A gentleman wrote into The Christian Herald magazine. In their family, he said, it was a custom to have a sing-along while traveling by car. It helped keep their boys out of trouble and in a good mood. On one trip their eldest son, Aaron, asked if they could sing the “Gravy Song.” “What’s that?” The rest of the family asked. “Teach it to us.” With all innocence Aaron began singing the Easter hymn, “Up from the gravy arose.” (1)
It’s sad that the only day of the year when churches sing the gravy song is Easter Sunday. Jesus rose from the grave! He was dead. No breath in him. No life in him. Sealed up in a closely guarded tomb, already forgotten by the ruling authorities, mourned by his closest disciples, decomposing in the ground. But, as Fred Beck says, “The stone at Jesus’ tomb was but a pebble to the Rock of Ages inside.” (2)
This is truly a day of celebration for all who bow at the name of Jesus. The Master has defeated the powers of death, decay and destruction. He is alive for evermore. As we ponder the meaning of Easter Sunday, we would do well to reflect on something that happened years ago to Representative Dan Kuykendal of Tennessee. A man walked up to Kuykendal after he had won a hard-fought battle for election to the U.S. Congress. This man slapped Kuykendal on the back, pumped his hand vigorously and said sincerely:
“If I’d know’d you was going to win, I’d of voted for you.”
Those are the kind of supporters every politician needs, aren’t they? “If I’d know’d you was going to win, I’d of voted for you.”
I wonder if, on the last day, there will not be people approaching the throne of grace with the plaintive cry, “If we’d known you were going to win, we would have voted for you.” (3)
How do you vote for Christ in a secular world that has crowned materialism and greed as its reigning monarchs? How do you cast your ballot for the resurrection and the final victory of righteousness in a world saturated with sensuality, whose cry is, “Just do it!”? In a world of cynicism and despair, how do you let people know that Christ reigns in your heart this Easter Day and throughout the year?
Writer J. B. Phillips says there are three distinctive marks of a Christian: These are a tranquil mind, an unquenchable joy, and an outgoing love. These are three character traits that only come from God, says Phillips, and they are the marks of a sincere, committed follower of Christ--a tranquil mind, unquenchable joy, and outgoing love. In a sermon on victorious Christian living, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale suggested one more character trait of a Christian. He called it “An irrepressible sense of victory.” These four elements--a tranquil mind, an unquenchable joy, an outgoing love and an irrepressible sense of victory paint quite a complete picture of Easter. (4)
LET’S BEGIN WITH A TRANQUIL MIND. A tranquil mind comes from knowing that God is at work in the world.
For several decades now, the country of South Africa has been one of the most troubled and most troubling spots on earth. On one occasion, when asked if he remained hopeful as he looked at the pain of an uncertain future, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu responded, “I am always hopeful. A Christian is a prisoner of hope. What could have looked more hopeless than Good Friday? But then, at Easter, God says, ‘From this moment on, no situation is un-transfigurable.’ There is no situation,” concludes Desmond Tutu, “from which God cannot extract good.” (5)
This is the message of Easter to the world. No situation is un-transfigurable. God can take the worst and bring out the best. God can lift up the humble, comfort the broken-hearted, give beauty for ashes, weakness for strength, life for death. Take the most hopeless situation, add God to the equation, and suddenly there is hope!
Two men were studying a painting depicting Jesus’ healing of the blind men of Jericho. Both of these men surveying the painting were impressed by the beauty and detail of the picture. But one man noticed something more. He pointed to a small cane lying in the street. The two blind men in the painting must have been begging in the street when they heard that Jesus was passing by. As they approached Jesus, one of the men left his cane behind.
He left it behind! His faith in Jesus was so great that he assumed he wouldn’t need his cane anymore after meeting the Master. (6)
That is what Easter faith is all about. It is about hope. Writer H.G. Wells, reflecting on the glory of Easter, wrote, “All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things.” That’s the first characteristic of resurrection living: a tranquil mind.
THE SECOND MARK OF RESURRECTION LIVING IS AN UNQUENCHABLE JOY.
Father Richard Carton of New Jersey was speaking to a group of second graders about the resurrection of Christ. One student asked, “What did Jesus say right after He came out of the grave?” The hand of one little girl shot up. “I know what He said, Father,” she insisted. “What was that?” asked Father Carton. And the girl exclaimed, “Tah-Dah!” (7)
That little girl understands resurrection living. She gets what it’s all about. The message of Easter is that God has entered human history; God has altered human history; God has exalted human history.
Pastor Leslie Weatherhead reflects on what that first Good Friday must have looked like. No one would have called it “good” back then. Eleven desperate, terrified men huddled in the locked Upper Room. Their Messiah was dead, their enemies surrounded them. All hope was gone.
Now let’s return to the Upper Room just a few days later. The door is open. The sounds of laughter and joyful singing fill the air. Men cannot stop talking about the joy, the incredible wonder of the risen Christ. In fact, they want to go out and tell the whole world about it! As Pastor Weatherhead writes, “Almost everything in the world was different. It was after Easter.” (8) The disciples had discovered the unquenchable joy that comes from knowing that Jesus conquered death.
Author Tony Campolo tells of the wonderful example his father-in-law, Pastor Robert Davidson, provided for him while he was dying. Pastor Davidson had been slowly deteriorating in mind and body for many years. It hurt to see such a great man becoming diminished by time and age. In spite of his decline, he seemed to be at complete peace. Then, in the wee hours one morning, Mrs. Davidson heard her husband reciting in a clear, strong voice, these words from I Corinthians 15: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” After repeating that passage of Scripture three times, Pastor Davidson closed his eyes and died at peace. (9)
There’s a man who did not need to say when he stood before the throne of God, “If I’d known you were going to win, I would have voted for you.” Pastor Davidson voted for him in life and in death.
A tranquil mind. An unquenchable joy. AND AN OUTGOING LOVE. When Easter faith enters your life, like those transformed disciples, you want to share the message and the meaning of Easter with the whole world. You want everyone to know, as John 3: 16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Missionary Paul Bell tells about leading an elderly, illiterate man to Christ. The old man couldn’t read or write, but he memorized John 3:16, and the first verse of the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” And with just that one verse and that one song, he brought over fifty men to Christ in the next two years. (10) When you truly grasp the incredible love of God that caused Him to humble Himself, become human, take on our sin and our suffering, and die for us--when you truly grasp how much God must love us, then you can’t help but let that love flow through you to others.
Christian artist Geoff Moore puts it this was, “Someone is watching, someone is listening, Dying to know what we know so well. It will help them believe it, if in us they see it. That’s why we must live to tell.” (11)
A tranquil mind. An unquenchable joy. An outgoing love.
AND, ONE THING MORE: AN IRREPRESSIBLE SENSE OF VICTORY. The Christian knows the outcome of human history, the end of the story--God wins.
In 1986, Time Magazine published an article commemorating VE Day in World War II. When Allied soldiers stormed the Nazi concentration camps, they liberated thousands of sick, starving civilians and soldiers. One soldier told of finding a man who was too far gone; even with food and treatment he would not make it. The dying man had one last request of the soldier. In a trembling voice, he asked, “Would you find my wife when you get back to the States and tell her that I had the joy of knowing the war is won?” (12)
That is the message of Easter. We have the joy of knowing the war is won! We don’t have to live in fear or defeat anymore. Jesus is alive, God is working in human history, and “no situation is un-transfigurable” with God’s grace.
Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath once said, “When you win, nothing hurts.” There is a sense in which that is true for the believer in Christ.
The testimony of the New Testament is that Christ’s victory at Easter is just the beginning. Someday Jesus will come again to establish his kingdom on earth. He will remove the power of evil from this world. There will be no more suffering or pain or emptiness or death.
As author Max Lucado writes in his book, And the Angels Were Silent, “I think the command which puts an end to the pains of earth and initiates the joy of heaven will be two words: ‘No More!’
“The King of kings will raise his pierced hand and proclaim, ‘No more!’
“The angels will stand and the Father will speak, ‘No more!’
“Every person who lives and who ever lived will turn toward the sky and hear God announce, ‘No more!’ No more loneliness. No more tears. No more death. No more sadness. No more crying. No more pain.” (13)
That is the ultimate victory, and we as Christians can live out the joy of that victory today. We don’t have to confine the resurrection to one Sunday a year. We can live out the joy of the resurrection every day of our lives! We can sing the “gravy song” any time we please. And other people will know the truth of the resurrection when they see the tranquil mind, the unquenchable joy, the outgoing love, and the irrepressible sense of victory that marks our lives. And we won’t have to say, when we stand before God: “If I’d known you were going to win . . .”
1. R. Douglas Reinard, June 1989, The Christian Herald.
2. Fred Beck, Beyond the Cross.
3. Dick Hyman, Washington Wind & Wisdom (Lexington, Massachusetts:The Stephen Greene Press, 1988).
4. The Romance of Victory by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (Pawling, N.Y.:Foundation for Christian Living, 1979) pp. 28-29.
5. Christianity Today, October 5, 1992, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “A Prisoner of Hope.” Cited in “Ministry as the Marketing of Hope,” by David Wesley Reid, The Clergy Journal, August 1994, p. 15.
6. Illustrations of Bible Truths, compiled by Ruth Peters (Chattanooga, TN.:AMG Publishers, 1995), p. 60.
7. Joyful Noiseletter, April 1996, p. 2.
8. Leslie Weatherhead, “The Sunday After Easter,” Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Vol. XI, page 120.
9. Tony Campolo. Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997), pp. 41-42.
10. W. Herschel Ford, Simple Sermons from the Gospel of John, vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan Press, 1958), p. 223. Cited in Living Expectantly by BrianL.Harbour, Broadman Press, Nashville, 1990.
11. “Live to Tell” words and music by Geoff Moore and Steven Curtis Chapman, Starstruck Music, copyright 1993.
12. And the Angels Were Silent, Max Lucado, p. 124, “Surviving Life.” Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley.
13. William H. Hinson, A Place to Dig In (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987).