Helmut wanted a copy of this - it's what i wrote for our easter service....
Easter 2006
There is a story of a poor peasant family who lived at the edge of the town. The oldest son grew up a wise lad. He faced his hardships philosophically. “You can never tell how things will turn out,” he used to say.
One day is father came to him leading the cow, the only cow that they owned. “Son something GOOD has happened. There is a cattle market in town today, and the wealthy landowners will all be there to bid. If we can take the old cow down and sell her we shall make a handsome profit. This is a good thing!”
“Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,” said the boy.
And so the boy and his young sister walked down the long winding path leading the cow behind him. Suddenly as they rounded a corner, the path passed just outside the beautiful property of one of the wealthy men of the town, a great big vicious looking guard dog ran out barking and snarling at the poor old cow. She bellowed in fright, and ran headlong off the other side of the track into the dark old forest the dog snapping at her heels. She was never seen again. “Oh dear, oh dear, cried the little sister. This is a terrible thing a BAD thing. Now we have no cow and no money at all! Why oh why did this happen to us” But the boy said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
As she sat on the ground weeping, the local policeman came past on his horse. “Why are you crying little girl?" he asked. Well after they had explained the whole story to him, the policeman said, “This is not right. That dog ought to have been tied up. I believe according to our laws and customs you are owed compensation for your loss.” After he had knocked on the door, spoken sternly with the wealthy man, and had much conversation about the matter – the boy found himself given four magnificent cattle In compensation for their loss. As they walked o n to the town the little girl clapped her hands: “Isn’t this a good thing! A very good thing indeed!" But the boy said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
When they got to the town they found he villagers eying them with jealousy and suspicion. "Ha! How did you come by four such fine beasts? We don’t have such animals! Did you steal them! You are cattle rustlers aren’t you? Be gone before we have at you! And no! You can’t sell these beasts at our market!" As they trudged slowly home the little girl wailed: "Oh, this is such a bad thing! How will we feed these beasts? What will we do with such bad fortune?" But the boy said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
The next day they stood with their parents examine the cattle carefully. “This one is a fine thoroughbred bull” said the father pointing at the noble beast. “ And these cows", said the mum bending over to examine them, "these cows are with calf!” Soon after three hearty young ones were born – and the following spring three more. The boy now found himself the cowherder for a fine strong herd of ten cattle. There was milk for drinking and selling and making cheese. Calves to raise to sell in time. “ Oh this is such a good thing" said the mother and father and little sister. But the boy said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
Each day the boy would drive the herd up into the high countryside above the town where they could graze on the lush mountain grass. He would watch over them driving away predators and thieves. One stormy winter’s evening, as dusk was falling, the boy gathered nine of the ten beasts, ready to stroll down the mountain and stable them in the barn by the house. Suddenly he heard the missing cow bellow higher up the mountain, lost in the gathering dark. He turned and began climbing up, off the path, clambering across rocks towards the sound of the missing cow. Suddenly, as a light dusting of snow began to fall, he lost his balance tripped, and fell, As he fell, he caught his leg in a hole and cried out in pain as he felt the bone break. He lay their cold, wet in pain trapped on the dark mountain side. A voice in his head seemed to cry out: ‘Oh this is a bad thing! I shall die out here! All is lost! What a very bad thing, this is!” But the boy gritted his teeth and said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
The cattle left in the cold slowly wound there way down the mountainside until they reached the barn with its doors shut tied. There they stood lowing forlornly. The father sitting by the fire looked up and said” Why are the cattle still out? And where is the boy?” Soon a search party swept up the mountains, calling loudly and holding aloft their lanterns as they looked for the boy. At last they found him, shivering and half conscious and carried him to safety. “ This is such a good thing,’ cried the father in gratitude “Thank you all for saving my boy. It is a miracle and a wonder that he has been saved. Things have turned out for good! But the boy lying in his warm bed heard them and mumbled to himself: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
The following day the doctor stood scratching his head by the side of the boy’s bed. “This is a very bad thing,” he said. “His leg is very badly broken. He wouldn’t be walking for many, many weeks – and even then he may hobble for months maybe years. I’m afraid it is very bad.” Oh dear, oh dear,” said the family members to each other. "Our poor boy. And also there is no one to herd the cattle anymore. We can’t afford to buy hay and grain for them. The father is too old and frail to climb the mountain, the girl too young. What shall we do? This is a very, very bad thing!” But the boy said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
That very same day, a magnificent cavalry horse marched proudly into the town. On it’s back sat one of the King’s warrior’s – from the distant city down in the plains. His armour shone in the pale sunlight, his shield bore the insignia of a great lord. Behind him rode three strong and burly knights. The crowd gathered to hear his message. He stood in the stirrups and in a ringing voice proclaimed: “ His royal highness, the great king commands all the fit men of his kingdom to gather before his palace to join the imperial army. We ride to war on the morrow against the King’s enemy across the valley – we ride to victory or we die with honour." The people stood listening in horror. The girls tearfully hugged their sweethearts, the wives clung sadly to their young husbands, the mothers sobbed for their strapping sons. They knew that this was a cruel king who used his soldiers mercilessly. Few came back unscathed from these bitter battles. But to defy the King would mean arrest and torture and imprisonment in the far off dungeons of the black castle. Only the sick or infirm were exempt. As the family walked sadly along and entered their simple home, the father suddenly raised his head and his eyes lit up: “ But our boy can’t go to the wars! He has a broken leg! He lies propped up in bed, his whole leg raised in an uncomfortable painful cast! It will be months till he is able again! Oh wonderful day! This is good news - such good news!” But the boy heard them and said: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
And so the long days revolved into seasons, the seasons into years, the years span past, great events touched the life of the village. Sorrowful tragedies, exhilarating triumphs, deaths births, illnesses, droughts and floods, bountiful harvests and festivals. The boy, now a wizened old man would sit by the door of the inn and watch and listen to the parade of tales and say: “Who can tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing,”
The collage of events that make up life is not predictable, nor easy. Unforseen things happen – at the most inopportune times!
Bad things happen – often to good people. Good things happen to bad people
Our responses to the disappointments in life and to others, shapes us and warps us and can embitter us.
This is the problem with our world – the problem the bible calls sin:
Evil and sorrow exist around us.
We too have evil in our hearts, in our minds and habits and our reactions to others.
We are conscious of being separated from the peace and goodness and paradise of God. “If God is so good, then how come.... fill in the blanks?”
We desperately want to control the future and the future of our lives
We want control that brings security, happiness and predictability.
We want control that screens out the pain, and intrusiveness, and messiness that others bring
We become ‘self-ish’ – hiding from and hurting others as they wound us.
But still the world is not predictable and safe.
Even if I were to become an atheist in my resentment against God – I haven’t changed the settings on reality. Bad and sad things still happen, and I still need to come to terms with them.
The trouble is that millions of people all living like this conditioning their offspring to live like this magnifies and transmits the resentment, anger, controlling habits, suspicions, reactions, from generation to generation from race to race until humanity stands on the brink of hell.
"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."..... ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3: 9-18)
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away....” Isaiah 64:6
That is the context of Easter! That’s the promise of Easter!
FIRSTLY: GOD HAS NOT ABANDONED US!
This dark world and it’s irrational history and its broken dreams and the once pristine paradise which has ended up as a stinking garbage tip for the wars and famines and disasters of history has not been abandoned! The scriptures insist:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son....” (John 3:16)
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" —which means, ‘God with us’." Matthew 1:23
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 14)
The God we worship is not just the infinite, eternal, super-powerful, distant deity who winds up and services the mechanisms that run the earth. God is not like a child with one of those insect catchers distant and aloof from the creatures trapped within.
No, God has become a flesh and blood human – forever
Eternity has taken on humanity - forever
In the living memory of God is permanently scarred by pain.
“My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”
The holes are still in his hands and his feet and his side
Hebrews says: “We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” (Hebrews 4: 14-16)
JESUS HAS TAKEN AWAY OUR GUILT
Somehow, by his death and his resurrection, he has taken away the power of our sin. Different Christians at different times will try to write up how it all works and how God did this – the bible writers tend to use pictures and images – letting God work out the maths!
Isaiah 53 says this:
“Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God--a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him--our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off-- and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man. Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.
Still, it's what GOD had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it--life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.” (Isaiah 53)
CHRIST TOOK OUR PUNISHMENT.
“... We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins...” (Romans 3: 21-25)
If you believe – put your trust in Jesus – share in his life – accept that you have died with him and can now live as a new person – that becomes the new reality- there is the hope of change. Your mind and all it’s old crusty habits, your resentments and anger and control and fear of the waves of the future and anxiety as to what ‘they’ are unfairly doing – can be changed though Christ.
GOD HAS REDEEMED HISTORY!
The wisdom and planning of God to bring hope and good – is woven into the very fabric of this world. God guarantees that in the midst of chaos and apparent disaster he still is in control and working things for Good.
The weak can dare to imagine they will be strong!
The impotent and incapable can dare to hope for empowerment by faith.
The foolish ones can confound the wise.
The broken ones can become the building blocks.
The wounded can become healers.
The worst of sinners, with the worst of histories, can become saints.
The one who sits in captivity can dare to hope for freedom.
Bad things can become good things!
The way that God defeats evil and failure, is not so much destroy it per se - but to turn it’s masterstroke against it.
Who would have thought that Daniel the refugee would become the guiding light of the exiles in Babylon?
Who would have imagined that an aging old couple Abraham and Sarah would parent the race that would bring forth the messiah?
Who would have thought Joseph sitting in prison in Egypt sent there for evil – would find it a hallowed place in which his whole family would be saved? Intended for evil – transformed for good.
Moses, 40 years abandoned in the wilderness – becomes God’s agent of deliverance.
David, ‘punished’ by Saul for his faithfulness by years and years as an outlaw, hunted by the people of God – could such a one really become the great King? Could an illicit affair with Bathsheba really see them become the ancestors of Mary and Joseph?
Esther, no career, no home, no future – the decorative queen of an arrogant king – just in the right place at the right time to save her people.
AND finally, most shocking and outrageous of all – the Messiah comes to his people; God comes to his creation to save them and is tortured, framed, crucified and buried. Surely Satan wins and humanity stands condemned. Standby for the final judgment day – as humanity commits the ultimate BAD!
But wonder of wonders, history is redeemed – the decisive bad, paves the way for an even more astounding GOOD – the grace of God comes through the death of Christ.
If God can weave even that into the tapestry of time – than we can dare to hope. There is no evil so great that it can cause despair! This present darkness is never the final word!
This is the hope of Easter!
