04-17-22 “A walk to remember!” EASTER

Scripture  Romans 6:3-8
(Video Countdown with Via Dolorosa to show the idea of walking the path to Jesus.)

          We just spent 7 weeks walking with Jesus. We walked from Galilee all the way to Jericho. From Jericho up to Jerusalem. We walked to the upper room. We walked to the garden of Gethsemane. We walked past the fig tree. We walked back and forth from Bethany to Jerusalem. We walked with Jesus, in detail on the Via Dolorosa – the way of suffering – the way of the cross.

That is where our walk stopped after 7 weeks, at the foot of the cross watching Jesus suffer a horrific death. That would be so sad to end our walk at the cross of death. Every religion in the world ends with the death of its leader or founder. Not Christianity. It is not a religion, it is a relationship – not any relationship – it is a relationship with the eternal living God. If we walked with him to his death, we will also walk with him in a new resurrected life.  Romans 6:3-8     Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
 
          A woman named Mary Barbour remembers her walk (or run) from darkness to light and life.  Mary Barbour was ten years of age the night her father awoke her and led her to the wagon which would carry them to freedom.     Before you hear her words, picture her seated on a porch in Raleigh, NC being interviewed. It’s 1935. Mary Barbour then was over eighty years old. She rocks as she thinks. Her tiny body was swallowed by the large chair. Her frail fingers tremble as she rubs her nose. Old but eager eyes stare out as if she is gazing into a land far on the horizon. You lean against the pole and listen to her story.
One of the first things that I remembers was my pappy waking me up in the middle of the night, dressing me in the dark, all the time telling me to keep quiet. One of the twins hollered some, and Pappy put his hand over its mouth to keep it quiet.
          After we was dressed, he went outside and peeped around for a minute, then he comed back in and got us. We snook out of the house and along the woods path, Pappy toting one of the twins and holding me by the hand and Mammy carrying the other two.
          I reckons I will always remember that walk, with the bushes slapping my legs, the wind sighing in the trees, and the hoot owls and the whippoorwills hollering at each other from the big trees. I was half asleep and scared stiff, but in a little while we pass the plum thicket and there am the mules and the wagon. There am the quilt in the bottom of the wagon, and on this they lays we young’uns. And Pappy and Mammy gets on the board across the front and drives off down the road.
          I was sleepy, but I was scared too, so as we rides along, I listens to Pappy and Mammy talk. Pappy was telling Mammy about the Yankees coming to their plantation, burning the corncribs, the smokehouses and destroying everything. He says right low that they done took Marster Jordan to the rip raps down nigh Norfolk, and that he stole the mules and the wagon and escaped.
Glimmerings of deliverance. Lingerings of the liberation. Seven decades later the wind still sighs in the trees and the whippoorwills and hoot owls still holler at each other in Mary Barbour’s memory. The walk to freedom is never forgotten. The path taken from slavery to liberation is always vivid. It’s more than a road, it’s a release. The shackles are opened and, for perhaps the first time, freedom dawns. “I reckons that I will always remember that walk…”
 
Who remembers there walk from darkness to light and life?
(walks related to the resurrection)
(Via Dolorosa) – Jesus walked a dark road to his death. 3 days later, he also experienced the greatest light (in the tomb) and life. John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
 
Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus walk, carrying the lifeless body of Jesus from Calvary to a garden where Joseph has a new unused tomb.
 
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna & Salome walk in the darkness of a Sunday morning, which had been dark in their lives since Friday afternoon when their friend and savior had been crucified. They are coming to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for what should be his permanent resting place.
 
Peter & John, don’t walk, they run with dark thoughts that someone has stolen Jesus’ body from the tomb. John arrives first, then Peter…who enters the now empty tomb.

 

Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus
Luke 24:13-32     Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
"What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."
He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
Luke 24:33-36
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
 
          It is amazing to look at all of these stories about taking a walk from darkness to light…from death to life. Notice how the disciples are all starting to share their stories of their encounters with the risen Lord. Imagine if people were to overhear our conversations and all we were talking about were our encounters with the risen Lord and Savior.
 
          In a church, nothing breeds new life like new life. As we hear those stories we need to rejoice and celebrate the one who has made them come true – the one who was first to rise from the dead to live forever – Jesus. These are the things we should be talking about. Our conversations must engage what it means when a person takes that walk from darkness to life and celebrate that new life and give praise upon praise to Jesus for being the light on our path to life everlasting.
Tigyne’s Story
Tigyne belonged to the Wallamo tribe in interior Ethiopia. In the years preceding World War II, missionaries carried the message of Christ to this Satan-worshiping tribe. One of the early converts was Tigyne. Raymond Davis was the missionary who knew him…and freed him.
Tigyne was a slave. His decision to follow Jesus displeased his master who refused to allow Tigyne to attend Bible studies or worship. He frequently beat and humiliated Tigyne for his faith. But it was a price this young Christian was willing to pay.
There was another price, however, he could not afford. He couldn’t purchase his freedom. For only twelve dollars his master would release him, but for this slave who’d never known a salary, it might as well have been a million.
When the missionaries learned that his freedom could be purchased, they talked it over, pooled some money, and bought his freedom.
Tigyne was now free – both spiritually and physically. He never outlived his gratitude to the men who had redeemed him.
Soon after his day of liberty, the missionaries were expelled from Ethiopia. Twenty-four years passed before Raymond Davis returned to Wallamo. During this quarter of a century, Tigyne proclaimed his vital testimony about his walk to freedom – yes from slavery to being a free man but more so from the darkness of sin to the light and life of freedom he found in Jesus Christ! He longed to see Davis again.
When he heard that his friend was coming back, he went to the mission station several days in a row to wait. Dates on the calendar or time on the clock had no significance for Tigyne, so he came daily to search for Davis.
Finally, Davis arrived, riding in a car driven by a fellow missionary.
When Tigyne saw the vehicle come around the corner, he ran to the window and took Davis’s hand and began to kiss it again and again. The driver slowed the car so Tigyne could run beside it. As he ran, he yelled to his friends, “Behold! Behold! One of those who redeemed me has returned!”
Finally the car stopped. Davis got out and Tigyne dropped to knees, put his arms around his friend’s legs, and began to kiss his dusty shoes. Davis reached down to bring him to full height and they stood with their arms around each other and wept.

 

When is the last time you told someone about your walk from darkness to light, from sin to forgiveness, from spiritual death to eternal life? My walk was a car ride from Columbus Ohio to Zanesville Ohio on Monday night Nov. 4^th, 1974, then it was a walk down the isle of the auditorium where I met Jesus through the music ministry of the Good News Circle, the preaching of Bob Laurent, and the invitation to be there by my friend Bryan Hitch. Why do I repeat that story so often? Why do I want you to know my story? Why has my facebook profile picture always been and always will be one of me from high school wearing a shirt that says “One Way Jesus”. The answer to all that is because what happened on Nov 4^th 1974 is the single most important thing that has ever happened in my life – Jesus came into my darkness – a darkness I didn’t even realize I was living in, until he showed up and a light like I had never known shown so bright I could not help but respond and walk in that light and even more so, walk into a newness of life as I walked in the foot steps of Jesus who in that moment I knew not only died for me, but was also raised from the grave to conquer death once and for all!
 
          As I walk through this life I celebrate my…………..Jesus!
 
Invitation: Song - “King of kings”