In the beginning, before God ever got into the whole business of creating light, and oak trees and butterfly’s. Genesis tells us that God’s spirit hovered above the water. Which might sound incidental to us, but to a Hebrew that meant something. This was the moment when God tamed the chaos of the deep. When God had brought order to the void.
And everything was hunky dory until the very people God had made to tend to his good creation disobeyed. They had channeled their inner Dr. Doolittle and had a conversation with a snake. And as a result, all of Creation fell into disarray.
The sea had become dangerous again.
If you think about it, most of the horror stories, the Saw I-V of the Old Testament all involve the sea. The Jewish people didn’t really travel a lot. At least until the resurrection. In the Book of Acts we see repeatedly people traveling all across the known world telling people Jesus is Lord.
And they are doing it all on a ship.
Which is what makes the ending of Acts all the more interesting. Because toward the end of the book they have a horrible shipwreck, it looks like all hope is lost and look at how Luke describes this moment:
“On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.”
One theologian recently pointed out something that I had never considered before. Luke is purposefully trying to parallel the end of Acts with the end of his gospel. Specifically the crucifixion and resurrection. Now what had happened to Jesus is happening to his followers. If the sea is a symbol for the abyss, for darkness and death, than Paul is about to be swallowed up by it. But a few days later he walks away.
And if that isn’t clear enough, the very next and final chapter for Acts, Paul gets bit by a snake, the ultimate symbol of evil. Most of the time when people get bit by a poisonous snake they don’ just walk it off. But Paul does. Luke is telling us that the world is being set right in Jesus and his followers.
So today is the day when most Christians (and the United States Postal Service) celebrate Good Friday, and for most that has just come to mean Easter Friday. It’s the beginning of a 3 day weekend. But the danger of this is that we can forget that life with God also has it’s storms. Life with Jesus can get pretty bumpy. This is why Good Friday is so important. Because it recognizes that storms happen.
But the sea doesn’t have a storm big enough to swallow Easter.
Because when the storms and snakes had done their worst, when they had exhausted their power. Jesus is still bigger.
Do you know what the last word in the book of Acts is? Unchained, or Unleashed.
Which, of course, is why the early church exploded the way it did. Because in light of Easter, even that Friday, the one where Jesus dealt with the darkness, can be called good.
William Willimon has a great one-liner, “God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead.” And here’s what I think he means by that…In a world that has so many various opinions about who God is and what He’s up to. Easter reshapes our vision of God, he is not malevolent or capricious. He is on the side of life, and to him no storm is too big to pass through, and no snake has the final word.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
There is nothing holding you back.
Easter means you are unleashed, because Jesus is Lord.
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I cant believe that the post office is closed today! Every time I read your blog I learn something new. Just kidding, good blog and great quote by the Duke guy. You cant go wrong with someone from Duke, unless your talking about a football program. Hey everyone falls short somewhere. No, i really liked it. Thank God(whoever raised Jesus for the dead) Sunday is coming!!!
Thanks Mike! Leslie and I were just talking about you brother. We hope to see you soon man! Eden’s talking non-stop about you.
Thanks, Jonathan. I knew the Jews (and most people of that time and place) looked at the sea as the abyss. I never caught the parallels between the end of Acts and the end of Luke’s Gospel. But it makes very good sense.
We miss so much of the Bible when we don’t know the culture, the history, the modes of thought of the people who first read it.
May we all live like we’re unleashed.
That’s right Bro. Danny, I love this kind of stuff. It helps to remember the Bible wasn’t first written to us, but to and by a group of people who think differently than we do. Thanks, and Happy Easter.
Good stuff, brother-man.