Easter Sermon 2024 (Silver Sanitarium)
Date: 3/31/2024
Title : The Yoke of Jesus to Bring in the Kingdom of Heaven
Text : 1 Corinthians 15:50-52
[1Co 15:50-52, NIV]
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
There is a well-known proverbial story called "새옹지마" in Korean. It's about an old man and his horse. One day, the horse the old man had raised ran away. When the villagers came to comfort him, saying it was unfortunate, the old man replied, "Heh, who knows if this will bring good fortune?" Later, the horse returned with several wild horses. The villagers envied his luck and said it was a good thing. But the old man responded, "Heh, who knows if this will bring misfortune?"
Some time later, the old man's son fell off one of the wild horses and broke his leg. The villagers sympathized, saying it was unfortunate. However, shortly after, a big war broke out, and all the young men in the village were conscripted. Due to his broken leg, the old man's son was exempted from conscription and thus spared his life.
This story illustrates how difficult it is to judge events simply as good or bad. Initially, it seemed like something unfortunate had happened, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Yet, it was followed by another difficulty, which eventually led to a positive outcome. It teaches us to consider all aspects of a situation before making judgments and reminds us that even adversity can sometimes lead to good results.
What seems like a good thing at the time ends up being a bad thing,
and that bad thing can come back to bite us in a better way.
In short, we don't have the wisdom to determine what is good and what is bad.
So, did the old man and his son live a happy and good life?
This story is a good reminder that when life throws you a curveball, don't make it all bad! It may be comforting at times, but actually, he's a very unhappy man.
He could not rejoice to his heart's content when something good happened, nor could he grieve to his heart's content when something bad happened.
And the story ends with a happy ending because the son escaped the war and survived, but would the son and the old man who survived have never gotten sick or died?
Theirs is not a happy ending, as they lived their lives without much joy and without much sorrow, and eventually both met their end in one way or another.
When Jesus was taken away by soldiers and eventually crucified,
Jesus' followers were all in great fear and deep sorrow.
No one could look at this and expect any good to come of it.
Yet, Jesus, the one who was actually the one, said to his disciples just before he was taken away.
"I must leave you for a little while, and it will cause you great sorrow, but do not be sad.
I will be in great pain, but it's like a mother giving birth and risking her life to give birth to a baby. And after all that pain, I look at my sweet baby in my arms. With a mother's heart full of joy I will meet you again.
Jesus was not a foolish wise man with little sorrow and no joy.
On the contrary, Jesus expressed his intense emotions with the painful, yet overwhelming joy of childbirth.
I sometimes find myself watching videos of my kids when they were younger, walking around and singing Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. There are so many days that I look back and feel nostalgic.
I wish I could have hugged them more then. I think I'll have more and more of those regrets as I get older.
It is then that we realize that we cherish things more after they are gone, after we have lost them, and want to love them more fondly then than we do those things that are with us now. Health, Youth, People... Parents. We all do. Regret is not a strong enough word to describe this irrational phenomenon of loving more when you can't love anymore.
But when the Bible talks about the kingdom of God, it talks about it as a place where there is not the slightest bit of regret or sorrow.
Well, do you know what that means?
There is no sadness, no regret, no longing for something that is lost and then loved again. Not only is there no separation, but you can love as much as you want to love, give love and receive love without regret or remorse. That's heaven.
No matter how many good things have happened in our lives, this is never the real good place. For some of us, for those who have made Jesus their Lord and have eternal life, the real good days actually come the day our life here ends.
For them, death is not a Happy Ending, but a Happiest Beginning.
The pleasures and joys of this life pale in comparison to the glory of the resurrection.
All the days of this life are, in fact, the pains of childbirth. Even the joy we feel on a bright and good day like today is only a temporary pause in the pain.
I've only been a witness to childbirth, so I don't know the pain.
I vividly remember my wife holding the baby after all that pain and looking at him with tears of joy.
I remember how amazing it was to see her look at a baby that was born after her nearly dying, and how she looked at it with love, not resentment.
The sight of all the moms holding their babies and looking at them tearfully gives us a glimpse of Jesus, who will look at us with overwhelming joy in heaven.
When we encounter the truth that our life now is like the process of childbirth, compared with the eternal joy that will be ours in the resurrection, does it not seem to us that the Lord takes too much pain and asks too little of us?
Doesn't the thought of the Lord being so generous bring tears to our eyes?
At the end of today's text, we who have hope are to be laborers in the Lord's work. and Jesus tells us to take up the easy and light yoke that He has entrusted to us while we live on this earth.
In other words, we all have a job to do for Jesus while we're here on earth.
In the end, the yoke that is common to all of us is the yoke of Jesus! It is to represent our Lord Jesus to those who do not yet know the resurrection. Whatever we can do for them, it is our purpose in life to do it with the Lord.
It can be as great as saving hundreds, or as small as giving one person a little encouragement and comfort. It's about loving someone and praying for their salvation out of love.
To those who take Jesus' yoke upon them, the Lord has promised.
“I will give you the joy the world cannot give, the joy of heaven, the peace of Jesus.”
What does the yoke of Jesus look like that He asks of me? If we can take that ‘easy yoke’ today, He will give us the joy of heaven now.
We who have the life of the resurrection, we who possess the kingdom of heaven!From now on, let us rejoice and be filled with childlike joy at the simplest of joys, be grateful, and be sad for a moment when we encounter hardship, but never sink into it or despair.
For the life of the resurrection, the life that will accompany us to heaven, is already beating within us.
Let’s pray together.
