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Sing About Easter Gifts

            “What do you want for Easter?”  That doesn’t sound right, does it?  We typically don’t associate Easter with exchanging gifts.  That’s a Christmas thing.  You’ve heard the question, though, at Christmas-time, haven’t you?  Your mom or your spouse asks, “What do you want for Christmas?”  As you sat down to make a list, did your mind ever wander off into the clouds, dreaming about what you want?  I’ll bet it was more than Don Gardner’s 1946 kiddie song, All I want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, probably closer to Philip Springer’s 1953 song, Santa Baby, in which the vocalist croons for a sable, a convertible (light blue), a yacht, the deed to a platinum mine, a duplex and checks, decorations bought at Tiffany’s, and one little thing, a ring (I don’t mean a phone).  But eventually you settled back down to earth and started jotting down not so much what you want – because those things are fantastic, out of reach, unaffordable, unrealistic – and listed what you need, like socks, a white dress shirt, a cordless screwdriver, or perfume.

             Sometimes what we want and what we need are so far apart that we have to let the air out of the balloon in order to rejoin reality.  God helps us bring those together when it comes to Easter gifts, which takes us full circle.  What do you want for Easter?  Before you blurt out, “Don’t you know Easter’s over, and we don’t exchange gifts at Easter?” keep in mind that Easter is not a day.  It’s a season, and we’ve got three more Easter season Sundays to go after this.  In addition, we might not give each other Easter gifts, but God has given Easter gifts to us.  So, let’s turn to the grand vision Jesus revealed to the apostle John and a song sung in the heavens by all believers and the heavenly host, a song which answers the question, “What do you want for Easter?” by bringing what we want in line with what we need and inspiring us to, Sing About Easter Gifts.

Because the Shepherd is our Lamb

            If I gave you a piece of paper to write down what you need, you would probably be able to fill it in a flash.  I gave you a few hints earlier.  Besides socks, a white dress shirt, a cordless screwdriver, and perfume, you could probably list things like a good night’s sleep, warmer temperatures, and a balanced checkbook.   But what do we need most?  More than anything else in all the world we need … blood, not blood for a transfusion but blood to cleanse.  If you ever tried to wash blood stains out of clothing, it’s hard to think of blood as a cleanser.  But sin can only be cleansed by blood.  Why?  Because in Bible-talk blood equals death.  If your blood is pumping inside of you, you are alive.  But if your blood is being poured out or shed, you are either dying or dead, and the payment for sin is death.

             Here’s the problem.  Ask someone, “What do you need?” and you’ll rarely hear, “blood.”  In fact, if I gave you a piece of paper a minute ago, my guess is that very few of you would have included blood on your list.  Why are we so reluctant to admit what we need most?  Because we’re Americans.  We’re good, wholesome, flag-waving, patriotic people.  The only folks who need blood are the ones on an operating table.  So, we don’t often think about our need for blood, especially blood for cleansing us of sin, and if we do, we quickly push the thought out of sight and out of mind.  But God says, “How dare you!  Who are you to think you’re so high and mighty?  What if I exposed all your greed, hate, lust, and stubbornness to your neighbors, family, and friends?  You are a pathetic mess.”  God can say that because of what he sees when he puts us on his heavenly operating table and opens us up.  What he sees is spiritual sewage, gangrenous rot oozing from our soul that’s fit for nothing but an eternal garbage dump.  “All we, like sheep, have gone astray”(Isaiah 53:6), we confess with Isaiah.  We deserve punishment, a whipping, and worse.  We deserve to be slain and slaughtered, cut and quartered in the devil’s meat packing plant.

             So, what happens when our hand is clasped over our mouths because we’re speechless with no excuses and no defense?  What happens is that we find ourselves singing:

Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay;   Death brooded darkly o’er me.

Sin was my torment night and day;   In sin my mother bore me.

Yet deep and deeper still I fell;   Life had become a living hell,

So firmly sin possessed me. (CW 377:2-3)

            What happens when our hand is clasped over our mouths with no excuses and no defense for our sin is that what we want becomes more realistic, not some flight of fancy with price-tags featuring lots of zeroes.  Our list of wants doesn’t even feature what we had considered normal like money, pain to go away, weight loss, nice clothes, and a job just challenging enough so we won’t get bored but relatively easy and fun.  With tears dribbling down our cheeks from shame and guilt, what we want most now falls in line with what I need the most – blood, blood poured out for us, death, a death in our place.  We become like a frightened firstborn Israelite child, huddled in the corner of a hut in Egypt, shivering in fear from the announcement that the angel of death is flying through the land and is coming to kill each and every firstborn … who feels daddy’s gentle hand and hears mommy’s soft voice, “Don’t worry!  God has told us that a little innocent lamb can take your place.  We slaughtered that lamb and painted its blood around the doorframe.  The angel of death is going to pass over you because blood has been poured out for you.  The lamb died in your place.  You are considered pure in God’s eyes and safe in his arms.”

             Where do we get such blood?  There is only one place.  We get that cleansing blood from our Shepherd.  That may seem strange because the shepherds of Bible times were a rough, tough bunch.  When a shepherd opened the pen door in the morning and led his sheep out to pasture, he carried a short club.  It had nails sticking out so it could be a weapon.  Can you see him heading into one of those narrow canyons with rocks shooting up on each side and only a sliver of light shining down?  He bangs the club on the walls sending echoes through the canyon and causing snakes, wolves, and mountain lions to slither and scurry away.  He’s also got his shepherd’s staff to pull sheep out of pits and brambles.  He’s the keeper of the sheep, and he’ll do anything to keep them safe, except give up his own life.  The shepherd will claw and club at predators, whack and wield, scrounge and scrape, but not die.  He’d rather give up a wayward lamb than die because what good would that do?  How could he help sheep and keep sheep safe, if he were dead?  Wouldn’t that leave the rest of the flock defenseless?

             But our Shepherd is not an ordinary shepherd.  Our extraordinary Shepherd said something extraordinary, “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15), not for a nap, but to say to dirty, smelly, broken, naughty, wandering sheep, “You deserve to die, but I’m going to die for you.” And he did.  He died.  Blood poured out of his hands, his feet, his side so ours wouldn’t.  Once we’re honest about our sin, which blocks us from heaven and puts us shivering in a corner, then what we want matches what we need – cleansing blood, our only ticket to heaven.  We’ve got it in the blood of the Lamb.  So, go ahead!  Join the heavenly chorus.  Because Jesus, the Good Shepherd, sacrificed himself like a lamb to give us white robes of purity and palm branches of victory, we can sing, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”  We sing because we know what the elder knew when John asked who is on the roster of the heavenly chorus.  “These are they who are coming out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  We sing about Easter gifts because at Easter God guarantees that the Shepherd is our Lamb.

 Because the Lamb is our Shepherd

             What we need most is blood for a life hereafter.  What we need next is a guide for life here.  If I gave you a piece of paper a minute ago, my guess is that very few of you would have included a guide as second on your list.  Why are we so reluctant to admit that we need a guide?  Because we’re Americans.  We’re do-it-yourself, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, tackle-any-problem, can-do people.  But even “I-know-where-we’re-going-we’re-not-lost” husbands have to stop once in a while and ask for directions.

              What happens when we realize that we can’t go it alone, that we don’t know it all, that we need a guide, a shepherd, someone to take care of us?  What happens is that what we want becomes more realistic, not some flight of fancy with price-tags featuring lots of zeroes.  What happens is that what we want next falls in line with what we need next.  First, we need blood to have life forever.  Next we need a guide to cope with life now.

             Where do we get such a guide?  There is only one place.  We get guidance, care, and protection from our Lamb.  That may seem strange because a slaughtered lamb doesn’t seem to be of any value.  I’m not talking about a lamb carved up and wrapped in butcher paper for the grill or stew pot, but one that is slaughtered and burned up in flames that only hell can produce.  What good is such a dead lamb?

              But our Lamb is not an ordinary lamb.  Our extraordinary Lamb said something extraordinary, “I lay down my life only to take it up again” (John 10:17).  God’s great Easter gift is that our Lamb did not stay dead but came back to life to be our loving, living Shepherd.  Are you lonely?  Our living Shepherd makes sure you are connected by faith to every believer on earth and in heaven.  They are before the throne of God.  Do you feel worthless some days and wonder if you can make a difference in anybody’s life?  Our Shepherd makes sure you have value because you serve him day and night in his temple.  Have you strayed and wonder if you can get back into God’s good graces?  Our living Shepherd is the one who sits on the throne[and] will spread his tent over you.  Are you hungering for stronger faith?  Our living Shepherd makes sure that never again willyouhunger.  Are you thirsty for a drop of cool mercy to ease your searing conscience?  Our living Shepherd makes use that never again willyouthirst.  The sun will not beat uponyounor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be your shepherd; he will leadyouto springs of living water.  Are you sad at what you have done or lost?  Our living Shepherd will wipe away every tear fromyoureyes.  Go ahead!  Join the heavenly chorus.  Because Jesus, the Lamb of God, has come back to life to be our Shepherd, we can sing, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.  We sing about Easter gifts because at Easter God guarantees that the Lamb is our Shepherd.

             What do you want for Easter?  What we want is heaven.  What we need is a ticket to get there.  What we want is an easy life now.  What we need is the power and cope-ability to endure.  What we want and what we need come together in the Easter gifts God has given.  What we want and what we need are a Lamb and a Shepherd.  That’s also exactly we’ve got – in Jesus.   Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on April 25, 2010

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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