Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21; John 20:1-18; Romans 3:6-11; Psalm 114
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the new Exodus. It is the ultimate exodus, the exodus to end all exoduses, just as everything Jesus did was the ultimate thing, just as his death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for once and for all time to accomplish what all the repeated and periodic sacrifices could not do. Easter is the final exodus for us who believe in the empty tomb and the risen Christ.
Remember that the Israelites – the descendants of Jacob – went to Egypt for a very good reason. There was a famine, they were hungry, and there was food in Egypt. Why was there food in Egypt? Because God had given a dream to Pharaoh and the interpretation of the dream to Jacob’s son Joseph. Why was Joseph in Egypt? Because his ten older brothers despised him and had sold him into slavery, telling their father that he had been killed by an animal. After a number of difficulties Joseph had interpreted several dreams which caused him to be noticed. He was sent for when Pharaoh was tormented by his dream and none of his advisors could interpret it.
Pharaoh’s dream was about seven years of bumper crops and seven years of poor crops. Pharaoh named Joseph to manage the public works program of stockpiling the extra grain for seven years and then disbursing it to meet the needs of people in the next seven years.
Jacob’s family was in need of grain. They went to Egypt to get some. Joseph recognized them and confronted them with his identity. Once they were reconciled, the brothers brought their entire families to Egypt, where they and their descendants prospered long after Joseph’s death.
But the time came when a new Pharaoh knew nothing of Joseph and only knew that the immigrant Hebrews were prospering to the disadvantage of the Egyptians. He caused them to be enslaved in order to make bricks to build palaces, temples, and tombs. It was hard, monotonous work, work that became increasingly harder as the oppression increased. Then God heard the cries of agony of the people and determined to free them.
Our stories are not a whole lot different. We too have lived oppressed lives, enslaved by powers and principalities that weighed heavier and heavier on us. The enslavements were many: addictions of many kinds – life-sapping substances, behaviors that demean others, gambling, even work. We have been slaves to broken relationships, faulty hopes, lost opportunities. Some of the things we have been enslaved by were good and honest activities that drew us in until they warped our understanding of life and wholeness. Those were the times when we desperately needed an exodus.
And we found it. Something happened that turned us around, set us free. It may have been a sudden change in the situation, or a family member or caring friend took us by the hand and guided us out of muck and mire of our life and helped us get reoriented and get a fresh start. We made the crossing of the sea, probably hounded all the way by the terrors that chained us. We thought we would never make it, that the past would catch us and bring us down again. But at the last moment a crucial opening happened and we were free.
But it wasn’t long until the bloom was off the rosiness of our freedom. We didn’t immediately and automatically change into new beings with nothing going wrong. Change wasn’t easy. We had to learn new ways, and it took time, inordinate time. We complained bitterly and railed against anything and everything. The old ways were familiar, the new ways were stressful and uncertain. Sometimes we wanted to go back. It had been bad, but it had been good in an odd way.
Nothing seemed to go the way we wanted it to go. We were thirsty and we cried out for a drink. Then we nearly drowned in the water that came. We were hungry and then food came and we overate thinking that there would never be any more. There was sustenance day in and day out and we got quickly bored with it. We complained about the heat and then the cold. We complained about the gray days and then the never-ending sunshine. There never seemed to be an appealing middle ground, a happy medium. And we all probably couldn’t agree on one anyway.
The promise of a future, of a land flowing with milk and honey seemed so distant, so improbable, so unlikely. We were enslaved in a new way and to a different master.
Once we got to the place we were told we were going to, things didn’t get all that much better. We had to toil to settle in and make our new found home ours. And it was so tempting at times just to fit in, to conform to the community, pal around with the people already there. That’s what they expected. When in Canaan, do as the Canaanites do. It made a lot of sense. Slowly we lost track of the noble ideals and sound practices which had we had been taught over the years by the generations who preceded us through the wilderness. We lost sight of God. We became embroiled in infighting. Surrounding powers overwhelmed us, and a new slavery was thrust upon us. We were uprooted, battered, bruised, beaten down, lost, alone.
Maybe all that sounds a bit melodramatic. But not only is that the story arc of the ancestors of the people out of whom Jesus came, that story arc is also ours. The details may vary. The depths and heights may not be as extreme, but the general flow is the way by which we get to Easter.
All that enslavement to sin and in sin and for sin is the weight that Jesus carried to the cross. The cross and the empty tomb is the exodus from the doomed-to-death old life into the new creation, the true promised land, the eternity which has only been at best a wispy dream.
We still go through the pain and misery of the wilderness. Withdrawal from the old ways, the old habits, is never easy. We say to ourselves:
- It must be too good to be true.
- Why would God do that? After all, God must get his jollies condemning people not saving them.
- Why me? I’m not worthy saving.
- Why didn’t God do this sooner rather than later?
- Does salvation include ‘”them”?
- Will this really work? Will it last?
- There must be some fine print somewhere.
- What’s the quid pro quo?
Like Thomas, we want proof. Ah, wilderness. Will it be another forty years of wilderness?
For some, I am sure it will be. It doesn’t have to be that way. The cross and the empty tomb declare once and for all time: You are delivered. You are set free. The chains of sin are broken. Stop cowering. Stand erect and know that deliverance has happened. Jesus is risen, and so are you..
The empty tomb means that there will never have to be another time of enslavement. Sin and death no longer hold any threat over us. There is no longer any more wilderness of trying to do it on our own or in our own way. The empty tomb, like the Exodus, declare that God’s actions and God’s actions alone bring safety and freedom. We are never the authors of our own salvation, nor are we chosen for God’s gifts of grace because of any greatness in ourselves. We have been spoon-fed on the notion that we can be anything we wish to be; just dig in our heels, grit our teeth, and go for it. But it doesn’t work that way. Moses told the Israelites: “The Lord will fight for you. You just keep still.”
We are still very often chained to getting ahead – our own notion of success – under our own head of steam. Whatever victories we may experience – whatever escapes, exoduses, emancipations, freedom – are finally not a result of our own work at all, but are gifts from the God who desires our freedom, desires our resurrection, desires our ascent into the glorious new life which only a cross and an empty tomb can bring. And not just for any one of us. God’s will for good is for all of God’s children.
Sing to the Lord, for an overflowing victory!
Horse and rider he threw into the sea!
Sing to the Lord for a resurrection victory!Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Sin and death God has banished forever!
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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