not recognize him. They looked very glum, and Jesus asked them why they were so sorrowful. They told about Jesus, and how he had been crucified. “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
That is such a sad statement! “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” How could he do that if he was nailed to a cross? The dead cannot redeem anyone or anything!
But what if Jesus were alive again? What if he had been raised from the dead? Might he then be the redeemer they sought? When the three men got to Emmaus, they ate dinner. And when Jesus took bread and blessed it and gave it to them, the text says, enigmatically, “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:31).
The two men from Emmaus thought that the crucifixion ended all hope that Jesus would save Israel. The persecutors of Jesus, his theological adversaries, and the indifferent Romans who acceded to Jesus’ death, had proven victorious. But the resurrection changed that for everyone. Faith makes Easter happen; Easter does not make faith happen! God will not allow persecution to have the last word - - - ever! He won’t! Easter verifies it, for those who believe!
In his commentary on the eighth Beatitude, William Barclay said, “To suffer persecution is to make things easier for those who follow.” Jesus made it easier for all of us. Many people believe Jesus went to the cross in some manner “to take our place.” Some of us cannot and do not believe that. Nevertheless, his willingness to endure ultimate persecution resulted in his first followers very likely having an easier time of it for the rest of their lives. If the leader was killed, Jesus’ enemies reasoned, the followers need not be killed. And so, in the first two generations, few of the earliest Christians were killed.
But since it is Easter, after all, let us end with a more traditional Easter theme. We don’t realize how good life is until it is threatened. Christians under persecution know something about how precious life is that the rest of us can’t fully appreciate.
Thornton Wilder of Madison, Wisconsin addressed the theme of not reveling in life as we should. He did so in his outstanding classic play, Our Town. It was one of the great honors of my life to play George Gibbs in our high school production of Our Town in Madison, Wisconsin.
The play is set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, at the turn of the last century. In its early scenes, Emily Webb and George Gibbs are two high school students who fall in love, and then marry. Later, Emily dies in childbirth, and George is left as a very young widower.
In the last scene, after Emily has been dead for a few years, she asks the stage manager, who is both the narrator and the conduit of the action, if she can go down the hill from the cemetery back into Grover’s Corners to see the people there once more. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. Gibbs, strongly advises against it. The stage manager reluctantly suggests that she choose an ordinary day of her former life into which to go back. She decides on her twelfth birthday. For many minutes she sees her parents going about their mundane activities, trying in vain to speak to them, but they can’t see or hear her. The sight of how inane it all seems is too much for Emily.
She speaks again to her mother, who still cannot hear her, and she says, “Oh Mama, just look at me as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead!” When Emily can’t rouse her parents from their everyday lives, she breaks down in sobs. Distraught, she says to the stage manager, “We don’t have time to look at one another…. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you! Do human beings ever realize life while they live it – every, every minute?” In his always-sardonic fashion, the stage manager replies, “No.” Then, after a pause, he says, “The saints and poets, maybe – they do some.”
Here are a couple of things Easter is about. When anyone is persecuted, Easter tells us we will get through the persecution. But what if we muff it, and by “it” I mean life, in a Mr. and Mrs.Webb sort of way? What if we simply don’t measure up to what we should have done? Even then Easter tells us we will get through it. Easter is the End - - - and the Beginning.