Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
“Why are you troubled?” The
disciples were afraid – it was Easter and they were not yet comprehending what
had all happened. They could remember Jesus’ arrest late Maundy Thursday; they
lived through the terror of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion on Good Friday; they
saw His burial late that evening. Their Lord, their Savior, their Master – He
was dead, killed at the hands of jealous religious, civil and political
leaders. This was the Man whom they left everything behind so they could follow
Him. What was going to happen to them? That was reason enough to be afraid – I
doubt that listing “Disciple of Jesus” on a resume would get them very far in
the world. For that matter, perhaps the same people who put Jesus to death were
now conspiring to capture the disciples – pick them off one by one – and nip these
Christ followers in the bud before they go much further.
How about you - “Why are you
troubled?” Your troubles can be ridiculously complicated or terrifyingly simple.
Troubles can be tangible where you can literally touch it, or it can be
nebulous, as difficult to nail down as jello. Do you get vaccinated or not? We
watch our children and grandchildren struggle as kids tease them or they deal
with the stress of school. For others, it’s that our spouse works at a job they
don’t like or where co-workers are unpleasant and difficult to work with.
There’s financial troubles, trying to stretch the dollar as far as possible
until payday. There’s the enigmatic message from the doctor about blood tests
being slightly off and wanting to re-test in a few days, and there’s that odd
spot on your shoulder that you noticed in the shower. The car needs new brakes, your neighbor killed
a snake longer than she is tall, your boss wants the reports tomorrow morning
and you know he won’t be happy with the numbers, the arthritis in your knees is
terrible this morning, things are getting pretty dry already, gas is up, corn
is down, and your blood pressure is all over the place. Oh, yes friends,
there’s trouble here in River City.
It’s enough to make anyone, even
the most faithful Christian, feel like the weight of the world is weighing us
down. Our troubles burden our minds and hearts, traveling down our shoulders
and arms to our hands. Personally, I’m a hand-wringer and a chin-rubber. We
work our hands in angst and fear and worry as we grab at straws to try to ease
our trouble. And, try as we might, our hands are incapable of untying the knots
that reside in our stomachs. The straws we grasp for break as we try to hold on
tightly to those things that we think might provide comfort. No matter how we
pull, prod, poke, or push the trouble just won’t go away. If anything, they
seem to grow even more burdensome, more troublesome.
“Why are you troubled?” Jesus
asked His disciples. “Why do doubts arise in your hearts?” It’s a call to
repentance for the eleven. He shows them His nail marked hands. It’s as if He
is saying, I have taken all of your troubles and worries to the cross so you no
longer have to carry them yourself. Your sins, your fears, your worries – they
have all been taken from your hands and placed into mine. And so you know that
they are no longer yours to worry about, look at my hands…look at my feet. I
paid the release-price for your troublesome burdens; why would you want to take
them up again? I buried the burdens and troubles of your body, soul and mind
with me in the grave and when I rose, I did not bring them back to life with
me.
Ah, yes – the resurrection. Spirits
don’t eat fish; people – living people - eat fish. Flesh and blood needs to
eat. Where the Lord’s Supper is in declaration of His death, Jesus’s eating is
a demonstration of His resurrection. Where does the resurrection lead? Back to
the Word. “Thus it is written,” Jesus declares, and turning the disciples back
to the Law and Prophets and Psalms. We call it the Old Testament; they simply
call it the Scriptures. There, in the Scriptures, He reminds them of what He
taught them during the past three years: “that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.”
Let me ask you again: “Why are
you troubled?” Look at your hands. What weight were you carrying in your hands
when you came to the Lord’s House this morning? I’ll bet most of you are
holding your hands like this, palm up. That’s a position of carrying, isn’t it?
Stop trying to carry it all. Turn your hands over. Dump the load out here at
the foot of the cross. Stop looking at your own hands, and instead turn your
eyes to the hands of the One who carried all of your troubles and burdens. Over
here is the stained glass window showing the Resurrected Jesus with His hands
held out in blessing – those hands that were nailed to the cross because He
refused to turn loose of your burdens. He held on to all of your troubles,
saying to each of you, “You get this back over my dead body.” Why would you
want to pick it up again?
When you are troubled, repent –
confess your troubles – and turn back to the Word. “Thus says the Lord,”
remember? Open your Bibles and place them in your hands. Read the promises of
God for you when you feel worried and burdened. If you need a place to start,
use the Psalms. The book of Psalms is called the prayer book of the Bible.
You’ll be amazed at the prayers of God’s people of old, struggling with their
own troubles, and responding to the Word of the Lord spoken to them – and to
you. “Thus says the Lord:”
Psalm 34: 15-18 - The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry… 17 When
the righteous cry for help, the Lord
hears and delivers them out of all their
troubles. 18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 50:15 –
“Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify
me.”
Psalm 139: 9-10
- If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your
right hand shall hold me.
The troubles are still there –
God does not magically make them disappear. What He does do, though, is help
you see these things through the lens of the cross so that you no longer focus
on them but on Him.
And - here is the remarkable
thing – when you stop focusing on your hands and see the hands of Jesus
instead, in Christ, your hands are now free to help your neighbor carry his or
her burdens. You don’t need permission, or training, or certification to help a
neighbor. Your neighbor whose flowerbeds
are overgrown with weeds? Check for copperheads first, and then go weed a
flowerbed. Your co-worker whose husband is fighting cancer? Make dinner for
them, and – if they are up to it – visit a little bit so they know they’re not
alone in the struggle. The kid at school who gets picked on? Bring a friend
with you and eat your lunches with that kid. The widow or widower who rarely
leaves the house? Invite him or her over for coffee. Christ’s Kitchen, VCAM,
Ladles of Love, tacking quilts, a warm hello, making phone calls, writing notes
and sending them in the mail – the list is almost endless of ways you can use
your hands to share the love of Christ with others.
And, what you discover, as you show
the love of Christ by helping with someone else’s troubles, the Lord works in
your service to help release your own troubles.
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