Can you see Jesus?
sermon by Manfred Schreyer

(John 20:1-14 NIV) Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. {2} So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" {3} So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. {4} Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. {5} He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. {6} Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, {7} as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. {8} Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. {9} (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) {10} Then the disciples went back to their homes, {11} but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb {12} and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. {13} They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." {14} At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

We have all heard the story of Job. We heard how the devil approached God and makes this weird deal with him.  They either have lost their connection with "the church," they have become too busy. . .or they just got out of the rhythm to come.

Easter is the time when the pressure is on the pastor. Lent services, Ash-Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Prayer Service, Maundy Thursday Service - Love Feast, Good Friday Service, Sunrise Service. . ."and don’t forget to preach the best sermon ever on Easter Sunday. . ."

OK, OK. . .I get the message! Easter is the time when God’s church can shine.

Not that I am short of words and not that I could not participate in a marathon preaching contest. . .but this year I was for a loss of words for Easter.

This will be my 5^th Easter sermon for this congregation but tell me: "How much is there to talk about the resurrection?" "How many sermons can one write about Easter?"

What can I possible make more clear then that Jesus died for us. For our sinful behavior; our rebellion against God; that God gave his Son for us and that on this day (Easter) He came back to life. Showing us that when we die we do not have to die and go to eternal damnation (hell), but that we can have eternal life, by just believing in Him and the event that took place on this day.

That is all! For the last two- and-a- half weeks I sought God and asked Him to tell me something new! "Tell me now God!" "Do you want me to revise my old sermons, make one out of four sermons? Should I read some new scholarly paper about the resurrection? God, do you want me to read the passages over where the tomb was empty? God, just give me an answer!"

No reply! Did you ever feel you received no answer from God?

Well, by now it was Wednesday before Easter. I designated the biblical verse and somewhat the context of the sermon. . .and in an absolute emergency of a blank mind I could probably pull from my thoughts and ideas of my sermons of the past.

I had received a call two weeks ago that a woman in her late thirties who I well knew was diagnosed with cancer in her uterus. I had not seen her or spoken to her for over a year, so I had lost somewhat contact with her and her family. I heard of her condition through someone else and I asked the person if I could contact the woman who was sick.

After I set off a prayer chain request for healing for the woman to our congregation members I received an e-mail that it would be OK to contact her after a little while, because almost none of her relatives knew about her condition yet.

Then, this Wednesday on my way home from church, little Manfred was not home, he was working with Mitch and many others in the church I thought that I would call her and just stop at her home.

I did.

She told me that she was in physical pain. She told me the bad experience she made at the first doctor she saw in Dayton. This woman had been on government assistance as long as I remember her.

She said: "Manfred when I saw the first doctor, he treated me and talked to me as if I was not a person worth living. I was a number, my emotions did not matter to him, I felt so low and so worthless. I received no dignity, and no comforting words. The only thing that went through my mind was that I would die and then I felt as if this doctor did not care. But I understand. . .people are who they are and want to be"

The thought of Jesus in the Garden in Gethsemane came to my mind. Jesus had asked some of His disciples to keep watch. . .. Nevertheless, they fell asleep as he prayed and as Jesus sought the comforting words of God so desperately.

I felt as if a bright curtain was falling down in front of me. . .I felt as if she had experienced the walk of Christ. Jesus had experienced no dignity in his three years. He was different; he was always alone. . . .

She continued her story: "I then saw another doctor in Columbus and I felt so good. I was a real person in his eyes. He cared and he comforted me and he explained and I felt peace come over me"

God had sent this doctor to her. . a man who gave her new hope and who understood her suffering. Just like Mary. In the story of the crucifixion all had left but Mary stayed underneath the cross.

The woman interrupted me in my thoughts: "You know Manfred and as I told my children I felt that one of them did not even care. . . "

Peter, Peter. . .Peter in the courtyard. I heard Peter’s voice: "I don’t know this man. . .no, I was not with this Jesus"

"Do you think I’ll be alright?" she asked hesitantly.

"I think so," I replied

Jesus must have asked the same question of God: "Do you think that everything will be alright?" "Is there not any way that you could spare me this experience of dying for your children on earth?"

"Are you sure I am going to be OK?", the women asked again.

"I am sure!", I replied in a stern assuring voice.

"I will leave to go to the James Cancer Center in Columbus on Friday."

I was shook by the naming of the date. "Friday," I thought, "Good Friday. . ."

"I should be out on Sunday or so"

"You’ll be OK. . ."

As I am writing this sermon, I have no idea of the outcome of the surgery. I know it will be OK, because during our conversation I asked her if she believed in Christ as her personal Savior and if she believed that He died for her and that he rose on the third day from the dead and if she had asked Him into her heart.

She said "Yes". And then she told me the story of Brenda Mason, the local Food Bank Director in West Alexandria. She went on with a smile on her face: "Brenda resembles so much of the goodness and kindness of God. She has been so good to me and my family in the past. I know that there is a God, because I felt loved by her like no one ever loved me for who I am. She always made me feel like a person. . .and I felt whole"

"Today you will be with me in paradise". . .the words of Jesus as he was hanging in pain on that cross echoed in my mind. . .Jesus meant that no matter who we are or what we have done we will be received if we believe in Him. Brenda had given her the sure statement of Christ.

The woman and I prayed and we hugged, I told her I loved her as her brother in Christ. . .

And so that is my Easter story.

The story of hope; the story of eternal love; the story of God’s Grace; the story of Jesus’ resurrection

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