An Easter Heart

An Easter Heart
Sermon Starter
by Leonard Sweet

John 20:1-18 Easter is all about a four letter word - and Christians are full of it. Or at least we're supposed to be full of it. The four letter word is LIFE. New life. Whole life. Abundant Life. Redeemed life. Resurrected life. The purpose of life is not death, Easter says. The purpose of life is life . . . a life that triumphs over death forever. Celebrating Easter is the best thing that the church can do because it is a celebration of all that is good, all that is true, and all that is beautiful. In fact, I would make the case this morning that celebrating Easter is the greatest public service the church can perform for the world. Why? Because it is the reality of Easter that makes everything else we would do possible. Remember Jesus' final words on the cross? "It is finished". When the soldiers taking Jesus' body down from the cross stabbed him with a spear point, "blood and water came out" (John 19:34). That rush of fluids revealed what was the actual final cause of death for Jesus - a burst aorta. Jesus died of a broken heart. The breaking of Jesus' heart was what "finished" Jesus' sacrifice. On Easter morning the great surprise is that sacrifice was not the end of Jesus' mission. Out of Jesus' broken heart there emerged a new heart, a resurrected heart, an unbreakable, unstoppable heart. Out of the Last Adam's split side a new Eve was conceived, the bride of Christ, the church, whose life revolves around the water of baptism and the blood of communion. On Easter "It is finished" becomes "Now it begins".

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