Delivered March 23, 2008
by Pastor Marilyn Henderson
When I was in about grade 5 in Elkhart, Indiana, I was recuperating from a severe case of measles. I was sick enough that I stayed in bed for about 1½ weeks and it was boring! I was alone in the house and, worst of all, I wasn't allowed to read because of possible damage to my eyes.
Then, one day, the strangest thing happened and broke the boredom. The bed began to move gently back and forth. It lasted about a minute and then it stopped. When everyone came home that day, I asked about it but no one had felt a tremor. In fact, my family teased me about imagining things. Nothing was said on the radio and by the time I returned to school it was long gone from most people's minds. After doing a little research, my guess is that the magnitude of that earthquake was somewhere around 2.5 - 3.0.
The house in which I grew up was not a small structure and was solidly built. In spite of seven rooms and two baths on each side of the duplex, the quake had enough power to shake the house so that my bed actually moved between ½ and 1 inch each way, back and forth, for about a minute. I know because I looked!
On Resurrection Day, the earthquake of God was powerful enough that a large stone was somehow removed from the entrance to Jesus' tomb. It was powerful enough that the guards, trained soldiers though they were, fainted from fear and shock! I wonder what the magnitude of that earthquake was?! But we can be sure, no matter what its magnitude, no matter how powerful, it was only a tiny, miniscule and completely inadequate picture of the magnitude and power of God as God poured Life and Breath into the newly transformed body of Jesus Messiah.
On Resurrection Day God defeated, finally and forever, death in all forms by giving Jesus real Life once again.
On Resurrection Day God made it possible for us to choose real Life over death.
God often uses some kind of earthquake to shake up our desire to control our own lives, something we view as a right. Saul had an earthquake experience that shook him so that it literally changed his entire life, even his name. Paul says that " ... I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2.19b-20a).
Oswald Chambers observed that Paul didn't say, "I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ" or "I will try to follow Him." Paul said, " ... I have been crucified with Christ." What does that mean?
The old Paul, everything he had chosen for himself or others had chosen for him - preferences, material things, physical and financial security, ways of thinking, what he believed about God, his heritage and family - he laid them down at the foot of the cross and walked away from them all to his new life in Christ. God shook death loose from Paul's life and he no longer put anything above God in importance.
No longer did Paul want to call the shots in his life. Jesus did. No longer was Paul bound by anything from his former life. He became firmly bound to Jesus. " ... I have learned to be content with whatever I have ... " (Phil. 4.11b).
Paul, in identifying as completely as possible with Jesus' death, also identified with Jesus' new life. In his own words, " ... if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ ... " (2 Cor. 5.17-18a).
It's the nature of earthquakes, with their tremendous power, to shake things up. The power of God always "shakes things up," sometimes subtly and sometimes unmistakably. When God shakes things up, God's Life is present, inviting each of us to die to selfishness and sin and rise to new life in the risen, living Christ!
Jesus Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Petitcodiac Mennonite Church