The power of Easter (chapter 26 of the Story)
Reinbeck UMC
January 25, 2015
There are some things in life that are pretty reliable.
Gravity holds us pretty firmly to the ground.
The sun will always rise and set each day.
The new reality TV show will always be even more stupid than the last.
If someone dies, they always stay dead. We write an obituary to say goodbye, being pretty certain that is the end, and if their life were a movie, the credits would start rolling any second.
That’s what the disciples thought too.
For the disciples, the last days had been filled with despair. They must have been. The disciples, after all, had put their whole lives on hold to follow Jesus. They left jobs, and families, and hopes, and dreams to follow the one they believed to be the messiah.
On Thursday night and Friday, they stood back and watched him: captured, tried, beaten, mocked, stripped, whipped, tortured, scorned, kicked, derided, pushed, dragged, nailed, bleeding, suffering, dying…. Dead.
Up until that moment, maybe they had hope. Up until the moment when he said, “It is finished,” perhaps they had hope that he would do something dramatic. Up until his last breath, they may have hoped for a miracle. Up until then, they may have held out for a different kind of ending. But in their mind, with Jesus’ last breath, the credits started rolling. The rock in front of the tomb read “THE END.”
THE END.
THE END, so what did Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome expect to see when they took more spices to the tomb that Sunday morning? They expected the rock to be in place, the guards to be on watch, and most of all they expected Jesus’ body to be in the grave. They expected to smell the scent of the spices just barely covering the smell of death. They expected to see him wrapped securely in the clean cloths, which they had used to wrap him after they cleaned up his body. They expected to see him still lying on the stone shelf where they had left him 36 hours before.
If that has been the case, there would be no Easter. If things had gone as they planned, we almost certainly would never have heard of Jesus. If that were the end of the story, the New Testament would never have been written. If the body had behaved itself and would have been there when the women got there, the church would not exist and we would not be here today.
The disciples didn’t expect to have their world turned upside down. However, when they didn’t find what they expected, everything went topsy-turvy. The rock had been rolled back, the guards were nowhere to be found, and the body was NOT in the tomb. Can you understand how confusing that was?
Matthew emphasizes the fear and confusion with an earthquake. “ And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.” The women were afraid and I would have been too.
The earthquake is more than a mere prop or coincidence. The earthquake reminds us that this is a tremendous cosmic event that rattles the very foundations of the universe.
Each of the gospels report one or two angels, or what was described as one or two men in dazzling clothes, bringing the Easter message to the women. Unlike the angel that came to Mary and Joseph in the annunciation, it seems as though the presence of this angel was frightening because Matthew reports, “The guards shook and became like dead men and the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.”
Perhaps the most revealing question comes from Luke, “Why do you seek the living among the dead.” Didn’t Jesus say he was going to rise again? Didn’t Jesus promise that he would come back in three days? Didn’t Jesus foretell his death and resurrection several times?
Of course he did. Matthew, Mark and Luke all quote Jesus saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” John and Mark record Jesus saying that if his “enemies destroyed this temple, (his body) he would rebuild it in three days.” There were more obscure references like the sign of Jonah, and others.
So the question stands, why were they seeking the living among the dead? Either they didn’t pay attention to Jesus, or they didn’t believe.
The angels almost have to draw a picture for them to get them to make the connection between what Jesus said, and what they were seeing.
So, what did they think?
Obviously, they thought that someone had stolen or moved the body.
In John, the women report, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Mary says to the gardener, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” It is as though they thought someone was playing hide and seek with the body, and they just weren’t in the mood to play games.
From where we sit, after four gospel accounts, 2000 years of church history, the witness of the disciples, and countless disciples since them, and our own experiences, we see Easter differently. We know that after Good Friday, came Easter Sunday, but they didn’t.
It is almost impossible for us to imagine the shock and horror they must have felt, the confusion that made their heads swim, the fear that gripped them, the anger they felt thinking someone had taken the body. The gospels use a variety of words, they were “alarmed” (I think that is probably the understatement of the day) they were “perplexed,” “terrified,” “amazed” and “afraid.”
Are you? Are you “alarmed,” “perplexed,” “terrified,” “amazed” and “afraid” when we read the Easter Story? Probably not. I’m not either.
But, why aren’t we? Why don’t we approach Easter feeling perplexed, terrified, amazed, and afraid? Have we lost the awe of the resurrection?
Some might say it is because we don’t take it seriously, we treat it like some sort of game of hide and seek, or as though Jesus was like the energizer bunny, or divine ground hog that sticks his head up to see if it is Easter morning.
Some of us look at Easter as a slick magic trick where Jesus dramatically disappeared when the pretty girl pushed the rock in front of him and the magician waved his magic wand.
Some of us approach Easter as a heavenly special effect, as we so often see in the movies, where it is difficult to tell the difference between the real actors and the computer-generated models.
Some say it is impossible for us NOT to read the story backwards through the lenses of 20 centuries of Easter, and after that many years it just becomes routine.
But I have a different perspective. I want to suggest today, that for us, Easter is radically different than it was for the first disciples, not because we take it for granted, or fail to understand, but because we see it through the lenses of our upper story glasses.
Remember the upper story is God’s vision and ultimate plan for creation and his creatures. The lower story is what happens here on the earth that we call history.
Think about it. Jesus was captured… in which story, upper or lower?? … Lower story. That was a completely earthly event.
Jesus was unjustly tried, in which story, upper or lower?? … Lower. That trial was a completely lower story injustice.
Jesus was tortured and killed in which story, upper or lower?? … Lower. In the upper story, Jesus is eternal and infinite.
Jesus was buried in which story, upper or lower?? ... Lower. There are no graves in heaven.
So when the women walked to the tomb that morning, they were thinking in which story? Lower story. That was the only pair of glasses they had. Through their lower story glasses “alarmed,” “perplexed,” “terrified,” “amazed” and “afraid” is perfectly understandable.
We, on the other hand, look at Jesus death and resurrection through upper story lenses. Not because that comes naturally to us, but because that is what we have been taught. We have been taught that either through these events, or in spite of these events God was working toward his upper story vision of doing life with people who love God and each other.
Remember that I told you, when we studied the incarnation of Jesus, and the story of Christmas, God’s upper story came crashing into the lower story? Now get this… with the resurrection of Jesus, God takes his upper story vision, and our lower story lives and ties a great big love knot so that no matter what we do, our lives are always tied to God’s vision. Our lives are always tied to God’s Grace. Our lives will always be tied to God’s love.
Do you think there is anything you can do that will untie you from God’s love? The resurrection shouts a great big no!
Do you think there is any evil we can perpetrate that is worse than torturing and killing the Son of God on a cross that will loosen God’s love grip on you? The resurrection shouts a great big no!
Do you think that there is any way you can offend God more than selling his son for 30 pieces of Silver that will unravel God’s love for you? The resurrection shouts a great big no!
Do you think there is any way you can disappoint God more than Peter did in denying him three times that will remove you from God’s love? The resurrection shouts a great big no!
Do you think there is any hatred in our hearts greater than the hatred that nailed Jesus to the cross that could keep God from loving you from God’s love? The resurrection shouts a great big no!
Do you think there is anything you could do or imagine that could separate you from the love of God?? ... The resurrection of Christ our savior shouts a great big no!
God’s resurrection means that God’s love for us is stronger the murder of his son.
God’s resurrection means that God’s love for us is stronger than death.
God’s resurrection means that God’s love for us is stronger than all the power of Satan in hell.
God’s resurrection means that God’s love for us is stronger than any sin committed by any person at any time.
Sure, the resurrection of Jesus on Easter violates every rule of science, undermines every expectation of humanity, defies the explanation of the greatest minds, breaks down all logic and rationalization, and subverts our understanding of guilt and judgment.
So, Praise God. That’s right praise God! Because it is not our job to understand the resurrection
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