April 9, 2023 Sermon
Scripture: Luke 24:1-12
Sermon title: "He is Risen!"
(Other lectionary choices include Acts 10:34-43, Psalm 118:1-2 and 14-24, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-18. or Matthew 28:1-10.)
Luke 24:1-12
The Resurrection of Jesus
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Once again, Good morning and Happy Easter! This truly is the day the Lord has made, and we can rejoice and be glad in it! This day over all others in the Christian calendar gives us hope. Christ is risen! And because HE is risen, you and I now have the hope of new life once this one is over. But let's not be "selfish," if I may use that word. Certainly the Empty Tomb and the Risen Christ are good for you and me personally - but they are also good for our broken world, because what they proclaim is that GOD is still running this world, not Rome, not Caesar, not Vladimir Putin, not Xi Jin Ping of China (if I got his name correctly!), and not the good ol' US of A, either! We have a wonderful country, and I'm proud to be an American. But we are still UNDER GOD, and we are just another country UNDER GOD! The Resurrection reminds us that it's GOD's world, not ours, and God's Will will be done, not ours!
I suppose I should say the traditional things preachers say at Easter, and those are that the Empty Tomb represents God's victory over sin and death. And when we proclaim, "He is Risen!", we are proclaiming that victory. But for me, the Empty Tomb and the Risen Christ represent what I have already said: God is running things, not the powers and principalities (the Apostle Paul's words) of this world. What does Handel's "Messiah" say, quoting from the book of Revelation in the "Hallelujah" Chorus? "The kingdom of this world ,,,,,has become....THE KINGDOM of the LORD, and of HIS CHRIST, and of HIS CHRIST! And HE shall REIGN FOREVER and EVER!" That's the powerful, hopeful message of Easter, and despite what may look like evidence to the contrary, it's God's world and God's Will will eventually be done. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said one time that the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice. And that's the message of Easter, too: while things may appear hopeless, God is still running things, and He shall reign forever and ever!
There is another aspect to the Easter story, and that is the aspect of SURPRISE! God surprises us with the Empty Tomb. As we heard in this morning's Scripture lesson, the women were surprised when they went to anoint the body, and it wasn't there! They told the apostles, who didn't believe the women, although Peter ran to the tomb, looked inside, and was probably surprised somewhat. But he was so surprised he went back home to think about things! This is almost funny!
We are in the Gospel of Luke, and Luke doesn't say so, but the Gospel of John does - and John says that Peter was so surprised that he went fishing! Did he go fishing because it was what he knew, an occupation that would NOT surprise him? Or did he do it to think about all that had happened: Jesus arrested, Peter's own denial of him, Jesus tortured and killed, and now an Empty Tomb! Was Jesus coming back to "get" Peter for his unfaithfulness? All these things may have been swirling about in Peter's mind, and he needed time to think!
As you know, before I was a minister I was a TV newsperson, and one of my heroes was the late Harry Reasoner. He said one time that what he tried to do was read the news without stumbling too much, and also to not be too SURPRISED at anything. Well, God surprised EVERYONE this time. The belief among the Jewish community of Jesus's day was that there would be a general Resurrection of the Just, meaning all the faithful, good people would be raised at once. But SURPRISE! God raised only one person this time, and that was Jesus. What do you do when your worldview is turned upside down? One thing you do is not believe what is happening - another thing you do is sneak off by yourself or a few others and try to figure out what is going on. I think that was what was happening to the disciples and all the other "hangers on" in the Jesus movement. It wasn't a lack of faith. "It was simply that nobody had ever dreamed that one single living person would be killed stone dead and then raised to a new sort of bodily life the other side of the grave, while the rest of the world carried on as before." These are the words of the scholar N. T. Wright, from his commentary "Luke for Everyone". And he says something else:
"The opening mood of Easter morning, then, is one of surprise, astonishment, fear, and confusion. Yes, Jesus did say something like this would occur; he told us so all right. But we still don't know what's going on, what it all means, what will happen next.....Easter is always a surprise, whether we meet it in celebrating the feast itself, or in the sudden surges of God's grace overturning tragedy in our own lives or in the world..... From the beginning, the gospel is GOOD NEWS not least because it dares to tell us things we didn't expect, weren't inclined to believe, and couldn't understand. Did we expect the gospel would be something obvious, something we could have dreamed up for ourselves?" Amen! Hallelujah! He is risen! The Lord reigns, and he shall reign forever and ever!
Pastor Skip
