Easter Sunday
Series: Paradoxes of Jesus
#6: “Jesus, the Victorious Loser”
Matthew 28:1-15 and Romans 6:1-11 (NRSV)
By John Gill ~ March 31, 2024
A man having dinner at a seafood restaurant was upset when the waiter brought him his dinner. “My lobster is missing a claw! Why is that?” “Well, sir,” the waiter tried to explain, “They are so fresh that they fight with each other in the tank in the kitchen.” “Well,” said the customer, “take this one away…and bring me the WINNER!”
My! How the world loves a winner! To us, in our society, winning is everything! People will do just about anything to be a winner.
A while back, I saw a program on television about the many thousands of young men and women in our nation who will fill their bodies full of dangerous steroids in order to be just a little bit stronger, or just a little bit faster than their competition – all so they can be a “winner.” Business men and women on Wall Street will trade stocks based on insider information even though it is illegal…Why? So they can be “winners.” Some politicians will say or promise just about anything, or stoop to gutter campaigning and mud-slinging – whatever it takes…to be a “winner.” Kids in school today believe that its OK to cheat on tests or buy term papers on the internet ( or – nowadays, to use AI technology to generate a term paper with the click of a mouse – easy-peasy… )…just so long as they don’t get caught. You see, do whatever it takes to make good grades,… and you are a “winner.”
Winning is so highly valued in our society that we will compromise just about anything so we can prove to our peers (and to ourselves) that we are “winners.” Could it be that we try so hard to be a winner, because we see ourselves as losers?
Our philosophy of life was expressed well by Charles Dickens in his book, David Copperfield, when he wrote: “Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride over all obstacles. AND WIN THE RACE!”
Yes, the world LOVES a “winner,” – and people don’t seem to care too much what unethical methods they used to win the race – only that they won!
And, you know, things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. In Jesus’ day, the world loved winners just as much as we do. I guess it’s human nature.
And THAT’S what got Jesus into so much trouble. By the standards of the world, Jesus was a loser. The world HATES losers, and so they rejected Jesus. And who could
blame them? When we try to put ourselves in their places, we would have seen Jesus as a “loser,” too.
Certainly, early on in his ministry, things were going well-enough. Crowds followed him everywhere he went. A dozen men (and an unknown number of women) faithfully traveled with him from village to village. His reputation grew as word spread of his miraculous powers and profound sermons and parables. Yes, for a time, Jesus was looking like a winner – and the people loved him!
But then, all that began to fall apart. As the teachings of Jesus began to get more demanding, the casual curiosity-seekers who came to hear Jesus preach began to stay away. And as they traveled to Jerusalem that last time and Jesus told his disciples of the dangers that lay ahead, even his closest friends began to think that Jesus – the One they had THOUGHT was a winner, might be a loser after all!
And you are familiar with the events of Holy Week: Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied him, the Palm Sunday crowd turned on him on Good Friday, and the religious leaders put him through a “kangaroo court.” Then finally, Jesus died the ultimate “loser’s” death, humiliated on a cross, executed as a common criminal, and buried in a borrowed tomb.
You can almost hear the self-satisfied snickering of the religious leaders and the Roman authorities as they congratulated themselves on how masterfully they had taken care of “The Jesus Problem.” They didn’t WANT Jesus to be a winner!” They did everything they could to make sure he was a loser! They resorted to the “final solution,” and this nuisance, Jesus of Nazareth, was dead and buried. “Jesus the Loser” was gone, and soon he would be forgotten forever.
Or, so they thought… And,- as so many of US might like to think, as well!
How easy it is to be a follower of Jesus when the way is easy, and the cost is low! How simple it is to be the devotee of a winner – a Messiah who brings visions of a new kingdom, and freedom, and power. How exciting to follow the cheering crowds and praise a winner!
But when the tables are turned – when the teachings become hard – when the storm clouds begin to gather and following Jesus becomes tough – when it seems we’ve “hitched our wagon, NOT to a rising star, but to a setting sun – when we’ve cast our lot, not with a winner, but with a loser – how quickly we can turn on him!
Like the crowd, we cry “crucify him” whenever we shut our ears to his teaching. Like Judas, we betray Jesus whenever we dismiss his claim on our lives. Like Peter, we deny
Jesus whenever we fail to stand up for our faith in our dealings with others. We drive the nails into his hands and feet whenever we knowingly sin and reject the grace available to us through his blood. And we roll the stone over the opening of the tomb whenever we decide we can’t be bothered with him.
You see, it is much easier to follow a dead messiah than a living Savior and Lord! If Christ is alive, then we have to deal with him. If Christ is alive, then we know we will be held accountable for our faith, or lack of faith. If Christ is alive, then we know we MUST change. If Christ is alive, then he has a claim on our lives.
And so, we pretend he is still in the tomb. We dismiss the resurrection as a myth or a hoax. We go through life on a gamble, betting our eternal souls that Jesus never was raised from the dead (out of sight, out of mind).
Yes, we are a LOT like those who turned against Jesus. WE don’t really want Jesus to be a winner, EITHER! We would prefer to leave Jesus safely in the tomb, unable to meddle in our comfortable lives – a “loser” who can make no claim on us.
But EASTER! --- Easter shakes us up!
If what we proclaim this morning is true, then Jesus has been let loose on the world again! The “loser” we so cleverly sealed away in the tomb is the ultimate “winner!” The stone has been rolled away! The tomb is empty! Death could not hold him! And our comfortable, complacent world and lives are turned upside down.
You see, the world saw Jesus as a “loser.” But God saw Jesus as a “winner” – and God ALWAYS has the last say!
This is the final, and most important, paradox of Jesus in our sermon series – the Easter Paradox – the mystery the world cannot comprehend, but which we, as Christians, boldly declare on this Easter morning: That paradox of Christ is this: Jesus is the Victorious Loser! The great mystery is that, it is in losing, that Jesus won! It was in dying, that Jesus lives!
Jesus explains this paradox with his own words in Matthew’s Gospel: “Whoever wants to save his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” It is only in being willing to die to self – to give up ourselves in service to others, that we discover what it means to truly live!
What a contrast to David Copperfield, “riding rough-shod” over every obstacle to win the race! What a radically different view of the world than our “winning is everything” philosophy!
Jesus COULD have chosen to be a winner in the eyes of the world: Satan tempted him to do just that in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry – to resort to the way of the world. Jesus COULD have called down legions of angels to avoid the cross and bring in the Kingdom on earth. Yet he CHOSE to die – to lose – in order to win!
What a paradox! You see, it was only in his willingness to accept apparent defeat that he brought about the Ultimate Victory!
And so, the good news of Easter is that God took the One the world believed to be a “loser,” and made him a “winner:” He took defeat, and turned it into victory! He took hopelessness, and turn it into joy! He took death, and turned it into life! What a wonderful – paradoxical God we serve!
But there is even MORE “good news” this Easter day. And that is that the “Easter Paradox” not only holds true for Jesus, but it can also be true for US, as well! You and I can share in his victory. Through our baptism and faith in his blood, we are offered new life in him. And even if we may be losers according to the standards of this life, we can be winners in God’s sight, and share in Christ’s victory – We, too, can be Victorious Losers!
As Paul wrote to the Romans: “For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death. By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life. . . Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
So when YOU feel like a loser, defeated by the world and hopeless, Paul tells you to remember your baptism, and be grateful! Because YOU have an “Easter Promise” from God: The One who can make winners out of losers can snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, and bring resurrection, even to your lifeless soul.
And so, the Easter Celebration is not ONLY about Christ’s resurrection, but ours as well. And THAT is something worth celebrating!
This Easter morning, we praise our Easter God, who gives losers like us the Victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord!