Easter was just a week ago and this morning's scripture portion from the gospel of John is the gospel text chosen every year for the week following Easter. It's the story of poor doubting Thomas – the disciple who wasn't present on Easter evening when the risen Lord first appeared to the other 20 disciples.
Ordinarily, we preachers would be talking about the importance of seeing the risen Lord, or perhaps we would be pointing out that the 10 disciples did not believe in the resurrection until they saw the glorified Jesus and so we shouldn't be picking on poor Thomas who merely wanted the same thing, or perhaps we would be talking about how in this scripture Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit just a week after the resurrection.
But today we will be talking about something entirely different. Today we will concentrate our thoughts on the last verse of our scripture portion – the last verse of John's gospel – the verse that gives us the reason for everything that came before it:
'these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.'
'Life in his name' – life not death, joy and not sorrow, rejoicing and not mourning, laughter and not tears. As those gifted with ‘life in his name’ we of all people on earth have the most reason to be happy.
This is perhaps one of the reasons why in the early church the Monday and Sunday after Easter, or Bright Sunday, have historically been times of joy and frivolity – and even practical jokes. At first, this sounds like sacrilege, but is really rooted in the theology of early church theologians (like Augustine, Irenaeus and Origen).
Although we know by faith that the crucifixion was necessary to the reality of the atonement, but nowhere in the New Testament text do we find any reason why it was necessary. Through the centuries several different theories have been put forth to explain the need for the crucifixion and we may turn our attention to them at a later time. For this morning, we will consider just one of those theories – the Ransom or Fish-Hook Theory.
The ransom theory is the oldest of the atonement theories. It is also sometimes called the classical theory or the bargain theory. This theory holds that when Adam and Eve sinned, they placed themselves under the dominion of Satan – that they were in fact slaves to sin. To free humanity, Jesus offered himself as payment to Satan. Satan agreed to the deal, and put Jesus to death in place of humanity. Yet since Jesus was without sin, Satan overstepped his bounds. Jesus rose from the dead, liberated humanity, and conquered Satan and his kingdom.
In explaining the Ransom Theory, Pope Gregory the Great wrote:
‘Matching deceit with deceit, Christ frees man by tricking the devil into overstepping his authority. Christ becomes a “fishhook”: his humanity is the bait, his divinity the hook, and Leviathan [Satan] is snared. Because the devil is proud, he cannot understand Christ’s humility and so believes he tempts and kills a mere man. But in inflicting a sinless man with death, the devil loses his rights over man from his “excess of presumption,” Christ conquers the devil’s kingdom of sin, liberating captives from the devil’s tyranny. Order is reinstated when man returns to serve God, his true master.’ [1]
In other words, the devil is tricked into orchestrating the events that would lead to the death of Jesus because in his pride he wants to believe he can defeat God by killing him in Christ while he is a human being. When Jesus refuses to use his godly power to save himself, dies on the cross and descends to hell, the devil thinks he has won the eternal battle with God.
But – indeed the devil has not won. Jesus does descend to Hell, but he is not a captive there. Instead Jesus breaks open the gates of hell and leads out all the righteous who have died in faith to live in heavenly realms.
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By the way, does anyone know what kind of car the disciples drove? They shared a Honda. Scripture tells us that they were all of one ‘accord.’
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God tricked the devil and many say God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. Thus Easter was ‘God's supreme joke played on death.’ And this is why joyful holy humor is appropriate for us. And it is to be preferred to sour, dour, sad faces and lives concerned more with fear then joy, death rather than life. The work, the privilege, of worshipping God should be the joy of our lives – that thing which makes our lives real, full and fruitful.
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And, did you hear the one about Jesus in heaven . . .
Jesus is walking through heaven one day, a little bored, when he passes the Pearly Gates and sees St. Peter talking with an elderly gentleman and decides to go over and hear the man's tale.
"Where are you from, old man?" Jesus asks.
"Well, I lived my life on the shores of the
"Hmmm. I spent some time there myself," says Jesus. "What did you do for a living?"
"Well, I was a poor carpenter," says the old man.
"Wow. So was I," says Jesus.
"And I had a son," says the old man. "Well, he wasn't my son really, but a miraculous spirit came into him and he became famous, and people talk about him all over the world."
Jesus is very excited, is sure he now knows who this man is, and can't hold back any longer. "Father!" he cries.
The old man falls into Jesus' outstretched arms. "Pinocchio!"
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Jesus may have endured the terrible pain and humility of death on the cross, but scripture tells us that he did it for the joy that was set before him.
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Somebody has well said that there are only two kinds of people in the world there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning." May we be that first kind of person, at least most days, because we have heard the Good News of the love of God, a God who inspires true joy in living each day.
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Let us to forth in joy to love and serve the Lord, to rejoice in the resurrection and our own assurance of eternal life – to be joyful in the reality of the resurrection, of our redemption, of the truth of Easter and eternal life.
Other Funnies served up throughout worship:
- Do you know why they couldn't play cards on the
Ark - Did you know that it's a sin for a woman to brew coffee? - Yup, it's right there in the Bible; it says, He-brews.
- What kind of man was Boaz before he married Ruth? - Ruthless.
- Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible? - Pharaoh's daughter. She went down to the bank of the
Nile and drew out a little prophet. - Besides Adam and Eve, of course, who is the only person in the Bible who had no parents? - Joshua, the son of Nun.
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Many thanks to http://www.fccoshkosh.org/Humor2006.html the source for the various funnies in the sermon.
