During the 40 days or so leading up to Easter, Lots of Christians around the world observe Lent. Lent finishes this Saturday, sometimes called Easter Eve. Traditionally the purpose of Lent was to prepare oneself for Easter. Today, most of those who observe Lent, at least in the West, give up some types of food or other luxuries
Someone once described Lent as “A roller-coaster ride - A slow, steady, difficult climb to Palm Sunday, followed by the jubilation of the crowds, then plummeting to the depths of Good Friday, before finally returning home at Easter, elated and changed by the ride”!
While I’m not sure how apt a description that is of Lent, it certainly captures something of the tumultuous events of the week leading up to the very first Easter. On the Sunday before Passover, the day we celebrate today as Palm Sunday, Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem as a king. He entered the city riding a donkey, just as God had promised Israel that her king would come. The crowds welcome him as the Messiah, God’s chosen king, shouting “Hosanna! … Blessed is the king of Israel!”
In chapter 28 of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life we meet two agnostics; two women both named Mary who came to Jesus’ tomb after his resurrection. To say there were agnostic might seem a little strange, since we know that they were Jesus’ followers and when we talk about agnostics, we normally mean people who aren’t followers of Jesus.
But the word “agnostic” simply means “not knowing” or “without knowledge.” Think of other words where the prefix “a-“ means not, words like “amoral” or “atypical” and “gnostic" comes from “gnosis” the Greek word for knowledge – think prognosis or diagnosis. So to be agnostic is simply to be someone who lacks knowledge.
And maybe this Easter you feel that you fall into that category. You just don’t know. You don’t know who Jesus is. You don’t know where to go to find Jesus, or to find out about Jesus. You don’t know who God is or what God wants from you or even if he’s even there at all.
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, on which Christians remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in anticipation of his crucifixion. The gospel authors all explain for us how Jesus fulfilled these words from the prophet Zechariah, in riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey.
From the time of the exile around 586 BC, God’s people had had no king. The emperors of Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome had been particularly keen for this to remain the case - think of the crowd’s threat to Pilate at Jesus’ trial, “anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar” (John 19:12). Nevertheless, despite having no king for the centuries after the exile and return, Judah (as the nation came to be called) were still God’s people and their king would come.
About 20 years after Jesus’ resurrection, the Apostle Paul, one of the leaders of the early church wrote to a group of Christians in Greek city of Corinth. These Christians had become confused about the resurrection, so Paul reminded them:
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins and those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 1 Corinthians 15:14
The truth of the resurrection of Jesus is the point at which the Christian faith stands or falls.
Imagine that I think I’m the solution to the world’s problems. I might tell people “I can forgive your sins. I can make you right with God! I can give you eternal life. I can conquer death!” And let’s pretend that you believed me and were convinced that I forgive your sins. And let’s keep pretending that tomorrow I get flattened by the proverbial bus.
When you hear the news of my untimely death, how do you feel? A bit nervous maybe? Worried you put all your eggs in the wrong basket? Thinking, “Well if he’s dead, what does that mean for the eternal life he was promising?” If I’m dead you would have absolutely no confidence that I could overcome death or offer you anything beyond death!
If Jesus had stayed dead, the human verdict passed against him would stand. He must have been just a rabble-rouser, a religious nut. When those sorts of people die they stay dead. But in raising Jesus from the dead, God reverses the human verdict passed on Jesus. So Jesus’ claims about himself, his claims about God, his claims about us and the forgiveness he offers us are all true.
The resurrection is God’s way of saying, “Jesus is who he said he said he is.”
The resurrection is God’s endorsement of Jesus. The resurrection is how we can be certain that our sin - our declaration of independence against God - can truly be dealt with.
He is risen indeed!
named Mary who came to Jesus’ tomb after his resurrection. To say there were agnostic might seem a little strange, since we know that they were Jesus’ followers and when we talk about agnostics, we normally mean people who aren’t followers of Jesus.
