A Finished Work – John 20:1-7
(Easter Sermon 2004)
Humbly, I beseech the gracious bestowal of the anointing
of the Holy Spirit who breaks every yoke that binds God’s people. With all due humility, I ask to decrease so
that You may increase within me. Open
the eyes and ears of our hearts and reveal Your “good, pleasing and perfect
will” for our lives. O most gracious and
benevolent Master, give knowledge of Your will for us; and the mental willingness
and spiritual power to carry it out. May
the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy
sight, O Lord, our strength and redeemer.
Amen.
The smallest details are usually the surest clues that a
job has been finished. To determine
whether a table has been set for dinner, ascertain whether the napkins have
been folded and put in their proper places.
The clearest sign the dishes have been done is a wrung and folded dishtowel
left over the sink. What is the major
indicator the laundry has been finished?
You open your chest of drawers and find clean, fresh and neatly folded
undergarments. The fold in a bedspread
means the bed has been made. These minute and simple yet significant details
certify a job has been completely and meticulously finished.
Carpenters in the Ancient Near East: In his research for his novel, The Weeping
Chamber, the Christian fiction writer, Sigmund Brouwer, discovered another
small but tremendously important detail to demonstrate the work of salvation has
been meticulously accomplished. Brouwer discovered
that carpenters of the first century had a distinct way of letting their
employers know that the carpenters had completed the job. Since the average carpenter was illiterate
and thus could not leave a note with an invoice, he devised a system of
communication to relay his message of a finished job and request for
payment. The carpenter would leave a
folded cloth in one of the corners of the job.
John 20:1-7 - The Folded Burial Cloth: Most interestingly, the Johannine evangelist
shares this detail of the folded cloth in his resurrection account. In
John 20:6-7, he writes, “Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying
there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to
the side.” On the first Easter Sunday
morning, Mary Magdalene and the other disciples find an empty tomb with the
clearest sign that the work of salvation had been finished. Like the good, industrious and faithful
carpenter that He was, Jesus took His burial cloth and folded it neatly and
left it in a corner. Thereby, He
indicates that He has totally defeated death and built an eternal home for all
who believe. That folded burial cloth
demonstrated “It is finished!” Although
he was a carpenter by trade who had an incredible insight into the laws and
character of God, Jesus’ followers misinterpreted His purpose and mission. They thought Jesus would be the One to
overthrow Rome militarily and politically.
They anticipated the restoration of Israel to the days of King
David. Members of the inner circle, Peter,
James and John, had already asked for coveted positions. Yet, they failed to see the house that this
particular carpenter was building. By
taking the time to fold his burial cloth, Jesus shows He completed His eternal
work by destroying death, itself.
Many of us still live in the graveyards of past sins, failures and
mistakes; we are existentially dead. The
odor and stench of death surrounds us.
We suffer from “stinking thinking” as doubt, cynicism, negativity, and
gloom and doom permeate our minds and poison our hearts. We ask fellow disciples, “Where is God?”
Fulfillment of the Earthly and Eternal Destiny of the Lord
Jesus Christ: In John 19:30, as he dies
on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “It is finished!” The
evangelist says further, “Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” With His atoning death, which is the
sacrifice of His life as the propitiatory “Lamb of God without blemish or
defect,” Jesus finishes the work of salvation.
He eliminates the chasm between Creator and creatures. He reverses the curses, condemnation and
separation of Eden. He restores relationship
between God and humankind to its status before sin, infidelity, and rebellion
of the Fall of humankind. In so doing,
Jesus becomes the “Second Adam” who begins a new life for any who believe in
His salvific work (1 Corinthians 15:21-23).
He inaugurates a totally new creation.
Thereby, Jesus offers a fresh start to everyone who believes in Him (2
Corinthians 5:17). Essentially, Jesus
cries, “It is finished!” to assure us every detail of both His earthly and
eternal destiny is now complete.
Rejoice over the Folded Burial Cloth: Today, we rejoice over that folded burial
cloth. It assures us that death does not
possess any lasting power over us. We
share the hope of the resurrection from the dead. Hallelujah! The Lord Jesus is “the first fruits” of those
raised from the dead. As the “Second
Adam” of a new and eternal creation, Jesus finishes building an eternal home
for all believers (John 14:2-3). We have
a reserved place in the heavenly realms.
There is enough space for everyone.
In a sense, Jesus
builds and completes a new “ark” on which all of God’s children can board
enroute to the New Jerusalem.
Practically speaking, this revelation of the folded burial cloth
liberates us to pursue any dream or goal that accords with God’s “good,
pleasing and perfect” will. In the end,
failure, disappointment, defeat and even death itself cannot conquer us. The
folded burial cloth reminds us that we are more than conquerors through Christ
who loves us eternally (Romans 8:28-29).
We need not live in fear of loss.
We will win no matter what! The
folded burial cloth is the surest sign that victory is always embedded in the
effort. Therefore, we freely pursue our
visions and ambitions with the blessed assurance of God’s gracious bestowal of
triumph in all things.
Grace for Us:
Personalize the resurrection. The
Lord Jesus Christ equally calls all of us to come forth! He calls us to a process of growth - personal
development and spiritual maturity. It
includes these eight daily spiritual disciplines.
- First – A growing
relationship with Almighty God
- Second – True friends whom
you trust unconditionally
- Third - Knowledge
because it is the answer to fear which is fundamentally grounded in
irrationality and ignorance
- Fourth – Deal with the
‘Baggage of the past”
- Fifth - Accept
responsibility for your life
- Sixth – Submit to
mentoring
- Seventh - Make a
commitment to growth
- Eighth - Continue on
the path of growth and new life
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