Victory!
Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial
battle occurred between the Greeks and the Persians upon the plains of
Marathon. The battle raged for hours. In many respects it was a fight to the
finish. Finally the numerically inferior Greeks, the underdogs, managed a
tremendous tactical win, but there was a problem. Soon the Senate, many miles
away in Athens, was to vote and would most certainly ratify a treaty of
appeasement. In desperation they sent a runner in full battle gear to go the
twenty-seven miles to tell of the news. By the time the young boy got to Athens
he had run a Marathon. It is said he was totally spent, that he literally ran
himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the
Athenians: "Victory."
Easter is all about that one word: victory.
A while back, I asked my son David what Easter means to him
and he said, “An empty tomb”.
I applaud his answer, however there is much more to it than
that, because THE empty tomb is not just any tomb. There is an empty tomb in
Egypt that dates back to the fourteenth century B.C. It is an elaborate tomb
that was prepared for King Tutenkhamen's military leader Horemheb, but he was
never buried there. Four years after King Tutenkhamen died, Horemheb became the
pharaoh and was later buried in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.
The Etruscans were the first known inhabitants of Italy.
They were there before the Romans and had a highly developed civilization. They
left no written record, no history, no poetry, and no literature. All that we
know of them we have learned from their tombs.
Grave robbers have stripped these tombs bare. There are many empty
Etruscan tombs.
One April, a certain Sunday school teacher asked all eight
children in her class to hide within an empty film container a small object
that represented life in the spring.
Not wanting to embarrass eight-year-old Stephen, whose
mental retardation was becoming more manifest, the teacher suggested that the
children all place their unlabeled containers on her desk. Since she feared
that Stephen might not have caught on, she decided that she should open them.
The first had a tiny flower. "What a lovely sign of new
life!" "I brought that one!" the donor exclaimed. Next came a
rock. "That must be Stephen's," the teacher thought, since rocks do
not symbolize new life. But Billy shouted that his rock had moss on it, and
moss was new life. The teacher agreed.
A butterfly flew from the third container, and another child
bragged that her choice was best of all.
The fourth container was empty. "That has to be
Stephen's," thought the teacher, quickly reaching for the fifth.
"Please, don't skip mine!' Stephen interjected.
"But it's empty." "That's right," said Stephen. "The
tomb was empty, and that is new life for everyone."
Later that summer, Stephen's condition grew worse, and he
died. On his casket at the funeral, mourners found eight little containers.
They were all empty.
For me the victory of Easter is not an empty tomb but a
risen Saviour.
Musical duo William and Gloria Gaither wrote, “Because he
lives I can face tomorrow; because he lives all fear is gone. Because I know he
holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives.”
On Saturday 17th August, 2002, suspected Basque terrorist
Ismael Berasategui Escudero escaped from the high security La Sante prison in
Paris.
He swapped places with his brother and it took embarrassed
staff five days to discover the escape.
On Friday on the first Easter, Barabbas was on death row,
condemned to die. Your Elder Brother and mine swapped places with him and was
crucified instead. It took three days for the disciples to discover his death
sentence had really been revoked. It has taken two thousand years since then
and still many have not discovered Him.
In 1874, hymnist Robert Lowry wrote a certain hymn. I have
at home a scratchy 1921 recording of it by Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet.
When I first heard it, I laughed. I confess that at first I
did not listen to the words, but was intrigued by the metrical pattern in the
melody. The verses are sung very solemnly in five-part harmony and the refrain
in unison is in contrast, both upbeat and joyous. As they sang on, I began to
listen to the words and it was strangely moving. Here is what they sang:
“Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Saviour, waiting the
coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Saviour; vainly they
seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Saviour; He tore the
bars away, Jesus my Lord!
And the refrain: Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty
triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives
forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”
Easter is all about that one word: victory.
Lionel Hartley, Easter 2014
