Luke’s Gospel tells us the story of that astonishing roller
coaster week the apostles were experiencing. Jesus is welcomed into Jerusalem
like a king just a week ago. Everything
is great! They shared the Passover meal together (the Last Supper) on Thursday,
and then everything falls apart on Friday.
Now, just a few days later, they hear the stories that Jesus is alive. Then
suddenly he is there, with them, in the room.
Can you imagine the shock of that moment?
Jesus greets them saying: “Peace be with you.” The disciples must have been stunned. Luke says they were "startled and
terrified." Jesus shows them his hands
and feet and offers them to touch him to see that he has flesh and bone, and is
not just a spirit. What a powerful
story.
Jesus said to them that night that they are called to be witnesses
of these things. They are witnesses of
the fact that the Messiah had to suffer, and then on the third day, be raised.
And, that his death bought us forgiveness for our sins.
He told them, that night,
to proclaim this to all nations. Thankfully
for us, they did as he asked. We are
here today because of their testimony; and,
the testimony of all the disciples that would come after them. We are called, like those
who brought the faith to us, to carry this message in our time.
Is there a greater
honor? Is there a higher calling, in the entire universe, than to be a
witness to the living and risen Lord? To tell the story of how he suffered and
was raised on the third day; and to proclaim the forgiveness of sins in his
name to all we know.
How well are doing
this?
I can’t speak for you.
But it often feels like I’m just trying to survive from one day to the
next. And it seems that we hide this
great message away, somewhere, and forget to share it. This reminds me of the
story of Luigi Tarisio. Luigi was an Italian violin dealer and collector in the
19th century. When he died in Milan they found 24 Stradivarius violins in his
attic. A Stradivarius violin is among
the most coveted items in the world, considered to be the best-stringed
instrument ever created. When they finally played the best of these beautiful
violins they found that day, it had been 147 years since anyone had heard it. Luigi
had robbed the world of all that exquisite music. Sadly it seems that many of
us are like Luigi Tarisio. We have a found the greatest treasure in the world, the
love of Jesus Christ, and yet we keep it to ourselves, hide it away.
When I was a young man in the 1960s, I remember the story of
someone who didn’t hide his faith away; and his story affected me deeply. His name was Brian Sternberg. In 1963 Brian
was a sophomore at the University of Washington. He was not only the world’s best pole vaulter,
but also America’s trampoline champion.
But those who knew him said that Brian Sternberg was the most self-centered
young athlete to come along in a long time. He was poise and confidence, but
they say he rarely smiled. At a track meet that year Brian broke the world
record for pole vault. And on that same
day, later that day, while working out alone in the gym. He did a triple
somersault and came down on the trampoline off center. His neck hit the edge of
the trampoline, snapping it, leaving him
totally paralyzed, able to move only his eyes and his mouth. Brian was left a helpless, hopeless cripple; but
that wasn’t the end of Brian’s story. A
few years later he attended a convention of coaches and athletes. At one point
in their convention, the story goes, the auditorium was totally dark. Suddenly a movie projector lit up the screen.
There was Brian Sternberg racing down the runway and executing his record-breaking
pole vault. Every coach and athlete oohed and aahed. Then the auditorium went
totally dark again, except for a single spotlight falling on a single chair on
the empty stage. Suddenly out of the shadows on the stage came a huge football
player carrying in his arms was what looked like a big rag doll. Its long arms
and legs hung limp at its sides and flopped this way and that way as he walked
across the stage. The rag doll was six-foot, three-inch Brian Sternberg who now
weighed 87 pounds. The hulking football
player placed Brian in the chair and propped him up with pillows to keep him
from falling over. Then in a raspy voice Brian Sternberg began to talk. He
said:
“My friends Oh, I pray to God that what has happened to me will
never happen to one of you. I pray that you’ll never know the humiliation, the
shame, of not being able to perform one human act. “Oh, I pray to God you will never know the
pain that I live with daily. It is my hope and my prayer that what has happened
to me would never happen to one of you.
Unless ... my friends ... that’s what it takes for you to put
God in the center of your life.”
The impact of Brian’s words was electrifying.
The most powerful witness to Jesus often takes place without
the people involved being aware of it. And that’s what happened in that auditorium
in Estes Park, Colorado. Brian Sternberg’s was sharing the deepest part of
himself and his convictions about life with a group of brother and sister
athletes and coaches. Witnessing to Jesus is testifying by our lives that the
power of the risen Jesus has touched us and transformed us. It’s doing what an 87-pound young man
did on an empty stage in Estes Park, Colorado. It is letting Jesus speak
through us to other people.
You never know,
something you say, may change someone’s life for eternity.
Stop hiding your faith away.
