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THE FIRST CROCUS OF SPRING

There was a cute bit of humor in the Reader’s Digest “Laughter: the Best Medicine” section, the May 1998 issue, contributed by Anita Bartholomew. A person goes to the priest to confess all of his sins, and is kind of writhing in guilt. “Father, I, uh, I . . . during World War II, up in my attic I hid a refugee from the Nazis.”

The priest doesn’t understand why this is something to confess with tears and wringing of hands. “Well, my son, that’s a wonderful thing to do. Blessings on you.”

“Oh yes, Father. But . . . I’m afraid . . . I charged him rent.”

Oh. “Well, maybe that wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but, after all, you DID put yourself at risk,” the bishop says.

The man gulps again. “Father, there’s just one more thing.”

“Yes, my son?”

“Uh . . . do I have to tell him that the war is over?”

So . . . actually this man maybe DOES have something to confess after all!

But friend, do you know something? Here as we who are Christians, part of the invisible, global family called the Body of Christ, get ready to celebrate Easter this coming Sunday, are WE fully aware that the war is over? Or are we still hiding, not only cowering in the attic, but even paying RENT to the enemy who holds us hostage up there?

There are a lot of verses in the Bible that describe the DEFEAT represented by death. If you see New Age-type literature, or read Greek philosophy about how death is a friend, a bright light beckoning you into a higher existence . . . friend, don’t believe it! The Bible paints death as an enemy! Jesus Himself wept when His friends died, even when He knew He could bring them back. But notice, for example, the somber sound of defeat to this verse found in Psalm 30:9:

“What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?”

And another key Bible text, which we DO use because it teaches important truth about the state of man in death — but again, do you hear the tone of defeat in Ecclesiastes chapter nine?

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know NOTHING; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.”

If those two verses were all we had — I’ll tell you something, we could pack up our bags and quit right now. But friend, thank God we don’t have to keep hiding in the attic of discouragement! Because where those verses come from are many more; and THEY tell us that death is a defeated foe! Defeated because of Easter and a Warrior King named Jesus Christ, who came in triumph out of the tomb.

We began this week in First Corinthians 15, and it’s good for us to get back there as we get closer and closer to Sunday. How about verse 20?

“But Christ HAS INDEED been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

How about verse 22?

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ ALL will be made alive.”

And for sure, let’s proclaim throughout the land verses 54 and 55:

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’”

That’s quoting from Hosea chapter 14, so let’s not ever say that only the NEW Testament writers knew the good news. Hosea caught a glimpse of Calvary and Easter hundreds of years before the fact. He knew the war was over before the war was over.

And friend, this is what we’ve got to hang onto today, tomorrow, on Sunday, and for every minute of every day of our lives until we see Jesus Himself coming in the clouds. THE WAR IS OVER! Lucifer is already defeated! Sin is already defeated! And for sure DEATH, as of a Sunday morning almost 2000 years ago . . . it is absolutely and totally and thoroughly and completely a WHIPPED enemy. It’s beaten! It’s destroyed! Oh, I know Lucifer is still out there croaking along on life support; he still vexes us. And God’s people still “die” — that is, they sleep for a little while as Jesus loads up His heavenly chariots for the great rescue mission He’s about to embark on. But that’s not REAL death; that’s not the kind of death that has a lasting sting. Paul and Hosea both stare into the face of this fangless, temporary thing the Christian experiences at the cemetery and say with calm assurance: “Where’s your sting? When Jesus comes, He’ll fix this in a heartbeat!”

You know, it gets so personal over in the book of First Thessalonians, especially in chapter four. If you’ve lost a loved one, and aren’t sure about this Easter miracle your Christian friends are so excited about, you need to check this out. Read starting in verse 13, where Paul says:

“Regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you in the dark any longer.” It kind of sounds like “get out of that attic!”, doesn’t it? Paul goes on: “First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke LOOSE from the grave, God will MOST CERTAINLY bring back to life those who died in Jesus.”

You see, when Jesus “broke loose” from the grave — I love the way Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase puts that, by the way — the war basically ended. The fix is in as of that moment. God’s people WILL CERTAINLY, the Bible says, be brought back to life. Yes, we’ve been waiting a long time. Yes, we’re lonely. Yes, we still do cry at funerals. But we DON’T grieve, in Paul’s words, as those who have no hope. We DO have hope — because the war is already over!

You know, speaking of “a long time” — and two thousand years IS a long time, in human terms — we found an incredible Christian essay that goes to this very point. Hiding in the attic, or not hiding in the attic, two millennia seems like an eternity, and we sometimes feel like WE’RE the defeated ones, not Satan. But let me share a bit of this essay, entitled “And So We Shall Rise,” from C. S. Lewis’ book, The Grand Miracle.

“The miracles that have already happened are, of course, as Scripture so often says, the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on,” he writes. “Christ HAS risen, and so we shall rise. St. Peter for a few seconds walked on the water; and the day will come when there will be a remade universe, infinitely obedient to the will of glorified and obedient men, when we can do all things.”

Have you thought about that? Peter walked on water for a few seconds, and we call it a miracle. Someday all of us, glorified men and women — “gods,” C. S. Lewis says, with a very small “g” to be sure — will have powers we only dream of. But it IS still all future, isn’t it; it HAS been a long time waiting. Here’s a bit more of the essay, though:
“To be sure, it feels wintry enough still: but often in the very early spring it feels like that. Two thousand years are only a day or two by this scale. A man really ought to say, ‘The Resurrection happened two thousand years ago’ in the same spirit in which he says, ‘I saw a crocus yesterday.’ Because we know what is coming behind the crocus. The spring comes slowly down this way; but the great thing is that THE CORNER HAS BEEN TURNED.”

Listen, friend of mine. And how I wish I could just reach out beyond this radio microphone so that you and I could hang onto each other right now and count down to Sunday together. I guess this is subconsciously where we got our series title: TURNING THE CORNER. Because at Calvary, this world DID turn the corner! Death got beat that day! Lucifer got beat that day! Jesus won, and you and I won too.

Maybe you’ve been to a hard funeral lately, just in recent weeks even. And your heart is heavy still. Your emotions are locked in the darkness of that attic. I know that, and God knows it as well. But hang on! Because you WILL be with that person again! It might be a few years away, and that seems like forever. But when you ARE reunited, it’s going to be for a thousand years. Then a million. Then a billion and beyond. These few years right now aren’t so bad if you keep the promise of God’s forever in your mind every morning, noon, and night. It’s like that crocus you see out there, that first budding flower. And it’s still cold out; you can still see your breath in the frosty April air and feel the chill of tears on your cheeks. But you saw that flower! Which means that Spring IS coming! Nothing can stop it from marching toward you, one year, one month, one day at a time, with its guaranteed promise of never-ending summer.