Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019
Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
Sermon Series on the Seven Last “Words” of Christ
“Into your hands I commit my spirit.” ~ Luke 23:46
© 2019, Dr. Tamilio
Luke 23:46, “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.” At that moment, Jesus died on the cross.
Happy Easter! What a great message. “Gee, Dr. John, when you planned this sermon series on the Seven Last Words of Christ, did you happen to look at the calendar and see that the seventh Sunday was Easter, and yet you went forward with Jesus’ very last words right before he died?”
Yes, I did. And I went there. Because this isn’t about Jesus dying. Sure, if you read the narrative literally it is, but if you dig deeper, these final words are about life: Jesus’ life and our lives.
As he dies, Jesus commits his spirit to God. He turns it over, offers it into his care. But then again, Jesus committed his spirit to God throughout his entire life. Jesus was always fully committed to God and his will. As disciples of Christ, we should strive to do the same.
When the empty tomb was discovered, everything changed. The disciples knew that their lives would be different. Jesus did not remain dead. The grave did not seal his fate. Death did not have the final word. Life broke forth. New life. The life of the resurrected Christ.
And what did Jesus do after he rose from the dead? He sent the disciples forth to spread the Good News. And it wasn’t just the eleven remaining disciples. It included many others. John’s account of the resurrection, which we read this morning, ends with Jesus talking to Mary Magdalene. At first, she does not recognize the risen Christ. She thought that he was the gardener. Once he reveals himself, he says, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” She does. She tells Jesus’ disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
According to John, Mary was the first one commissioned to go forth and proclaim what she saw. Being the first witness of the resurrection, Jesus did not want her to keep it to herself. He wanted her to share what she saw: Jesus, in the flesh, risen from the dead.
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we have the Great Commission. Matthew tells us that Jesus sent all the disciples out to spread the Good News. In fact, they were charged with making disciples of all nations! That doesn’t mean, “Go tell your friends what happened.” It doesn’t mean, “Call your neighbors and share the news.” It doesn’t mean, “Post a meme on social media for your friends to see.” It means share the Good News with everyone.
Speaking of memes, I found a very interesting one the other day — a quote from the recently deceased German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg. It reads, “The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you will have to change the way you live.” That pretty much sums it up. You either believe in the resurrection of Christ or you don’t. If you don’t, your life will go on in the usual way without you giving much thought to God — at least not a lot of serious thought. If you do believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then such a belief calls you to refocus your life. It calls you to commit your spirit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
History is filled with stories of people whose lives changed dramatically because of their belief in the resurrection. Think of John Newton, a captain of a British slave ship who converted to Christianity in 1748. He went on to become an Anglican priest, but you know him as the author of that great hymn, “Amazing Grace,” which chronicles his conversion: how he once was lost, but, through God’s grace, was found. In the previous century people like C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel tried to prove that Christianity was false, that Jesus never rose from the dead. As a result of their research, they ended up becoming believers — and not just believers, but apologists who spread the truth about Jesus resulting in multitudes coming to accept Christ.
But the resurrection is not just a historic event that changed people in the past. Jesus is changing lives every day, because he is alive here and now. I am amazed by how our culture has hijacked Easter and turned it into something else. (They’ve done this more so with Christmas, but Easter is by no means a distant second.) It has become some secular celebration that welcomes and celebrates spring! Chocolate bunnies, hard-boiled eggs, new clothes — these are symbols of Easter for Christians, but our culture has turned them into a sort of rite-of-spring revelry. The day after Easter, nonbelievers give no thought to what the day was really about. People’s eyes are on the next holiday: Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Their lives are not changed. Their lives have not been dedicated to Christ. Their spirits have not been committed into God’s hands.
But for we who are Christians, everything has changed. Dr. Adrian Warnock (a medical doctor, mind you) writes, “Christians have…already been changed by Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus really is alive today. Because of this Christians are also alive in a whole new way. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is living in every true Christian. God wants us not just to believe in Jesus’s resurrection but to be transformed by it and to receive the power we need to live the way we know we ought.”[1]
This day is pivotal. History is centered around it. Jesus was executed by the political and religious authorities of his day. He was killed as a traitor to the state. That’s the historical narrative. The spiritual reality is far greater. He took the sins of the world onto himself paying the penalty that was due to everyone who ever lived. He took the consequence of sin (which is death) into his very being. He was buried in a borrowed tomb — but on the third day he rose from the dead. He defeated the power of sin. He shattered the clout of death. Alleluia! And he did this for you and for me, opening up the gates of everlasting life. If that isn’t good news, then I don’t know what is!
This act of God’s grace is a gift — a gift that is free. You don’t have to be perfect to accept it. You do not have to be the most morally upright person to earn it. You are “saved by grace through faith,” as the Apostle Paul wrote. This gift is for each one of us as individuals, but it is also a gift to us as a church.
We, the members and friends of the Congregational Church of Canton, have done a great deal to commit ourselves to Jesus Christ. We are “the good neighbor church in the community.” Through our Christian education programs for children and adults; to the Canton Community Kindergarten Preschool (CCK), which is one of the longest running preschools in the area; to our numerous outreach endeavors that serve people in Canton, in the United States, and halfway around the world; to our Senior Suppers; to the fact that our doors are open to other churches who worship here, such as the Seventh Day Adventists and the Boston Church of Christ; to our new radio ministry on WEZE 590 AM; to our work with our denomination the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches; to the programs that meet here such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Scouts, and the Canton Help Line — because of all this, and so much more, we have committed our spirits to the Living God made known to us in the resurrected Christ. Our doors are always open to all people, welcoming old friends as well as new, into the fold, to help us follow in Jesus’ way. May we continue to live the Gospel in new and innovative ways! Let us, as individuals and as a faith community, live for the one who died and rose for us. Amen.
[1] Adrian Warnock, Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2010), 14.