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Beware Bad Yeast
by The Very Rev. Frank F. Limehouse, III
Year C, Easter Day, Mark 16:4
April 4, 2010
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Jesus said some remarkable things to the people. I've made a list of a few of my favorite things; you could come up with yours.
To the sinful woman who wet his feet with her tears, he said, “Truly I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven” (L 7:47). That would have been particularly striking because the Jews knew only God could forgive sins. Then to the disciples he said, “I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before the angels of God.” (L 12:8). He said to pitiful Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, for the Son of man came to seek and save the lost (L 19:9). He said to all the people, “I am the bread of life (J6:35). “I am the light of the world. (J8:12). “I am the Good Shepherd.” (J10:11). “My sheep hear my voice and I know them… and I give them eternal life… and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. (J10:27) He said, “I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved.”(10:7) “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (J11:25) He said, “Every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (J6:40). He said, “Truly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear (my) voice and those who hear will live.” (J4:14). He said, “I and the Father are one.” (J10:30). He said, “No one takes my life from me… I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…”. (J10:18) He said to the penitent thief, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (J16:33). He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and Lo, am with you always, to the close of the age.” (M28:20). He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (L21:33) He said, “Fear not, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (R1:18). He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty.”
These things Jesus said to people. Are they words of a delusional man, an historical figure who lost grips on reality, or are they the words of the Lord?
Then there are things that people said about Jesus in the Bible. I've come up with a few of my favorite things; you could come up with yours.
It is written, "Jesus was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the Holy One of God. He is Author and Perfecter of our Faith, the Author of Salvation, the Horn of Salvation, the God of Salvation. He is Chief Cornerstone, the Great High Priest, the Heir of all things, Immanuel, Judge of the Living and the dead. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the Eternal King, the King of kings and Lord of lords."
"He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, our Mediator and Advocate, and Bright Morning Star. He is the Savior who is Christ the Lord, the Son of man, Son of God, the Word of God, the Sure Foundation. He is the Rock, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the First Born of the Dead."
I could on. But I want to make a point, and the point is this: If Christ was not raised on that first Easter morning, then everything Jesus said to people, and everything the people in the Bible said about Jesus, has been spoken in vain and we might as well tear up the list… (###)
St. Paul put it this way in 1st Corinthians: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is vain… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.”
Now, if Christ has not been raised, all things Jesus said, and all things said about him as recorded in the Bible might have some historical value, a kind of history on mankind's belief about God. But if Christ has not been raised, all these things have no power to give hope beyond this transitory world and the faith of the church collapses like a deck of cards, and as far as I'm concerned we might as well and go home and eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
And let's be clear: We're talking about the objective, corporeal resurrection of Jesus. To quote John Updike's masterful poem, "Make no mistake about it: if He rose at all it was as His body… Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping transcendence; making of the event a parable…" No, let us not do that; indeed he writes, "the stone is rolled back, let us walk through the door!" Which is to say, “Christ HAS BEEN raised from the dead!” Therefore the faithful sing: "Welcome Happy Morning! age to age shall say: Hell today is vanquished, heaven is won today!"
I know many of you are struggling with your faith. I know that because you are normal people gathered here today. I have read in books that very few people are converted after they are 30 years old. Well, I find very little truth in that. I was converted later in life. My dad was converted at the age of 90, God rest his soul. I've seen many, many adults well into age come to Christian faith. Faith must come down to Easter. The veracity of everything he said, everything said about him, comes down to Easter.
Easter is the grand watershed. It's yes or no; he was raised or he wasn't. He was or he wasn't; he is or his isn't the risen Lord.
Jesus warned his disciples against what he called the yeast of the Sadducees. We know the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. FitzSimons Allison, in his most recent book, spends considerable time talking about the sad consequences of the yeast of the Sadducees. I recommend his book to you. With no resurrection what we're left with is what Reinhold Niebuhr termed, “this-world-is-all-there-is-ism” where what's dead stays dead and what's unjust stays unjust, and what's unforgiven stays unforgiven.
Brothers and sisters, historians today are in perfect agreement that something decisive happened after the death of Jesus in order to begin the Christian movement. It was not just an ordinary continuation of the influence of Jesus' moralistic teachings. Modern historians are in agreement that in the minds and hearts of the earliest followers of Jesus there was firm, non-wavering conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. The only difference of opinion comes when we ask what in turn produced this belief. You can argue for all kinds of things; what you cannot argue is that the earliest Christians believed he was raised - for good reason. Their fathers saw him alive, walked with him, talked with him, ate fish with him. What changed fear into unbelievable courage, sadness into joy and brought about the founding of the church was a belief in the emergence of his body from the tomb. Sir Edward Clark, a well-known English lawyer early in the last century, wrote, “To me evidence for his resurrection is conclusive, over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling.”
I don't care how young you are or how old you are. Are you longing for hope beyond the grave? Would that be something you might be interested in? Are you seeking forgiveness?
Tiffany Wheeler, contemporary Bluegrass gospel singer has a song out, “From the Third Day On.”
The sky was black as midnight, in the middle of the day
They laid our Lord and Savior in the grave.
On that first day they walked away and thought their hope was gone.
What would life be like from that day on?
On the second day he was abandoned, lost and all alone.
They wondered like a child without a home.
But thanks to God our Father, the stone was rolled away.
He gave his life beyond the second day.
Chorus:
From the third day on, Christ is risen.
From the third day on, hope is alive.
From the third day on, we are forgiven.
Make sure you're living from the third day on.
Neat little song, but you know I don't lift up the Christian faith because it's helpful. No. I lift it up because it's the truth! Brothers and sisters, beware the yeast of the Sadducees. “The stone is rolled back, let us walk through the door” and make sure we're living from the third day on.
Dear Father in heaven, draw reluctant hearts, and now give doubting souls courage to believe the truth for the sake of the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ thy Son. Amen.
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