Reflection: From an Empty Cradle to an Empty Grave (March 31, 2013)

Easter Sunday (The Resurrection of Our Lord)
Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Cor. 15:19-26; Luke 24:1-12


In the movie “Talladega Nights,” Ricky Bobby’s wife interrupted him when he offered grace to “Dear tiny, infant Jesus.” “Hey, um, sweetie,” she said, “Jesus did grow up. You don't always have to call him baby.” Ricky’s reply captures an attitude that is common among us: “Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best.” Actually, we’d have to change a word to fully capture that attitude: “I like the Christmas Jesus instead.” People do like the Christmas Jesus instead of the Grownup Jesus with His difficult teachings and calls to self-denial. People especially like the “Sweet Baby Jesus” lying in His makeshift cradle instead of the grisly mocked, beaten, and Crucified Jesus who was laid in a borrowed tomb. In many ways, we’d prefer to keep Jesus in His cradle to lessen the challenge of being His disciples so that we can live however we want to live while holding thoughts of “dear tiny, infant Jesus.” But a cradle-bound Jesus would leave us as lost and condemned as one who was still in the tomb.

Today, as we celebrate the empty tomb that briefly held Jesus, we also celebrate the cradle that was also made empty for us. Jesus’ empty cradle reminds us that He did grow up. In growing up, Jesus fulfilled a vitally important requirement for us — one that would render the Cross and the empty tomb meaningless if He had not met its challenge. From the cradle, Jesus lived a perfect life under the Law in order to satisfy what it demanded of us. Throughout His entire life, He bore the burden of our sins and the weight of our sinfulness. He was tempted and tried in every way that we are, but was without sin. Leaving His cradle behind, He accomplished what had to be done in order for His death to achieve its purpose and have the power to set us free from sin and death.

If Jesus’ cradle were not empty we’d have no empty tomb to celebrate today. But it is empty, even if we live as though it weren't  We have our Ricky Bobby ways of squeezing Jesus back into His cradle to avoid the challenges of following Him. We like the Christmas Jesus best — even instead — because we don’t want to consider the ugliness of our sins, their horrible consequences, and the tremendous price that had to be paid to satisfy them. Both His cradle and His tomb are empty to assure us that in Jesus — the Christmas Jesus, the Grownup Jesus, the Crucified Jesus, and the Easter Jesus — we have life and salvation.

Audio file of the sermon "From an Empty Cradle to an Empty Grave."