Sonrise Service 2010

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time travel. There are the stories in science fiction where the person travels to the past and does something that re-writes the present. Movies like “Star Trek” and “The Final Countdown” and TV shows like “Star Trek” and “Quantum Leap” have explored the idea of traveling through time and changing something in the past.

Even my favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, while not strictly a time-travel story, is about a guy who gets a chance to see how things would be if some event in the past (namely: his birth) had been different.

It’s a fascinating subject (and a fun one) because who here hasn’t fantasized—at least once in our lives—about being able to change something? Maybe you said something that really hurt someone’s feelings or even torpedoed a relationship and you wish you could go back and keep yourself from saying whatever it was you said. Maybe you had an opportunity years ago that you passed up on and you’ve thought about how nice it would be to go back in time and take that opportunity.

Maybe it’s something bigger. You had a friend who was killed in a car wreck and you’ve wished—maybe after watching Trek—that you could go back in time and keep your friend from getting in the car that day.

As I have explored the concept of time travel in the novels I’ve written, I thought about “big, historical” events. For instance, what if you could go back in time to November 22, 1963, and convince JFK not to ride in that car? What about going back a hundred years earlier and telling President Lincoln not to go to the Ford Theater?

Maybe, like Doc Brown in the clip we watched, you’d like to go back in time and witness the birth of Christ. I don’t think I could stand to watch the crucifixion, but … what if I could stop it? A couple Uzis and some grenades and I could stop the Romans from crucifying Jesus.

If I did that, though, I’d ruin everything.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (NIV)

John 12:24
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (NIV)

When Jesus said this, I think he was speaking of himself and his own need to die … but also of us.

Jesus had to die, or our sins would keep us separated from God. He rose from the grave to show that even death was not the master. We die with him, killing our past, sinful life; and rise again to walk with him into eternal life!