"A Risen Christ and a Clean Room"
#92-34Presented on The Lutheran Hour on April 20, 2025
By Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Lutheran Hour Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
No bonus material MP3
Text: John 20:5-7
Have you cleaned your room recently? Mine could use some work.
You know, a prominent psychologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson, often advises people, "Start by cleaning your room." He's even said that if you're not keeping your room clean, then you are helping lead the world to hell.i Now if that's not motivation to make your bed in the morning!
Of course, Peterson's overstating his point. But he does have a point. As a practicing psychologist, people often come to him, seeking his advice. They say things like, "Doc, my life is in chaos. I have no energy, no motivation. I don't know what to do."
Well, start small, the doctor advises. You can't fix the whole world, but you can do something. You can bring some order, some harmony, some beauty into the little space you've been given to take care of. So, clean your room. Then branch out from there.
And beware of what can happen if you don't. There's an old saying: "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost; for want a rider, the battle was lost; for want of a battle, the kingdom was lost."ii Or, as Ben Franklin shortened it, "A little neglect may breed great mischief."iii
Cleaning your room is a small task, but it's also symbolic. It stands for whatever small, but important job that's in front of you right now, something you could do today to help take care of the place and the people who live there: to pick up some trash, plant a flower, smile and say hello. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,"iv the Chinese proverb puts it. So, maybe the doctor isn't exaggerating? Maybe cleaning your room could be a step on the road out of hell.
Today is Easter, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And when Jesus rose from the dead, when He took His first steps in the world on the road out of hell, it seems that the first thing He did was to tidy up His room a bit. This small detail is reported in the Gospel of John, one of the four definitive accounts of Jesus' life, recorded in the Bible. John picks up the narrative in chapter 20, just after Jesus has been crucified.
Jesus had been confirmed dead by His executioners. Then some of His followers bedded Him down in a borrowed tomb, in a garden nearby. They made quick work of it, because it was late in the day on a Friday, and Saturday, the Sabbath Day, the Day of Rest, the last day of the week according to the Jewish calendar, it officially started at sundown.
So, since they were observant Jews, they had to work quickly before the sun went down. They buried Jesus hastily on that Friday, to make sure they could keep the Law and rest on Saturday. They figured they could tidy things up on Sunday, the first day of the new week, by Jewish reckoning. They wanted to make sure that Jesus' was body was properly tucked in for the long sleep of death to await the Day of Judgment, the end of the world, when, as it was written in the book of the prophet Daniel: "those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake."
But Jesus proved to be an early riser. And apparently the first thing He did after getting up was to straighten up the place a little.
Listen to the account of it in John 20: Now on the first day of the week, early, while it was still dark, Mary from Magdala [one of Jesus' followers] she went to the tomb. And she sees that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. So she runs and goes to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved like a brother, and she says to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they put Him."
So, Simon Peter and the other disciple went out and began going to the tomb. And both of them started running together, but the other disciple ran faster ahead of Peter and came to the tomb first. And when he looked in, he sees the strips of linen—[that they had buried Him in]—sitting there, but he did not go in.
Then comes Simon Peter, who was following, and he went into the tomb. And he looks at the strips of linen sitting there, and the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. It was not with the linen but folded up in its own place. Then the other disciple, who had arrived first at the tomb, he went in. And he saw. And he believed—he trusted. See, they did not yet know from Scripture that it was necessary for Him to rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she leaned over to look into the tomb and she sees two angels in white, sitting there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and one at the foot. And they say to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" She says to them, "They have taken my Lord. And I do not know where they have put Him."
After she said this, she turned and sees Jesus standing there—but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus says to her, "Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the garden caretaker, says to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him." Jesus says to her, "Mary." She turned toward Him and says, in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means, teacher) Jesus says to her, "Do not cling to Me because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go—go to My brothers and tell them, 'I am going up to My Father and your Father, to My God and to your God.'" Mary Magdalene went to the disciples, proclaiming, "I have seen the Lord!" and that He had said these things to her.
That Sunday morning, the followers of Jesus were afraid and confused. Even though Jesus had told them, they still didn't understand how His death would become part of God's plan. They were lost. But they were not idle. They were focused on the next job in front of them. Maybe it was just the first stage of grief—you know, how some people try to stay busy to put off dealing with the pain. Whatever it was, they were up early, ready to tidy up the tomb, to make sure everything was squared away. And when there appeared to be some sort of a grave robbery, they were on the case, hunting for the body like a set of lost car keys.
They were sad, but they weren't sulking in their rooms. They were looking for the next task in front of them, even if they didn't understand how it all fit in the bigger plan. But they still believed there was a bigger plan, because God had promised.
Now if there was no bigger promise, if Jesus had just come out of nowhere, an internet sensation offering sage advice on how to clean up your life, how to make the world a better place, we might imagine them saying, "What does it matter anymore? What's the point? Why bother cleaning up? It's just going to get dirty again. We're all going to die eventually. And, in a million years, nothing we said or did will matter." In another context, they might have just slept in.
But something different is going on with these Jewish followers of Jesus. They were up early and at it again. They hadn't lost hope in God's plan. They were still looking for God's kingdom to come and set the world in order again, to raise the dead and make God's good creation new again, as Daniel had prophesied. They thought Jesus had been the one who was going to do it, that He was the Messiah, the promised King. But He had failed, obviously. He'd gotten Himself killed. Death was still in charge, no exceptions.
Except that, as they were about to find out, Jesus had risen from the dead, which meant that, for Him and in Him, Judgment Day had come early. In His crucifixion, in His descent into hell, in His resurrection, the end of the world had come in advance—not at the end of time, but in the middle of time, and anyone, as Jesus had taught, anyone who would die to themselves and live in Him already has a place in His new creation, and is invited to work in it today. But they weren't ready for that yet. They were still in the darkness of the old world.
This also seems to be the case with that famous psychologist, Dr. Peterson, who tells people to clean up their rooms. You know, if you read his books and listen to his interviews, he talks a lot about the Bible and Jesus. But as far as I can tell, he has yet to trust in Jesus, to live in Jesus, to rest in Jesus. For him, it seems Jesus is just an example, even if He is the ultimate example. Jesus cleaned His room; you should, too. And if you don't, then you're leading the world toward hell.
Now on one level, Peterson's diagnosis is right—perhaps more than he realizes, because the Bible says it even more starkly. The world already is in hell—at least in a preliminary sense, if you define "hell" as separation from God, the suffering that comes from being estranged from God. That's the diagnosis that Jesus gave. The problem isn't unkempt beds or unrealized potential, but an unrealized relationship with our Creator, unrequited love from the One who wants to be our Father. That's the world's problem, as Jesus said it. It's that "no one comes to the Father." because "people loved darkness rather than light." Jesus came to solve this problem, not just to threaten us, but to fulfill God's promise, to fulfill the Scripture, to bring us to His Father, so that we could call God "our Father."
A couple of years after that psychologist, Jordan Peterson, became famous, telling people to clean up their rooms, a picture of him in his room started circulating on the internet. The picture is a freeze frame from a video conference call. In it, you see a tired-looking Dr. Peterson sitting at the computer screen. And behind him, you can see his office at home. The place is a pig sty! And so, some clever internet meme-maker paired this picture with a quote from a podcast, in which Peterson had said, "If you can't even clean up your own room, who are you to give advice to the world?"
Apparently, the jokesters got under the skin of the good doctor, because he mentioned it in the next book he wrote. He explained that he wasn't proud of the way his room looked at that moment. But he also asked for grace and pleaded "exceptional circumstances."v See, he had become a famous speaker and didn't have time for domestic tasks. Plus, they were having their house renovated and everything that didn't have a place got piled up in his office, not to mention that for months he'd been battling a serious illness that almost killed him. So, who are we to point fingers at his messy room?
But isn't that the point? Who is he to point a finger at our messy rooms? Doesn't everyone with a messy room plead "exceptional circumstances"? And aren't those exceptional circumstances just part of life in this world? Because eventually the chaos will catch up with all of us. We're all going to get sick and die. So, what's the purpose? Why bother? Why do anything?
Secular sages these days point us back to ourselves to find a purpose and offer vague hope that the world could be better if we all just did our part. Christian hope is different. Our problem is not messy offices, exceptional circumstances, or unrealized potential. Our problem isn't even death. Our problem is with God. We try to fulfill ourselves, but God made us to be fulfilled in Him. We try to dictate our purpose, but God made us for His purpose. We try to clean up the world, but God has put that world to bed in the death of Jesus, and He started a new one in His resurrection. And we have a place and purpose in that world by faith in Him. That was the mission of Jesus, to restore that faith, that trusting bond with God, to prove to us that God, His Father, wants to be our Father. And He sends His followers to share the message. That's why I'm talking to you today. Not to give you advice, but to make an announcement: Jesus is risen from the dead, friend. And if you trust in Him, if you are with Him, hell is no longer a threat. Death has been folded up and put in its place. God's new creation has already come. And one day, when Jesus returns, you will behold it with your own eyes. And now today, you hold on to it by faith.
Okay, so now what? Well, read the Bible, pray, be part of a Christian community, for starters. And outside of that, take Dr. Peterson's advice: clean your room, do whatever is the next God-pleasing thing that you can do right now, like how Jesus folded up His burial cloth. Why did He do it? I don't know. But we can be sure God had some purpose for it. Maybe it was to help us do the small things, to remind us that a thousand-mile journey does consist of single steps. But also to remind us that He is the goal of that journey, and that He rose from the dead to take the trek with us.
Jesus has put death in its place for you. He brought about a new world for you. He took the first step for you. And He invites you to follow Him, to take the next step, to make your bed or clean your room or whatever is the next God-pleasing thing He's given you to do.
But hey, today's Easter, the Lord's Day. So maybe just rest. Have some chocolate. Take a nap. You can clean up tomorrow.
And pray with me: Dear Father, You have given us Your Son as the example for a God-pleasing life, but He is so much more—He's the sacrifice for our sin, He's the purpose in our chaos, the victory over death, the Resurrection and the Life. Help us to seek Him, the truth who sets us free, the bread who gives us life, the living water who quenches our thirst. Help us to trust Him, the Judge who drove out the devil, the Lamb who marks us with His blood, the Light who leads us through the darkness. Help us to follow Him, the Shepherd who calls us by name, the Servant who washes our feet, the King who loves us as a brother and a friend. As He has loved us, help us love one another, so that all people would know that we belong to Him.
Finally, fill us with Your Spirit, that we would have eternal life in knowing You, the Father, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent, because He lives and He reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.
i Peterson said this on The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special, Episode 1. Accessed on February 28, 2025, at https://youtu.be/WT0mbNvaT6Y?si=D9bLXfHrtLJ-Oe0d.
ii Iona and Peter Opie, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, London: Oxford Press (1973), 324. https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000opie/page/324/mode/2up?view=theater
iii Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, Boston: H.M. Caldwell Co (1900), 17.
iv Attributed to Lao Tzu, https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/movingwords/shortlist/laotzu.shtml
v Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. New York: Penguin (2021), 201.
Reflections for April 20, 2025
Title: A Risen Christ and a Clean Room
No reflection segment this week.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Today Is Risen Christ the Lord" From Heirs of the Reformation: Treasures of the Singing Church (© 2008 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
"With High Delight" arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
"Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia" by Bernard Kyamanywa, tr. Howard S. Olson (traditional Tanzanian melody, text © 1977 Howard S. Olson) From Hymns for All Saints: Lent, Easter, Pentecost (© 2006 Concordia Publishing House)
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Awake, My Heart with Gladness" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
