Was This What You Planned Luke 24:1-12
Happy Easter. Today is the holiest day of the year. A few months ago we celebrated Christmas, the birth of Jesus and the start of God’s final and eternal plan to deal with mankind’s sin, the start of God’s plan to re-establish fellowship with his creation. And today we celebrate the completion of that grand plan.
In the play “Jesus Christ Superstar” at his crucifixion they sing the song “Superstar.” In it Jesus is asked “did you mean to die like that or was that a mistake…” To answer that question we need to take a little trip through the Bible and with all trips we need to start at the beginning.
Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 27, “…God created mankind in his own image.” We must start here because for those who don’t believe this the rest makes no difference.
God created us in his own image, does this mean we look like God? I don’t think so; but it does mean we are endowed with the same abilities as God to think, to laugh, to share, to be in fellowship and to choose.
Our freewill is a gift from God and I remember a debate in seminary: if God didn’t give us free choice we wouldn’t have gotten into all this trouble. I thought about this and as silly as it may seem, think about your vacuum cleaner, it does what you expect every time, but how much pleasure do you get from it? How much pleasure would God get from us if we were programmed to worship him? God gains pleasure when we choose to come to him.
In Eden we made the wrong choice, and then we keep making the wrong choices to the point God sends a flood. But he saves those who still trust him in a wooden ark. This shows the countless generations after that if you have faith in God you will not be abandoned.
Next we find Abraham out in the dessert. We know he loved and trusted God; Genesis 15:6, “Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Yet Abraham’s descendents continue to make the wrong choices and eventually they are punished by being held in slavery by Egypt. Yet God promised the Israelites would be a great nation and you can’t be that if you are in bondage so God sends Moses to lead the nation out of Egypt.
It’s during the Exodus that God demonstrates his plan for those who follow him. God demonstrates the grace and mercy he offers all mankind. During the Exodus not a single death is recorded; not the young, not the old, not the infirm. God destroyed their enemies at the Red Sea, gave them water from a rock, gave them manna and quail to feed them. But as mankind often does the people didn’t recognize God’s grace and in Exodus 19 they boast they can do all things God asks without help. And then in Exodus 20 God gives the Ten Commandments, the law.
As it was designed the law was meant to show men that they couldn’t live up to God’s standards; Matthew 5:22, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister (without cause) will be subject to judgment.”
Knowing the law cannot save men God shows us what will save us. The Ark of the Covenant; made of wood and gold it represents man and God as one. It holds manna, Aaron’s staff and the stone tablets of the law. These represent man’s grumbling at God, their rejection of his priest and there disregard for God’s law. The lid is called the lid is called the mercy seat. Together this is a picture of our savior, Christ taking us within himself despite our transgressions. And the mercy seat, it shows us that God’s mercy is and always will be above our sin.
Exodus also has the story of the slave who loves his people so much that he has his ear pierced with a metal awl as a sign of eternal loyalty. Christ who loves us so much that he is nailed to a cross becoming forever our savior.
There’s one account from the New Testament that I like a lot because I think it demonstrates all these concepts in one short story, the beginning of John 8; the story of the adulterous woman. John 8:3-5, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery…Teacher…the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” Do you remember what Jesus did? He didn’t give an answer immediately, John 8:6, “But Jesus bent down and started write on the ground with his finger.” Why? I saw a picture of the spot this took place and it’s not a dirt road, it’s a cobblestone road. Exodus 31:18, “…he gave him the two tablets…of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” By drawing his finger across the stone Jesus is claiming that he as a man is also the God that wrote the law on stone. He is telling the religious leaders, “How you dare tell me the law, I wrote it.”
When he does speak to them he says, “Let any of you who be without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7) Jesus the man is standing before them explaining the spirit of the law that they have lost. John 8:11, “Then neither do I condemn you…go now and leave you life of sin.” Jesus as God is living out the lesson of the Ark of the Covenant, knowing this woman’s sins he welcomes her into his kingdom and forgives her sins.
I want to take a moment to look at Good Friday. In the Old Testament the first sacrificial lamb was tied to the alter at dawn; it was sacrificed at 9 in the morning. The second lamb was tied up at noon and sacrificed at 3 in the afternoon. Jesus passion followed this time line; he was condemned at dawn, crucified at 9, at noon the sky darkened and he died at 3.
The sacrificial animals were unblemished and symbolically took on the sins of the person offering it and then imparting their perfection on the person. Jesus was sinless. Our sins were imparted on him with every whip strike, with every cut and thorn piercing and by every nail. By our faith, belief and trust; through our acceptance of Jesus as our savior God imparts Christ’s perfection on us.
The Old Testament sacrifices were shadows of Calvary and as such they needed to constantly be repeated. Jesus was sinless, perfect as God on earth and as such his sacrifice is forever never needing to be repeated; 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteous of God.”
And now we come to today, Easter Sunday, the resurrection and its empty tomb.
So I ask the question, if our sins were paid for at the cross, why do we need the resurrection? Several reasons. It shows God’s power. It shows us Jesus triumph over death. It shows us that God accepted Jesus sacrifice on our behalf. And it shows us the reality of eternal life.
This is important for us to see. I ask you to think about this, what good would the forgiveness of our sins be if we were still destined to the tomb?
And as I look at the scene at the tomb I see its lessons for us also. The stone has been moved aside. Again I ask, why? Jesus could have simply appeared outside the tomb.
In the New Testament stones usually represent the law, in particular the Ten Commandments, those laws that were written on stone. Behind the law is condemnation and death; Romans 3:20, “Therefore no one will be righteous in God’s eyes by the works of the law…” By rolling the stone aside Jesus shows us that through our faith in him the law cannot condemn us to death, we will walk out of the tomb as he did. Because of God’s grace and mercy given to us by of our faith in Jesus the law cannot keep us in the tomb, we have been set free by the one who walked out first.
All of this this morning to answer the question in “Superstar” “Did you mean to die like that or was that a mistake…”
God created us in his image and he had a plan for us from the moment of our creation. It was shown to us and explained to us through thousands of years of scripture. God sent his son who knowing our sin pulls us into himself. Jesus was pierced and broken at the cross becoming our perfect sacrifice; taking our sin on himself and passing his perfection to us through our belief and faith.
Through this act and our faith our sins are forgiven and we have a relationship with God the Father. By our faith we are blessed, glorified, sanctified and redeemed. We will follow Jesus out of the grave and live eternally with him in heaven.
Yes, Jesus meant to die like that.
Celebrate today with all the reverence, honor, thankfulness and joy that it deserves.
Praise God in heaven for what he has done for us.
Amen.