|
I met Bailey Elkins when I first
moved to Lincoln. He was a difficult man to read if ever there was
one. On the one hand, he was the kind of guy that would serve you at
the drop of a hat. We did pancake breakfasts for our choir tours,
and Bailey would stay up all night cooking sausage for the meal. But
he was gruff and very plain-spoken, had a quick wit and a sharp
tongue. He didn’t mind talking, but you just knew when he was done
with the conversation.
What do you do when hope lets you down?
Put yourself in the position of Jesus’ disciples for a minute. They
had expectations of who Jesus was and what He had come to do. You
can hear the disappointment of the two men on the road to Emmaus in
Luke 24 – “We were hoping that he was the one who had come to redeem
Israel.” Judas Iscariot’s betrayal began because of unmet
expectations – Jesus didn’t do what Judas had expected him to do? So
what do you do when hope lets you down?
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the
women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb (Luke
24:1).
What do you do when hope lets you down? You go through the motions.
You get up, you take a shower, you go to work, you just…exist. I am
sure the women didn’t even think about what they were going to do
with the spices once they got there. I could see them preparing the
spices and someone telling them that the tomb was sealed and
guarded. How were they going to get in to anoint the body? “We don’t
know!” They didn’t know, because they were just going through the
motions.
Have you been there? Have you ever believed in a promise that never
got kept? Trusted in someone who let you down? Woke up to an
unpleasant reality that you could not get away from? Have you ever
stood in the dark and wondered where God went?
St. John of the Cross described it as “the dark night of the soul.”
Mother Teresa spent nearly five decades in this darkness: “Jesus has
a very special love for you. But as for me, the silence and the
emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, listen and do not
hear, the lips move [in prayer] but do not speak.” It seems like you
go to sleep in darkness and you wake up in darkness. Going through
the motions.
Bailey was older when I met him. He had already retired. He was
active in the local basketball boosters, one of their most faithful
members. He was even recognized by the IHSA as a friend of
basketball. But there was a part of me that genuinely felt sorry for
Bailey. For all the living he did, there was a spark missing in his
life. It seemed like Bailey really didn’t have a life – it seemed
like he just lived. I had always wanted to talk with him about
accepting Christ as His Savior, but the opportunity never seemed
right.
They found the stone rolled away
from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of
the Lord Jesus (Luke 24:2-3).
What do you do when hope lets you down? You expect it to stay down.
It genuinely never occurred to the women to think anything else.
They watched him die. They were the last ones to see him alive and
now came to the tomb to be among the first ones to see him dead.
Were they not paying attention to the Jesus that Luke presents? The
Jesus who amazed the leaders as a 12 year old boy in the temple. The
Jesus who withstood the temptations of Satan. The Jesus who drove
out demons and healed people who were hurting. The Jesus who called
His disciples to follow Him. The Jesus who calmed the storms and fed
the five thousand. The Jesus who taught about and lived the example
of prayer. The Jesus who laughed with sinners and ate with tax
collectors.
But I guess none of that matters, because dead things stay dead.
Jesus said and did a lot of great things, but it’s over now. You go
through the motions because there really is nothing else to do. You
know who Jesus is and what He did. But you also know that your job
stinks – you just have to put up with it, I suppose. You know that
the marriage is over – you just have to move on. You know that
person is a jerk and will always be a jerk – they will never change.
Dead things stay dead.
Bailey’s family called me last month. He was dying. Doctor gave him
three months or so. He had been at our house visiting around
Christmas time. He was recovering from surgery and was moving slow,
but I knew something greater was at work. I remember thinking to
myself as he walked to his car to leave, “This will probably be the
last time I see Bailey alive.”
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes
that gleamed like lightning stood beside them (Luke 24:4).
This isn’t the first time in Luke that an angel stood by people. And
there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch
over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to (STOOD
BESIDE) them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were terrified (Luke 2:8-9). The result of both visits was the same
– fear. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to
the ground (Luke 24:5). Because when hope lets you down, fear
stands ready to take its place.
Luke chose his words well. When the angel came to the shepherds,
they were terrified. When the angels came to the women at the
tomb…fright. We live in a world filled with fear. We are afraid for
our finances, our families, our friends, and our future. Satan loves
fear, because fear stops us from taking chances for the kingdom.
Fear stops us from sharing our faith with others. Fear stops us from
ending conflict and restoring relationships. But most importantly,
fear steals our hope.
Fear almost stole Bailey from me. And it would have, were it not for
one moment of clarity. I had just dropped Hannah off for school. And
as I drove away from the high school, a question popped up in my
soul: “What are you waiting for?” I will admit it – I was afraid.
Bailey was gruff on his best days – How would we handle my broaching
the subject of repentance and baptism? What would his family think
of my asking?
The men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the
dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while
he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be
raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words (Luke 24:5-8).
[to top of second column] |
In the past four years, this
baptistery has seen over 70 baptisms. Their stories are as diverse
as they are. Husbands, wives, children, old, young, rich, poor,
addicts, homeless, friendless. All had been going through the
motions. All expected hope to stay dead. All had found fear in place
of hope, until all found the ground even at the foot of the cross.
The women forgot that. All the good things that Jesus did, all the
stuff He said was left on the hill where He died. We forget, and so
we go through the motions. We live, but we don’t really live. We
place fear where hope had once stood.
I was afraid, but that day I called Bailey anyway. Because I
remembered something – hope trumps fear every time.
What do you do when hope lets you down? You remember. I love what
the angels said – “What are you DOING? Don’t you remember what Jesus
SAID?” And the women were like, “Oh yeah, He said that, didn’t He?
You have to wonder if their thoughts went back to Luke 4, Jesus in
the synagogue, where this whole train started a rolling: The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the
oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
Today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Do you know what trumps fear? Good news. Freedom, sight, release,
the Lord’s favor! Every other story of every other major world
religion ends with a death, a burial and then silence. Do you want
to see Mohammed’s tomb? You can go right to it. Buddha? Dead and
buried. But Jesus’ story didn’t end with a cross or even a tomb. It
ends with a risen Savior! Remember that!
Bailey’s family called me back the next day. Would I be willing to
drive up to Lincoln and perform his baptism? So last Monday, the
girls and I went up to Lincoln and baptized this 86 year old man in
one of the most incredible moments of our lives – no one left that
room untouched.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to
the Eleven and to all the others (Luke 24:9).
But Tracy, what if remembering isn’t enough? I do remember what
Jesus Christ has done. But I also remember the disappointments I
have felt, the challenges still not overcome, the battles still not
won. Hope is still dead within me. Just remembering what Jesus did
and said is not enough.
Do you know something? I agree with you. Remembering isn’t enough.
There is something else you must do in order to bring hope back to
life. What do you do when hope lets you down? You must tell others
what you remembered.
Think about it this way. You were created to worship God and to
multiply the kingdom. You have a purpose – to possess and share that
hope. If you are not taking the good news and spreading it around,
you are going against your very DNA. I love how Paul puts it in
Titus 2: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared
to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly
passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in
this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13).
You might remember that God’s grace brings salvation, but if you are
saying “no” to living the Godly life, if you are saying “yes” to all
the worldly things, then this hope will elude you. We want God to
restore our hope, but we want it on our terms. Fix my problems the
way I want them fixed. The women remembered the truth…and told
others.
Now I am not going to sit here and
pretend that telling the truth of the good news is easy. The
disciples didn’t even believe the women, and many in the world will
not believe you. But remember this: When hope lets you down, there
are some who will think about what you have said. Peter, however,
got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen
lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had
happened (Luke 24:12).
Bailey and I have known each other for 15 years. We spent time
together, talked, laughed, cried, and prayed. And all the while, he
was wondering. People are watching you, people who are without hope
looking for something to give their life meaning and purpose. How
many times did Bailey pick up the scraps of linen and wonder to
himself, “What happened here?” When you say ‘no’ to ungodliness and
‘yes’ to the good things of God, people will watch you, and they
will wonder.
This Easter morning, are you worshipping a risen Savior, or are you
preparing spices for the tomb? I often wonder how many of you come
every Sunday with no expectation of an empty grave. Are you going
through the motions? Because let’s face it – dead things are
supposed to stay dead. You come to this place, but you live in fear
of everything. The tomb is empty – do you remember that? Good news!
Freedom is here! A dead Savior didn’t stay dead, and because of that
our fear is replaced by hope, the blessed hope of the glorious
appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Are you here this morning like Peter, picking up the linens and
wondering what happened here? Has hope let you down? Are you just
going through the motions of living without understanding what real
life is about? The most dangerous of Satan’s whispers is simply
this: “Things will never change.” On a Sunday morning in a tomb
outside of Jerusalem, things changed. And hope did not let us down!
[Tracy Thomas (formerly of Lincoln)
Second Church of Christ, Danville]
|
