The Lord is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
This phrase, repeated around the world in many different
languages, reminds us of the defining moment on which all human history hinges.
In Zimbabwe, I heard them sing, “Namhla uvukile!” In Greece, they cry, “Χριστός
Ανέστη!” Some might say “Happy Easter!” Others might say nothing
special, but even in our silence, this reality – that Jesus the Messiah died
and rose from the dead – this reality changes everything.
From the Scriptures
Easter sermons are challenging. We have heard the story so
often that the scripture passages go by us almost without our being aware.
Listen to the Scriptures this morning. The passage from Isaiah (Isaiah 65:
17-25) is titled “The Glorious New Creation”. It gives us a picture of where we
are going, of our final goal as God’s children. On the way, we walk in darkness
and terror, but our goal is the new heavens and earth in which death and tears
are destroyed forever and in which everyone is in perfect relationship with our
Creator.
The death and resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point in
history that transforms darkness into light and terror into joy. The gospel passages tell the story of that great event.
We also read from John 20. The chapters leading up to John
20 tell how Jesus was arrested, tried, and killed. Chapter 20 is “the rest of
the story” (John 20: 1-18). Jesus was killed the Friday before. Friday was day
one, Saturday was day two. Sunday was the third day, and on the third day Jesus
rose from the dead.
The story continues with Mary Magdalene, who had found life
in the ministry of Jesus. She came to the tomb, carved into a hillside, and
found the stone in front of the tomb rolled away. She called Peter and John.
Peter and John, who were very close to Jesus during his
life, came to the tomb where they had laid his body on Friday afternoon. They
found the tomb empty. Just as we opened all the boxes this morning and found
nothing there, they looked inside the tomb and found nothing there – except the
light of God’s presence.
They didn’t know what this meant and left, but Mary hung
around. She couldn’t leave. And then Jesus appeared to her. After a brief conversation,
she realized that this was Jesus and fell at his feet to worship him. Jesus
told her not to touch him yet and sent her off to tell the disciples he was
alive again. [I’m not sure why Jesus told Mary, “Don’t touch me,” and then told
Thomas later, “Touch me.” I have some ideas, but it is a puzzling
circumstance.]
We could examine the story verse by verse, but this outline
is enough for now. I want to struggle a bit with the overall story and what it
means for us.
[A parenthesis: The details of
John’s account differ from the details in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Matthew,
Mary and Mary were there; in Mark, Mary and Mary and Salome; in Luke, “the
women” – which may mean more than the three named – were there. Other details
also differ. Note that they differ in just the way that we would expect of
eyewitness accounts. The gospel writers did not put their heads together to
clean their story up, but they repeated what the eyewitnesses said. With all
the confusion we would expect.]
What Would You Do?
What would you do if a close friend and mentor died, but
when you looked in the casket it was empty? Especially if you knew that the
body had been there the night before. The natural conclusion is that someone
took the body. That’s what Mary thinks. I suspect that’s what Peter and John
thought too. They went back home. For what? Perhaps to think it over. Mary
stayed there, grieving. When she saw Jesus, she assumed that he might know who
took the body. Well, he knew alright!
Sometimes people think that Christians are a bit loopy with
our talk of death and resurrection. Dead people don’t rise! The disciples agreed.
They knew that dead bodies stay dead, and that’s why they responded as they did
– with skepticism and doubts. Jesus appeared to them many times over the next
month or so. They took some convincing!
One of the most remarkable things about the gospel passages
is that trained historians tell us that the accounts look simply factual. They
are not fabricated stories, and they don’t look like mass hallucination or
lies. They simply tell what happened. But if the resurrection really happened,
if Jesus died and rose from the dead, then reality itself is the story of death
leading to life.
Competing Narratives
Let’s think about this for a bit.
Many people today think that life is essentially
meaningless. You do whatever feels good for the moment, because when it’s all
over it’s just over. Some people with this view are quite happy. They live their
lives pursuing their desires, and that’s enough. In the end, however, I think
this view leads to darkness and a loss of meaning.
Consider world events. Russia invades Ukraine. The Russian
Army targets civilians and basic infrastructure. This pattern takes place all
over the world. Those who come from the Eastern Congo could tell us stories of
armed men who kill ruthlessly and destroy anyone who stands in their way. Those
who come from northwest China could tell us stories of how the Chinese
government has tried to eradicate the Uighur people. Our own history makes clear
that the lust for power leads governments to act in ways that lead to darkness.
It is possible, given the random nature of these acts of
violence, to conclude that the essence of reality is nothing more than violence.
The teachings of Jesus make little sense in this kind of world. Christians
really have no place. Our talk of peace and love sounds nice, but where do we
stand when the Russian Army devastates the city of Mariupol.
A lot of popular culture builds on this view of reality. It
may be music that glorifies guns and violence, or video games that do the same;
it may be movies that we say are “realistic”: They show how random and brutal
life is. Many movies depict the end of our world in some apocalyptic fashion. I
plugged “apocalyptic movies” into a search engine and came up with a website
titled “100 Best Disaster, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Movies.” None of
which I have seen, but they illustrate our fascination with violence and an unpleasant
end.
Behind all of this is the idea that all of reality is no
more than the natural physical material around us. Life is no more than a
biological phenomenon on a planet that will eventually grow cold and circulate
a dead sun forever. En joy what you can while you can, because it will all die.
Easter Sunday – the resurrection of Jesus – builds a
competing narrative, one of possibilities and hope that lie within the violence
and destruction of our world. When we examine it, we find that there is a lot
of evidence to show that it fits the reality of our world. Consider some
examples.
Where does a diamond come from?
How does a butterfly become a
butterfly?
What is the manure that
fertilizes plants?
Where does an oak tree come from?
Consider the process of human
birth, coming from people who will all die.
In every case, you have something that undergoes a process
of death and decay, leading to the fact of new birth and life.
Different religions have found different ways to express
this reality. The idea of reincarnation in Hinduism is one. The stories of a
dying and rising God in several ancient religions are another. We see this
basic reality every spring when winter finally releases its hold and new life
bursts forth. That new life is almost always something that grows out of the
death of something else. Oak trees grow from acorns that fell off the parent
true. Waste material is turned into fertilizer, which helps plants to grow.
Butterflies leave the cocoon made by the caterpillar, something like the worm
making its own coffin.
And then we hear the story of Jesus, a man who identified
completely as God and died – and then rose from the dead. Someone has said that
the resurrection of Jesus is “myth become fact”. What they mean is this: The
idea of death giving birth to life is a deep and powerful idea, which helps us
recognize the good that grows out of difficult experiences. And in the case of
Jesus, it simply happened. It is no longer just a good idea that we can draw on
in our thinking; it is in fact what happened.
Jesus died, and Jesus rose with new life. God joins each of
us in the hardest experience of all – our own deaths, and God invites us to
follow Jesus into new life that lasts forever.
Our Focus Statement
Each Sunday, we have a focus statement that guides the
formation of the whole service. You see our focus statement for today: “As we
seek God’s way, we move from the confidence of knowing how things are to the
unsettling openness of realizing God’s ways are beyond what we can imagine.”
You might think that this means people are confident in
their ability to explain reality in a positive way, but I think it simply means
people are confident in their ability to explain reality. Their explanation may
be positive or negative, but they know what’s really going on. Or they think
they know.
We see this certainty on all sides of the issues that face
our world. Progressives and conservatives share an absolute confidence that
they see the world as it truly is, and nothing you can say will change their
minds. But this certainty is self-defeating. Reality is more complex than our
minds can grasp. That is the basic problem with the negative worldview I
described earlier. We see how bad things are happening and we worry about how
far the war will spread. And we project our own fears onto a screen in which
the final reality is only death.
Back to the Disciples, Back to Us
That is where the disciples were. They knew that Jesus had
died, and it took a lot to persuade them that he was alive again. Mary knew
that Jesus had died. And then he spoke her name; he spoke into her soul.
This is also where we are. We hear the news of the world,
and we face the problems of our lives. It seems that God is not a factor
anymore. We hear someone say, “God is dead,” and we think they must be right. Then
Jesus speaks into our soul and speaks our name. And someone tells us, “He is
risen!” Do you realize what we are saying with that statement?
I think of my friend’s death. He died a few months ago. Twelve
years ago, we had a falling out, and we never spoke again. I grieve his
passing, and I had not chance to make things right. But the resurrection says
that’s not the end of the story. I see no hope in his death, but Jesus gives
hope that he and I will celebrate together in the presence of God.
I think of the destruction of Mariupol. What hope can there
be in such terrible hate and despair? I see no way that anything good can come
from that war. But the resurrection says that’s not the end of the story. Jesus
gives hope that life can come back even into the destruction of Mariupol. I
don’t see the way forward, but the unsettling openness of God’s future promises
even the possibility of new life there.
I think of a celebrated pastor in my denomination of origin.
After a highly successful pastoral ministry, he had to resign earlier this year
because of problems with sexual harassment. Those who are sure they know what
is real say, “You see! We knew you’re all fakes!” Jesus confronts their
certainty that everything is rotten and opens up possibilities for repentance
and healing, the real possibility of new life.
Conclusion
I don’t know how all of this works, but I have met the Risen Lord for
myself. I have had my own times of darkness and my own fears that border on
certainty, and Jesus dispelled them. When I say to you, “Christ is Risen!” – and
when you reply – “Christ is Risen indeed!”, we are refusing to be bound by our
own limited reality. We are opening ourselves to the deeper reality that lies
behind the universe itself – that death is itself the path to eternal life and
that we can join Christ on this path. Every one of us will die, and Jesus
invites every one of us to live again with his life forever.
Steinbach Mennonite Church
17 April 2022
