Bend Mennonite Church
April 19, 2020
by Sam Adams
Acts: witnesses.
1 Peter: Living hope even through suffering
John 20: Doubting Thomas
The cross is the central focus of the Christian faith, and the resurrection is the ground of our hope, empowering us to live on the way to the cross with joy and hope.
As the Father has sent me so I send you.
Take up your cross and follow me
We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes
Imagine the disciples who followed Jesus up to the point of the triumphal entry. What were they imagining? This Jesus, who loved sinners, healed lepers, gave hope to those forgotten; this Jesus who they thought had words of hope must, as the Messiah, lead them to the halls of power and establish his kingdom in Jerusalem. That’s the only way this would work. Otherwise, what a hard road. Who could follow it? Then Jesus is crucified.
Carvaggio’s painting: Thomas peering into the side of Jesus.
A. We take this as Thomas seeing the wounds in order to believe that this really was Jesus and not an imposter.
B. But there’s a sense to which this is an allegorical picture of the Christian life.
Proclaim the lord’s death until he comes.
We gaze at the Lord’s death, at his wounds, his suffering, in order to believe that this is truly the resurrected Lord.
We see the Cross as the victory in the resurrection.
We see the resurrection affirmed in the wounds that Christ still bears.
Jesus is defined by his wounds.
Jesus’ life is known in his woundedness.
a. John 19.34 Blood and water flow from the wound in his side.
b. Blood is life, as is water: from the side of Jesus life flows.
God’s strength is seen through weakness.
The great triumph of God over death is proclaimed, not by angels, but by witnesses.
The good news is handed over to broken, fallible people.
God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
What empowers this witness by us, the weak and broken?
The Life that flows from that wound: the wound exists in a living Christ.
this wounded Christ, is alive,
He has conquered death,
He lives again—he lives that death may die.
Where O Death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?