THE PROPS OF EASTER

Happy Resurrection Day from the Panhandle. I pray this day has been good for you as you celebrate the risen Saviour, Christ Jesus.

I found this sermon several years ago and have tweaked it over time for my congregation.   

Those who know me know that I am a movie person, I love watching movies. Of course the first thing we notice about a movie is the actors. Then some people say plot is important, and it is. Some would say character development or story line and yes those are important. And many would say a movie must be entertaining, and I most definitely agree with that. But just as important is a little thing that is often overlooked, it is the prop. I think of Will Rogers and I remember him standing on the stage twirling his rope while telling his jokes. What would Luke Skywalker be without his trusty light saber. What would good cowboy movie doesn't have six shooters or a Winchester rifle. And of course Star Trek has it communicators. Props are important, and it is no different with the Passion narrative.

Like watching a movie, the first thing you see when you look at this drama called Easter is the people involved. There is Christ Jesus and His disciples, the Pharisees, Herod, and Pilate. We see Christ Jesus’ mother Mary and the other women that morning when they went to the tomb. And there are the Temple Guards, as well as Roman soldiers every where.

Yes there were a lot of people around and involved some way in Christ Jesus’ life those last few days. But there was more that just people involved in this drama, there were the props of Easter, the physical things involved with the last days of Christ Jesus. This morning I would like to look at 10 of these “props.”

The first prop we look at is:

1. THE BREAD - Matt 26:26

Christ Jesus used bread having no leaven. Leaven ferments the dough and so produces “corruption”, and is sometimes used as the symbol of mortal corruption: Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:8). Christ Jesus is pure like the unleavened bread that He broke, He was and is without corruption.

Bread is the humblest of foods and yet a sacred article of food: Christ Jesus came into the world a carpenter’s son in a backwater town and yet He is the “Bread of Life.” John 6:47-48.

Broken bread is familiar and for the most part accessible to all: Through His broken body Christ Jesus has made God the Father accessible to all. - Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, (Heb 10:19-20).

The second prop I want you to see is:

2. THE WINE - Matt 26:27-28

The cup is called "the new covenant in my blood," The wine is a pledge and seal and a means of imparting the blessings of the new covenant. A covenant established by the shedding of the blood of Christ Jesus.

He is able to save completely all who come to God through him. Since he will live forever, he will always be there to remind God that he has paid for their sins with his blood. (Heb 7:25)

We see the bread and wine, props of the new covenant. The next prop:

3. THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER - Matt 26:14-16

Thirty pieces of silver was the standard price for a slave in the days when Christ Jesus walked this earth. It is more than likely that this sum was fixed by the religious leaders to show their "contempt" of Christ Jesus, and that they regarded Him of little value.

“And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.” (Zechariah 11:13). Christ Jesus, the King of kings; was sold for the price of a slave in His own house

Bread, wine, silver all an important part of the drama of this King, and now Christ Jesus' crown, a crown of:

4. THORNS - Matt 27:29

Palestine abounds with thorny shrubs and plants. It is commonly believed that the crown of thorns was made from Ziziphus spina-christi, more popularly known as the jujube tree. 

 

While a crown of thorns would be exceedingly painful, the crown of thorns was more about mockery than it was about pain. Here was the “King of the Jews” being beaten, spit upon, and insulted by presumably low-level Roman soldiers. The crown of thorns was the just one more example of their mockery, taking a symbol of royalty and majesty, a crown, and turning it into something painful and degrading. 

 

Christ Jesus, being made a curse for us, was dying to remove the curse from us. When Adam and Eve sinned, bringing evil and a curse upon the world, part of the curse upon humanity was “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…” (Genesis 3:17-18). That day the Creator was pierced by His own creation and felt the pain

Probably the most recognized prop in all Christianity is:

5. AN OLD USED CROSS - John 19:17-18

The agony on the cross consisted in:

• the unnatural position of the body, causing pain at the least motion;
• the nails being driven through the hands and feet, which are full of nerves and tendons, yet without a vital part being directly injured;
• the wounds exposed for so long bringing on acute inflammation and gangrene;
• the distended parts causing more blood to flow through the arteries than can be carried back through the veins;
• the lingering anguish and burning thirst. The victim of crucifixion literally died a thousand deaths.

As an instrument of death the cross was detested by the Jews. "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13). Most Roman citizen was exempt from this form of death, it being considered the death of a slave. This punishment was meted out for such crimes as treason, desertion in the face of the enemy, robbery, piracy, assassination, sedition, and such.

Christ Jesus, who committed no sin; hung on a tree like a criminal because of hatred, by those who were at best indifferent. And yet for them He had nothing but forgiveness in His heart.

An innocent man, a King, the very Son of God nailed to that old cross by His subjects

6. NAILS - Acts 2:22-23

The hands were nailed to the transverse beam, the feet separately nailed to the lower part of the upright beam so as to be a foot or two above the ground (others think the two feet were pierced by one and the same nail).

And yet it was not these iron spikes that held Christ Jesus on the cross, it was His love for you.

The next prop I want to talk about was used callously by the Roman solders at the foot of the cross, were the:

7. DICE – John 19:23-24

The solders divided up Christ Jesus’ clothes, each claiming an equal share, and so they made four piles, as close to the same value as they could, each of the soldier got an equal part. But Christ Jesus' coat, or upper garment, was of great interest to the solders. The coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout, they agreed to cast lots or roll dice for it. 

 

The shame of the Easter drama continued as the soldiers stripped Christ Jesus of His garments before they crucified Him. The God who created everything lost all the earthly possessions He had. Even though for modesty sake Christ Jesus is always shown with a loin cloth, in all likely hood He was completely naked. The shame of nakedness came in with sin. He therefore who was made sin for us, bore that shame to roll away our reproach.

He was stripped, that we might be clothed someday with Him in bright and clean raiment: It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.(Revelation 19:8).

A Holy God, a sad Father who could not look-up-on His only Son caused:

8. A DARK SKY - Matt 27:45-46

The preternatural darkness reported at Christ Jesus’ crucifixion was no metaphor. It was a real historical event based on eyewitness accounts and independently corroborated by a number of highly qualified ancient historians. 

 

This darkness is documented by the Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is also confirmed by three extra-biblical historians: Thallus, Phlegon, and Africanus. There is powerful evidence for a world wide darkness at Christ Jesus' crucifixion. 

 

During the three hours that this darkness continued, we do not find Christ Jesus saying one word, but He passed this time in silence. It is almost certain that His own soul, was now in agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness. He was taking in the sins of the world; past, present, and future; He was clothed with the sins of man. In the darkness, Christ Jesus offered up His soul for mine, yours and every other sinner's. 

 

Never were there three hours like these and there will never be again. Never has there been such a dark and awful scene; nothing can compare to the agony and the loneliness that Christ Jesus experienced for our redemption and salvation.

Christ Jesus had no pillow on which to lay His head when He was alive and He had no tomb in which to have His body laid when He died. The next prop is:

9. A BARROWED TOMB - Matt 27:59-60

Christ Jesus yielded up the ghost. This is a round about way of saying someone died. The Son of God really did die by the violence of the pain that He was put through. His soul was separated from His body, and so His earthly body was left really and truly dead.

He was laid in a borrowed tomb, in Joseph's burying place, which Joseph, likely, designed for himself. The invincible God was dead in the ground. Christ Jesus was dead in a borrowed tomb, however, would not be the worse for ware having Christ Jesus lying in it, He would only be using it for a few days. 

 

The borrowed tomb leads us to the tenth prop :

10. A STONE ROLLED AWAY - Luke 24:2-3

Never was there such a Sabbath since the Sabbath was first instituted as this one was. During this entire Sabbath our Lord Christ Jesus lay in the grave. To Christ Jesus’ disciples it was a somber Sabbath, spent in tears and fear. 

 

Well, that Sabbath was over, and the first day of the week was a day unlike any other. The women and then John and Peter saw that the stone was rolled away, which was the first thing that amazed them. 

 

The second thing that amazed them was the assurance given to them by an angel no less, that Christ Jesus was risen from the dead, and had left His tomb. The morning of salvation for all mankind had dawned. All was changed by the stone that was rolled away.

CONCLUSION: But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5).

When you were sick unto death because of your sins; the sinless one, Christ Jesus came and was pierced and crushed on account of those sins and iniquities. It was not His own sins and iniquities, but yours, that He has taken upon Himself voluntary, so that He might make atonement for you. This was why He suffered such a cruel and painful death - to become the source of your healing once and for all.