THE GOD OF MIRACLES

Reverend Anne D. Scheiber April 27, 2003

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John 20:19-31

Is it over? Did I miss it? Often times we might say this if we've been watching a special TV program and then an important phone call comes through or maybe the doorbell rings and we have to attend to other things that grab our attention. Quickly we run back to see if we missed the end of the program or the final score of the game. I even had a phone call at the church this week where a well meaning mother wanted to know if all the Easter stuff was over, was it coming up this week or was it all over last week. It is interesting that the Easter celebration, like Christmas, lasts for a short period of time, but the fact of the matter is what God did on the third day after Good Friday is something that we can never miss. Jesus rising from utter death on the cross is a reality that had and still has permanent ramifications for all human kind for eternity. Easter is something that we can give thanks for everyday of our lives as we recall and remember the extent to which God was willing to go to save us from the penalty of death.

Unlike human character, God's character never changes. What we are called to do as Christians is to remember, to recall our history of faith. We are to seek God's work in our lives today in a relationship nourished by prayer, meditation and study of Scripture and worship in fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters.

Just last Thursday many of you participated in the great act of remembering. This act of remembering was practiced by the Hebrews in the celebration of the Passover Feast, or as it is called today, the Seder. This family meal commemorates God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and is a kind of re-enactment of the last meal that they had on the night when the angel of the Lord made his way over the houses of Egypt. The angel as we remember brought judgment upon the homes in Egypt that did not have the blood of the lamb upon the doorposts.

God showed his faithfulness to the Israelites his chosen people through numerous miracles. At the Red Sea the waters parted and they were able to walk across on dry land. God provided them with manna, day by day, for all the years they spent grumbling in the desert. Water sprang from the rock at Moses commanded and healing came to the Israelites with a look at the bronze serpent raised above their campsite. As we remember God provided them with the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and God gave them victory at Jericho after Joshua was appointed to succeed Moses. The list of divine interventions goes on and on.

Throughout the Old Testament God spoke to humanity and charged us to remember. By remembering we know who we are as God's chosen people and our call as followers of God: to serve God and to serve others is a blessing to other people just as God has blessed us.

The Good News is that God is still moving people out of slavery to sin, and into freedom. God still provides a way through the sea of doubt and despair. God provides a way through the deserts of addiction and immorality that mar the image God originally created us to have. As we remember and live in relationship with our Creator, we can see that God is as great today as god ever was. Jesus walked the earth and acted in human history, and he acts in our history if we are willing and ready.

Recount the Miracles Leading to the Resurrection

This morning I would like to recall, to remember the miracles that lead up to Christ's work on the cross. The first miraculous sign that accompanied Jesus' death was the darkening of the sky. The gospel of Matthew gives an account telling us that just as the noon sun should have shone its brightest, in its place was utter darkness across the land. One of the great Church fathers known as Tertullian noted that "At the moment of Christ's death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which (wonder is related in your own annals and) is preserved in your archives to this day." Some have tried to explain this occurrence away, hypothesizing that it was an eclipse. But this would have been impossible because Passover always fell on a full moon, and a solar eclipse would have been out of the question during a full moon. What occurred was a miraculous sign of God's judgment. Jesus was standing in our place as the wrath of God was being poured into him for our transgressions.

As we journey through Matthew's account of Jesus arrest and crucifixion remembering what did happen, we find a series of remarkable miracles. Matthew wrote, "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (v.51).

Why was this so miraculous you might ask? Well the veil was a heavy curtain, which provided a separation in the temple between the worship area and the holy of holies. In this sacred area the Ark of the Covenant was kept and symbolized the sacred presence of God. The veil was ornately decorated and was made of blue woven fabric. Now let us remember that only the high priest was allowed to go to the other side of this veil or curtain once a year on the Day of Atonement with a blood sacrifice. The curtain was a constant reminder that sin made humankind unfit to come into the presence of God. Because these animal sacrifices had to be made daily and that a sin offering was made annually shows that at that time there was no permanent solution to the problem of evil.

Once the curtain was torn from top to bottom (being some 10 feet high) God had removed the barrier and eliminated the need for this separation now that Jesus had died for our sins. It is also an astonishing coincidence that the curtain was torn at the same time that the temple was filled with worshipers who were there for the purpose of making their sacrifices with the Passover lambs. Just as thousands of lambs were going to be slain Christ died on the cross and the curtain was torn in half.

Another miracle that occurred that day at the exact moment of Christ's death was a powerful earthquake. Matthew's account reads, "And the earth quaked, and the rocks were split" (27:51). Certainly not something that was ordinary, especially when we paint the full scene. The sky had gone dark at noon, the temple curtain had been torn from the top down, and now we have a massive earthquake. If rocks were splitting this was more than a slight tremor that may have been a common occurrence.

The out of the ordinary occurrences did not stop there. At the same moment that Jesus died on the cross Matthew recounts in the Scriptures that "The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many"(27: 52-53). Apparently, many of the tombs in and around Jerusalem to this day are hollow stone sepulchers, which are resting at ground level or just above. The earthquake was evidently powerful enough to split sepulchers like these. What was so miraculous was the appearance of people who had not only been released from these stone graves but were alive.

Matthew notes that these saints did not appear in Jerusalem until Jesus was resurrected. Their appearances provide us with the added proof that Christ had conquered death not only for himself for all believers.

At the same time the ground shook and Jesus cried out, another miracle occurred. The same centurion that had helped in the bloody crucifixion spoke out with exclamation, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"(Mark 15:39).

And now finally the miracle of all miracles on the fist day of the week Jesus was not in the tomb; the stone had been rolled away and Mary Magdeline spoke with the Lord Jesus Christ unawares in the garden as she wept. Death had not conquered Jesus. Jesus had remained sovereignly in charge. God's will had been fulfilled to the letter, and dozens of Old Testament prophecies were specifically fulfilled in God's own divine ways. This is what we are to remember: a God who is constantly bridging the gap to reveal himself to humanity and to provide restoration to our broken lives. Remember, the Scriptures tell us.

Unfortunately, it seems when the tough times come we are listless in our remembering. We become introverted and start looking at where we are in the slough of despair. What we should do is to remember what Christ has done for us and the times that God has made life new, or transformed a seemingly bad situation into something good. We are to remember and to know that God has done before God will do again.

Throughout the Scriptures we see a gallery of changed and restored lives.

There's Jonah and a life-size whale. We see Moses in front of a blazing shrub, David with his slingshot, Sarah with a baby boy, Esther as a great Queen saving her people, and Zacchaeus in his tree. Martha comes to us in our own kitchens and perhaps the Centurion invites us to come touch the cross. Today we can see Job complimenting us in our stamina, and we hear Joshua applauding our courage. As we ask Mary Magdeline, Peter, doubting Thomas, and even Lazuras, we find that, for a God of miracles, no stone is a match for our redeemer.

Ask your own sisters and brothers, for the God who spoke still speaks. The God who forgave still forgives, and he comes to move the stones that you and I cannot move.

Amen

©Anne D. Scheiber 2003