Pastor Ralph Douglas West - An Easter Faith For A Good Friday World | Mark 16:2-8 (NIV)

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made we rejoice and we are glad in it. Yes, we are. Hallelujah. There is something about that name. Thank you, choir and our worship leaders, our dancers to the newly baptized. We're excited about them and taking their first communion. Today their first legitimate communion. Some of you in here grew up in church and you remember when you were outlawed from taking the Lord's Supper until you've been baptized.

0:53 And then you would golf and steal the bread and the cup. It's easier to lift communion today than it was years ago, because you know you had individual bread in the cup. But some of us found creative ways to have the Lord's Supper illegally. Well it's Easter. It only comes around once a year. for what God has done for us just to one day we can give him our real attention.

1:43 So this morning I'm going to ask you to do a couple of things with me. I'm going to preach. You know I'm not going to be long. I'm not going to rush, but you know I'm not going to be long. And I'm going to ask you just to stay for the service. You know, just don't break away because you knew today was Easter. And people prepared for you today in a special way so that not only could you be encouraged, but you could be informed and strengthened. And then by doing that, I'm going to ask you to help me preach this sermon today, okay? So the Gospel of Matthew. Don't rush me, I'm coming. Mark, Luke, John. I'm going to read from Mark this year because Mark is going to make one statement that I want to lean in at the end of the message.

2:55 And so what I want to tag this text this morning is an Easter faith for a Good Friday world. For those of you that don't know, Good Friday is the day Jesus was crucified. I'm not being funny.

3:20 And at the end of the message, you'll probably discover why they call it Good Friday because if you're being killed, there ain't nothing good about it. But an Easter faith for a good fried the world. Mark 16 is one of the tellings of this event. Let me read it in your hearing. When Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week Just after sunrise They were on their way to the tomb And they asked each other Who will roll this stone away From the entrance of the tomb But when they looked up They saw the stone Which was very large Had been rolled away As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

4:42 Don't be alarmed, he said. You're looking for Jesus Nazarene, the brother from the hood? Which is by the way An exaggeration But it would fit neatly into who he is Who was crucified Oh he's risen He's not here You can come and see the place where they laid him But Go tell his disciples and them people at the church with our walls. He is going ahead of you in the Galilee.

5:30 There you will see him just as he told you. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. This is the word of God. You may be seated. a student at Duke Divinity School was asked to summarize what you and I have experienced over the last several days, to put language to the Holy Week, Good Friday. and this is what the student said in the Bible, it gets dark.

6:27 very dark very very dark and then God shows up he's almost right God doesn't just show up you have to add God shows up for us

6:58 It's dark. I don't think that you'll get much debate from most people if you describe categorically that these are some dark days. The church is experiencing dark days God Even God is having a tough time We don't like to talk like that But even God is having A tough time there's a group of 20-somethings, bright, highly intelligent, TikTok deconstructionalists, they call themselves, and they have found the mysteries of the world that nobody has discovered in 2,000 years.

8:04 And as a result, they have given their deconstructive reason, you might be some of you here this morning, why you quit God and quit the church. They have discovered what nobody else has ever discovered. Now, you're pretty bright when you've discovered in what we can call the 21st century, 2,000 years, what nobody else has discovered. You know more than Augustine, Aquinas, Tertullian, And if you don't know their name Don't worry about it You know that they were here before you were And so God and the church is having a Tough time, it's dark it's very dark for the church.

9:04 Catholics, people are leaving the Catholic church. Why are you leaving the Catholic church, the universal church? Well, the priest, mainline people, dividing over gender identity and human rights. Splitting the church right down the middle Church Church God having a tough time Evangelicals Tough time they just angry Why? Because we like being angry Mad about everything Mad about everything God the church Is having a tough time God's been losing here lately I know you don't want to agree to that But you know this is my field This is what I do every day Like I respect those of you who are Teachers in elementary and middle and high school And you talk to me about education I listen to you attentively This is what I do every day And I'm here to tell you Based off the stats God ain't doing good It's dark.

10:32 The other day in the White House The spiritual advisor to POTUS Encouraged him by liking him to be The replica and the very image Of Jesus of Nazareth As a model. Let me say this to you. I know it's hard for you to hear it because it's hard for me to say it and I didn't want to say it but the young man at school was asked to define this week and today he said it's dark. And it's very dark. And I don't know how you get darker religiously when you take a human being And make that person Equal to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ When you get that bad I don't care what your positions are It's dark I know it's hard for you to amen that.

11:47 I understand it. But it's very dark. I mean, categorically, things are dark. I mean, you got wars. You got inflation. There are people who cannot afford health care,

12:08 Medicaid, Medicare benefits are cut. And I know, hey, I know we're a suburban church. You got a job. You got money. That's on them poor people in the inner city. You got a college degree, a graduate you've gone to, a PWI, you've made it. It's dark Very dark Very Very dark Some years ago, Ms. West and I, we were over in Kenya And in Nairobi, we went to visit the zoo And they had a section, the reptile section And I went in there to see these poisonous snakes and this is no joke this is how they would define poisonless Most poisonous.

13:11 Then they had one section that said, very most poisonous. Dark, very dark, very most dark. And in the middle of darkness, something happened in between Good Friday and Sunday morning. And when I say time doesn't permit, it doesn't. And I won't, maybe at another time, Jesus could have got up on Sabbath, which was the holiest day of the week. but it got up on Sunday which was a work day And on the day he got up He put his disciples to work You missed that But you get it later So it's morning and The women make their way In the darkness to the tomb And something happens On that way there That I want to give you a tool that was given to me by Frederick Buechner, who's going to be with the Lord now.

14:35 He was a very bright Presbyterian theologian. In a sermon that he preached called The Magnificent Defeat, he gave this to me, that one night I was out on the bridge with a young red-haired instant that was looking on the horizon to see if he could identify lights from oncoming ships. I asked him, what are you doing? He told me. And then he told me this. He said, the way to find oncoming ships is not to look at the horizon, but to look at the sky just above it. The first time I read that was in 1987. I have kept that with me until now that every Easter, every Good Friday, I look at the same story over and over, but I've changed my angle of vision.

15:49 I never look at it straight ahead. I look just above it, right to the right of it, or to the left of it, or beneath it, and it always yields something fruitful to me when I never stare at it head on. You've never read a good piece of poetry written about anything in the sunlight. It always has dust and dawn and darkness. And isn't it amazing that both death and resurrection take place in the darkness?

16:22 God working the night shift. And that morning when those women were on their way to the tomb, they're not just standing outside the tomb. The big boulder that blocked the entrance had been rolled away. So when we read it, you assume that they're standing outside looking. No, they walk into the death chamber. And they're looking for the body that was crucified on Friday. It was a heinous crime. It was horrible. The only thing that could register a reaction for most of us this morning are the images that we have seen of black bodies that have been lynched. Or to remember how you reacted when word came that young Trevor Martin had been killed.

17:29 Or to Mill Rice or Eric Gardner. Or the horrifying picture of George Floyd. it's only when you see those pictures those images do you begin to identify with the public humiliation of Jesus' death and when the women came that morning with their spices they had come to grips with Jesus is dead they were not coming there to see an empty coughing they were coming knowing that when you're dead you're done And if Jesus could get up, he used that power just a few days earlier on Lazarus.

18:25 He raised Lazarus. Who's going to raise him? And they brought their spices to anoint the body, to embalm him, to go there and reverence the dead body. That's what they went there to do. It's a sign of how easily we adjust and forget the promises of God. And when they get there with their embalming spices to anoint the life of Jesus, they're met with a preacher. That's what an angel says.

19:15 Why y'all come here at Queenston this morning. You came looking for a dead Jesus. That's why some of y'all said. That's why the choir got to sing longer than they should.

19:36 And the dance of that, because you came looking for a corpse. I know it's dark. and very dark but I need you to know God is here for us Not the person seated next to you. This is what most people, people hear me talk and they'll say these words. I wish so-and-so was here.

20:20 Not me. I'm glad I'm here. Because I need God here for me this morning. Let me give you another word about this Easter faith in a good Friday world. And it is before it brings joy, it always brings judgment.

20:46 I mean, the moment that you look at what's happening here in this text, the women are coming with the spices because Jesus has been buried. They buried the body He's buried what else did they bury that morning, that Friday? I mean, what did they bury? I'm glad you asked. They buried their hopes. They buried their dreams. They buried the promises that God had made to them. He had come to them to tell them that you're going to have life and how were they going to have it? More abundantly. But if Jesus is dead, I mean, you don't have to be a road scholar. Stop trying to make the faith so hard that you're like, I got to go to a church where the preacher just dumbed all the way down for me.

21:41 Use that gifted mind that God has given to you. If they buried Jesus who had come to say, I come to bring you life and now he's dead. They buried their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, all of the promises, they're in the grave with it. No wonder the preacher, the angel, Angela, said what? Don't be afraid. Not be of good cheer. He said, don't be afraid. well you wish that's all they buried guess what else they buried their denials and betrayals and their forsakenness their jealousies, their shabby squabbles.

22:48 They buried all of that. you're trying to figure out where the judgment is that's why I like preaching to you y'all so smart the judgment is once you get there to embalm the body and the messenger says why y'all here with that ointment ain't nobody here you looking for Jesus from the hood of Nazareth Thank you. He's not here He got up We're early Well it's early now Well it was so early That you couldn't measure it on the clock And then they panicked Because if Jesus got up Everything that they buried with Jesus Got up Their jealousy Their failure Their disappointment It all got up with him.

23:52 Come here for one minute, I'm almost done. So Easter is not about you feeling all happy and comfortable. It judges us. to tell us, how dare you treat me the way you have treated me? And all of that got up with Jesus. I'm down. Let me give you one more thing. when they got to the tomb the angel said now hear the message go into the city.

24:47 No, that's too big of a word. Go into the town. Nah, that's still too big. Go to Galilee. You missed it. The last thing about the Easter faith is that Jesus only shows up to his friends, his disciples, and those who follow him.

25:21 Let me say it again. Jesus only shows up to his friends. You miss everything else I say, don't you forget this. His disciples and those who follow him. You know, church is boring to me. This is what these TikTok deconstructionalists help me with the language. Church is boring to me. Well, I go every now and then. I'm not regular, but it's not all that important. And it's not. It's not when you're not a friend of Jesus. You know, we lean over and we start laughing. The choir, somebody raised their hands, somebody started shouting.

26:13 We laugh. I'm not talking about the children. All of us as children, we did that. I'm talking about full grown people. They nudge. Even now, somebody said he's trying to hustle you. And that's true. if you don't know it. Well, I'm looking for something. Keep looking.

26:44 Because Jesus didn't get up to prove to you he got up. He got up because of those who believe that he said, in three days I will rise again. I'm done now. Now, I do have some pettiness in me as a pastor.

27:07 I do. Because who do you want Jesus to show up to? I mean, if you have any kind of peace of relationship with Jesus, you want him to show up to the people that killed him. but he said go to Galilee not Jerusalem Go to Rome Galilee I mean if Jesus is going to make an impact On the world He needs to show up on the world stage Jerusalem is the religious center of the world Rome is the political center Athens is the academic, intellectual, philosophical center If God's going to do something He needs to show up where the action is Not in some old backwater town Where these old farmers and rural people are And these people that can barely spell God and yet he said all I need is somebody that'll stand up and tell somebody who I am.

28:35 I'm done with the sermon now. No, no, I'm done, I'm through. I'm trying to keep myself together not to get too happy Because remember When he shows up Even to the people that know him They barely can figure out Who he is I'm in John now And he's standing up there And Mary's standing there And he said Mary And she looked and said Rabboni And she had never called him that ever He said Yeah He said no don't be grabbing onto me yet now. I got some more work to do. And she didn't even know who he was. In fact, she thought he was a gardener, somebody working out in the field. And that's how God incognito comes to us sometimes. You don't even know when God's working on your behalf. You looking for him to come in some white suit, some robe. You looking for him. God's showing up with some dark shades on, rolling in town and you don't know how God's going to help you. You don't know how God's going to figure it out. There are some of you here who have testimonies of how God has stepped into your life and helped you and it looked like you didn't know how you was going to make it and the most unlikely person on the planet was the person that stood in, stood by, stepped down, stepped out, picked you up by your hand and helped you along the way.

30:15 Because God moves in mysterious and unplanned ways. And then remember another group is walking from Jerusalem. And they're on their way to Emmaus. And it's Cleophas and probably his wife and they're talking about what happened on Good Friday. They're talking about nails in his hands. Talking about nails in his feet Piercing his side Crown on his head This is Luke 24 For those who think I'm making up a story And they're walking down the road Seven miles from Jerusalem And they're talking about how bad things are And all of a sudden A brother rode up on the side of him They didn't recognize who he was And he said Who you talking about? They said well we're talking about who we thought was the hope of Israel.

31:08 I got to stop now. I didn't mean to do all this now. But let me get it out of there for just one minute. And so he said, well, who are you talking about? He said, well, well, well, well, he had promised that he was the hope of Israel. And he said, who are you talking about? He said, well, he's somebody that gave sight to blinded eyes. He's somebody that gave new legs to those who could not walk. He's somebody that came along And gave bread to folk when they were hungry People who couldn't afford health care He told them pick up your mat and walk People who had no snap benefits He said I am the bread of life Those who lived in communities where water was contaminated He said I am the living brother He said well tell me some more about him I said, well, all we know is on Friday, they nailed him on a cross.

32:08 On a Friday, they nailed his hand and feet. And next thing you know, he died, and so we thought all hope was gone. You know, you got to be careful how God will work. Right when it looks like it's the ninth inning. right when you believe that Duke had won the game. Here come UConn shooting in the last quarter, messing up our brackets. And I'm here to tell you God can step in at the last minute in your life. I don't know who I'm talking to, but what I do know is God is able to step in right on time. I'm trying to look around to find a few witnesses that know how to testify that when it looks like it's all over, God can step in right on time.

33:25 Have a good day now children May God bless you real good But on my way to heaven He said don't go to Jerusalem Go down in Galilee Why Galilee? I'm glad you asked Because that's where my friends are That's where my followers are That's where my disciples are And that's where I do my work