Who Knows What Will Happen

 

It's Easter Sunday and we know what happened. 

We've heard all about the Resurrection. How Jesus rose from the dead. How people came to the tomb and found nothing there but linens and wraps. But, what if you didn't know what was going to happen? Us in the 21st Century have a tendency to become complacent in our faith because we think we understand it all. We think we know what we need and that's all we need to know. We read text off a page. We see what we are told to see. We believe what we have been told to believe. It all becomes so mechanical. This tendency to simply do what we have always done. It becomes ritual. It becomes tradition. It's how we create legacy. It's how history is carried on. Doing the same thing over and over again. 

There's nothing wrong with that. We need repetition. It is how we learn. By doing a thing over and over we create a pattern. Muscle memory. Even habitual memory. The drive this morning is that we create a new appreciation for what happened today by putting ourselves in the shoes of those who had no idea what was going to happen. Oh, they had been told again and again. But, as we should know all to well about our human condition; we don't always get it right the first time. (Or, the twentieth time for that matter.) Sometimes it takes more than a ritual telling of the story for it to sink in. 

Might seem like a silly illustration to use on such a momentous occasion as Easter. But, entertain me for a moment. I am taken back to an interesting film from 1997 called "Men In Black". James Darrell Edwards III is an NYPD cop who has the haphazard chance of chasing an actual alien from another planet, on foot, through the streets of New York City. This encounter brings him into a world of people who have been protecting the planet for some time against threats and beings from other planets. In an offer to join the Men in Black group and become an agent, he is confronted with a mountain of knowledge and information that challenges what he thought he has always known. Agent K, a long time veteran in the organization, has one final talk with James before he makes up his mind about whether he actually wants to step in this world he has discovered. The next day his life is changed. Forever. 

What I want to do this morning is take things from the standpoint of a person who has no idea what is going to happen. A person who thinks he has all the answers and is convinced that things are going to happen a certain way. Even for the Christian who believes in Jesus and has heard the Resurrection story a million times, there are situations in life where the reality that God has everything under his hand and his control needs to become true. The scripture from the Gospel of John says that "the disciple whom Jesus loved" made it to the tomb first. It says that Peter went in first and then John came in after that. The report says that John "saw and believed". The scripture also goes on to share that they still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. We can believe in Jesus and still not know what we are supposed to know. We can believe that Jesus is Lord and Messiah and not know that fully in our own hearts. There are issues and matters that lie within our blind spots in life. Issues that we are not aware of and matters that we either are not ready to confront or willing to deal with at the moment. 

Driving a car is one of those situation in life that one of the parents in the house is going to have to come to terms with if the child who is of age is going to learn how to do it. More often that not, good ol' dad is the person who gets to be the one that handles the learning and teaching part. Mom, stereo-typically, gets the be the joy-riding person that the child gets to have fun with once they have learned some of the essentials and has a bit of confidence behind the wheel. According to the National Safety Council, one of the hardest concepts for a new driver to embrace is that of the blind spot. Just knowing that we should look back over our shoulder and then applying the concept and actually doing it is something that is difficult for a person to accept. The difficulty might come from the fact that we deal with what we can see. The old adage is "out of sight, out of mind". Everything in our blind spot is out of our sight. Who knows what will happen back there. Most of the time we don't see it so we don't even know what is going on. 

The Christian singer/songwriter Larry Norman knew how to deal with just such an issue. Many times people get distracted by everything going on around them. It's not that they have a blind spot to deal with, it is that they are distracted by everything going on around them. What they need is to come back to the central focus of what Jesus has done. Larry was avid about singing in bars. He would witness to people right there in their own comfortable surroundings. A beer in hand or a drink of some kind did not stop him from sharing what needed to be said. However, in the midst of a conversation about Jesus, when the truth about the Savior was bringing their head to turn to that place and see what they needed to see, the person he was witnessing to might ask something along the lines of, "Yea, well what about UFOs?" It's a question that really doesn't have anything to do with what was being discussed. It's a distraction question, meant to do exactly that, and keep a person from having to focus on that glaring item sitting in the blind spot. Well, Larry went and penned a song that addressed that very problem and brought the focus back to a center on Jesus himself.. 

Larry Norman - "U.F.O." (1972)

So many of us think we know what is going to happen next. Yet, there are so many situations where we still don't understand. Just like the people Jesus speaks with after his resurrection, we find ourselves in mourning and grieving. We think this is the end and this how the story goes. Then we come across information that can transform our outlook. Do we take it seriously? Do want the answer? How many times do we have to hear it before we actually look into that blind spot and acknowledge the truth? Scripture suggests that Jesus appeared more than 10 times to his disciples in his resurrected body. Imagine being Thomas. He wasn't there when Jesus first appeared to ten of the disciples. How many of us have looked up at heaven, demanding a sign, and wanting an answer? I'm pushing the envelope beyond the simple matter of just believing in the Resurrection this morning, and I hope you see that. I hope you know that. Because many of us say we believe in the Resurrection, but we don't live like it. How many of us love to tell others what they should do and how they should do it, but can't follow our own advice? How many of us want to be strong, act like we are strong, but when it comes down to it we truly, really don't have the wherewithal to hold our head up when things get hard?

Peter. John. Mary. They have no idea what's going to happen. Some followers come to the tomb early. They report back that the place where his body was laid is wide open. The two guys who were closest to this Jesus are the ones who take off running. They get to the tomb, find it just as was told them. They see. They believe. But, they don't understand. For now, that's ok. But we know there's more. If you believe at all this morning, then believe this. You don't understand it all. You don't know it all. You don't have an answer for everything.What you have is an empty tomb, a risen Savior. 

And, that's enough. Understanding comes to those who are patient and wait. 

Just like Jesus taught. Seek. Ask. Find. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.