50 Years on...
This sermon was written by my father, somewhere around 50 years ago...
'Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never a man laid.... There they laid Jesus (John 19: 41,42)
In London during the war there was a Church prepared for the harvest festival sunday. On the Saturday there came the first of the great blitzes and that harvest festival was never held because the Church lay in a heap of ruins. On the table there had been some sheaves of corn. The autumn passed and the winter. The spring came and there was a bomb site with little green shoots all over it. The summer passed and autumn came again and on that bomb site there was a flourishing patch of corn. Not even the fire and the bomb could keep the corn from sowing its own seeds and growing.
There is something very comforting and reassuring in the knowledge that while the earth remians, seed time and harvest shall not pass away. But it is not this to which I wish to draw your attention this evening. Rather I am going to consider a growth which is far more spectacular than that patch of corn and which has had untellable, far reaching consequences for the history of the human race. We can draw a comparison between this bomb site which became a flourishing patch of corn and an event which happened in a garden some 2000 years ago.
We first picture the garden as being bleak, desolate and without hope. Yet within the space of 3 days, this desolation had been transformed into a garden of magnificent splendour, frmo which there emerged the most shattering and awe inspiring news the world has ever heard. From that garden on the first Easter morning the news of the Resurrection burst forth upon the world.
'And in the place where he was crucified thre was a garden and in that garden there was a tomb.'
Two seemingly opposite things are brought together here - a garden and a grave. It is the picture of an eastern garden in the springtime and we may easily imagine its appearance - the trees with fresh foliage, grass which the sun has not had time to wither, a profusion of flowers for which Palestine has always been famous, and the song of the birds. A quiet scene of peace and hope and gladness.
Then in the midst of it all - a tomb appears. what a contrast ! A garden and a sepulchre. In that sepulchre was placed One who was to have redeemed Israel. His followers who placed His body in the tomb had gone away filled with despair. they have sorrowfully returned to their former lives.
The bomb has fallen upon the garden and shattered all their hopes. The kigdom they had dreamt of has vanished and all that remains are a heap of ruins.
But let us take another look at the garden. The sun has risen. Certain women are approaching the tomb. They notice straightaway that the heavy stone which covered the entrance to the tomb has been removed. The body of the One so greatly loved is no longer there. They hear the strange pronouncement, 'He is not here; for he has risen.. Come see the place where he lay.'
Everything in the garden resounds with the news. by his resurrection, the light of the world has made that open grave the foundation upon which the Church is built.
It is impossible to assess the full extent of the influence which that empty tomb has had upon the course of history. For all its variety the New Testament springs from this one source. The the Holy body of the Lord had been laid in a tomb nigh unto Calvary which was closed with a great stone and sealed with the Roman seal. Roman Soldiers were stationed on guard. In the morning of the third day the guard had fled in fright, the tomb was open and empty. What had happened ?
Here is the oldest statement which is found in 1 Corinthians 15 : 'He appeared to Cephas; then to the 12; then he appeared to 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles and last of all, as to a child untimely born, he appeared to me also.'
It should be remembered that these appearances were not merely passing glimpses, momentary glimpses which could be taken for apparitions or mental obsessions. They were in the nature of extended interviews, long walks and conversations together. There remained no shadow of a doubt as to his actual presence. Upwards of 500 persons whose moral characters were above reproach and whose qualities of mind and heart made their testimony valid, declared repeatedly and in the most extraordinary circumstances of test and danger; that they saw him alive and therefore he must have been raised as the scriptures declare.
That open grave is the dividing line of history. From it, men look back and look forward. There is a passage in Acts which illustrates rather well how great was the difference between the 2 worlds - the world before Christ and the world after.
The scene I would like you to imagine is the governor's palace at Caesarea Philippi. The 2 principle people in the story are the Govenor King Agrippa and standing before him, the apostle Paul.
The first thing that strikes us about these 2 men is how different they were in their personal make-up and their outlook on life. They lived in different worlds. Agrippa lived ina Roman world, a world of mundane things. He had been raised in all the culture and power of Rome. He thought in terms of power, in terms of politics, in terms of Roman legions.
On the other hand Paul standing before him lived in a totally different world. He lived in a world which had just been born - a world which came into being through the power of the risen Christ.
These 2 characters differed not only in their worlds in which they lived but also in their attitudes towards the most important thing in the universe - the claims of Christ upon the human life.
Here stands Paul, the fiery, fearless missionary, boldly declaring the claims of Jesus Christ, the risen redeemer. To him Christ was the most important thing in the universe and nothing else really mattered. Agrippa didn't care whether Jesus was alive or dead. Whether the power of God was on the side of the Roman government or not was to him merely an academic question. All this philosophizing abou tthings religious was to him irrelevant and inconsequential. It had no effect on the grain market; it didn't matter to the Roman emperor and it didn't matter to Agrippa.
There are thousands today to whom it matters no more than it did to Agrippa whether Christ is alive or dead. To them he is simply a pious, religious name, 2000 years old. Admittedly there may be some who cling to religion as if to some kind of drug which they administer as the occasion demands. It helps them over the hard places of life. But to them it matters not; its irrelevant whether Christ remained in the grave, or rose from the grave; it has no meaning or application to their existence.
There are people like Paul into whose hearts and lives this risen Christ has entered , transforming them into new creatures so that old things are constantly passing away and al existence is becoming new. There they stand, Paul and Agrippa, two symbols of the world today.
And who is there who can deny the victory of the resurrection. The fact that the Church lives is proof that her Lord lives. It has no other basis for its life than the Risen Saviour. If there had been no results in experience or history, the resurrection would long since have been discredited in spite of the many and convincing materials and historic evidences. The whole company of 120 believers were transformed into new persons by this power on the day of Pentecost. The same power came into Corinth, one of the most wicked and godless cities in the ancient world and out of its godless citizens created saints of the living God.
It has been the same throughout the ages. Wherever the message has been preached and believed and accepted, to wilderness and solitary places, people have been made glad and deserts changed into the blooming gardens of the Lord.
It seems so utterly insignificant in the wisdom of the world to place an energy like this alongside the world, shaking conquerors. The silent dust of forgotten generations bear their witness to the futility of military might. In that garden of long ago, something happened and a power was released that shall yet grind to dust all thrones founded on blood and hate and military conquest - for love is stronger than hate, and life is mighier than the grave.
Christianity began in a garden and it is to that garden that we look today for our inspiration and guidance. Jesus is the Lord of the garden and master of the sepulchre. The last word is with life.
There's an interesting old legend about Zaccheus, the little man who climbed a tree to get a better look at Christ abd whom Christ honoured with a visit to his home. Accoridng to the story Zaccheus rose early every morning and went away carrying a bucket. His strange behaviour puzzled his wife. One morning she quietly followed him and observed him as he stopped at the town well, filled his bucket with fresh water and carried it to a sycamore tree outside the city. Carefully he cleared away all the rubbish that had been thrown under the tree the day before and all the little branches that had fallen during the night. Pouring the water near the base of the tree, he placed his hand against the trunk and stood silent in happy meditation. His wife now came forth and asked what might be the meaning of it all. Zaccheus replied, 'This is the tree where I found Christ.'
To Zaccheus this was his little garden even though it consisted of no more than 1 tree. But it was a very special tree and he tended it with all the care and affection of the devoted gardener. For with this tree he associated all that the introduction to Christ had meant to him.
We shall remember that it was from a garden and from the grave it contained that a light has shone for all the world. St James would bask in it as he drank his master's cup in the martyrdom of death. Stephen must have looked towards that empty tomb as his life went out amidst a rain of stones. Peter would have looked up to hat garden and to its empty tomb as he travelled to Rome and his cruifixion. John in banishment in Patmos would gaze across the seperating sea to that garden with its open grave, and get his inspiration for his grand apocalypse. All the great confessors of the truth have stood on the foundation of the open grave. They have regarded it as the gateway to immortality.
History's happiest hour took place in that lovely garden - the garden of Jospeh of Arimathea, where the crucified and buried Jesus walked forth as the ever-living Christ. We shall remember that it was out of that garden came the gospel of new life in Christ. On that glad mroning when Joseph's garden balzed with the of the Resurrection, Christ 'brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.'
The garden of resurrection is our strong hope in this present troubled world. Our faith is that Jesus shall regin until he has put all his enemies under his feet and that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The garden of resurrection is our means of passing into the nearer presence of him who was the Jesus of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gethsemane, Calvary and of the Easter morn. In it we shall meet with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. AMEN
'Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never a man laid.... There they laid Jesus (John 19: 41,42)
In London during the war there was a Church prepared for the harvest festival sunday. On the Saturday there came the first of the great blitzes and that harvest festival was never held because the Church lay in a heap of ruins. On the table there had been some sheaves of corn. The autumn passed and the winter. The spring came and there was a bomb site with little green shoots all over it. The summer passed and autumn came again and on that bomb site there was a flourishing patch of corn. Not even the fire and the bomb could keep the corn from sowing its own seeds and growing.
There is something very comforting and reassuring in the knowledge that while the earth remians, seed time and harvest shall not pass away. But it is not this to which I wish to draw your attention this evening. Rather I am going to consider a growth which is far more spectacular than that patch of corn and which has had untellable, far reaching consequences for the history of the human race. We can draw a comparison between this bomb site which became a flourishing patch of corn and an event which happened in a garden some 2000 years ago.
We first picture the garden as being bleak, desolate and without hope. Yet within the space of 3 days, this desolation had been transformed into a garden of magnificent splendour, frmo which there emerged the most shattering and awe inspiring news the world has ever heard. From that garden on the first Easter morning the news of the Resurrection burst forth upon the world.
'And in the place where he was crucified thre was a garden and in that garden there was a tomb.'
Two seemingly opposite things are brought together here - a garden and a grave. It is the picture of an eastern garden in the springtime and we may easily imagine its appearance - the trees with fresh foliage, grass which the sun has not had time to wither, a profusion of flowers for which Palestine has always been famous, and the song of the birds. A quiet scene of peace and hope and gladness.
Then in the midst of it all - a tomb appears. what a contrast ! A garden and a sepulchre. In that sepulchre was placed One who was to have redeemed Israel. His followers who placed His body in the tomb had gone away filled with despair. they have sorrowfully returned to their former lives.
The bomb has fallen upon the garden and shattered all their hopes. The kigdom they had dreamt of has vanished and all that remains are a heap of ruins.
But let us take another look at the garden. The sun has risen. Certain women are approaching the tomb. They notice straightaway that the heavy stone which covered the entrance to the tomb has been removed. The body of the One so greatly loved is no longer there. They hear the strange pronouncement, 'He is not here; for he has risen.. Come see the place where he lay.'
Everything in the garden resounds with the news. by his resurrection, the light of the world has made that open grave the foundation upon which the Church is built.
It is impossible to assess the full extent of the influence which that empty tomb has had upon the course of history. For all its variety the New Testament springs from this one source. The the Holy body of the Lord had been laid in a tomb nigh unto Calvary which was closed with a great stone and sealed with the Roman seal. Roman Soldiers were stationed on guard. In the morning of the third day the guard had fled in fright, the tomb was open and empty. What had happened ?
Here is the oldest statement which is found in 1 Corinthians 15 : 'He appeared to Cephas; then to the 12; then he appeared to 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles and last of all, as to a child untimely born, he appeared to me also.'
It should be remembered that these appearances were not merely passing glimpses, momentary glimpses which could be taken for apparitions or mental obsessions. They were in the nature of extended interviews, long walks and conversations together. There remained no shadow of a doubt as to his actual presence. Upwards of 500 persons whose moral characters were above reproach and whose qualities of mind and heart made their testimony valid, declared repeatedly and in the most extraordinary circumstances of test and danger; that they saw him alive and therefore he must have been raised as the scriptures declare.
That open grave is the dividing line of history. From it, men look back and look forward. There is a passage in Acts which illustrates rather well how great was the difference between the 2 worlds - the world before Christ and the world after.
The scene I would like you to imagine is the governor's palace at Caesarea Philippi. The 2 principle people in the story are the Govenor King Agrippa and standing before him, the apostle Paul.
The first thing that strikes us about these 2 men is how different they were in their personal make-up and their outlook on life. They lived in different worlds. Agrippa lived ina Roman world, a world of mundane things. He had been raised in all the culture and power of Rome. He thought in terms of power, in terms of politics, in terms of Roman legions.
On the other hand Paul standing before him lived in a totally different world. He lived in a world which had just been born - a world which came into being through the power of the risen Christ.
These 2 characters differed not only in their worlds in which they lived but also in their attitudes towards the most important thing in the universe - the claims of Christ upon the human life.
Here stands Paul, the fiery, fearless missionary, boldly declaring the claims of Jesus Christ, the risen redeemer. To him Christ was the most important thing in the universe and nothing else really mattered. Agrippa didn't care whether Jesus was alive or dead. Whether the power of God was on the side of the Roman government or not was to him merely an academic question. All this philosophizing abou tthings religious was to him irrelevant and inconsequential. It had no effect on the grain market; it didn't matter to the Roman emperor and it didn't matter to Agrippa.
There are thousands today to whom it matters no more than it did to Agrippa whether Christ is alive or dead. To them he is simply a pious, religious name, 2000 years old. Admittedly there may be some who cling to religion as if to some kind of drug which they administer as the occasion demands. It helps them over the hard places of life. But to them it matters not; its irrelevant whether Christ remained in the grave, or rose from the grave; it has no meaning or application to their existence.
There are people like Paul into whose hearts and lives this risen Christ has entered , transforming them into new creatures so that old things are constantly passing away and al existence is becoming new. There they stand, Paul and Agrippa, two symbols of the world today.
And who is there who can deny the victory of the resurrection. The fact that the Church lives is proof that her Lord lives. It has no other basis for its life than the Risen Saviour. If there had been no results in experience or history, the resurrection would long since have been discredited in spite of the many and convincing materials and historic evidences. The whole company of 120 believers were transformed into new persons by this power on the day of Pentecost. The same power came into Corinth, one of the most wicked and godless cities in the ancient world and out of its godless citizens created saints of the living God.
It has been the same throughout the ages. Wherever the message has been preached and believed and accepted, to wilderness and solitary places, people have been made glad and deserts changed into the blooming gardens of the Lord.
It seems so utterly insignificant in the wisdom of the world to place an energy like this alongside the world, shaking conquerors. The silent dust of forgotten generations bear their witness to the futility of military might. In that garden of long ago, something happened and a power was released that shall yet grind to dust all thrones founded on blood and hate and military conquest - for love is stronger than hate, and life is mighier than the grave.
Christianity began in a garden and it is to that garden that we look today for our inspiration and guidance. Jesus is the Lord of the garden and master of the sepulchre. The last word is with life.
There's an interesting old legend about Zaccheus, the little man who climbed a tree to get a better look at Christ abd whom Christ honoured with a visit to his home. Accoridng to the story Zaccheus rose early every morning and went away carrying a bucket. His strange behaviour puzzled his wife. One morning she quietly followed him and observed him as he stopped at the town well, filled his bucket with fresh water and carried it to a sycamore tree outside the city. Carefully he cleared away all the rubbish that had been thrown under the tree the day before and all the little branches that had fallen during the night. Pouring the water near the base of the tree, he placed his hand against the trunk and stood silent in happy meditation. His wife now came forth and asked what might be the meaning of it all. Zaccheus replied, 'This is the tree where I found Christ.'
To Zaccheus this was his little garden even though it consisted of no more than 1 tree. But it was a very special tree and he tended it with all the care and affection of the devoted gardener. For with this tree he associated all that the introduction to Christ had meant to him.
We shall remember that it was from a garden and from the grave it contained that a light has shone for all the world. St James would bask in it as he drank his master's cup in the martyrdom of death. Stephen must have looked towards that empty tomb as his life went out amidst a rain of stones. Peter would have looked up to hat garden and to its empty tomb as he travelled to Rome and his cruifixion. John in banishment in Patmos would gaze across the seperating sea to that garden with its open grave, and get his inspiration for his grand apocalypse. All the great confessors of the truth have stood on the foundation of the open grave. They have regarded it as the gateway to immortality.
History's happiest hour took place in that lovely garden - the garden of Jospeh of Arimathea, where the crucified and buried Jesus walked forth as the ever-living Christ. We shall remember that it was out of that garden came the gospel of new life in Christ. On that glad mroning when Joseph's garden balzed with the of the Resurrection, Christ 'brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.'
The garden of resurrection is our strong hope in this present troubled world. Our faith is that Jesus shall regin until he has put all his enemies under his feet and that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The garden of resurrection is our means of passing into the nearer presence of him who was the Jesus of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gethsemane, Calvary and of the Easter morn. In it we shall meet with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. AMEN
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