Sermon

April 8, 2007

When Did They Believe?

Luke 24:1-12

April 8, 2007

The reading of scripture is essential for worship, especially on Easter Sunday, when we begin by giving thanks for the day that the Lord has made, giving thanks that the Lord is good, giving thanks that when we call on the Lord in our distress, the Lord answers. 

Easter, and the days that follow, unlike any other time, are most especially a time of hope, a time of promise.  Most Easters, the grass is turning green, the azaleas are splashing the landscape with brilliant colors, dogwoods are sprouting their red, pink, and white blooms.  When birds sing, we imagine that the sounds they make are nature’s Easter music.  The church’s most important holy day coincides with new creation.  Unless we are careful, we succumb to thinking that resurrection is as natural as grass coming up green, baby chicks cracking open their eggs, butterflies crawling out of cocoons.  As comforting as these images are, there is something deceptive about them.  We need to remember that there is nothing about resurrection that is natural.

Each of the Gospel writers has his own way of making this point.  Mark writes that when the women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices, they discover the impossible – the stone has been rolled back and an angel is sitting where Jesus should have been lying stiff and cold.  They flee in “terror and amazement.”  What leads them to believe in resurrection?  Matthew adds an earthquake, and an angel that frightens the guards until they shake and become like dead men.  In Luke, the women are frightened to death of the two angels there with the good news.  When the women come back and tell the good news to the apostles, their words, Luke says, seem to the apostles an idle tale, a silly story, a foolish yarn, utter nonsense, sheer humbug – the translations differ; you can take your pick.  They do not believe them.  They yawned, checked their watches, and wondered when the sermon would end so they could shuffle off for coffee.  In John, Mary Magdalene comes alone, discovers an empty tomb, and runs back to get the disciples.  The disciples come, look, and go back home.  What finally leads to an understanding for them?  When did they believe?  The experience of the empty tomb convinced almost no one.

What were first century tombs like anyway?  In Jerusalem today, there is a legitimate first century tomb across from St. George’s Cathedral.  You must crawl down and slide into the tomb.  The tomb is relatively small with a low ceiling and an all-the-way-around bench carved into the stone wall.  Without a lantern, it is pitch black.  A body could be taken into a larger room and put into a cupboard or bunk bed of a sort.  The women had come to anoint Jesus because he had not been anointed.  When they are confronted with the angels’ announcement that He is risen, the women think the tomb has been raided.

When did they believe?  Maybe the news of the empty tomb, the news of the resurrection, the news of Jesus’ victory over death is just too good to believe, too good to assimilate all at once.  I suspect, however, a deeper and more complex reason for the disciples’ writing off the women’s proclamation.  Like the Emmaus Road travelers in the story that follows, the disciples are “slow of heart to believe.”  They are not just indifferent to the news of Easter; they are resistant.  Perhaps a clue can be found in what the disciples are called in this story.  Initially Luke tells us that the women told the news of resurrection to the eleven, but later he changes their title to the apostles, to those who are sent.  So if the news of Sunday is true, then they must become apostles.  They must go to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Macedonia, to Rome, and to the ends of the earth.

What must we believe?  If Jesus really rose from the dead, then that means that he is loose in the world with power to raise us up from whatever is dragging us down – persons who were victimized as children; those who, in the most delicate stages of life, missed out on the nurturing they needed to become healthy adults; those who in their young adult life made choices which haunt them to this day; those who have experienced serious illness; those who live with constant and chronic maladies; those who are caregivers of the sick; those who have experienced great loss and know the dull ache of grief; still others who struggle to find and maintain healthy relationships in our addicted and co-dependent world.  Easter means that the story of hopeless finality is, in the end, nothing but Friday talk.

Easter means that resurrection points to the defeat of death and the promise of eternal life in the world to come.  The reality of the resurrection adds meaning and dimension and hope to the totality of our lives.  The reality of the Resurrection adds meaning to every choice we make and our entire outlook on life.  We reap the rewards throughout our lives, not merely at the end of them.  Easter does not take away the pain of life, the mistakes of life, the sins of life, but it reminds us of God’s love; it makes a reality of God’s promised future; it defeats the ultimate limitation of human existence – death.  It does bring new life, a new creation, even in the here and now.  It says that those who bear heavy burdens will feel them lifted.  It reminds us that the smallest events in human life can be events that are filled with meaning and can be occasions of joy.  We do not need riches, or power, or any of the false securities that seem so attractive; those realities are mortal and are futile.  The resurrection means that love and life transcend these things.  In doing so, the simple pleasures of life take on a whole new significance.  Life is not futile, there is an end to suffering, love has meaning, forgiveness leads to life eternal.  And that is good news!!

What must we believe?  What, then, are the tangible evidences of resurrection in our present experience?  Do they consist of the physical remains of the tomb, or in Jesus’ continuing presence in the lives of those who hope for his kingdom?  What might we see if Jesus’ tomb had been equipped with a 21^st century SmartPhone?  Would the video show Jesus waking up, taking off the wrappings, folding them, and laying them to one side, pushing back the stone, and walking out of the tomb?  Or would the image have been obliterated by a flash of light from beyond the grave and then reveal the grave wrappings lying there limp and empty?  When did those followers of Christ come to believe?  All of the Gospel writers agree on one thing:  Three days after the Crucifixion, the Apostles still didn’t get it.  Without the physical presence of their living leader, the doors to the upper room remained locked, the Good News of Jesus’ ministry remained entombed.  There is at this moment the absence of a body, but no Resurrection.

The Gospels all affirm that the tomb was empty, yet they point beyond it to the post-resurrection appearances.  It was in the breaking of the bread, the asking for food, the speaking of their names that the disciples came to believe.  When did you come to believe?  Was it in the presence of a group of Christians who welcomed you to the church without asking questions and sat with you on the back row as you cried on Sundays?  Was it in the quiet appearance of someone from the church at a time of great need?  Was it in the breaking of bread on a mission trip or Walk to Emmaus with those you barely knew?  Was it when you faced surgery and realized that you could put your faith in God, no matter what the outcome?  Was it as you sat at the funeral services of a close friend who had died an tragic, untimely death and you felt the presence of the living God in those who were present with you?  Was it when you felt isolated, alone, praying for death to come that you realized God was present with you, your prayer had been heard?  Was it in a set of circumstances that you would never have dreamed would reveal the presence of the living Lord to you?  Was it when you realized that the motto “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” was really true?  Was it when you looked at doorways and banners and recognized the countless hours that had been selflessly devoted to proclaiming God’s message?  Was it when you saw a Christian treat someone of another faith the way that Jesus taught?  Those are the moments when we who call ourselves disciples need to say a word to others about what God has done for us.

The kids have it right.  The song has it right.  Our God is an awesome God.  In the passage from Acts which is always an Easter passage, Peter preaches.  “God raised him on the third day and made him manifest;not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.  And he commanded us to preach to the people….”  When did you believe?  Go forth on this Easter day and share the word of the Lord, the word that is printed on our Easter banners today, “Christ is Risen.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!”  Stand and say it with me.  “Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!”  Amen.