Life from the Lion(2012April08)
Easter Message (Luke 24:13-35) 08 04 12
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Life from the Lion
Text: Luke 24:13-35; Isaiah 53:5-6, 9, 11.
BIG IDEA: We come to life when we live for The Lion.
The transition from song Alive to Wayne (Wayne should mention during verse 13 "now that same day” that this day was the day Christ rose from the dead.)
Luke 24:13-27
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Let me take you back in time for a moment, not 2000 years and not back to a scene from my childhood, but let me take you back to June 16th of last year. That may sound like a random date to you, but it was the day after our Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.
I was on the phone with someone that morning from Washington, DC, who said, “I have been reading about your city in the news.” I asked, “Were you reading about the hockey game last night? Or about the riots after the game?” Brian said, “The riots.”
Later in the day I was in touch with some family members in Japan who definitely are not hockey fans, but who saw the news footage of the rioting in our city. We are a city that is quite laid back and rarely in the international news. What happened on June 15th was big news nearly everywhere.
Imagine you are walking north on the Lions Gate Bridge the morning after the riots with a friend, and you are discussing the Canucks playoff run and the riots, and then a stranger who is also walking north on the bridge catches up with you overhears you and asks, “What are you guys talking about? Was there some kind of trouble in the city last night?”
You’d probably be thinking, “Where have you been living—under a rock? You are probably the only one in Vancouver who doesn’t know what happened last night!”
Well, in a way the mood was similar in Jerusalem three days after Jesus had been crucified.
In a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup (and I want to acknowledge that for some of you here hockey is not the most important thing in the world. In fact in a crowd the size there are likely two or three Boston Bruin fans. Don’t raise your hand. It's a safe place, but I wouldn’t encourage you to raise your hand. If someone sitting beside you is smiling smugly, they may be smiling for any number of reasons.) But, back to the point, in a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup, the people of Israel for centuries had been longing for a leader, a great king like David, a Saviour, a Messiah, who would free them from the shackles of Rome and bless the world.
And much like the most passionate hockey fans had hoped that last year would be our year with our Canucks having advanced all the way to the finals, and having won the first two games in the finals against the Bruins, and then having the opportunity to close out the deciding game 7 for the Stanley Cup final on our home ice, we Canuck fans thought this was the year.
But as our home team was shut out by the Bruins in the final game and our hopes crumbled we experienced such a letdown as a city—I remember how it June the 16 was a such clear, warm beautiful day—yet I felt a kind of chill in the our city… despite the great weather, our city was in a funk for several days…
In a somewhat similar way, but in a way, of course, that was obviously far more consequential, many of the people of Israel had been putting their hope in Jesus Christ as someone who would become like their great king of history, David, a Saviour, a Messiah who would free them from the iron-fisted rule of Rome and bless the world. They thought he was the one. So when Jesus Christ was arrested and beaten, and then crucified, all the hopes of everyone who believed that Jesus would be the next King David, the Saviour, the Messiah, experienced their hopes going up in smoke, they were devastated.
And so on Easter morning as we saw in the text Wayne recited from the Gospel of Luke, two people who had put their hope in Jesus are now devasted are walking northwest to the village called Emmaus. And as they were walking and talking Jesus himself comes up and began to walk and talk to them—he was and is ALIVE as the choir sang… but these two people did not recognize him.
What are you talking about? Jesus asked.
They stood still, their faces downcast. Cleopas, asked him, “Are you from out of town. Are you the only one who does not know the things that have happened here?”
“What things?” he asked.
These two people, Cleopas and his friend describe how they and many of their people had put their hope in Jesus Christ because he had taught with such power and performed great miracles. Cleopas explains how they and others believed he might be the Messiah who would free Israel from Rome and bless the people of the world.
They then spoke of how their own priests and leaders had betrayed Jesus, got him sentenced to death, and had him crucified. And then they said, “To make matters worse, some of our women have completely confused us. Earlier this morning they were at the tomb and they could not find his body. They came back and told us they had seen angels who said he was alive.
Then Jesus turned to Cleopas and his companion and said, “Why are you so thick-headed?
Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets have said?
Then we are told Jesus pointed them to the first part of the Bible (which are known as the books of Moses)and then went through all of the prophets pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
We don’t know exactly where in the Bible Jesus pointed to, but we are told that he took them to the first part of the Bible. And it could well be that he took them all the way back the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve were living in paradise with God in the Garden of Eden…how God had called them to govern the world on God’s behalf, but how they turned away from God, seeking to replace God in the Garden of Eden by becoming the god of their lives.
Contrary to popular myth, Adam and Eve’s sin was not eating a particular fruit, but it was their turning away from God and becoming god of their lives, replacing the role that the living God was meant to play in their lives.
They thought by becoming their own god they be freer, more powerful, more truly themselves.
But instead, as they separated themselves from the one true God, and like separating one’s self from the sun, they turned away from the source of all warmth and light and they felt this spiritual chill blow onto their bare back and so they felt compelled to clothe themselves with fig leaves.
Paradise Lost.
And whether or not we are familiar with this story, we've all felt that spiritual chill flow down our spine.
Let me take us back to June 16. The morning after the Vancouver riots, I was walking to work. It was a beautiful sunny day. I could see the mountains. I thought all is not perfect in one of the most beautiful, livable cities in the world. All is not perfect in paradise.
And in my own life, as much I like to think well of myself, there are moments when I can catch a glimpse of how self-centered, envious, or vindictive my heart can be and I can feel that spiritual chill on my spine.
I see how I need God to breath warmth into my soul.
God in his love for the world wanted to restore his paradise in my life, your life, and the earth.
When you think of paradise as a location on Earth where do you think of?
I think of Vancouver when the sun is out.
Or Hawaii where my favorite aunt and uncle live.
If you had an aunt and uncle who lived in Hawaii, they would be your favorite too.
(When we think of paradise we don’t think of place a you have to plug in your car at night so you can start it in the morning because it's a -20°).
When type in paradise in Google and hit images.
This is one of picture shows up.
(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in green).
Paradise is a place we associate with warmth, beauty, and happiness.
God wants to restore paradise-lost on earth.
How does God go about doing this?
I realize some of you are here once a year because it's Easter. Glad you’re here! Ho let me offer “Sparks Notes” summary of the Bible in a few minutes.
How does God go about restoring paradise-lost on earth?
About four thousand of years ago God approached man named Abraham.
He’s become an important figure.
If you went to Sunday School or church camp as a kid you may remember the song, “Father Abraham had many sons…and many son had father Abraham… right arm… left arm.”
So why do kids still sing about this Middle Eastern nomad who lived thousands of years ago?
It’s because God approached him and his wife Sarah and promised them that through their offspring, through their family, he one day send a leader, a prophet, King, a Messiah who would restore paradise lost to the world.
Someone who help us no longer feel the spiritual chill on our spine, some who helps experience the warmth of God’s breath on our neck.
Some who help turn winter to spring.
At times it looked like paradise lost might be restored under one of Abraham's great, great grandchildren like King David.
David was a person of great courage and charisma. He was the one who killed the giant Goliath with a singular stone hurled from his sling. When an underdog is up against a giant enemy, we still talk about David and Goliath.
But David despite all of his great qualities also experienced that cool spiritual chill on his spine from time to time. And like all of us wanted at times wanted to replace the living God by playing the role of god in his life and so like everyone else failed to be the instrument to restore paradise lost to the world.
So God decided that he would take the initiative in this paradise restoration project and send them a a unique king, a Messiah.
At a time when no one could anticipate, just when it seemed God’s promise to restore paradise to the world through the family of Abraham was going to fail, at a time when the children of Abraham felt like slaves because they were living the under foreign occupation, an imperial power of Rome, God decided that he would personally fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham 2000 years before to restore paradise lost.
How does God do this?
So he approaches a teenager Mary, who thought a peasant could trace her family line back more 40 generations to Abraham, and God miraculously enabled her to conceive and was born as a baby, as a human being (this is the Christmas story). He gave himself the name Jesus.
When Jesus as a young man taught with God-like wisdom, opened the eyes of the blind and even raised the dead. Many people like Cleopas and his companion had put their hope in Jesus as the promised one who would be the Saviour, as the Messiah who would free their people and restore paradise lost to the world.
But then Jesus was betrayed, betrayed by their own leaders, sentenced to death and crucified.
All their hopes went up in smoke.
They were devastated as walking to Emmaus.
But Jesus, who they did not recognize, then shows them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and die and then rise from the dead.
We don't know for certain, but it's a very good possibility that Jesus turned Cleopas and his companion’s attention to Isaiah 53.
In Isaiah 53 written about 700 years before Jesus was born, we read about the Messiah who comes from the family of Abraham.
Isaiah 53: 5-6, 9, 11:
5 He was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence
(he had not sinned).
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life
Jesus pointed out from the Scriptures how the Messiah, in order to restore paradise lost, actually needed to die and rise again.
Everyone at the time would think he was dying on a cross for his own sins, but according to Isaiah 53, he was in fact dying for our sins – for our tendency to turn away from the living God and replace God’s role in our lives by become god of our lives.
Jesus died on the cross bearing the penalty for our turning way from God, so that God, the cold wind on our back could stop blowing and we could experience the warmth of God’s breath on the back of our neck, God’s beauty and happiness.
Paradise-restored.
I realize that this is somewhat abstract.
C. S. Lewis illustrates paradise lost-paradise restored in his famous children’s story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in yellow).
As some of you know, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a story about how four children Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund are sent for the summer to live with an old professor in the country-side.
While the four children are playing in the professor’s house, they discover a wardrobe which leads then to a magical world of Narnia.
The people of Narnia live under the influence of the wicked white witch who causes it always to be winter in Narnia, but never Christmas.
The witch lures one of the four children, Edmund, with some magical Turkish delight (which is Edmund’s favourite candy).
(keep this photo up during the text highlighted in green.)
Edmund comes under the power of the wicked witch and ends up betraying his 3 siblings.
And since Edmund has proved to be a traitor which means the witch has the right to kill him and plans to. The wicked witch is also making plans to capture his siblings.
But then the true King of Narnia, the Great Lion named Aslan, the Christ figure, who’s been absent for many years is back and is “on the move again.”
(keep the photo up during blue text).
The snow begins to melt, frozen rivers flow again, flowers bloom.
But the white witch confronts Aslan, the Great Lion, the Christ-figure and says, “You have a traitor here. You know the deep magic says that every traitor belongs to me. His life is mine. I have the right to kill him.”
Aslan says, “I will offer my life in his stead. Kill me and let the boy go free. The wicked witch agrees.”
(SHOW 2 scenes SCENE FROM THE MOVIE)
Though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a deeper magic still which she did not know… If she could have looked a little further back… she would have known that when a victim who had committed no treachery was killed, though in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and death would start working backwards.”
Through Aslan’s death--death works backwards.
This is why we celebrate Easter…because Easter is the great news that King, the Messiah each us has knowingly or unknowingly long for has come.
Through his death--the stone table cracks and death works backwards.
Through his death – cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck.
Winter to spring.
Paradise-restored.
Will we turn and live under the reign of our true King?
Some people fear they will lose themselves, their real self, if they come under the reign of anyone else.
But when you come under the reign of the true King, you become your real self, the self that you were always meant to be.
A pastor that I went to school with says, “Right now, we are trying to embrace our lover, but we are wearing a hazmat (show powerpoint image) suit.
We are trying to have a deep conversation about complex emotions, but we are under water.
We are trying to taste the 32 different spices of curry, but our mouth is filled with gravel.”
As we come under the reign of our true King, cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck and become the people we blossom into the people we were meant to be.
To close, let me head back one last time to the story that we began with.
As Cleopas and his friend approach Emmaus, the village they were traveling to, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther, but they urged him, “Stay here and have dinner with us.” So he went in with them. He sat down at the table with them. He took bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them.
At that moment their eyes were opened and they recognize him as Jesus and then he disappears.
They said to each other, “Didn’t we feel like our hearts were on fire as he conversed with us on the road and as he opened up the Scriptures to us?”
Each of our experiences are unique, but as we bring ourselves under the reign of the true King,
as get on the back the Great Lion, the Christ.
as we trust live for the Lion and draw life from the Lion, the Christ
the cold wind on our hearts stops blowing we will feel the warmth of God’s breath and heart and we will become the people we created to be.
LET’S PRAY.
If you would like the cold wind to stop blowing on your back and would like to experience the warm breath of God on your heart…
Express that to God now.
As a symbol of your desire to for God touch you, I invite you now to simply place your hand touch your heart… as way of God breath on me.
And if you feel unworthy, as I certainly do, you can ask God to forgive your sins, which was mysteriously made possible through his death on the cross for you.
And now you’re forgiven, get the back of the Lion, the Christ and go an adventure of your life.
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Life from the Lion
Text: Luke 24:13-35; Isaiah 53:5-6, 9, 11.
BIG IDEA: We come to life when we live for The Lion.
The transition from song Alive to Wayne (Wayne should mention during verse 13 "now that same day” that this day was the day Christ rose from the dead.)
Luke 24:13-27
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Let me take you back in time for a moment, not 2000 years and not back to a scene from my childhood, but let me take you back to June 16th of last year. That may sound like a random date to you, but it was the day after our Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.
I was on the phone with someone that morning from Washington, DC, who said, “I have been reading about your city in the news.” I asked, “Were you reading about the hockey game last night? Or about the riots after the game?” Brian said, “The riots.”
Later in the day I was in touch with some family members in Japan who definitely are not hockey fans, but who saw the news footage of the rioting in our city. We are a city that is quite laid back and rarely in the international news. What happened on June 15th was big news nearly everywhere.
Imagine you are walking north on the Lions Gate Bridge the morning after the riots with a friend, and you are discussing the Canucks playoff run and the riots, and then a stranger who is also walking north on the bridge catches up with you overhears you and asks, “What are you guys talking about? Was there some kind of trouble in the city last night?”
You’d probably be thinking, “Where have you been living—under a rock? You are probably the only one in Vancouver who doesn’t know what happened last night!”
Well, in a way the mood was similar in Jerusalem three days after Jesus had been crucified.
In a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup (and I want to acknowledge that for some of you here hockey is not the most important thing in the world. In fact in a crowd the size there are likely two or three Boston Bruin fans. Don’t raise your hand. It's a safe place, but I wouldn’t encourage you to raise your hand. If someone sitting beside you is smiling smugly, they may be smiling for any number of reasons.) But, back to the point, in a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup, the people of Israel for centuries had been longing for a leader, a great king like David, a Saviour, a Messiah, who would free them from the shackles of Rome and bless the world.
And much like the most passionate hockey fans had hoped that last year would be our year with our Canucks having advanced all the way to the finals, and having won the first two games in the finals against the Bruins, and then having the opportunity to close out the deciding game 7 for the Stanley Cup final on our home ice, we Canuck fans thought this was the year.
But as our home team was shut out by the Bruins in the final game and our hopes crumbled we experienced such a letdown as a city—I remember how it June the 16 was a such clear, warm beautiful day—yet I felt a kind of chill in the our city… despite the great weather, our city was in a funk for several days…
In a somewhat similar way, but in a way, of course, that was obviously far more consequential, many of the people of Israel had been putting their hope in Jesus Christ as someone who would become like their great king of history, David, a Saviour, a Messiah who would free them from the iron-fisted rule of Rome and bless the world. They thought he was the one. So when Jesus Christ was arrested and beaten, and then crucified, all the hopes of everyone who believed that Jesus would be the next King David, the Saviour, the Messiah, experienced their hopes going up in smoke, they were devastated.
And so on Easter morning as we saw in the text Wayne recited from the Gospel of Luke, two people who had put their hope in Jesus are now devasted are walking northwest to the village called Emmaus. And as they were walking and talking Jesus himself comes up and began to walk and talk to them—he was and is ALIVE as the choir sang… but these two people did not recognize him.
What are you talking about? Jesus asked.
They stood still, their faces downcast. Cleopas, asked him, “Are you from out of town. Are you the only one who does not know the things that have happened here?”
“What things?” he asked.
These two people, Cleopas and his friend describe how they and many of their people had put their hope in Jesus Christ because he had taught with such power and performed great miracles. Cleopas explains how they and others believed he might be the Messiah who would free Israel from Rome and bless the people of the world.
They then spoke of how their own priests and leaders had betrayed Jesus, got him sentenced to death, and had him crucified. And then they said, “To make matters worse, some of our women have completely confused us. Earlier this morning they were at the tomb and they could not find his body. They came back and told us they had seen angels who said he was alive.
Then Jesus turned to Cleopas and his companion and said, “Why are you so thick-headed?
Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets have said?
Then we are told Jesus pointed them to the first part of the Bible (which are known as the books of Moses)and then went through all of the prophets pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
We don’t know exactly where in the Bible Jesus pointed to, but we are told that he took them to the first part of the Bible. And it could well be that he took them all the way back the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve were living in paradise with God in the Garden of Eden…how God had called them to govern the world on God’s behalf, but how they turned away from God, seeking to replace God in the Garden of Eden by becoming the god of their lives.
Contrary to popular myth, Adam and Eve’s sin was not eating a particular fruit, but it was their turning away from God and becoming god of their lives, replacing the role that the living God was meant to play in their lives.
They thought by becoming their own god they be freer, more powerful, more truly themselves.
But instead, as they separated themselves from the one true God, and like separating one’s self from the sun, they turned away from the source of all warmth and light and they felt this spiritual chill blow onto their bare back and so they felt compelled to clothe themselves with fig leaves.
Paradise Lost.
And whether or not we are familiar with this story, we've all felt that spiritual chill flow down our spine.
Let me take us back to June 16. The morning after the Vancouver riots, I was walking to work. It was a beautiful sunny day. I could see the mountains. I thought all is not perfect in one of the most beautiful, livable cities in the world. All is not perfect in paradise.
And in my own life, as much I like to think well of myself, there are moments when I can catch a glimpse of how self-centered, envious, or vindictive my heart can be and I can feel that spiritual chill on my spine.
I see how I need God to breath warmth into my soul.
God in his love for the world wanted to restore his paradise in my life, your life, and the earth.
When you think of paradise as a location on Earth where do you think of?
I think of Vancouver when the sun is out.
Or Hawaii where my favorite aunt and uncle live.
If you had an aunt and uncle who lived in Hawaii, they would be your favorite too.
(When we think of paradise we don’t think of place a you have to plug in your car at night so you can start it in the morning because it's a -20°).
When type in paradise in Google and hit images.
This is one of picture shows up.
(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in green).
Paradise is a place we associate with warmth, beauty, and happiness.
God wants to restore paradise-lost on earth.
How does God go about doing this?
I realize some of you are here once a year because it's Easter. Glad you’re here! Ho let me offer “Sparks Notes” summary of the Bible in a few minutes.
How does God go about restoring paradise-lost on earth?
About four thousand of years ago God approached man named Abraham.
He’s become an important figure.
If you went to Sunday School or church camp as a kid you may remember the song, “Father Abraham had many sons…and many son had father Abraham… right arm… left arm.”
So why do kids still sing about this Middle Eastern nomad who lived thousands of years ago?
It’s because God approached him and his wife Sarah and promised them that through their offspring, through their family, he one day send a leader, a prophet, King, a Messiah who would restore paradise lost to the world.
Someone who help us no longer feel the spiritual chill on our spine, some who helps experience the warmth of God’s breath on our neck.
Some who help turn winter to spring.
At times it looked like paradise lost might be restored under one of Abraham's great, great grandchildren like King David.
David was a person of great courage and charisma. He was the one who killed the giant Goliath with a singular stone hurled from his sling. When an underdog is up against a giant enemy, we still talk about David and Goliath.
But David despite all of his great qualities also experienced that cool spiritual chill on his spine from time to time. And like all of us wanted at times wanted to replace the living God by playing the role of god in his life and so like everyone else failed to be the instrument to restore paradise lost to the world.
So God decided that he would take the initiative in this paradise restoration project and send them a a unique king, a Messiah.
At a time when no one could anticipate, just when it seemed God’s promise to restore paradise to the world through the family of Abraham was going to fail, at a time when the children of Abraham felt like slaves because they were living the under foreign occupation, an imperial power of Rome, God decided that he would personally fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham 2000 years before to restore paradise lost.
How does God do this?
So he approaches a teenager Mary, who thought a peasant could trace her family line back more 40 generations to Abraham, and God miraculously enabled her to conceive and was born as a baby, as a human being (this is the Christmas story). He gave himself the name Jesus.
When Jesus as a young man taught with God-like wisdom, opened the eyes of the blind and even raised the dead. Many people like Cleopas and his companion had put their hope in Jesus as the promised one who would be the Saviour, as the Messiah who would free their people and restore paradise lost to the world.
But then Jesus was betrayed, betrayed by their own leaders, sentenced to death and crucified.
All their hopes went up in smoke.
They were devastated as walking to Emmaus.
But Jesus, who they did not recognize, then shows them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and die and then rise from the dead.
We don't know for certain, but it's a very good possibility that Jesus turned Cleopas and his companion’s attention to Isaiah 53.
In Isaiah 53 written about 700 years before Jesus was born, we read about the Messiah who comes from the family of Abraham.
Isaiah 53: 5-6, 9, 11:
5 He was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence
(he had not sinned).
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life
Jesus pointed out from the Scriptures how the Messiah, in order to restore paradise lost, actually needed to die and rise again.
Everyone at the time would think he was dying on a cross for his own sins, but according to Isaiah 53, he was in fact dying for our sins – for our tendency to turn away from the living God and replace God’s role in our lives by become god of our lives.
Jesus died on the cross bearing the penalty for our turning way from God, so that God, the cold wind on our back could stop blowing and we could experience the warmth of God’s breath on the back of our neck, God’s beauty and happiness.
Paradise-restored.
I realize that this is somewhat abstract.
C. S. Lewis illustrates paradise lost-paradise restored in his famous children’s story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in yellow).
As some of you know, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a story about how four children Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund are sent for the summer to live with an old professor in the country-side.
While the four children are playing in the professor’s house, they discover a wardrobe which leads then to a magical world of Narnia.
The people of Narnia live under the influence of the wicked white witch who causes it always to be winter in Narnia, but never Christmas.
The witch lures one of the four children, Edmund, with some magical Turkish delight (which is Edmund’s favourite candy).
(keep this photo up during the text highlighted in green.)
Edmund comes under the power of the wicked witch and ends up betraying his 3 siblings.
And since Edmund has proved to be a traitor which means the witch has the right to kill him and plans to. The wicked witch is also making plans to capture his siblings.
But then the true King of Narnia, the Great Lion named Aslan, the Christ figure, who’s been absent for many years is back and is “on the move again.”
(keep the photo up during blue text).
The snow begins to melt, frozen rivers flow again, flowers bloom.
But the white witch confronts Aslan, the Great Lion, the Christ-figure and says, “You have a traitor here. You know the deep magic says that every traitor belongs to me. His life is mine. I have the right to kill him.”
Aslan says, “I will offer my life in his stead. Kill me and let the boy go free. The wicked witch agrees.”
(SHOW 2 scenes SCENE FROM THE MOVIE)
Though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a deeper magic still which she did not know… If she could have looked a little further back… she would have known that when a victim who had committed no treachery was killed, though in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and death would start working backwards.”
Through Aslan’s death--death works backwards.
This is why we celebrate Easter…because Easter is the great news that King, the Messiah each us has knowingly or unknowingly long for has come.
Through his death--the stone table cracks and death works backwards.
Through his death – cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck.
Winter to spring.
Paradise-restored.
Will we turn and live under the reign of our true King?
Some people fear they will lose themselves, their real self, if they come under the reign of anyone else.
But when you come under the reign of the true King, you become your real self, the self that you were always meant to be.
A pastor that I went to school with says, “Right now, we are trying to embrace our lover, but we are wearing a hazmat (show powerpoint image) suit.
We are trying to have a deep conversation about complex emotions, but we are under water.
We are trying to taste the 32 different spices of curry, but our mouth is filled with gravel.”
As we come under the reign of our true King, cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck and become the people we blossom into the people we were meant to be.
To close, let me head back one last time to the story that we began with.
As Cleopas and his friend approach Emmaus, the village they were traveling to, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther, but they urged him, “Stay here and have dinner with us.” So he went in with them. He sat down at the table with them. He took bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them.
At that moment their eyes were opened and they recognize him as Jesus and then he disappears.
They said to each other, “Didn’t we feel like our hearts were on fire as he conversed with us on the road and as he opened up the Scriptures to us?”
Each of our experiences are unique, but as we bring ourselves under the reign of the true King,
as get on the back the Great Lion, the Christ.
as we trust live for the Lion and draw life from the Lion, the Christ
the cold wind on our hearts stops blowing we will feel the warmth of God’s breath and heart and we will become the people we created to be.
LET’S PRAY.
If you would like the cold wind to stop blowing on your back and would like to experience the warm breath of God on your heart…
Express that to God now.
As a symbol of your desire to for God touch you, I invite you now to simply place your hand touch your heart… as way of God breath on me.
And if you feel unworthy, as I certainly do, you can ask God to forgive your sins, which was mysteriously made possible through his death on the cross for you.
And now you’re forgiven, get the back of the Lion, the Christ and go an adventure of your life.
posted by Shigematsu at 2:14 PM
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