April 4, 2021

How will it End?

Series: Easter 2021 Scripture: Romans 6:9–11

This past week I found myself staying awake quite a bit later than normal to watch the NCAA tournament. I love to watch an underdog beat out a higher-ranked team. There is nothing as exciting as a game that comes down to the final seconds. Even those who only have a casual interest in college basketball can get hooked into watching with anticipation and excitement. And if you are lucky enough to watch your team hit a last-second three-point shot to win the game. What keeps me up way past my bedtime? I want to know how it ends. I want to know how the story finds completion. Will my team keep their lead? Will it go to overtime? Will Cinderella survive to dance another round? For a few hours, you enter into the lives of these young men. You feel the emotion, the anticipation, the disappointment, and the joy that all leads to the end. And when it is over? You can turn the T.V. off and go to bed.

What happens though when the game doesn’t come to an end? What happens when you enter into a story that just keeps going? Like a Soap Opera, that promises resolution in each episode to come, but it never arrives. The drama never finds its end. The story never finds its completion. Several years back April and I watched the show Lost. It was filled with intriguing storylines, plot twists, and mystery. For six seasons we watched, yearning to know how it would end. There was a promise that it would all make sense in the end. But when we arrived at the final episode we still didn’t know what had happened. There was never the resolution for which we longed.

In our passage for this Easter Sunday, we come to the question of resolution. The question of how it will end. We are all consumed with this question. Our heart yearns to see the end of the story. And what we will see is that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ gives to us the true end, the true answer to all the unresolved stories in our own life. To come prepared for our Resurrection Day sermon take time this week to read and to meditate upon Romans 6:1-11, Luke 24:1-12, Revelation 22:13, and Westminster Confession of Faith 8.4.

This Easter Sunday we will celebrate that sacrament of the Lord’s Supper during our worship service. As we receive the elements of bread and wine, we look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. For as we physically receive the signs of the Lord’s body and blood, spiritually we feed upon him and all his benefits to us. Our hymns for this week include “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” “I Am the Bread of Life,” and “Thine Be the Glory.”