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1.Acts 10:
34,38-42
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2.Colosians
3:1-4
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Gospel:
John20:1-18
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" Halleluiah, Praise the Lord!"
The story is told
whereby a certain kindergarten teacher was telling her students the story about
Jesus. In her class there was a little boy who came from a non-Christian
family. He was paying very close attention to the story because it was all new
to him. As the teacher narrated how Jesus was condemned and nailed to the cross
to die the boy's countenance fell and he murmured, " No, that is too
bad!" The teacher then went on to tell how on the third day Jesus rose
from the dead and came back to life. The boy's eyes lit up with delight and he
exclaimed totally awesome!" On Good Friday we heard the story of the
suffering and death of Jesus. Like the
little boy many of us felt like" No that is too bad!" Today we hear
the rest of the story and again with the little boy we can now exclaim
"Yes! Totally awesome!" Today we can again sing "
Halleluiah" that we have not sung all through Lent. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad(
psalm 118:24).
Dear brothers and
sisters today we rejoice because of our faith in Christ has been vindicated,
truth has triumphed over falsity, justice over injustice and tragedy has turned
into comedy. Jesus was falsely charged of crimes he did not commit, and
unjustly sentenced to a death he did not deserve. His good friend betrayed him,
his trusted companions deserted him and his number one man denied him. The
people he loved demanded his crucifixion and chose to have the bandit Barabbas
released in his place. What can we learn from the name Barabbas? when we try to
analyze the word Barrabas we see the
following. The word Barrabba is the sum combination of the words Bar and Abba, the word Bar
signifies the Son, and the word Abba signifies
the Father, therefore, Barrabbas means Son of the Father. Jesus also is the Son
of the father. Therefore, Barrabba and Jesus were both sons of the fathers.
However, Barrabbas is the son of the earthly father and Jesus is the Son of the
heavenly Father. Thus people in demanding Barrabbas to be released implied that
their option was for the son of the earthly father than the son of the heavenly
father. This in fact is the story of betrayal and lies, dishonesty and
meanness, unfaithfulness and wicked
violence directed against an innocent and apparently helpless victim. All this
comes to a head on Good Friday when we see Jesus scourged, mocked, led on the
death march, nailed to the cross where he dies after few hours and hastly
buried in a tomb. If that were the end of the story that would be a bad story,
a tragedy. But glory be to God it is not.
The significant
question for all of us is, " Do I really believe that Jesus Christ rose
from the dead? He was in a tomb for approximately 48 hours. Up today there is
no other instance recorded in the history of the world which indicates someone
is crucified, dies, was buried and came
back to life after 48 hours in a tomb. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead but
Lazarus didn't have anything to do with that miracle. Jesus was the force that
caused his return life. Our faith, our
salvation, our everyday living depends on our answer to that question, "
Did Jesus return from the dead?" It's so important because all of His
teaching is based on the fact that He prophesied that he would die but that He
would be resurrected. That would happen because He was the Son of God. If we
don't believe in the resurrection, we can't believe in all of the other
teachings of Jesus Christ. We have to question everything that Jesus taught
while He was on earth. However, if we believe it happened then the Commandments
He taught, His teaching on " love thy neighbor," everything included
in the gospels and the parables must also be true. It must be true for the
children in grade school, the teen ages here this morning , the adults and the
senior citizens.
Death is not the end of
the story, it is just an apostrophe, there is one more chapter. This is the
most important chapter because, as the saying goes, they who laugh last laugh
best. And in the last chapter of the story of Jesus we see him rising from the
dead in all glory and majesty. He is
vindicated. His enemies are shamed and confused. Jesus regains his eternal
glory with the Father. He is the Lord who will prevail over all humankind, his
enemies included. For us his embattled followers this is good news.
As we celebrate the
mysteries of our faith, passion, death and the resurrection, it is good to know
that truth is immortal. We can suppress Truth, accuse it of being a lie, condemn
it, torture it, kill it, bury it in the grave but on the third day Truth will
rise again. Remember this and do not
give up on Truth even when everybody seems to give up on it. Do not give up on truth, do not give up on
justice. Do not give up on doing what is right. True will always be true. Just
will always be just. Right will always be right even when the world around us
would have it otherwise. We must learn
to believe in the sun even when it is not shining, knowing that it will shine
again. Thus it is the end of the story that counts. That is the reason per why
the church asks us today to rejoice and be glad. Even when we are going through very difficult times: trough
betrayal, unjust discrimination, lies, misrepresentations; even when the enemy
seems to be winning the battle in our
lives. Today Christ has won. And we know that in Christ we shall overcome
death. Halleluiah, Praise the Lord!
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Chapisha Maoni