In the world of academia there is the traditional Easter break where students and teachers take a much-needed recess from each other after the long, dreary winter months. For college students the Easter break has become iconoclastic as kids head for Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Cancun and other hot spots for some ‘R&R.’ This week our own kids will have their own ‘R&R’—rowdiness and roughhousing. This rite of the Easter break helps parents to appreciate their local school systems so much more.

Then there are the large and small breaks that make a difference in our lives. We often hear of actors/actresses who get a big break that launches them in a career of fame and fortune. There are those little breaks that can have huge impacts. As baseball fever mounts, how many World Series have been won or lost by a seemingly little break. A close call at first that leads to a game winning home-run. An innocuous error (think Boston) that opens the door for a big inning. Life is full of breaks.

In looking at Luke’s account of the resurrection there are 2 breaks that are significant in terms of knowing the resurrected Jesus. The big break is seen in verses 1-12 and that is the break of dawn when the women made their great discovery of the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection. That is why we celebrate Easter and this historic event is the cornerstone of Christianity. This was the big break for those early disciples—a break that transformed their lives; a big break that changed their gloom and despair and hopelessness into radiant hope, expectancy and joy.

The story is told of a news reporter assigned to cover an Easter sunrise service held on the rim of the Grand Canyon. In sub-freezing weather this reporter, not known for his religious fervor, longed for the comfort of his warm bed. Later he wrote these words, “As the sun rose and light poured into that stupendous chasm, I forgot all about being cold. One moment everything was gray and formless. Then came a flood of radiance, torrents of light plunging down the canyon walls making them blaze with color, dissolving the darkness. Watching the shadows vanish I had the conviction that the darkness that had filled the great gorge was an illusion, that only the light was real, and that we silent watchers on the canyon rim were somehow a part of the light. I have listened to sermons and read bout religions, but for the fist time in my life I felt I had made contact with the spirit called God.”

There are those who have heard Easter sermon after Easter sermon and God still seems so distant and so unreal and so impersonal. We know so well the Easter story because we have heard it since childhood. Let me share with you a rather lengthy story of one such person. His story was featured in the United Methodist newsletter, The Forward:

“I opened my eyes to see the sun shining on the gravestones. It was about 6am. The birds were singing in celebration of the new day. For a moment I wasn’t sure where I was nor how I got there. But then it came back to my foggy mind. The night before I had been drinking in a bar. When it closed I took a 6-pack to go. Looking down on the front floor in my car I saw I had 2 beers left in the cartoon. Apparently I had pulled onto the unpaved road along the edge of the cemetery to finish my beer and sleep.

Without pondering anything more but my powerful thirst and the cotton in my mouth, I reached down and pulled up a beer, popped it open, and drank deeply. Before finishing the can I started crying uncontrollably. Here I go again was the depressing realization that smacked my rather hardened conscience. Thoughts flashed back to the night before. I could hear my wife begging me not to drink anymore. “Mary,” I said, “why can’t I even have a couple of beers in my own home?” Indignantly I stomped out of the house and headed for an out of the way bar to drink in peace. It was 12 hours later and I was not home yet. A couple of beers had grown into too many to remember. This was not the fist time I had stayed out all night drinking. But something was different this time. If felt I was at a fork in the road. One pathway pointed downward to a broken marriage, the loss of my university professorship, and onto skid row or death. The other way offered peace, fulfillment and stability. Of course, I want the latter way. Who doesn’t? For years I had been trying to stop drinking. I knew I was an alcoholic. Nevertheless the longest I could abstain was 4 or 5 weeks at a time. Once I made it 5 months, yet each dry period was followed by a binge that left me physically ill, emotionally distraught and spiritually devastated.

“My wife has suggested that Jesus Christ could help me. But I was an arrogant, agnostic university professor. Trained to use only reason to find truth, I viewed people who took the spiritual world seriously as slave-minded buffoons. To be sure, I was a church member. Every week unless I was out of town on a trip (ie, binge) I was in church with my family. To add to my trappings of respectability, I frequently taught an adult Sunday School class. Despite these things and the facts of my baptism and confirmation, I had no personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had an intellectual knowledge of Christian doctrine, but nothing else. Most certainly what I had was ineffective for dealing with the real problems in the real world. That is why I assumed that Christianity was nothing more than a vague package of ethics and values that help make people better citizens, neighbors, and family members.

“One thing had puzzled me over the years. I knew that my wife had something I didn’t have. She was serene even in the face of major personal and financial problems. Mary had an ability to cope that my reason, self-reliance and rugged individualism never provided. These thoughts raced through my mind that morning as I sat beside the graveyard. I knew that I wanted to stop drinking. I knew I had tried will-power, analysis, health clubs, theosophy, Edgar Cayce books, astrology—you name it, I tried it—even going to church and tithing. The only possibility I hadn’t tried was Jesus Christ. Right there in that car I yelled out, “If you exist, if you are there, come and help me!” That was all I needed to do. It was the first time I had become humble enough to invite Him to help me. I guess before that time I had believed that if He existed He would force Himself on me. This cry for help was truly my Damascus road experience. I saw no bright lights and no voices spoke to me. But I did experience a great calm. I knew Jesus was God, I knew that He cared for me. I knew that He had always loved me. And that He had always been seeking me. From that moment the compulsion to drink alcohol left. Gradually, over the months, all desire to drink was lifted from me as well. I have not had a drink since that morning.”

For this college professor this was the big break in his life that early morning. For him it was the break of dawn that transformed his life. His break happened because of the biggest break of all on the first Easter morning. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead because He had nothing better to do that day. He rose from death’s grip so that you and I could experience a new dawn in our lives.

For most people however the breaks are not as big and dramatic. Most often the breaks are little, seemingly insignificant, and happen when we least expect them; yet they are just as transforming and life-changing as the big breaks. Luke 12:13-35 tells of a rather small break in two peoples lives--two men walking home to Emmaus talking about the tragic events of the prior days—Jesus being crucified as a common criminal. Joined by a third man, he explained to them from the Scriptures all about the Messiah. It wasn’t until the 3 travelers reached their destination and home did the 2 men recognize Jesus Himself. Verse 31 records, “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Then they asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” A heart-warming, life-transforming little break can occur in something as common as the breaking of bread—whether it be at communion service or the breaking of bread at McDonalds.

Have your lives been changed by an ordinary worship service? It happened to John Wesley, a preacher’s kid and missionary/pastor himself. One day he went to a church on Aldersgate Street in London. There a lay reader was reading from Martin Luther’s Preface to his Commentary of the Book of Romans, probably far more boring than some of you think this sermon is. Yet is was there that John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed,” as he referred to it and his life was completely changed from that moment on. That little break in John Wesley’s life has had eternal consequences for millions of people since, especially for those who call themselves Methodist Christians, and I count myself as one of those.

A brilliant, sophisticated Englishman found Jesus through a small break. His name was Malcolm Muggeridge. In many ways he was a typical product of the culture of the highly intellectualized society of the Western World. Beginning his career as a university lecturer he moved into journalism and became successful. As editor of the influential Punch magazine, a television personality, and Rector of Edinburg University, Muggeridge found fame and fortune. But gradually he found the fruits of his success turning sour in his mouth. He added up the worth of his life and found it amounted to little real value. He began to think of experiences beyond secular existence and wondered about their meaning. He realized that perhaps this was God trying to break through. Later he wrote, “Somehow I missed you, God. You called me and I didn’t answer. O, those empty years.” Muggeridge titled his autobiography, Chronicles of Wasted Years.

With a camera crew Muggeridge went on location to Israel to film the story of Jesus for the BBC. One day he and a friend walked the 6 miles between Jerusalem and Emmaus. It was over this same road that Cleopas and a friend had walked 2,000 years earlier. It happened again. Muggeridge describes it, “As my friend and I walked along like Cleopas and his friend, we recalled as they did, the events of the crucifixion of Jesus in the light of our different and yet similar worlds. Nor was it fancy that we too were joined by a third presence. And I tell you that wherever the walk or whoever the wayfarer is, there is always a 3rd presence ready to emerge from the shadows and fall into step along the dusty, stormy way.”

The discovery of the resurrected Christ at times and for some is like the discovery of the empty tomb on that first Easter. But oft times in daily life, it is more like the little breaks that make the difference and that shape our lives. Like the tiny rudder changes the course of a great ship so the little breaks make dramatic changes in the course of our lives.

The issue this Easter, 2006 is this—have you make life’s greatest discovery—the risen Christ? Has God been trying to break through and you haven’t been listening? Has He been trying to get your attention and you haven’t been paying attention? Are you stuck in a life that has lost its meaning and purpose and has become stale and boring? Then you need an Easter break. Let me invite you to let Jesus make a difference in your life, to give you back meaning and purpose, to restore your brokenness, to give you hope and a future, and to know God presence and power personally through Jesus.

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.