PREPARING THE WAY: “Handed Over to Sinners”
Luke 24:1-12
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025
Prayer of Adoration – Almighty and eternal God,
you are the strength of those who believe and the hope of those who doubt.
May we, who have not fully seen, receive faith, and enjoy the fullness of Christ’s blessing,
for Christ is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Isaiah 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb,
taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this,
suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,
‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man
must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven
and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James,
and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.
But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths
by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
The Word of the Lord.
Every Easter Sunday is different.
Now, I know that for some of you who are here visiting with family today,
this service looks pretty much like it did last year, and the year before that.
To be honest, we usually sing the same hymns; we follow much of the same liturgy.
Most of you are sitting pretty much near where you sat this time last year!
But every Easter Sunday is different because you are different than you were last year.
And the world is different than it was last year.
And Emily, Tully, Matt, and I are in a different place than we were last year.
On a personal level, we have all had different experiences over the past year.
Some of us have lost a loved one.
Some of us have welcomed a new child into the family.
Some of us unexpectedly lost a dear friend.
Others have found a new friend, or perhaps a new romantic relationship since last year.
On a community or national level, the world feels different.
There seems to be more uncertainty about the future than we have experienced for a while.
On the one hand, many of us still feel disconnected from our neighbors.
But on the other hand, we seem to be witnessing more desire to meet in the middle lately,
more desire to understand where our neighbors are coming from,
more desire to acknowledge the shared humanity of the people around us.
What does all of this have to do with Easter Sunday and the resurrection?
Jesus told them that he must be “handed over to sinners and be crucified”,
and that he would be raised on the third day.
Why did he have to be “Handed over to sinners and crucified”? Why?
Why did Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, Son of Man have to experience helplessness,
physical abuse, being fully misunderstood, stripped of any shred of dignity,
pain beyond our imagination, abandonment by everyone, including those closest to him,
even the experience of feeling abandoned by God –
“My God, My God,” he cried from the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22)
If Jesus can overcome, if Jesus can be raised from such an experience,
an experience meant by the Romans and the Jewish Sanhedrin
to end his life and everything he stood for, an experience meant to quash his rebellion,
meant to silence his protests, meant to end his agendas,
then perhaps there is hope for us as well.
When David was anointed King, the Bible speaks of a green shoot
appearing from the dead stump of Jesse,
and the kicked around, oppressed little nation of Israel found new life.
When our children watch butterflies emerge from an old, gray cocoon,
children’s eyes light up with wonder and amazement,
and we participate in the hope of new life everywhere.
When Mary’s rabbi, the One she had seen hanging on a cross on Friday
appeared to her and called her by name in the garden that bright Sunday morning,
Mary discovered that what was dead can be alive again,
that that which was hopeless, enclosed, encased, ended, is now going to continue, forever.
That dark Friday, the twelve had all run away, anxious and afraid.
They had given up hope; they thought it was all for naught.
They thought that power of evil and suffering, of corruption and violence, had the upper hand,
and that the message of faith, hope, and love had died with Jesus on the cross.
They thought that they would live out their limited days in a Good Friday world,
a world in which the power of sin and death and evil is overwhelming,
a world in which everything and everyone has been handed over to sinners.
We know all about a Good Friday world,
a world in which terrorists hold hostages in underground bunkers for months at a time,
a world in which hospitals and schools are bombed every day,
and children are murdered, and no one says anything.
We know about a world with diseases that decimate African villages,
and outbreaks of measles that scare the daylights out of little towns in Texas and Canada.
We know all about a Good Friday world and its groupies,
a world in which children are plucked off the street and trafficked across international borders,
a world in which young lives end too soon when they are shot and killed at school.
In a Good Friday world, it seems as though the power of evil and darkness
just might be greater than the power of goodness and light.
We would like to think that we could organize ourselves enough
and communicate effectively enough and work hard enough
to defeat the power of sin and evil and its groupies.
But left to our own resources, we do not only fall short, we miss the target altogether.
When it comes to conflicts between peoples and nations,
it looks less like Truth and Reconciliation will emerge,
and more like we are all going to end up killing each other.
When it comes to temptations toward pride or sloth,
it seems as though we may be headed to new lows of human existence.
When it comes to progress toward giving up prejudices and inequities,
we seem to be going in the wrong direction. At times, it even seems as though
we are more segregated by race and economics and religion than we were 30 years ago!
The powers of suffering and death are close at hand.
The powers of fear, despair, and brokenness pull on our faltering grip on faith, hope, and love.
When we are honest with ourselves, we admit that our own resources
ultimately have rendered us powerless against Good Friday sin.
Oh, we are modern; we are smart; we have strong self-wills.
We have incredible technology that can do amazing things.
We have vast human and material and financial resources,
and now we even have AI – artificial intelligence –
that will soon do far more than we now can imagine.
It is hard for us to admit that we are powerless before the rising tide of violence.
It is difficult to confess that we are powerless before the brokenness of relationships.
It will choke us up when we realize that we are powerless before dispassionate human behavior
among those in power.
Paul wrote to the Church in Rome long ago: “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do…
even when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.” (Romans 7:18-21)
Of any group I know, the folks of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous,
know what it means to live not by our own resources, but by grace alone,
not by our own strength, but by the power of God.
As many of you may know, the folks of AA, who meet in our Sycamore House across the street
on Thursday and Friday evenings, focus upon 12 steps to recover from their illness,
from the dis-ease, that has wrecked their lives.
Do you know the first three steps of the 12 step program?
1) We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, over our addiction –
that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3) We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God,
as we understood Him.
The first step toward any recovery, towards salvation, towards wholeness and sanity,
for any person, or for any group of people or nation,
for any who are gripped by an illness, a dis-ease, is to admit powerlessness.
Left to our own resources, we are powerless before the powers of sin and evil.
We are powerless over brokenness. We are powerless over our own pride and our own sloth.
We are powerless over suffering and death.
We cannot save ourselves from the fears that grips us.
We cannot save ourselves from the anxieties that overwhelm us.
We cannot save ourselves from the helplessness and hopelessness that drag us down,
nor from the sin that seeks to destroy us.
We are dependent creatures, dependent upon a Power greater than ourselves,
dependent upon that same power that raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.
If God can raise Jesus from the dead, then our lives can be restored to sanity and wholeness.
If God can raise Jesus, then all sorts of people can discover the miracle of forgiveness
and the wonder of reconciliation, and the whole world can move towards peace.
If God can raise Jesus, then my life and your life will not be defined by helplessness,
or powerlessness, but will be defined by living in the power and strength of our risen Lord.
We will know, every day, the joy and hope and peace of Easter.
We will walk away from the darkness of sin and the despair of Friday,
and we will live in the light and hope of a better tomorrow.
Take heart, friends, the major, decisive battle has been won. The tide has turned.
Not even death can defeat the power of God at work in Christ.
Good Friday and its groupies will not have dominion,
because the power available to us is far greater than the power at work against us.
I recently came across a poem from the erudite Ann Weems.
Her poem is titled “I No Longer Pray For Peace”.
On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles.
I pray that stone hearts will turn to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn to mercifulness,
and all the soldiers already deployed will be snatched out of harm’s way,
and the whole world will be astounded onto its knees.
I pray that all the “God talk” will take bones,
and stand up and shed its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth.
I pray that the whole world might sit down together and share its bread and its wine.
Some say there is no hope, but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God……that we can truly love one another.
I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles.
Friends, my confidence regarding the future is not in our church session,
as wonderful and faithful though they may be.
My confidence is not in our wonderful church staff, as awesome as they are.
My confidence regarding the future is not in you or other members
of our church and community, as gifted though you may be.
And my confidence is certainly not in my own gifts or abilities.
My confidence in the future is rooted in the power of God,
the same power made known in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This power from above promises us a future filled more with faith than fear,
filled more with hope than hopelessness,
filled more with confidence in the goodness of God than despair over the human condition.
Friends, I refuse to live in that Good Friday world!
We are called to live, every day, in an Easter Sunday world!
where every Sunday is a little Easter in the church, where every Sunday,
we praise God for raising Jesus from the dead, and raising us from despair,
where every Sunday, we claim that Jesus is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
The message of the cross may be foolishness to those who are perishing,
but for those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
In Christ, the power of goodness and light is available – to me.
In Christ, the power to do what I cannot not do on my own is available – to me.
In Christ, I have the power to be anxious about nothing and prayerful about everything.
In Christ, I have the power to give up my prejudices and my animosities,
and to love my neighbor as Jesus has loved me, to love even my enemies.
In Christ, I have the power to live in hope and in joy –
no matter what trials or tragedies this life may bring.
In Christ, I have the power of knowing that in all things God will work for good,
for those who love God, and that nothing, not even the seemingly final power of death
will separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Oh, we know all about Good Friday. We have lived in a Good Friday world.
But today is Sunday, friends, and today we proclaim that the power of sin and evil
has been broken, once and for always, and that we who were once dead
through the trespasses and sins in which we once lived,
have been made alive together with Christ.
This is good news! The good news of the gospel!
Next Easter Sunday will be different. Now, to be honest,
next year’s Easter service will probably look pretty much the same as it did this year.
We will sing the same iconic Easter hymns; we will follow much of the same liturgy.
Many of you will sit pretty near where you are sitting right now!
But next Easter Sunday will be different, because you will be different than you are this year.
And the world around you will be different than it is this year,
because you are going to live more in the power of Christ than you have been living.
You are going to lean in to the power of Christ among you,
and you are going to lean in to the fellowship of God’s people.
You are going to know, in your heart and soul,
that the power at work among these Easter people around you
is ultimately far more powerful than the power at work among those Good Friday groupies.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
To God be all glory, power, and honor this day and always. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
