SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
TEXT: 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. THEME: Resurrection is life with infinite possibilities with God. INTRODUCTION Jesus stopped the Roman Empire in this way. He went to a far remote country on the outskirts of its empire and began a movement centered around people, connecting people with God, teaching about how to care for each other and doing miracles that created wholeness and equity. He gains such huge popularity that he became un-touchable. There would be a revolt by the people if anything happened to Jesus. So, the government watched and hoped that this would burn itself out on its own. The Israelites had a reputation of being a scrappy bunch of fighters, anything that riled them up wasn’t worth the effort. But this movement of Jesus didn’t go away. Instead, it continued to grow with larger crowds and popular teaching about forgiveness, freedom, life with God and community. The religious leaders of the area were also agitated and felt helpless to control Jesus. He jeopardized their privileged status with the Empire. It felt that this was leading to a revolt. It was no secret that he would be in Jerusalem for the Passover festivities, a Jewish nationalistic holiday that celebrated their liberation out of slavey from the Egyptian superpower. The Roman Governor Pilate decided to be in Jerusalem. If Plate was going to be there then Herod the King of Judea was going to be there too, along with the High Priest of the temple, Caiaphas. Under the guise of night, Caiaphas had his temple guards arrest Jesus and used the Roman courts to execute a death sentence. Jesus was crucified on Friday and placed in a tomb as the Sabbath began. A stone was rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb. And they thought they could silence the voice of God and that, was that. SCRIPTURE When the Sabbath was over the women of the group discovered the open tomb, Jesus’ body was gone. On Easter, the image of the empty tomb means that Jesus is alive and on the move. Life does not stay still. Faith creates templates for us to understand what had happened at Easter. The Apostle Paul shares his template of the resurrection of Jesus with the church in Corinth. Paul sees Jesus as the first fruits of more to come. I have a banana tree that I have been watering in my yard. It shot out one of those flower pods and then purple fingerling flowers that turned into little green bananas. I was advised to keep on watering it, even when it rains to have big bananas. It’s been weeks now when all of a sudden two of the hands turned yellow. I cut them off the tree right away. They were small but sweet. I have one more hand that I am watching, On the bottom of the banana stalk, in the ground is a keiki that is establishing itself as a successor. There are more bananas to come. Paul says Jesus is the first Banana at the resurrection on Easter (my paraphrase). That makes all of us second bananas, with so much more to come; hands, bunches and fruit bearing trees in their season. Pastor Wayne Ibara from Makiki Christian Church sent me a video from the Bible Project on Eternal Life. A 5-minute cartoon explaining the concept of Eternal Life as “Life unto the Age”. I always like cartoons, but this one was by no means childish. I had to watch about 10 times. When we choose our own way, we live in the age unto ourselves. But God invites us to live a life of infinite potential as exemplified in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. But when our first parents decide to live a life on their own terms, rejecting the deeper kind of life God offers, they traded God’s ways for having “life unto the age of death”. Jesus bridges the life of infinite potential and the life of mortality. Being made of mortal flesh and blood and of infinite possibilities Jesus makes it possible for us to enter into a new life with God possible. This is experienced when the women discover Jesus’ tomb empty (except for a couple of angels) because Jesus is alive and on the move. This is Eternal Life that we may know God, the One True God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent (Jn17:3) That Whoever trusts in Jesus will not perish but may have Eternal life (Jn 3:16). And have Life unto the Age. Life with infinite possibilities with God. A deeper kind of Life. APPLICATION Christ makes resurrection possible for us (as second bananas). God’s power in resurrection is greater than any power over us. How do we live when every enemy has been destroyed, including death (verse 26)? The age of death may be destroyed with the resurrection, but we still have battles to wage. CBS Morning’s Anthony Mason, interview the Punk Rock girl band Linda Lindas. They have just dropped their first album. This band is made of up two sisters, and cousin and a friend. Their ages run from 11 to 17. Three of the girls are Chinese. So, when a boy went up to one of the girls and said, “My dad said I have to stay away from you because you brought the Corona virus” In response, they wrote the song “Racist Sexist Boy” not staying quiet, addressing that lie and went viral. They never expected their group to have the success that they are having today. So, when asked, “What are you planning to do with all of this attention?” They answered, “We will see if there is a way that we can use this for good” A lot of credit goes to their parents, professional sound producer, graphic designer, and their introduction to music at a young age. They are battling an enemy that seeks to destroy with a ‘ceasing life for themselves’ attitude. Linda Lindas is using their music to speak the truth. This is Life unto the age, Life with infinite possibilities with God. A deeper kind of life. This helps to give some meat to our understanding of what it means to have eternal life. It means to live our infinite possibilities with God, into a deeper kind of life. We will have to battle those, ‘ceasing life for ourselves’ attitudes, Racist, Sexist Boys, and others of the age of death, as part of our living unto the age. CONCLUSION We live theoretical lives. We speak about truth telling, infinite possibilities with God and a deeper way of living, while there is mass destruction in Ukraine. We are witnessing the devastation caused by Empire in our world today. If Russia is unable to conquer Ukraine, they are willing to destroy as much of it as they can, with no holds barred, killing men and women, children, young and old, soldiers and civilians, able bodied and infirm. Destroying buildings, littering the rubble with incendiary explosive devises, and blaming the Ukraine’s for their atrocities. There are rules for war but Russia is ignoring them and creating a false scenario about them. Focusing on the resurrection, we become a people who connect people with God, teaching about how to care for each other and do miracles that created wholeness and equity. Like the Linda Lindas we have to tell the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. The Russians only hear Putin’s version of the war. We may not have a punk rock band but we do have prayer. We can encourage our political leaders to move in ways to preserve lives and bring justice in this evil situation. We can find avenues of support to help these new refugees and their sponsors. We are second bananas of the resurrection. Christ has created a new reality for us and those after us. We live in the age where life with God is possible and the death’s reign is over. There are battles still to fight but the age of death is defeated and we have infinite possibilities with God.
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