Easter April 20, 2025
“Radical Changes” Acts 2:22-31
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
He is Risen!! He is Risen, Indeed!!
Most people like Easter. For some it is a time for traveling to family gatherings. For others a new dress or other new clothes. Maybe a brunch or a lunch with others. It most certainly is candy and jellybeans and finding your Easter basket.
I like Easter, in fact, I love Easter. I love it for its memories when I was a young boy and the traditions and special events it still brings. But I especially love Easter because of the radical changes it brings to people. Without Easter the most amazing, positive, life-giving changes would never happen.
I chose the reading from Acts 2 to tell you of the impact that Easter – the resurrection of Jesus Christ – brings to people. What I read is what was spoken 50 days after Easter. “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross…Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:22-23, 36-37)
Have you ever been cut to the heart? 50 years ago, in 1975, the movie “Jaws” came out. A great white shark was killing swimmers in the waters in the northeastern shores of the Atlantic. Richard Dreyfuss, a marine biologist and Robert Shaw, a grizzled shark hunter are waiting for this shark to surface. As they wait they are getting drunker and drunker. And they begin to show each other their scars. There is a mark left from a Bull Shark. Then Dreyfuss shows his scar from a Moray Eel. Both of them have lower legs that once had chunks of flesh taken from them by a shark. But Dreyfuss says he has the biggest scar of all. He pulls down his shirt and points to his heart. “This is from Mary Ellen Moffat. She broke my heart.”
Ever cut to the heart? Sure. Maybe some Mary Ellen Moffat did that to you. And sometimes it is even deeper and longer and more permanent. You have lost your most beloved and this day is hard, unbearably hard, because they are gone. Your health is not good, your sickness is constant and you don’t know what is next. You long for things to be better in life and you are not sure that they will improve. All of these hurt your heart.
And then you get cut to the heart because of poor choices in life. You chose sin over righteousness. You took a path toward evil instead of a route toward God and His will. Your heart hurts. Your conscience is bothered. You live with guilt that makes life uneasy.
You need a radical change. You need what Easter – the resurrection of Jesus – brings. After Peter spoke to the folks in Jerusalem and told them what they had done – that they had crucified the Lord’s Christ – they asked, “What shall we do?”
A couple of weeks ago I read an article in The Denver Post about Rick Fisher. (Friday, April 4, 2025, Page 1) It was titled, “Journey to Redemption”. Rick Fisher was messed up. Rick was an amazing athlete, with abilities to be a major league pitcher. But he was deployed to Vietnam in the early 70’s and there developed an addiction to heroin.
When he came back to the States, the Kansas City Royals offered him a tryout but he had expanded his drug use to include cocaine, alcohol and other drugs. He didn’t show up. For three decades his life was useless. He attempted suicide 5 times, went through 5 marriages, he estranged his 3 children and his father from himself. His 52-year-old daughter who now has a relationship with him said, “He did seem to choose those things over his family – his women, his drugs and his alcohol. Those always took a precedence over his kids and his family for a long time.” (Page 4)
But God didn’t give up on him. In 2001, 24 years ago now, he wandered into the New Life Center in Lakewood, and a radical change began. The pastor stayed with Fisher for hours, praying over him constantly. Fisher said, “My faith in Jesus Christ saved me that day, but baseball always kept me grounded.” I’ll speak more about that baseball part in his life later.
Easter is quite radical, wouldn’t you say? In fact, it is so radical that many people reject it. They don’t believe it. They say it isn’t true. I would say that it is very radical. Jesus Christ was dead. His corpse was taken down from the cross on Friday and buried. End of the story, right? But that is when we speak of things that are unbelievable. Jesus actually came back to life. The angels at the tomb greeted the women who came to anoint His body with spices, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen.” (Luke 24:5-6) When Jesus came back to visit Thomas who doubted that Jesus could be alive again, Jesus came to him and said, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27)
Radical changes came to Jesus. He was dead. He came to life. Radical changes come to us because of Jesus. Paul asks a few questions about the consequences that we would face if there was no resurrection of Jesus, “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” ( I Corinthians 15:16-20)
Radical changes come to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26) I consider that quite astounding. If one trusts in Jesus they will live forever. If one holds to Him in faith they go from life here to life with Him. And that life never ends. Like Peter says in his letter, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)
After the people were cut to the heart, deflated as they could be, and asked “What should we do?”, His answer was this – “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)
When I read the article about Rick Fisher and his hard life and his new life, I found it interesting that the radical change in his life was shown in such normal ways. He is 73 now. He is a mentor at New Life Center to folks who struggle with addiction. And for the last two years he has been the pitching coach for eighth graders at Dakota Ridge. He said, “Baseball always kept me grounded.”
Can such a radical change through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death become practical in our lives, as well? Can it lead to a better attitude with the folks that we spend our lives with? Can it make a difference how we treat those we work with? Can it be that this new life that Jesus offers is shown here on earth? Paul says of this radical change, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)
Easter = Radical Changes. All of this comes by His resurrection for us and in us. Amen!!
