Moppety-mop and poppety-pop
Went on their way with a skip and a hop.
One with a skip, and one with a hop,
Moppety-mop and poppety-pop!
How many of you have heard the classic rhymes like Eeny, Meeny, Mini, Mo, or the Hokey Pokey, or Hey Diddle Diddle? Each of these classic rhymes are fun and they are meant to teach children things like counting, body parts, time, and direction. Do you know the old rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock?
Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock.
That rhyme is supposed to teach children how to count and how to tell time on an analog clock. But if you hear one of these rhymes without knowing the purpose, they sound kind of ridiculous. What is a hickory, or a dickory, or a dock? Did any of you know that those words are thought to be old English for counting the numbers 8, 9, 10? (https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-classic-perseverant-nursery-rhyme-hickory-dickory-dock/) If you didn’t know, don’t worry know really knows, but it’s a part of the funny rhyme scheme.
These types of rhymes sound ridiculous and nonsensical, but that’s half the fun of them. Yet through these rhymes, a underlying meaning awaits to help us learn things as children.
And it’s this idea of the nonsensical with a deeper meaning that leads us into our Easter passage today. If you have you’re Bibles, we’re going to be looking at Luke chapter 24, verse 1-12, and as we open up to Luke 24:1, I want to give you the lead up to the passage.
One week ago from our passage, Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding a donkey as people laid down their coats and palm leaves and shouting phrases like, “Hosanna,” and “Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” We call that moment the triumphal entry, but where the people thought it was going to be a triumph over the political powers that suppressed the Jewish people, Jesus’ triumph was actually going to be through the cross and resurrection.
Jesus spent the next several days being challenged by the religious leaders, being anointed with expensive perfumes and tears, being asked about future events, setting up rituals that we continue with today in the elements of the bread and the cup, and preparing his disciples for his death and resurrection.
And just like he said it would happen, Jesus was betrayed by one of his own, rejected by the Jewish leaders, turned over to the Romans, found innocent of any crimes, yet crucified as a criminal. His disciples scattered and began to live in fear, his body was taken down and put into a rich man’s tomb. All of this fulfilled dozens of prophecies of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. It was then, one week later, that we come to our passage.
Let’s read what happens next in Luke 24, starting in verse 1.
“1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”’ 8 Then they remembered his words.
“9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. (NIV)”
Let’s be honest, the resurrection of anyone sounds like nonsense, right? How many of you know people that have been dead and come back to life? Like the 74 year old woman who died in June of 2024 at a Nebraska nursing home, and then when she got to the funeral home, the staff member saw that she was breathing. (https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/06/03/woman-who-was-pronounced-dead-comes-back-life-funeral-home-sheriffs-office-says/)
Or what about the viral video of a women suddenly opening her eyes as she lays in her coffin? Except the 74 year old was taken to the hospital and not long after did die, and the video of the lady in the coffin was found out to be staged.
We might know people who’s hearts have stopped and they were restarted, but dead, in the ground for a few days and then coming back better than ever? People just don’t do that.
But those stories are not like Jesus’. Jesus’ wounds were far more severe. The flesh on his back had been ripped off by a whip that had shards of pottery attached to it. Nails pierced his hands and feet, and a crown of thorns puncturing his head. As the Roman executioners were checking to see if Jesus was dead, they punctured his side and a mixture of blood and water came out, showing that the heart had failed.
Back in the 1980s the Mayo Clinic released a doctor’s examination of Jesus’ crucifixion, there conclusion was this, “the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted … Interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge. (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-03-28-vw-883-story.html)”
In other words, Jesus didn’t have a heart attack and come back, and it wasn’t staged. All evidence points to Jesus dying on the cross and being buried.
That’s why even the disciples, when they heard the report from the women that Jesus raised from the dead thought it was nonsense.
So why did they change their minds? Why did Peter, John, Andrew and the others go from being scattered and scarred to boldly telling people that Jesus has risen from the dead, if they thought it was all nonsense at first?
Why did James and Jude, Jesus’ half-brothers, who never believed who Jesus claimed to be, go on to proudly tell people that Jesus was the Risen Lord and Savior, if they thought it was nonsense?
Why did Paul, who arrested Christians and was involved in some of their deaths, radically change and go all over the know world to tell people about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, even though he thought it was nonsense at first?
Paul would eventually write this talking about the nonsense of it all in 1st Corinthians 15:14-18, “14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (ESV)”
Paul believes that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then he and the rest of the disciples are liars, they misrepresent God, that their faith is futile and without purpose, and that they should be pitied for believing it. In other words it would be nonsense if it wasn’t true.
This past week I had an interaction with a man who said, “There is zero chance that Jesus existed, let alone anything that he said and did.” Though the vast majority of scholars, both Christian and non-Christian disagree, I told him, “You’re one of those who no matter what the evidence, you’ll never believe, aren’t you?” He obviously knew more than the scholars who dedicate their lives to history, but because he did not want to believe, because it was nonsense to him, he has decided to not look at the evidence. To see if it is truly nonsense.
I’ll be the first to admit, that the idea of the Jesus coming back to life after his excruciating death on the cross seems like nonsense. People just don’t do that, right? But if I look at the evidence of the lives of those who were there, who thought it was nonsense too, and how they went from nonsense, to assurance, I have to ask the question, maybe it is true?
And after over two decades of going back again and again to examine the evidence and the arguments for and against the resurrection, and my own experience following Jesus’ teachings, I am more assured of Jesus’ resurrection today, than I have ever been before.
And if it isn’t nonsense that Jesus truly raised from the dead, then it isn’t nonsense that he will return one day. And because of that return, we need to be prepared. Jesus never asked us to say a prayer for a get out of hell free, he called us into a life of following him. To accept his sacrifice on the cross, which covered our sins, that was shown to be acceptable to God by way of the resurrection. If we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are to then live our lives for him to also show that he is our Lord. That means my thoughts, my desires, my emotions, and my actions are all transformed into what he wants. We come to a place where we are no longer living for ourselves, but living for what God desires for us. And when we follow, the nonsensical breaks away and the deeper meaning is seen. Our lives find their true purpose in the God who created and saved us.
Jesus is calling each of us to a life of following him. Don’t let the perception of nonsense keep you from the God who loves you. Today, turn your life to Jesus and follow him until he returns or calls you home.
Paul also wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18)” Do not live your life thinking that Jesus’ death and resurrection is foolishness, that’s it’s nonsense, because that just leads to death. Instead live today in the power of God, which is found only in following Jesus.
My challenge for you today, on this Easter Sunday, is to think on this one question this week, “What if the Resurrection of Jesus isn’t nonsense, but really happen?” Then read from the book of Revelation chapter 22, verses 12-17, in our blue church Bibles, it’s on page 1291.
Let us all follow Jesus, looking for his return, to make sense of everything that seems nonsensical. Amen.
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