Your Victory

A sermon preached by the Rev. Terence L. Elsberry, Rector, at St. Matthew's Church, Bedford, New York, on Easter Day, Year C, April 11, 2004.

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I

For Christians, today is our victory day. Today is the day we celebrate two things: Jesus' victory over death and, because we believe in Him, the eternal life He promised us.

Those reasons are cause enough for celebration. But glorious though our celebration is – on this and every Easter Day – we have yet another reason to celebrate today. It's a reason that if we're not careful, we might miss altogether.

What is that other cause for celebration? It's the fact that Jesus rose from the dead not just so He could prove God's power over death, but so He could also prove His power in life.

The risen Christ gave His disciples something brand new that first Easter. He gave them resurrection power. And because Jesus is alive today, as He was then, that power is as potent and available to you and me as it was to them.

II

You may say this morning, “But Terry, to be honest with you, I don't really need any help from God. My life is actually going quiet well right now.”

But if we live long enough, at some point in our lives you and I are all going to come to a place where we can't do it alone. Where we feel out of control, overwhelmed. Most of us at some time or another will reach a breaking point.

Jesus' disciple Peter did. It's a subtle reference, but clear, in today's story of the women at the empty tomb. “Go tell the 11 what you've seen here,” the angel tells them. “Go tell the disciples.”

That means go tell the disciples, including Peter. Note the number 11. There had been 12 disciples, but Judas betrayed Jesus. Realizing too late what he'd done, Judas wept bitterly, the Bible tells us. Then he went out and hung himself.

So now there are 11 disciples left, and one of them, Peter, has also betrayed Jesus.

“I will never forsake you,” Peter had promised Jesus in his cocksure, blustering way.

“Oh, Peter, but you will,” Jesus had said. “Before the cock crows three times tonight you will betray me.”

Sometimes we come to the end of ourselves. Sometimes we come to the end of our rope. Maybe it's from pressure outside of ourselves. Pressure that lasts too long and grinds too insistently. The search for a job. The problems at home. The relationship that won't ever quite work. The health problem. The career that demands too much and gives too little. Whatever the source, pressure is pressure.

Sometimes we're victims of circumstances over which we simply have no control: the economy, accidents, sickness, death.

But sometimes we are the victims of ourselves, of our own flawed human nature. No one's perfect, and life has a way of showing us who we are. Showing us. Showing the people around us.

Have you ever betrayed yourself, your own principles, your own best intentions, and then thought: “What have I done? How could I do such a thing?” I have.

Peter had success after success before the night he promised he would never leave, and always courageously defend, the Lord.

When you've had that much success, you begin to think you're invincible. You begin to think nothing can go wrong.

In that mood, Peter declared: “Lord, I will never forsake you. I will always stand by you.”

Then came Jesus' arrest by the Roman soldiers. Peter followed along as Jesus was hauled in to be questioned by the authorities. But when huddled outside by a fire lit against the cold night, the Jesus-haters turned on Peter. They accused him of being a follower of Jesus, and Peter buckled. Who knows why. Fear of being arrested? Whatever the reason, when the right pressure was applied, in the right way, at the right time, Peter folded.

Inside the building, they were beating and mocking and humiliating Jesus, and where was Peter? He was out in the courtyard denying Him. He was out there cursing, and saying, “I never knew him.”

They nailed Jesus to a cross, and slowly He died in excruciating pain, and where was Peter? John was there. Jesus' mother was there. A handful of His female followers were there, but where was Peter? He was lurking somewhere. We'll never know where. He was hiding out in a black hole of his own making.

He was the victim of his own betrayal. He betrayed Jesus. He betrayed himself.

It's one thing to be the victim of someone else's betrayal. But to be a victim of your own actions – that's heavy.

Jesus died, and the sun stopped shining, and an earthquake split the city of Jerusalem and tore apart the Temple veil, and Peter was not there.

They brought his Lord's battered body down from the cross, and prepared it for burial, and they laid Him in a borrowed tomb, and it was over. And Peter, who had been with Jesus through so much, wasn't there.

You might well think, “That's it for old Peter. He blew it for good this time.”

But no. You see, that's the point of this other victory I'm talking about, this victory Jesus gives us not just in death but in life.

We fear coming to the end of ourselves. Of course, we do. But if it happens, it's okay. I know. I've been there more than once. It's okay, because we belong to a living God, and His resurrection power works best in graveyards!

Our end is His beginning. We have this power available to us as believers in Him. It's a power we can tap any time, any place, in whatever desperate situation we find ourselves. It's not a power that's of ourselves, it comes from Him. And when you tap into that power, it can pick you up out of the miry pit, and put your feet on hard rock, and then you can shout a song of victory. Because your God is alive, and He cares for you.

Because of that power, it wasn't the end for Peter. Because the power is based on an awe-inspiring, persistent love for human beings that defies our understanding. What looked like the end for Peter turned into a radical new beginning.

The resurrected Jesus couldn't wait to get to Peter. Couldn't wait to throw His arms around the big, hulking brave-heart turned betrayer, and forgive him.

Jesus not only forgave Peter, He commissioned Him to found His Church.

The Day of Pentecost, after Jesus has gone back to heaven and His Spirit has empowered the disciples, you see the first preaching of a Christian sermon.

Who's preaching it? Not John, the beloved disciple. Not Andrew, the one who connected Jesus with new followers. Not Matthew, who wrote the Gospel. Not Thomas, the sophisticated thinker. No! It's Peter out there preaching – all fear gone – to the Jerusalem crowds who a few days before had called for Jesus' crucifixion; and terrified Peter the night of his betrayal.

III

Peter had gone all the way down, but Jesus brought him all the way back up.

That's what He's here to do for you.

Whatever may be wrong with your life now, whatever may go wrong in the future, give it to Him. Come to Him with your need. Tap the power, which is the power resident in the immense love He has for you.

His victory is not just victory over death – glorious though that is. It's victory over the worst circumstances life can throw our way. It's victory for me. It's victory for you.