April 22, 2007 Easter 3C
Sermon Title: “Follow Me…”
Series: Empty Tomb Postscript
Text: John 21:1-19
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on April 22, 2007
“Follow me.’” John 21:19
Follow Me…
This is a very exciting and anxious time for many high school seniors because April and May are when they get letters and emails from the various colleges they have applied to advising whether or not they have been admitted. Before long these budding freshmen will load their cars down and head off to college and a whole new life. As they go, parents everywhere will advise their young collegians to stay in touch. But with all the excitement of college life, many will fail to do so. I recently found a letter circulating online that is supposedly from one of those freshmen—a girl. I’d like to read it for you.
Dear Mom and Dad,
It’s been three months now since I left
for college. I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch and written you before. I will
bring you up-to-date now, but before you read on, please sit down.
I’m getting along pretty well… now. The skull fracture I got when I
jumped out of the window of my dorm when it caught fire shortly after my
arrival are pretty well healed now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital, and
now I can see almost normally and only get those sick headaches once or twice a
day now.
Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and
my jump were witnessed by a guy working at the gas station near the dorm, and
he was the one who called the Fire Department and the ambulance. He also visited
me in the hospital and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt out
dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. He
is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get
married. We haven't set the exact date yet, but I assure you it will be before
my pregnancy begins to show.
The reason for the delay in our marriage
is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing
the pre-marital blood test and I carelessly caught it from him. I’m sure this
will clear up with the penicillin injections I am now taking daily.
Well, that’s about all for now, I hope all
is well at home.
Your Loving Daughter…etc….
P.S. Now that I have brought you
up-to-date, I want to tell you that there was NO dormitory fire, I did not jump
from the window and get a skull fracture, I was not in the hospital, there is
no boy, I am not pregnant, and I don’t have an infection. I am, however,
getting a "D" in history and an "F" in science, and I wanted
you to see those marks in the proper perspective.
You may have seen that coming, but, speaking as a parent of two college girls, thank goodness for the “PS,” huh? I introduce today’s sermon with this story because we’re in a series of messages right now titled, “Empty Tomb Postscript.” I reminded you last week that in the church Easter is more than a day, it’s an entire season. What we’re doing in this series is we’re answering the big question, “What difference does it make that the tomb was empty that first Easter morning?” How did it impact the disciples? How has it impacted the church over the centuries? And, perhaps most importantly for us, what difference does it make in our life?
Today’s passage of Scripture from the Gospel of John is the quintessential text to gather around to consider this question. That’s because the 21st chapter of John is considered by many scholars to be a “P.S” on the gospel itself. If you have your Bibles handy, look at how John closes chapter 20, we read this last week so you may remember it: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” What does that sound like to you? To me, and to a majority of scholars, it sounds like the end of the book. John is concluding his gospel at the end of chapter 20. The awkward way he begins chapter 21 fuels suspicion the chapter is an add-on, “Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples…”
Assuming chapter 21 is a “PS” or an epilogue to John’s gospel what is it he’s trying to expand upon? What is it he’s trying to clarify? I believe John is doing the same thing we’re doing in this series he’s saying, “Hey…the story doesn’t end at the empty tomb…there’s more.” And that “more” is what happens after the tomb is empty. As you might suspect by now, I believe we are much richer for having this “PS” to John’s gospel. Not necessarily because he offers us a deeper understanding of who God is by what he adds on here. Our God is still the God who comes bringing forgiveness, purpose, and power to our lives. It was Jesus who told the disciples who had fished without success all night which side of the boat to lower their nets on. It was Jesus who prepared a warm fire and who cooked the disciples a meal of fish and bread. It was Jesus who reinstated Peter three times to cancel out his three-fold denial of Jesus on the night he was arrested.
No…where I think we gain the most from John’s “PS” here has to do with a further understanding of how to live our lives in light of the empty tomb—what we learn is more about “us” than it is about “Him.” And that’s what I want to talk about this morning. Here are a few things John clarifies vividly concerning us in the epilogue to his gospel.
BELIEF IN JESUS MUST BE
TRANSLATED INTO LIFE AND
The first thing John wants to clarify by adding this story to his gospel is that belief in Jesus must be translated into life and mission into the world. Let me explain what I mean.
As this passage unfolds, we find at the disciples together again. The disciples have already witnessed the resurrected Jesus two times: first, when he appeared to them in the room they were hiding in as we talked about last week, and second, when he returned to reveal himself to Thomas. Now at least seven of the disciples are together again and what are they doing? Are they planning the evangelization of the world? Are they strategizing about resources and travel plans? Are they hammering out doctrine now that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus has risen from the dead as he predicted?
No…the first glimpse of what’s going on, John reveals, is Peter saying, “Hey fellas, I’m going fishing.” And their response? “Great…we’ll get our fishing poles too.” What is John trying to say by telling us this? It seems to me that he’s saying despite the miracle that changed the course of humanity (the resurrection of Jesus) and the despite the fact that this little band of men were first-hand witnesses to that fact, they were headed back to “life as usual” within days, perhaps even within hours, of it happening. Their return to their former lives as fishermen implies that the disciples were unable to sustain their Easter faith beyond resurrection appearances. In other words, when Jesus wasn’t visible to them, it was as if he, and everything he had taught them, was forgotten.
He called them to be “fishers of
men,” but they had returned to “fishing for fishes.” He told them, “You shall do greater things than these,”
and all they could think about was catching a few fish to sell in the market
the next morning at
In other words, they now totally believed in the empty tomb—it was an item of faith for them that Jesus had risen from the dead. But they had not translated that amazing truth into how they lived their every day, “nine-to-five” lives. Hard to believe isn’t it? Or is it?
Isn’t it true that the same thing happens today? The rise in church attendance as we move closer to Easter followed by its subsequent decline in the weeks following Easter indicates that this very same problem is with us to this day. Even within our own individual lives, the way we fail to translate our “Sunday faith” into “Monday through Saturday living” indicates the same thing.
Remember the question that stands behind this series: “What difference does it make in your life that the tomb is empty?” Does it simply mean that you “believe in Jesus?” Does it mean only that your “theology is good?” Or do you see it as a summons from the risen Lord to move out—to “follow him” as he says to Peter, and to each of us in the final sentence we read this morning?
Some historians have called that day, D-Day, June 6, 1944 the most
important day in the history of the 20th Century. The allied invasion was the
beginning of the end for Adolph Hitler. Had that day not happened I might be
preaching to you in German this morning (if I was allowed to preach at all by
our totalitarian government). 156,000 men took part in the initial D-Day
landings and there were 10,000 casualties on the first day alone. An armada of
3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vessels were involved. No
one disputes the facts about D-Day. You can go to
FAITH IS A PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST
But there’s a second point of emphasis I think John wants us to see with the “PS” he added to his gospel. John wants to emphasize the nature of faith itself. What does it mean to “believe in Jesus?” How do we express it? How do we “do” it?
I believe that’s what the exchange in today’s passage between Peter and Jesus is all about. What is faith? Is it the solemn assent to a set of religious truths? Is it about believing the right things and avoiding the wrong things? No…according to John—and more importantly to Jesus—Faith is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Faith is about loving Jesus.
What does Jesus say? Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” He doesn’t say, “Peter, have you memorized that prayer I taught you guys? “Our Father…who art in heaven…” He doesn’t say, “Peter, explain the doctrine of the trinity…” What does he ask Peter? He asks, “Do you love me?”
Again, the fact that today so many people struggle with the meaning and focus of faith….does it mean knowing your Bible frontwards and backwards? Does it mean working in soup kitchens and with Habitat for Humanity? Does it mean being present every time the church doors open? What does it mean to be a Christian? It means all that stuff, and more, but what lies behind it all is that we’re supposed to be in love with Jesus!
Personally, I think this is what makes Christianity seem so difficult for us. We try and try to do things to “please God” when what he really wants is just for us to love him. And without loving him, there’s no pleasing him, and we find we’re miserable trying to.
We should take a hint from some of the senior citizens we see around us. Whenever I go to the mall I invariably see older couples walking hand in hand. An old man with snow-white hair, probably a little hard of hearing. An old woman in a shapeless dress, her knuckles gnarled by arthritis. Both of them wearing almond colored “walking shoes.” They’re taking their daily walk and after that they’ll totter off to take a nap, and then she’ll cook supper, and they’ll will watch TV or read a book. Each knowing exactly what the other is thinking, until it is time for bed. They may even have a good, soul-stirring argument, just to prove that they still really care. And through the night they will snore unabashedly, each resting content because the other is there. They are in love, they have always been in love, although sometimes they would have denied it. And because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures.
But if you put that same couple together at, say…21 years old, and said to them, okay, you’ve got to spend the next 50 years together—assuming that love is not the basis of that relationship, what to you think the result would be? They’d never make it. It would be hell on earth. No…our idea of love today is more like this love letter I recently saw:
Dearest Jimmy,
No words could ever express the great unhappiness I've
felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you'll take me back. No one
could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I
love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie.
P.S., By the way, congratulations on willing the state
lottery.
The gospel writer John wants to make it very clear that loving Jesus is the only sound basis of faith. It’s loving Jesus that will carry you through the years. It’s loving Jesus that will carry you through the dark nights of the soul. It’s loving Jesus that will give you the energy and strength to carry on when you feel like giving up on faith. That’s why he has this little conversation between Jesus and Peter in the “PS” to his gospel.
WE ARE TO LOVE AND CARE FOR
OTHERS
There’s one more thing I believe John wants to emphasize in his “PS” too. And that is how we demonstrate our love for Jesus. We do that by following him, obeying him by doing the same things he did. Namely, love and care for others.
Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. And each time he follows that question up with a command, “Feed my lambs…tend my sheep…feed my sheep.” Of course, this is exactly what Jesus had done during his three year ministry. It was also exactly what he had just demonstrated during his morning on the beach with them. He told them where to cast their nets to catch fish, he made a fire to warm them and he provided and cooked a meal for them. He encouraged and commissioned them. And then he said, “follow me.”
John wants to remind us that we don’t demonstrate our love of Christ by sequestering ourselves away in a tower some where, or by surrounding ourselves with like-minded people in a church building and barricading the doors against outsiders. John says we demonstrate our love for Christ by how much we expand the circle of concern and love he began when he walked among us.
Just as love of Christ the key component of faith. Love of others is the greatest evidence of faith’s presence. Of course this is not a new teaching. When Jesus was asked to sum up the Law and the Prophets he said the same thing, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself….” (Matt. 22:34-40).
So many times we miss the boat with this in the church. We agree that “being like Jesus” is the key to being a good Christian. But we associate “being like Jesus” with being without fault, or sinless, or knowing Scripture, or some other “religious” thing. In actuality, the way to “be like Jesus” is to love as he did. Go through the gospels and see for yourself. The one constant among all the stories of Jesus’ ministry among people was his unconditional love for those he ministered to Love motivated everything he did.
The world we live in today, of course, doesn’t emphasize love, it emphasizes coming out on top, competitiveness, and “winning.” So much of what the world emphasizes is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Jesus taught cooperation, and helping those around you. Imagine for a moment what the world would be like if we would all adopt Jesus’ teaching at this point?
There’s is a touching story about a Special Olympics race that took place
in
Because somewhere deep inside we all know that life really isn’t all about winning. Life is about being fully human by loving and caring for those around you.
That’s what Jesus taught, and what John wanted to make sure we got in this little postscript to his account of the empty tomb.
This morning let me ask you. Have come to the empty tomb, seen it, and then gone right back to “life as usual” in your walk of faith? Does the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead impact your life and translate to life and mission on his behalf?
Do you understand this morning that the key to the Christian faith is found in a personal relationship with Jesus? That’s what Jesus said. Remember his question to Peter? “Do you love me?” That’s the question Jesus had for Peter, and for Steve, and for everyone.
And finally, do you show that love for Christ by obeying him, by “following him” in extending his circle of love and concern to all those around you?
No matter where the journey may eventually lead, the words by which all discipleship begins are found in the final two words we read this morning… “Follow me.”
Will you follow him? Let’s pray.