Luke 24:1-12
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” he said. “He is not here, but has risen.” As far back as I can remember, at least in my adult life, part of my Easter celebration has always been to call my mom and say, “He is Risen!” and hear her respond, “He is risen indeed!” That’s how we greet each other, without even saying hello! Likewise, many of us have that tradition at church – even before the service begins – and I love being able to say that together as God’s people! It’s such a great feeling to proclaim the resurrection of Christ. As good as it feels to say that, and as basic as it is to our proclamation about God, I seem to hear from more people these days that the thing they just can’t fathom about Christianity is believing in the resurrection of Jesus.
Perhaps it has become “an idle tale” for so many because of advances in science that make us want to claim a greater understanding of the mysteries of the universe than we might actually have. Scientific curiosity is still a good thing. It’s a tool for understanding the beauty and complexity of God’s creation, and right now it is especially important as a means by which we can open ourselves to gifts of healing and opportunities to care for one another.
Still, there are those that say that the resurrection of Jesus is just too much to swallow. Of course, this point has been argued from the very beginning – well before the development of the scientific method. One of the earliest conflicts for followers of Jesus was about his humanity versus his divinity. Was it a real death? Was it a real resurrection, or was his body just a vessel of a greater spiritual reality? Gregory of Nanzius argued the point that “what he did not assume, he did not redeem.”
In other words, it had to be a real death and a real resurrection in order to assure us that our death is not the final answer. Given the year we’ve had, I doubt that there is something more important to hear than the assurance that death is not the final answer!
Regardless of how you feel about the resurrection of Jesus, what we know from this text is that God saw fit to reveal this truth to those that came looking for him at the tomb. I can’t imagine the range of emotions these women went through as they prepared the spices and worried over how to move the stone and what kind of stench there might already be.
When they finally got there, the stone was rolled away. They went in, but instead of the body of Jesus there were suddenly two men in dazzling white. Then it says in verses 5-7 that they 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. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered. I can’t help but think these flashes of memory came to them like they did to Dori in “Finding Nemo.” Not only would they have remembered the example and teaching of Jesus, but they would have to have seen it in light of their faith. Every promise that God ever made through the prophets led to the cross. Every hope and every fear that we have shared– as God’s creation – is answered by the two bedazzled men at the tomb who said, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen!”
When we hear that proclamation and respond with, “He is risen indeed!” it’s not just a buzz word or a dog whistle. When we say, “He is risen indeed!” we are affirming that God is God. We are saying that God has authority over life and death, and that through God’s action of the physical resurrection of Jesus we can have hope. We have hope not only during this life, but even in death.
That’s some good news we need to hear because there have been too many deaths this year. We’ve had too much disagreement over causes of death and how we have contributed to the spread of disease. We’ve had too much disagreement over the science of inquiry and the way by which we can express compassion and care. Today is not a day to win any of those arguments. Today is a day to get beyond them.
It’s not about bunnies and eggs, unless they remind us of Christ. It’s about the resurrection, and the hope it brings in all things. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we do not intend to rationalize it or make sense of it scientifically or metabolically, or any other way. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we do not say it because it is good theology and sound doctrine. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we say it because our faith has led us to believe that we can expect God’s love to outlast, reform, and reframe anything this world throws at us.
Life is full of tragedies, large and small. In our disappointments and losses, we need to know that there is something more to hope for. And when we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus, we remember. Like the women at the tomb it quickens something within us. It puts things in perspective and gives us a reason to tell others, “This thing you are facing is not the end!”
And if we, like Peter, find ourselves racing to the tomb expecting to see Jesus, then we will simply be amazed and bewildered. Of course, the story does not stop there. Jesus later appears to Peter and the other disciples, but today we are challenged with just those words, “He is risen.”
Affirming the resurrection of Jesus means affirming the death of Christ – the one anointed by God to demonstrate God’s active presence in the world. Affirming the death of Christ means affirming the problem of sin and self-centeredness that has never truly gone away. And affirming the resurrection of Jesus means affirming the power of God to break through even our own self-centeredness.
It means that our hope is not limited to our ability to make it through our current struggles, for our hope is grounded in the expectation that we will experience our own resurrection in this life and in the life to come. Our tombs of addiction, affluence without compassion, racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the fears that separate and alienate us from each other and from God cannot hold us when we hear that he is risen and we remember what Jesus came to do.
Jesus came to demonstrate the power of God over sin and death. Jesus came to call our attention to the fact that God’s kingdom is at hand. In his life he taught and healed gave us an example to follow. In his death, he challenged the powers that attempt to control and condemn. And in his resurrection, he continues to offer us hope and new life every day, even as we await eternal reunion with him and with those we love.
And so, on this day we proclaim that “He is risen,” and we claim all of the opportunity and responsibility that comes with it. We claim the hope that builds us up and saves us from our own limitations. We claim freedom from the sins and attitudes that keep us from recognizing the humanity of others. We claim the responsibility of running to others that may need to hear that Christ is risen. And we even claim the responsibility to demonstrate the Kingdom of God through our compassion, our willingness to recognize our own limitations and our need for one another, and our trust in God to hold us close in this life and in the life to come!
With the hope of such a union, let us approach God’s table today, knowing that the work of Christ to bring us into a more common union with God and one another was finished on the cross, and our proclamation has only just begun. For we believe, and so we proclaim through our words and our actions, “He is risen indeed!” Amen.
When they finally got there, the stone was rolled away. They went in, but instead of the body of Jesus there were suddenly two men in dazzling white. Then it says in verses 5-7 that they 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. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered. I can’t help but think these flashes of memory came to them like they did to Dori in “Finding Nemo.” Not only would they have remembered the example and teaching of Jesus, but they would have to have seen it in light of their faith. Every promise that God ever made through the prophets led to the cross. Every hope and every fear that we have shared– as God’s creation – is answered by the two bedazzled men at the tomb who said, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen!”
When we hear that proclamation and respond with, “He is risen indeed!” it’s not just a buzz word or a dog whistle. When we say, “He is risen indeed!” we are affirming that God is God. We are saying that God has authority over life and death, and that through God’s action of the physical resurrection of Jesus we can have hope. We have hope not only during this life, but even in death.
That’s some good news we need to hear because there have been too many deaths this year. We’ve had too much disagreement over causes of death and how we have contributed to the spread of disease. We’ve had too much disagreement over the science of inquiry and the way by which we can express compassion and care. Today is not a day to win any of those arguments. Today is a day to get beyond them.
It’s not about bunnies and eggs, unless they remind us of Christ. It’s about the resurrection, and the hope it brings in all things. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we do not intend to rationalize it or make sense of it scientifically or metabolically, or any other way. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we do not say it because it is good theology and sound doctrine. When we proclaim that “He is risen,” we say it because our faith has led us to believe that we can expect God’s love to outlast, reform, and reframe anything this world throws at us.
Life is full of tragedies, large and small. In our disappointments and losses, we need to know that there is something more to hope for. And when we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus, we remember. Like the women at the tomb it quickens something within us. It puts things in perspective and gives us a reason to tell others, “This thing you are facing is not the end!”
And if we, like Peter, find ourselves racing to the tomb expecting to see Jesus, then we will simply be amazed and bewildered. Of course, the story does not stop there. Jesus later appears to Peter and the other disciples, but today we are challenged with just those words, “He is risen.”
Affirming the resurrection of Jesus means affirming the death of Christ – the one anointed by God to demonstrate God’s active presence in the world. Affirming the death of Christ means affirming the problem of sin and self-centeredness that has never truly gone away. And affirming the resurrection of Jesus means affirming the power of God to break through even our own self-centeredness.
It means that our hope is not limited to our ability to make it through our current struggles, for our hope is grounded in the expectation that we will experience our own resurrection in this life and in the life to come. Our tombs of addiction, affluence without compassion, racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the fears that separate and alienate us from each other and from God cannot hold us when we hear that he is risen and we remember what Jesus came to do.
Jesus came to demonstrate the power of God over sin and death. Jesus came to call our attention to the fact that God’s kingdom is at hand. In his life he taught and healed gave us an example to follow. In his death, he challenged the powers that attempt to control and condemn. And in his resurrection, he continues to offer us hope and new life every day, even as we await eternal reunion with him and with those we love.
And so, on this day we proclaim that “He is risen,” and we claim all of the opportunity and responsibility that comes with it. We claim the hope that builds us up and saves us from our own limitations. We claim freedom from the sins and attitudes that keep us from recognizing the humanity of others. We claim the responsibility of running to others that may need to hear that Christ is risen. And we even claim the responsibility to demonstrate the Kingdom of God through our compassion, our willingness to recognize our own limitations and our need for one another, and our trust in God to hold us close in this life and in the life to come!
With the hope of such a union, let us approach God’s table today, knowing that the work of Christ to bring us into a more common union with God and one another was finished on the cross, and our proclamation has only just begun. For we believe, and so we proclaim through our words and our actions, “He is risen indeed!” Amen.
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