CSN - LightWing Messages - Easter Sunday - 3/31/2024
The Death of Jesus
From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus
As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. Matthew 27:45-65 (NIV)
FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:
Today, Christians around the world celebrate the holy day of Easter that signifies that day of the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday the LightWing Messages focused upon Esther and the celebration of Purim that for the Jewish people is fundamentally about the salvation of the Hebrew people from extermination. Last Sunday was also Palm Sunday, the remembrance of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover. These holy days are intertwined through the history of God’s Providence, whether or not the two faith traditions embrace it.
In last week's edition, I claimed that although the celebration of Purim was fundamentally about the salvation of the Hebrew people from extermination, that concept had been watered down. It may come as a shock to some Christians (or maybe not) that the Resurrection of Jesus has also been watered down or diluted in significance. Nevertheless, due to turmoil and uncertain times that the people of the world find themselves in today, the perceived need for a new Messiah can reverse such a trend.
In such a time of tribulation, a balance between the common sense of skeptics and common prayer of the faithful are absolutely critical to getting through this perilous time. Many people seek practical answers; yet some deeper souls seek wisdom from assurance of things unseen. Many will turn toward faith in times of crisis. Still, others will become fearful and pursue personal pathways of panic. Obviously, people are still free to choose the directions they each decide to go, but many find themselves adrift amidst the chaos and confusion. Yet, it is simple: Life and Death are yet completely clear – even to those who profess faith.
Either Jesus was resurrected, or he wasn’t; either there is life beyond death or there isn't. Those Christians who struggle with the resurrection, and many do, are the ones gravitating towards the material restraints upon us as human beings. A simplicity of faith can be a great blessing; but, it can present its own illusions. Yet, faith is what every human being will need to get through this most unusual time in human history. For Christians, the time of the resurrection of Jesus from his crucifixion into eternal life is the initial point in time when Christianity begins.
It was more fear than faith that filled Jesus’ disciples, when their teacher had been arrested in the middle of the night. They panicked and fled or denied him. In such a time as this, those who self-identify as Christians can also abandon their faith in panic. People lacking a deep abiding faith ultimately fear for their own lives -- no matter how well we intellectually embrace the words of Jesus, or how well we can quote chapter and verse. In such a chaotic, toxic environment, the challenge for people of faith is to seek God’s perspective and His guidance, and to humbly align their actions with God’s Will. In such chaotic times, people of faith need to spend more time with holy scriptures than in front of their televisions or computer terminals. They need to be praying in humility and seeking His voice more than in listening to the faithless and secular authorities. And they need to listen carefully to His voice amidst the tumult and to align more with His Will than with the ignorant or arrogant humanistic thinking of the influencers of the ‘popular’ culture.
While much has been shared from a multitude of sources about holding onto faith as opposed to giving in to fear in turbulent times, it is clear that two outlooks toward life propel people in two different directions. People of genuine faith seem to promote hope and sincerely seek ways to be of help to others or to solve problems. People who only profess faith, as well as those with no faith, often reach a point in which fear consumes them.
The message this week is another long message from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a great teacher and spiritual leader. The message is extensive, but it is extremely relevant for our time.
Background:
On Good Friday in 1963 (April 12), Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. decided to lead a march from the 16th Street Baptist Church toward the City Hall in Birmingham, Ala. The action violated an injunction forbidding him to pray, sing or march in public in Birmingham. He was almost immediately arrested and thrown into the Birmingham jail. He celebrated Easter in that year, in a manner to some degree, a bit like all of us.
While he was confined, for many days after, he wrote one of the most eloquent explanations of why the Civil Rights Movement was necessary to a group of moderate white clergymen who had issued a “call to unity” to deter the civil rights activists from their nonviolent protests. Today, the world knows it as the “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” and anyone who hasn’t read it would benefit from spending additional time reading at this time of Easter.
Yet, Rev. King’s message we offer today is from an Easter Sermon he gave years before. He followed up a Palm Sunday message focusing on the Garden of Gethsemane, with this deep Easter message in which he contemplates the resurrection of Jesus; yet he weaves into Easter concerns a mourning of the savagery and hate in Montgomery and throughout the South. His message was not just for black people; it was intended for all people. It is offered here for your reflection on the value of life and for the sake of a higher perspective of the times we endure.
CSN LightWing Mission – Zoom call Monday 4/1/24 at 5:00pm PST Mondays at 5pm PST (6pm MST; 7pm CST; 8pm EST).
Tomorrow, we will hold our regular Zoom call discussion. We invite our readers to call in and check in with other like-minded readers for mutual support in such turbulent times. But, we leave it up to our readers: if you would like to discuss today’s message more fully and learn more about Jesus’ mission and his resurrection to save God’s children, please exercise your initiative and reach out. If readers are not already on our list to receive a link to the call, please send an email request to this address: d.jamzon@gmail.com We’ll add you to our mailing list.
As always, we hope our readers would consider all the messages in this edition as having some relevance or as meaningful, and if readers know others who might value the messages as well, we pray they would consider becoming LightWing messengers and they could please forward our newsletter to those whom you feel would welcome it. Or simply, please receive it yourselves.
These words are being freely offered to you – intended to shine light unto our paths, as written: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 - KJV
May all have a Blessed Easter. May God bless All His Children!
May we humble ourselves, seek His face, repent, and turn from wickedness - even if that may mean one’s failure to know and practice fundamental guidance that Jesus gave us: “Then Jesus told His disciples, ‘If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’” Matthew 16:24-25
“Questions That Easter Answers”
By Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 21, 1957
The following is an extensive excerpt from an Easter Sermon entitled, “Questions That Easter Answers” delivered on Easter Sunday by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (transcribed from an audio recording - indiscernible words were accepted as interpreted by the transcriptionist). A link to the full sermon at Stanford University can be found at the end of this excerpt. It includes the footnotes.
We come once more to Easter Day. And one begins to wonder what this day means. For some, Easter is little more than a fashion show. For others, Easter is little more than a national holiday with no semblance of a religious holy day. We look upon Easter in diverse ways. And as I look over this congregation this morning and see the beautiful hats and the beautiful dresses and all of the things that go to commercialize Easter, I wonder if we really know the real meaning of it. But in the midst of all of that I imagine that most of you assembled here this morning for something deeper and something more meaningful than outer show.
Easter is a day above all days. It surpasses the mystery and marvel of Christmas with all of the glory of the incarnation. It asserts that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. It affirms that what stops us does not stop God and that miracle is as much a part of the end as of the beginning. Above all, Easter provides answers to the deepest queries of the human spirit. Easter symbolizes an event that provides answers to questions that have puzzled the probing minds of philosophers and theologians over the generations. You raise basic questions about the universe and about life and about all of the mysteries attached to it. And the Christian faith comes back confirming in words that echo across the generations that Easter has the answer. And I want to deal with some of these questions this morning, some of the questions that Easter answers, questions that we raise sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously.
One of the first questions that we find ourselves raising, Is the life of man immortal? Oh, from time to time we try to get by this question. You see this is, at bottom, the question, If a man dies, shall he live again?1 This question is as old as the primitive gropings of ancient man and as modern as a morning’s newspaper. “If a man dies, shall he live again?” It is a question of immortality. We try sometimes to be nonchalant about it. Or we might even agree with H. G. Wells that it is an irrelevant question, it is the height of egotism? -- to talk about immortality of the soul.2 Oh, we try to be agnostic about it sometimes and say we just don’t know, it isn’t important anyway. But then one day, death invades our home and snatches away from us a loving, devoted friend. One day we come to the moment that we see our devoted loved one fade away. As Carlyle said concerning his mother, “Like the last pale circle of the moon fading in the deep seas.”3
And in that moment, we can’t be nonchalant. In that moment, we are not exactly agnostic. In that moment, we unconsciously cry out for the meaning of this thing. And there is something deep down within our souls that revolts against saying goodbye forever. We begin to ask: Is the ultimate destiny of man a rendezvous with the dust? Is the spirit of man extinguished at death like a candle guttered by a passing wind? We begin to wonder if death is a state of nothingness that leads us finally to a meaningless existence with no reality.
Then comes Easter to answer the question. Easter comes out ringing in terms that we all hear if we seek to hear it, that the soul of man is immortal. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have fit testimony that this earthly life is not the end, that death is just something of a turn in the road, that life moves down a continual moving river, and that death is just a little turn in the river, that this earthly life is merely an embryonic prelude to a new awakening, that death is not a period which ends this great sentence of life but a comma that punctuates it to more loftier significance. That is what it says. That is the meaning of Easter. That is the question that Easter answers—that death is not the end.
And as we think this morning, as we think in the mornings to come, about the immortality of the soul, here is the answer. For we have the testimony of reason on our side. Rationality tells us somehow that God would not make a universe and bring man across the centuries unfolding through the evolutionary process from a watery existence to the marvelous height of personality. And something tells us that God wouldn’t cut it off now that he has planted within our lives an infinite responsibility, and we need infinite time to fulfill it. Easter rings out and says to us with all of the rationality that can be mustered up that man lives on, that death is not the end, and somehow those who have left us along the way of life, those who have gone on into the distant eternities are not gone forever. We will see them again. And that is the marvelous and beautiful meaning of this faith. That is the first question that Easter answers—that life is immortal, that death is not the end.
We begin to wonder also about the reality of the invisible. And one of the big questions of llfe is whether the material is ultimately real or the spiritual is ultimately real. This has been the great question of philosophy through the generations, and philosophers have usually split up at this point. Some have been materialist, and some have been idealist. The materialist insisting that matter is the ultimate reality—those things which you see and touch and feel, those things which you can apply your five senses to. The idealist, on the other hand, insisted that mind is the ultimate reality, that spirit, that intangible forces are ultimately real. Then Easter comes unto us and says we take sides with the idealist, that these earthly, mundane, material things will pass away, that as you look at them they look like something permanent but they are just here for a season and then they go on, but there are these invisible, these intangible things that stand forever.
Oh, as we look at them, as we look at the visible things, we tend to think that this is all. As Professor Sorokin of Harvard says, we live in a sort of sensate civilization and we tend to think that just the things that we see, just the things that we touch, just the things that we can apply our five senses to, have existence.4 But Easter comes and says that isn’t true. You walk out at night, and you look up at the beautiful stars as they bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity, and somehow you think you see all. But oh no, you can never see the law of gravitation that holds them there. You look at this building, and you look at its beautiful architecture, and you think you see all. You look out and you walk out this morning, and you look over at the beautiful capitol building and all of the surrounding buildings, and you think you see all. The materialist would say that’s about all. But oh no, you don’t see all. You can never see the mind of the architect who drew the blueprint. You can never see the faith and the hope and the love of the individuals who made this church possible. You can see the external bricks; you can see the building, but you cannot see the internal forces that brought it into being.
You look up here this morning and hear somebody talking and you cry out, “Yes, I see you, M. L. King.” But I’m here to tell you this morning that you don’t see me. You look here, and you see my body. You see my external being. You see something that’s merely a manifestation of something else. But the real me, you can never see. You can never see that something that the psychologists call my personality. You can never see my mind. You can never see my ideas. You can only see my body, and my body can’t think. My body can’t reason. My body only moves at the dictates of my mind.” And so this morning, Easter tells us that everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
The visible is a shadow cast by the invisible. Easter cries out to us that the idealists are right, that it is ultimately mind, personality, spiritual forces that are eternal and not merely these material things that we look about and see. For, one day, the gigantic mountains will pass away. One day, even the stars that bedeck the heavens will move out of their course. One day, the beautiful building of Dexter will not stand here. But there is something that will stand. There is faith, there is love, there is hope, there is something beyond the external that will stand through the ages.5 The Christian faith says this is the testimony of Easter—that Christ on the day that he walked with a group of men on the Emmaus road was a little more real than he was the day before, the days before that, that he walked with them in the flesh, for there is something now that takes him into the spiritual realm.6 And he’s more real now than he was before. So Easter comes and says to us that the invisible forces are the forces that are ultimately real and the visible forces are merely shadows cast by the invisible.
There is another question that we like to raise, it is the question of whether life is doomed to futility and frustration. We wonder whether life has meaning or whether it is doomed to final frustration and futility, and some people have concluded that it is doomed to final frustration and futility. Some people feel that life is nothing more than a pendulum swinging between frustration and futility, and ultimately, it has no meaning. It’s just a pendulum swinging. You’ve read of the pessimistic philosopher Schopenhauer, and he builds a whole philosophy on that in his book The World as a Will and an Idea. He builds a whole philosophical system on this fact, that life is nothing but a pendulum swinging between boredom and futility.7 It is nothing but a boring, disillusioning, bewildering statement. But then Easter comes to us and tells us that that isn’t true. And, one can discover meaning in this life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that all of the disappointments of life can be transformed into meaningful experiences.
Oh, this morning are you disappointed by something? Are you disappointed about some experience that you’ve had in life? Well, don’t give up in despair. You’re just in Good Friday now, but Easter is coming. Are you disappointed about some great ideal that you had and you felt that you would have achieved by now, but you have not achieved it? You have somehow been caught in the moment. You have somehow been caught at a point at which it seems that you can’t get out. Well, don’t give up in despair. If you will just wait, Easter will come. This morning, have you had some high and noble ideals? Have you had some high and noble hopes, and it seems that they have been blasted by the years? Well, don’t give up. Don’t despair, because Easter is coming. And this is the thing that men through the generations have learned when they live close to Jesus Christ, that Easter can emerge, and that all of the darkness of Good Friday can pass away.
There are some people who find themselves in the experiences of Good Friday. And Good Friday is something of an inevitable transition of life. But if you look at life in all of its reality, you see it at one moment swinging back toward the beautiful days of Palm Sunday. There you hear the loud hosannas, there you stand in your state of happiness and joy and fulfillment in everything. But then you discover that life again swings over to Good Friday. This is a part of life. That is the dark part, that is the disappointment, that is the delusion, the disillusioning side of life. And some people swinging over from Palm Sunday to Good Friday give up in despair. They run to the rivers and cry out, “I can’t take it.” And sometimes they even jump in because Good Friday’s on them, and they have lived so long in the midst of Palm Sunday.
But if you live close to Jesus Christ, there is something that cries out to you, “If you can just stand up with the Good Friday, there is another day that emerges.” There is an Easter that comes out. And there is an Easter that comes and blocks out all of the darkness of Good Friday. There is an Easter that comes on the scene and blocks out all of the crucifixion that establishes itself on Good Friday. If you can just hold on, the pendulum swings back and forth, but it has a fulfillment. We find ourselves in the thesis of Palm Sunday, and then we move over into the antithesis of Good Friday. But Jesus Christ, with all of his beauty and all of his eloquence, rings out across the centuries and says, “There is a synthesis in Easter.” And this means that life is meaningful, that life is not doomed to frustration and futility but life can end up in fulfillment in the life and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There is another question that men like to ask: Is the universe on the side of the forces of justice and goodness? Sometimes it looks dark and sometimes people come to feel that the universe is on the other side, that the universe seems to say “Amen” to the forces of injustice, and that the voices of the universe seem to cry out “Hallelujah” to the forces of godlessness. And oh, it looked dark for men centuries ago, looked like everything that they had stood for had gone.
Just last week, we thought about the darkness and the agony and the disappointment that Jesus suffered.8 We can see him as he goes into the garden to pray, as he cries out, “Oh God, Father, let this cup pass from me.”9 That was a dark moment. And the interesting thing about it and the thing that we can never forget is that that cup didn’t pass. It reminds us that everything we pray for will not come. It reminds us that sometimes we can ask for our highest hopes to be fulfilled and God doesn’t always fulfill them. The cup didn’t pass. And it looked mighty dark, didn’t it?
But on the next morning, the next afternoon, after standing in Pilate’s judgment hall, he had to go out and face the darkness of the cross.10 Huge symbols accompanied the event. The Bible paints it in vivid terms: it looked like the whole universe got dark.11 The disciples themselves were disappointed, and they decided to run on back to Galilee. This Savior, this leader, this teacher that had lived with them so many years, they felt was now defeated. And the universe to them, at that time, seemed to have no meaning. The universe was now justifying injustice. The universe was now on the side of godlessness. The universe was on the side of the forces of evil now. We can see Jesus there dying on the cross amid two thieves.12 The most righteous man that ever entered human history dying a most ignominious death. We look at him there and all that goes with goodness, all that goes with nobility, all that goes with that which is sublime, seems to be crushed now. And that was a dark moment. But thank God the crucifixion was not the last act in that great and powerful drama. There is another act. And it is something that we sing out and cried and ring out about today. Thank God a third day came.13 Thank God a day came when Good Friday had to pass.
And that’s what our religion says to us—that Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the drums of Easter. It says to us that somehow nagging tares may come in to stand in the way of stately wheat but one day the tares must pass away and the wheat will grow on.14 It says to us sometimes a vicious mob may take possession and crucify the most meaningful and sublime and noble character of human history. It says to us that one day that same Jesus will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C. so that history takes on a new meaning. That’s what Easter says to us, that the forces of darkness, the forces of evil, the forces of justice must finally come to the light and must finally come to the forefront. And the forces of darkness and evil must finally pass away.Thank God that truth crushed to earth will rise again.15
You know every now and then, my friends, I doubt. Every now and then I get disturbed myself. Every now and then I become bewildered about this thing. I begin to despair every now and then. And wonder why it is that the forces of evil seem to reign supreme and the forces of goodness seem to be trampled over. Every now and then I feel like asking God: Why is it that over so many centuries the forces of injustice have triumphed over the Negro and he has been forced to live under oppression and slavery and exploitation? Why is it, God? Why is it simply because some of your children ask to be treated as first-class human beings they are trampled over, their homes are bombed, their children are pushed from their classrooms, and sometimes little children are thrown in the deep waters of Mississippi?16 Why is it, oh God, that that has to happen? I begin to despair sometimes, it seems that Good Friday has the throne. It seems that the forces of injustice reign supreme. But then in the midst of that something else comes to me.
And I can hear something saying, “King, you are stopping at Good Friday, but don’t you know that Easter is coming? Don’t worry about this thing! You are just in the midst of the transition now. You are just in the midst of Good Friday now. But I want you to know, King, that Easter is coming! One day truth will rise up and reign supreme! One day justice will rise up. One day all of the children of God will be able to stand up on the third day and then cry, ‘Hallelujah, Hallelujah’ because it’s the Resurrection day.”
And when I hear that I don’t despair. I can cry out and sing with new meaning. This is the meaning of Easter, it answers the profound question that we confront in Montgomery. And if we can just stand with it, if we can just live with Good Friday, things will be all right. For I know that Easter is coming and I can see it coming now. As I look over the world, as I look at America, I can see Easter coming in race relations. I can see it coming on every hand. I see it coming in Montgomery. I see it coming in Alabama. I see it coming in Mississippi. Sometimes it looks like it’s coming slow, but it’s still coming. (Yeah) And when it comes, it will be a great day, for all of the children of God will be able to stand up and cry, “This is God’s day. All hail the power of Jesus’s name.”17 This is the meaning of it… (see below for the link to the rest of the sermon)
Oh God, our gracious Heavenly Father, we come on this Easter morning, thanking Thee for revealing to us the ultimate meaning and the ultimate rationality of the universe. We thank you, this morning, for your Son, Jesus, who came by to let us know that love is the most durable power in the world, who came by to let us know that death can’t defeat us, to take the sting out of the grave and death and make it possible for all of us to have eternal life. We thank you, oh God. And God grant that we will be grateful recipients of thy eternal blessings.
In the name and spirit of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Receive our Easter Offering of Songs & Words from us to YOU!
From Greenfield Baptist Church: Easter Hallelujah - Kelly Mooney version performed by sisters Cassandra & Callahan Star with clips from The Passion of the Christ - 4/4/21
From Jonathan Cahn: The Cosmic Power of Resurrection | Jonathan Cahn Sermon – 3/30/24
From The Crosbys: Beautiful Savior - Easter Hymn by Claire Ryann at 4-Years-Old #PrinceOfPeace - 4/11/2017
From Allen Jackson Ministries: Scripture Displays the Holiness of God and the Wickedness of Man – 3/25/24
From Steve Winwood: Now The Green Blade Riseth - 4/29/2020
From The Chosen movie: The Chosen impact of the scene portraying John 3:16 - 7/11/20
From Shawna Edwards: RISEN - An Easter song by Shawna Edward - 3/31/2019
From BBC Radio: Kaylee Rogers 'Hallelujah' - LIVE on BBC Radio – 3/15/2017
From the HALLELUJAH CHORUS: Hallelujah Chorus - Handel Messiah (Johann Strauss Orchestra with Harlem Gospel Choir '04 Classic) - 12/27/2018