His Eyes Will Open Again

Easter Sunday 2006 4/16/06 Mount Pisgah
Allen R. Hunt Luke 24.1-12 (Thanks to Yancey, Bouknight)

I. R: He is not here; He has risen
Little Johnny doing very badly in mathematics.
His parents tried everything, tutors, flash cards, special learning centers, everything . Finally, in a last ditch effort, took Johnny down and enrolled him in the Catholic School. After the first day, little Johnny comes home with a very serious look on his face.
He doesn't kiss his mother hello - straight to his room and starts studying.
Books and papers spread out all over the room and little Johnny is hard at work.
Mother is amazed - calls him down to dinner and to her shock, the minute he is done he marches back to his room without a word and in no time he is back hitting the books
This goes on day after day - Mother tries to understand what is making all the difference.
Finally, Little Johnny brings home his report card. He quietly lays on the table and goes up to his room and hits the books. With great trepidation, his mom looks at it and to her surprise, Little Johnny got an A in Math. She can no longer hold her curiosity. She goes to his room and says: "Son, what was it? Was it the Nuns?"
Little Johnny looks at her and shakes his head. "Well then," she replies "was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniform, WHAT was it??"
Little Johnny looks at her and says... "Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that guy nailed to the Plus sign, I knew they weren't messing around in that place."

Funny way to think about it – but on the cross they killed Him, Jesus
World met God face to face – and we crucified Him – washed our hands of Him
And the Romans, the guards, the Jews, the executioners, the crowd, even the disciples thought it was the end – death is the end – over and out
Everybody knows death is irreversible

Even I know that – I learned that early on
6 years old when my grandfather died – parents did not take me to the funeral – never saw him again – irreversible
8 years old – first trip to funeral home – worked up all my nerve to approach a casket
Saw the body – touched it, cold and stiff – plain to me – irreversible
High school sophomore – friend Scott Johnson – odd case of bacterial meningitis – swimming in fresh water lakes – died within 24 hours
No, it can’t be, tell me it is not true
I mean I had heard stories – learned about resurrection in church – but wanted to push rewind on Scott’s life, put world in reverse, DVD back it up
Lesson was clear – death is irreversible

Then I hit 2002 – had two close deaths – my friend, Paul, brain cancer, leaving behind a wife and daughter among our closest friends
And then my father
I visited this story often – Luke 24 and friends in Matthew 28, Mark 16, and John 20
After they crucified Him, they placed Him in a tomb
Disciples did not do it – they were too scared – terrified of everything going on
Left it to the women to go do the last burial
So to the tomb they went early in the morning – first day of the week
Found stone rolled away from front of the tomb – entered, they found no body
At once, two angels appear – men in dazzling clothes
Why in the world are you looking for Jesus in a cemetery?
R: He is not here; He has risen

Women in utter disbelief – no one believed them – not even the apostles
Peer himself ran to the tomb and came away wondering to himself what had happened

This passage – holds the promise
Promise of reversibility
Men and women go to the tomb – knowing full well that death is irreversible
He was just on the cross on Friday
But the angels remind them – He has risen – just like He told you
And then before you know it, Jesus starts appearing all over the place
On the side of the road, in a room with locked doors, on a lake, on the shore, at a cookout
All proving the same point – death is reversible

II. I mean think about it, would be like me going to my friend Paul’s funeral
We sing, we cry, we remember, we give thanks
I leave the church – walk into the parking lot and there at my car door stands Paul
Cannot even begin to describe how astonished I would feel
Know what I mean?

And it is exactly that feeling that the disciples had on the first Easter
They had been crying for 3 days
But on Easter morning heard a new sound – sound of bell ringing ushering in a new day
R: He is not here; He has risen
New note of hope, faith – same bell ringing this morning if we will tune our ears
That what God once did in Jerusalem, He will repeat on a grand scale
For my friend Paul, for us, and for the world
Irreversible will be reversed

Just imagine how hard it was for the disciples to believe that
These are no idiots who fell prey to ghost stories – there was no conspiracy to all tell the same story – conspiracies do not last 2000 years
Maybe it is hard for us to imagine because we stand on other side – other side of Easter
But the disciples were the most skeptical of all
Doubting Thomas
Matthew 28.20 – even after last appearance, some worshipped and some still doubted
Look at the fear in all these stories
And women – heavens to Betsy, their testimony did not even count in court
The Gospels are not written in any kind or prove the point way are they?
I mean, everyone doubted – and so would I
If Paul had been standing there after his funeral – first fear, then doubt, then joy

III. And it was hard for Jesus to convince them
12 appearances over 6 weeks – real flesh and blood encounters
To His followers only – only to those who had been with Him, who had taken up the cross alongside Him, who had loved Him
Jesus not making special cameos for all the world – real flesh and blood encounters
At the empty tomb
To Mary Magdalene in the garden
To other women in Jerusalem
To two people on road to Emmaus
To Peter
To 10 disciples in the upper room
To 11 disciples in the upper room
To 7 disciples fishing
To 11 disciples on a mountain
To more than 500 people
To James
To disciples on Mount of Olives
I mean, He overwhelmed them – overwhelmed their faith - gave irrefutable evidence
So obvious that no disciple could ever doubt – and not one ever did
In fact, these 12 appearances transformed a group of unreliable followers into fearless evangelists – so that the 11 apostles became martyrs for their faith
They clearly had seen something

What makes this silly Gospel of Judas discussion so ridiculous – document written more than hundred years later – in language spoken only in Egypt – give me a break
Let’s face it – Easter is the main event
As John Irving said, “Any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer.”

Few years ago, top historians gathered together and made a list of what they considered to be the 100 most significant events in the history of the world.
Things like discovery of America, invention of airplane, printing press and other things. Number four on the list of most important events was the life of Jesus Christ.
Not offended by that, that they hadn’t put it number one.
Forgotten the most important part anyway. They had put the Life of Jesus Christ.
If only Jesus had come and lived and died like everybody else, that’s probably best you could say about Him – number four. Because there have been other good teachers, there have been other moral philosophers, there have been other unselfish martyrs.
But what makes Jesus different is He not only died a martyr’s death on the cross but He came back to life. And nobody else has ever done that and that’s what makes this the most significant event in history because it’s never been done.

Newsweek, which is not known as a necessarily Christian magazine, says, “The risen Christ is the center of the Christian faith. The mystery without which there would be no church, no hope of eternal life, no living Christ to encounter today. No other historical figure has ever made the claim that He was raised from the dead. It was this appearance of the resurrected Christ that lit the flame of the Christian faith. It wasn’t the morality of the Sermon on the Mount, which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but it was the belief that Jesus was alive. He’d been raised from the dead.”
Hard to Believe – He has risen

But here’s what’s even harder to believe : He will raise us too
Hard for us to believe – but Jesus does not do funerals
Jesus not into caskets, tombstones, burials – Jesus only does resurrections
HE promises that again and again

Friend, Bill bought a new puppy for his daughter Cathy - six or seven years old at time.
Little snow-white terrier. Cathy named him “Happy”.
Bill went to work building a doghouse in the back yard. Not knowing how much the dog would grow, he built a very large one.
When he finally finished, he took the puppy and held it inside the doghouse.
But Happy did not want to stay inside. Happy was whimpering and Bill could feel his heart just pounding.
Bill was disgusted. He had done all this work for this puppy, and the dog was utterly ungrateful. About an hour later he glanced out the window and saw an amazing sight. Cathy had the puppy in her arms and she crawled up inside the doghouse herself. And you know what happened? The puppy was absolutely content to snuggle up in her arms inside the doghouse.
Before long Happy was sound asleep in his new home.

How does this relate to Easter?
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”


Alternative story to end
“Moments for Mothers.” The Rogers family was solidly Christian. Mr. Rogers would occasionally ask various family members to share at the dinner table about their relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day it was 7-year-old Jimmy’s turn. He told the family that he had loved Jesus longer than he could remember. Then Jimmy, always one with a graphic imagination, said, “I want to tell you what heaven is going to be like. There will be a big angel there who will call the roll. He will come to the Rogers family and will call out “Daddy Rogers,” and Daddy will say “here.” Then he will call “Mommy Rogers” and Mommy will say “here.” And he will call the names of all four children in our family. I will be the last one. When he calls my name I will jump up, because I’m small, and I’ll shout real loud, “Here!”
Within a week there was a tragic accident. Jimmy was struck by a car as he ran to catch the school bus. He was rushed to the hospital. Jimmy was deep in a coma. The doctor said that there were no discernible brain waves. A long prayer vigil began. Then on the following night, late in the night, the family noticed Jimmy’s lips moving. They gathered round his bed, hoping that he might be emerging from the coma. Then he said something. In the clear voice of a little boy, he said, “Here!” And then he was gone to another life.
He will raise us too – believer? Main event