Back to Sermon Index Easter Sunday March 23, 2008 I am always looking for illustrations for a Sunday Sermon, Especially Easter. Illustrations help us put things in a way that we can relate to or understand. As I searched for a way to illustrate the story of Jesus and Easter, I came upon a popular Television show entitled Prison Break. It has one brother who is wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to prison, run by corrupt cops and prison gangs. People inside the prison look and act the same as those outside the prison for the most part. The second brother gets himself convicted of a crime and sent to the same prison to be with his brother...and not just to be with him for protection and support, but he comes with the express plan to organize a prison break in which they both escape and regain their freedom. Through a series of extraordinary actions and improbable events, they and some other prisoners actually escape the prison and elude the authorities, while trying to let the bad guys get arrested and sent back to prison. It has the makings of a great story. And there are similarities to the Story of Easter. Easter involves a prison break of another kind. Our prisons are many: prisons of ignorance, of hatred, of poverty, of addiction and of sinful activities. We find ourselves trapped, wanting to change but not having the real power to make radical changes in our lives. We are often in prisons of our own making...Some have been built brick by brick over time. Others we seem to stumble into them without much warning, and find ourselves trapped in circumstances beyond our control. Some of us are in solitary confinement, which others have lots of company on the prison yard. In any case, we can see ourselves a prisoner to sin and its power. As the Apostle Paul laments, "I don't understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do I do. ...for I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing....what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?" (Romans 7:15 and following). But fear not, we are not alone. Jesus, our brother, comes to be with us. He does not get himself convicted of a sin to enter this prison of sin and death, but rather is born into the prison. He, the eternal Word who existed before the worlds began, becomes flesh and dwells with us...Jesus comes into our world, all the way in. Not slumming among us for a weekend, but born in a manger he comes to be with us...Emmanuel. He comes to be among us and to show us the love of God made real. He come to prison with us...meets us where we are. This is one of the greatest things about Jesus. We don't to clean up our act to come to him. We don't have to endure years of punishment or work for years to gain his approval or love. We don't have to be perfect in any way. In fact, he comes to where we are. Be breaks into the prisons of our lives and our world. And he loves us for who we are and sees who we can become. He knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us with a love that is deeper than the ocean and broader than the sky. That love causes him to come into the world, and his love is demonstrated in his willingness to do whatever it takes for us...even if it is death upon a cross. He comes to be with us...and that would be good news enough! That would be a story worth telling and shouting from the rooftops. But it does not end there. The Son of God comes to be with us...but also to set us free and give us new life! He comes to organize the biggest prison break in human experience. The stone is rolled away, the earth shook and the light shined in the darkness...to the darkest, deepest place in the soul. The prison door is flung open...and we are set free. He brings freedom. Oh Freedom! Who can set us free from this bondage of Sin and Death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord we are more than conquerors! He sets us free, free from the power and the penalty of sin. Free from our own weakness and sinful desires. He breaks the power of sin. He sets us free from the chains that hold us and the prison cells that we have lived in. Free from the prison of resentment and anger...free to forgive and to let go. Free to find joy, and give up our anger...even at ourselves. Jesus is raised from the dead. In this one act, God showed us that love conquers hate, that good triumphs over evil, that God is in ultimate control and regardless of how forlorn and forsaken we feel, regardless of how dark the day...Jesus can set us free and he goes further...he makes us whole. There is help for today.... Jesus is alive and his Spirit lives in us. That resurrection power is available to us to help us become all that we can be. It sets us free and allows us to begin to live in a new way, with a new power. Hear this good news: "God is able to do more than we ask or even imagine possible by His power that is at work with us." (Ephesians 3:20), "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 3), "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old has passed away, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5) Because of the resurrection, we have help in our daily lives. He is with us, and his power is at work in us. We also have hope for the future. We are set free from this bondage of sin and death, the doors of the prison are flung open and we emerge as new creatures. But God is not satisfied with just giving us a new beginning, but he wants to help us become more and more like Jesus...the one who began a good work in you will finish it, he will bring it to completion. God continues to be at work in us, and there is hope for the future. And there is a place for us beyond this life. There is a home for us in heaven. The resurrection shows us that there is life after death, that Jesus conquered death. How many times have we heard people say that they wished there was somebody who would come back from the dead to tell us that it is ok, to let us know what it is like...? Hello! This is what Easter is all about. We know that when this earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a house not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5). Let not your hearts be troubled...believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house there are many rooms...and I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14). "to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord." (Philippians 1). We have a home with Christ eternally...and knowing that there is a heaven, and that we are going there not because we are good, but because we are loved...it changes how we live and how we face death...for it no longer holds fear for us. We know that when this earthly, temporary tent we live in finally stops, we have a house...a real home, made by God himself...eternal in the heavens. The resurrection shows us the power of God, which is at work in us and that gives us hope for today and the future. Through the resurrection, we are set free... It is the greatest prison break ever! Fritz Kreisler, the world famous violinist (born 1875, died 1962) earned a fortune with his concerts and composition. But he generouosly gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn't able to but it. later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. To his great dismay, it had been sold to an antique collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner's home and offered to buy the violin. The rare instrument was proudly displayed behind a sealed and solid glass case. Resting in its velvet couch, the violin lay imprisoned in its climate controlled coffin. The collector said that it had become his prized possession, and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave, when he had an idea. "could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?" he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso released the violin from its fancy casket and filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector's emotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself", the collector exclaimed. "it's yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world and let people hear it." God created you as an exquisite instrument. God designed you to make beautiful music. Don't imprison the gift of life you received. This morning you have been freed. Jesus said, "because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19) Or in the words of an ancient hymn, "come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness; God hat brought his Israel into joy from gladness, Tis the spring of souls today; Christ has burst his prison.... Back to Sermon Index