Easter:
Emptiness that Fulfills
by
Pastor Dave Strem
Used by
permission
A couple years ago, Johnny
Hart, who writes the comic strip BC, wrote a little
strip with three guys standing around talking. The
first guy asked the question, “Would you be willing to
lay down your life for somebody else?” The second guy
says, “Boy, that would be stupid.” Third guy: “Yeah,
why would I want to do that?” The first guy asked
another question. “Well, what if you loved somebody so
much that you’d want to give your life for them?”
Second guy responds, “You mean, I’d die in their
place.” Third guy: “So, I would die, so they wouldn’t
have to?” First guy: “Bingo.” Second guy again says,
“I don’t think anybody could love that much. If he did,
I wouldn’t want to lose him.” The first guy smiles and
says, “Well, guys, I’ve got good news and good news.”
Easter is about good news
and good news. Something that looks bad, God using for
great good. A mock trial, injustice, a cruel beating, a
brutal cross, a stone tomb are not things that are
normal for celebration. It seems like a contradiction.
And because it’s such a contradiction, oftentimes Easter
is misunderstood. I want to focus on Easter again to
clarify what the message is. More specifically I want
us to understand what Easter is all about at its core.
And what kind of difference should it, can it, will it
make in our lives.
Easter is about emptiness
and fullness. Emptiness and fullness. It’s kind of
like a drinking glass that is full. This is good news.
A full glass. But when you pour that water out over a
plant then you may say, “Oh, this is bad news. This is
not what the glass was made for. It is now empty where
before it was full.” Or is it? The fullness that was
in the glass is now gone so that the fullness could be
in the soil surrounding the plant. Death, in a sense,
came to the glass so that life could come to the plant.
God left heaven’s glory so that we could know Him on
Earth. Easter is about His emptying for our fullness.
Let’s look at Luke 23. In
this passage, we are going to look at four different
images of emptiness. Four images that all work for our
fullness. Luke chapter 23:50-52 speak of Joseph of
Arimathea. Joseph is known only for one thing. After
the crucifixion, he went to the authorities and asked
for the body of Jesus so that he could put Him in his
personal tomb. The first image of emptiness we see is
the empty cross. I want you to visualize the cross of
Jesus this morning. It’s the place where He died. But
on Easter morning that cross was empty because the
promise of the cross was fulfilled. Jesus said, “I have
come to give you life and to give my life as a ransom
for many.” The promise of the empty cross is that you
and I can stand before God forgiven because it was on
that cross that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
The empty cross is the first step of what Easter is all
about and that empty cross is all about His grace. When
Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished!” He
wasn’t simply talking about His life. He was talking
about His work and His purpose. At the very beginning
of Jesus’ ministry, He said, “My food is to do the will
of him who sent me and to finish His work.” God started
the work of redemption in the Garden of Eden. He
continued developing His redemptive history throughout
the Old Testament. Jesus’ work was to finish this
divine plan.
The night before He was
crucified, Jesus said to His disciples, “This is my
blood which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of
sins.” That happened on the cross. The penalty was
paid on the cross but it’s the empty cross that we
celebrate. Before that fateful Friday, God could open
the books of life and He could look and see our names
written in black ink—“Guilty of sin.” But when they
took Christ down from that cross, God literally started
writing in red—forgiven, forgiven, forgiven across every
name that will say “Yes!” to His sacrifice. You have to
say “Yes!” to the offer that is made, not make a counter
offer stating what you are willing to do and not do. If
you want the forgiveness that the empty cross promises,
tell God. In your heart, in your mind say, “Yes, Lord,
I want the gift that you’ve offered. I want your
forgiveness for my sin. I want your forgiveness for the
rebellion I’ve done against you. Come into my life and
teach me how to live a better way, a fearless and
fulfilling way as you’ve outlined in your Word.” The
empty cross is the first step of God’s plan of
reconciling sinners to Himself.
The second step is
introduced in the next few verses. Look at chapter 24
verse 1. It says, “On the first day of the week, very
early in the morning, the women took the spices they had
prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone
rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they
did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” The second
step is the empty tomb. But what difference does the
empty tomb make? How does it relate to our everyday
lives? The tomb was empty that day because death could
not hold Him. Death is inevitable. The world knows
that death always comes even though something inside us
tells us we are created for something more. There’s a
hunger for immortality. “Death isn’t right. There
should be more.” Yet one-by-one death takes friends,
family, hundreds of thousands around this globe every
day. There is no escape, no exception. No permanent
extension. Death, the great unknown, the feared grim
reaper, claims each and every life. But then One came
that it could not hold. The empty tomb is about the
power of God to overcome death. Scripture declares
since we are made of flesh and blood, He became flesh
and blood to break the power of death and deliver us
from the enslaving fear of death. Paul describes it
with the simple words, “Where O death is your victory.
Where, O death is your sting? Death has been swallowed
up in victory.” The empty tomb is God’s promise that
physical death is not the end. It displays His power
over death and satisfies our hope for eternal life.
One afternoon a father and
his son were riding in the cab of a pickup truck. It
was a spring afternoon. The windows were open and as
they were driving along a bee flew in the window and
started buzzing around the cab. This event would cause
most people concern. After all, who wants to get stung
by a bee. But this boy was allergic to bees. A sting
could kill him! As the boy sat there, frozen in fear,
the father reached out and grabbed the bee. The son
breathed a sigh of relief until the father opened his
hand and released the bee. The startled boy started to
panic, “Daddy, daddy,” until the father reached over and
touched his shoulder and said, “Look at my hand, son”
and there in his swollen palm was the stinger of the
bee. “Son, the bee cannot hurt you anymore. I took the
sting.” God is telling us, “Children, death cannot hurt
you anymore. I took the sting!”
The third image of emptiness
is found in verses 9-12. In verses 9 and 10, the women
come back from the tomb and told the disciples what they
saw. The disciples did not believe them. Look at verse
11. The disciples were skeptical of what the women said
because their words seemed like nonsense. But Peter ran
to the tomb, anyway. Bending over to peer into the
tomb, he saw strips of linen folded neatly near where
the body had been. Jesus was not there. The tomb was
empty! The third image of emptiness is the burial
linens that Jesus’ body was wrapped in. This could only
mean one thing. Jesus was alive. No one is going to
steal a dead, broken, battered, bruised, bloody body by
taking off the coverings first. But the coverings were
there, folded neatly, for all to see. The promise of
the empty linens is His presence with us. He said, “I
go to prepare a place for you and if I go, I will return
to you.” Easter is about the presence of God in our
lives. He said, “I have come to give you life and give
it to you in abundance.” Without the resurrection, the
heart of the Christian message is missing. Paul said it
clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:12-18: “But tell me
this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why
are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of
the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ was not raised either. And if Christ was
not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your
trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be
lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ
from the grave, but that can’t be true if there is no
resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if
Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless,
and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In
that case, all who have died believing in Christ have
perished!” The empty burial clothes mean that God’s
life-giving presence can be poured out unto our
redemption and reconciliation.
The fourth image is in verse
12. “Peter ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered
in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home
again, wondering what had happened.” He trudged back
home dazed and confused, wondering, “What is this all
about? What happened?” The last example of emptiness
is the empty human heart. Off in the distance, even
that morning, Peter could look up and see the empty
cross. He is coming from the empty tomb and he saw the
empty linens, but his heart was still empty. Peter had
just denied Jesus three times. He was ridden with
guilt. He needed a new perspective on life to know that
God was with him. And he saw the burial clothes lying
there, knowing that Jesus was alive somewhere, but he
couldn’t see him. He couldn’t sense him. He wanted to
be with him. It was took much to believe. It was too
much to believe for Peter, it was too much to believe
for all the disciples.
Jesus went to them to make
it clear. Luke 24:13-32 and 24:33-49 speak about two
different situations where Jesus Christ taught disciples
about Old Testament prophecies concerning Himself. To
some disciples on the Emmaus road he said: “You are such
foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that
the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly
predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to
suffer all these things before entering his time of
glory?” And to the disciples gathered in the upper room
He said: “Why are you frightened? Why do you doubt who
I am? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see
that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am
not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you
see that I do!… Yes, it was written long ago that the
Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead
on the third day. With my authority, take this message
of repentance to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem:
‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.’”
The emptiness of the human heart finds fullness in
Christ Jesus--the risen Lord!
The world is full of empty
promises, but God is different. Instead of promises
full of emptiness, God gives us emptiness that is full
of promise. Emptiness because He poured Himself out for
us. Remember my illustration at the beginning?
Emptiness came to the glass so that life could come to
the plant. If Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
hadn’t died on the cross or if He would have stayed in
the tomb, bound up by those burial garments, He would
not be our Saviour! His entire ministry would have been
a lie. Jesus claimed to be much more than just a good
teacher and man. He claimed to be the Messiah. He
claimed that God was His father. It would have been
just empty words but those words were backed up by His
action. Jesus showed Himself to be truthful. The world
of fallen human beings will disappoint us but Jesus
Christ proved by His resurrection that He is reliable
and trustworthy.
Michelangelo, the great Renaissance artist, one day
exploded in anger at his fellow artists. He said, “Guys, why do you fill up
gallery after gallery, room after room, cathedral after cathedral with pictures
of Jesus in weakness. Of Jesus on the cross? Of Jesus hanging dead as if that
is the end. As if the curtain had come down leaving us with desperation and
despair. That event only lasted a few short hours, but for all eternity, Jesus
is alive. He reigns and He triumphs.” Michelangelo was correct. But our
concern is not just correctly portraying Jesus in picture but in our lives. Do
you live like Jesus is still hanging on that cross or are you living as if Jesus
is alive! Have you said “Yes!” to the offer of forgiveness He offers? Have you
said “Yes!” to His presence? Have you said “Yes!” to His perspective? If not,
the final image of emptiness is your heart, walking away from Him. Don’t leave
this life without Him!
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