Christ Among Us!

Easter Sunday

This day is the climax and capstone of the church year. Today we say, “Christ is Risen!” And we echo in reply, “Christ is Risen Indeed!” Hebrew-speaking Christians in Jerusalem say, “Ha Mashiyach qam!” Greek-speaking Christians say, “Christos Anesti (Χριστός ἀνέστη)!” Our grandparents in Russia-Ukraine might have said, “Christus ist auferstanden!” Our French-speaking neighbours when we moved to Canada said, “Le Christ est ressuscité.” I can still hear my Zimbabwean brothers and sisters sing out, “Namhla uvukile! Alleluia!”

All around the world we celebrate in every language the reality that Jesus overcame death and hell and has set us free. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

The Idea of Resurrection

What is “resurrection” anyway. Our words are too small to capture the enormity of this event. Lazarus was raised from the dead a few weeks before (John 11), but that just meant that he was alive again – as if he had never died. The resurrection of Jesus means much more than simply “brought back to the life we have on this earth.”

In the reading from John 20, Jesus refers to being glorified, taken into the heart of God and then returned to us in his risen state. When he meets others later in John’s gospel, he does not avoid physical contact. He has now been “glorified”, whatever that means, and stands before them in his risen glory. Resurrection means more than simply “made alive again”. What is that more?

Many think of earth and heaven as two spheres or realms, in which heaven is “up there” and earth is “down here”. Down here is earthly and real; up there is spiritual and only may be real. You can see this viewpoint in the way that we think about the coming of Jesus at the end of times. “Lo he comes with clouds descending …” Jesus will come down from heaven to earth: At least, that’s the way we think of it. He is “up there” now, and then he will be down here with us. You can see this viewpoint also in the way that we talk about what happens to us then, as well as what happens when we do. We will go “up to heaven” to live with Jesus “up there”. 

Of course, the NT uses this language. “You Galileans, why do you stand here looking into the sky. Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go.” (Acts 1:11) But the New Testament also uses other language that suggests something other than this two-level kind of thinking with heaven and spiritual and God “up there somewhere” and earth and physical and real down here around us. The NT also speaks of a new heavens and new earth, something that is already present. It speaks of Jesus appearing, not simply coming back.

Consider the way Luke 17:30 puts it: “It will be just like this on the day that the Son of Man will be revealed …” You hear that note: When [Jesus] will be revealed. Jesus is here now, already, even though we cannot see him. In his second coming, he will be revealed and we will see the one who has always been here with us. Or as Hebrews 9:28 puts it, “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Again, John says in 1 John 2:28: “Now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” Or John the Revelator’s picture of the judgment at the end of all things: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence …” (Rev. 20:11).

The most common metaphor for all of this is that Jesus is “coming” again, but I have emphasised these particular texts to help us see that this does not mean Jesus is somewhere off in the sky and will come down to earth at the end. Rather, Jesus is here, and we will see him. He will step out from behind the curtain, and we will see him. He will take the veil from our eyes, and we will see him.

Paul does use the image of going up in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16 and 17: “The Lord himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” But taken together with all the other passages, I suggest that Paul is trying to picture something beyond our comprehension and uses images to help us grasp its wonder and glory. I want to offer another image alongside Paul’s – not in place of it, but something to help us get inside of it.

 

As N.T. Wright has noted, we think of the End of all things as being the moment when the earth is destroyed and we go up to Heaven. Earth, we think, will be taken up into Heaven, but the book of Revelations suggests as different picture. I read from Revelations 20 earlier: “The earth and the heavens fled from [God’s] presence.” The next chapter elaborates on that picture in language borrowed from Isaiah 65 and 66: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no longer any sea.” This is the new creation. This is the creation as it was meant to be, and we live in it. Earth is not taken up into Heaven, but the New Heaven and the New Earth come down and swallow up the old creation with all of its faults. This old creation, full of sin and despair, flees from God’s presence, and we live in the New Creation, inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus.

So What?

Where is this new creation? Out there somewhere at the end of time? Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21) Listen to the verses where Jesus said this: “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say – Here it is, or There it is – because the kingdom of God is in your midst.’”

Do you get it? The resurrection is the inauguration of God’s Reign in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We don’t have to wait until the end of time for this new creation, because it is already here in us, in our congregation, in the gathered people of God, stuttering and stammering about, struggling to make it through, and already God’s Reign is here in us!

Wright suggests an image to describe this reality. Think of us as the characters in a play, with an audience that we can’t see because of the floodlights and action that goes on all around us beyond our senses. Then the curtain is raised, floodlights go off and the general lights come on, and we can see what is really happening. We have been on our own little corner of a much larger stage than we knew existed, and when the curtain goes up and the lights all come on, we see what has really been going on all along – the full reign of God in the new heavens and earth.

Really?

Life in the congregation of God’s People is not always easy. It is not always nice. We are not always kind to each other. The old creation lives on in our memories, and we act out of those memories all too often. But we really are a new creation, the promise of the resurrection. Paul says it, “If any one is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Our life together may be filled with failure and regret: In that respect, it’s a lot like the disciples’ experience with Jesus. That’s why Jesus died for them and for us. Jesus rose for them and for us. Jesus creates heaven and earth anew in them and in us.

The Texts

Look back at the texts that we read. Isaiah 25 draws the picture that I have been trying to describe:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the LORD God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is an image of the new creation, brought to us by the resurrection of Jesus! This is a picture of the fuller reality of God’s Reign, already here and yet still coming.

In John 20, we have the story that we have heard many times – Mary Magdalene (and some other women named in the other gospels) come to Jesus’ grave early in the morning; they find it empty, so Mary runs and tells Peter and John that the grave is empty. They run to the grave and find it empty, with the evidence left behind of Jesus’ graveclothes. Then Mary returns. She sees two angels who ask her why she’s crying; she replies that the grave is empty and she doesn’t know where Jesus’ body is. Then she sees Jesus, but doesn’t recognise him until he says her name, “Mary.” She falls at his feet, and he tells her not to touch him because he is on his way to the fullness of the Godhead. Mary then returned to the disciples and told them what she had seen.

The note about Jesus going to his Father – what I called “the fullness of the Godhead” – is a clue to the inauguration of the new creation: When Jesus is glorified, he makes all things new. But I note just one small point about this interaction between Jesus and Mary, decisive in helping us understand the new creation. Mary did not recognize the risen Lord until he said her name. She knew him because he knew her. At the very centre of the new creation, we see the reality of relationships.

I said that the new heavens and earth have already come, and that we find them in our midst. How do we find the beginnings of the new creation? Where is it? It is in our relationships – with God and with each other. The way that God cares for us and the way that we care for God. The way that you care for your brother or sister and the way that they care for you.

You remember the old TV show, “Cheers”? It was set in the bar where “everyone knows your name.” You sometimes find this kind of caring enveloping friendship outside of the church – quite often, in fact. It’s something that God has placed within us and wants to nurture in all of our lives, but we take it a step further in the church.

Remember Philippians 2: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.” This is the mark of God’s Reign. This is the beginning of the new creation, brought in by Jesus’ death and resurrection. We take care of each other at the deepest most fundamental levels.

An old preacher’s story makes the point. A man dreamed that he had died and found himself standing before two doors. One door was marked as the way to Hell. It opened, and he saw a great banquet table filled with the best food and drink imaginable – just like the vision in Isaiah 25. But everyone seated at the table had only a spoon chained to their wrist, which was far too long to turn around and put into their mouths. They suffered forever straining to reach the bounty before them, forever going hungry.

He turned towards the other door, marked as the way to Heaven. It opened, and he saw a similar great feast, all the best food and drink available for the guests sitting at the table. He saw that they also had the same long spoons chained to their wrists, but they were all feeding each other. They enjoyed the banquet to the full as each one looked out for the interests of the other.

It’s a simple picture, but it is also true. Jesus’ resurrection inaugurates the new reality of God’s Reign in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We can step into that new creation as we embrace the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, a reality we see most clearly as we enfold each other in the love of Christ. The New Creation really is the place where everyone knows your name. God knows it, and God calls you and me by name, just as he spoke to Mary.

It’s true. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Easter Sunday 2024

Scriptures

Isaiah 25:6–9

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. ⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

⁹ It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

 John 20:1–18

The Resurrection of Jesus

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

Focus Statement

In the garden, when Jesus called Mary’s name, all things were made new. In a time when women were considered insignificant, the resurrected Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, trusted her to be a reliable witness to his resurrection, and commissioned her to be the first to preach the good news of his resurrection. Since that day, social constructs and barriers are broken down, the shroud is lifted, and sins are forgiven. We are a new creation. Death is swallowed up, and life is everlasting! Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is among us!