Easter Sermon - "Knowing Where To Look"

Scriptures

Acts 10:34-43             Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

I Corinthians 15:19-26          

        Luke 24:1-35 

What a horrific week they’d had.  It had all started out so well – Jesus on a donkey riding into town, the disciples shouting, the crowds waving palm branches and laying their cloaks in front of Jesus – for all the world, it sounds like a rock concert, with groupies throwing their clothes at the band.   Sure, there was some grousing from the sidelines – the Pharisees, spoilsports that they were, told Jesus to make his disciples pipe down, lest they bring down the wrath of Rome with their shouts about King Jesus, the “king who comes in the name of the Lord.”  But Jesus brushed them off, so nobody else paid them any mind.

The crowds had perhaps hoped that Jesus would drive away the Romans occupying Jerusalem, but instead Jesus took on the Temple leadership, driving the moneychangers and sellers of animals out of the Temple, offering ambiguous answers to questions about whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Rome, and telling parables that implicated the Temple leadership. 

Then, after a final Passover dinner with his disciples, came the betrayal and arrest in the garden.  The warnings of the Pharisees came to pass, as the full weight of both the Temple leadership, in the persons of Annas and Caiaphas, and of Rome, in the person of Pontius Pilate and Herod, came down on Jesus full force.  Then came the awful events of Friday, when Jesus was nailed to a cross.  Even on the cross, Jesus was gracious to the end, asking God to forgive those who accused and executed him, and promising paradise to a repentant criminal.  But eventually, as the life ebbed from Jesus’ brutalized body, he said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  The body was taken down from cross and given to Joseph of Arimathea, who sympathized with Jesus.  Joseph wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb that had never before been used.  The women were there, watching all this.  Luke ends this section of his gospel with the anticlimactic sentence: “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”   It seems an anticlimactic way to end a day on which the full extent of human lawlessness and sin and evil at its absolute worst, from both religious and civil leadership, had run riot.

On the day of crucifixion, the women had no opportunity to anoint Jesus’ body for burial – Joseph of Arimathea’s spur-of-the-moment offer of a tomb was a moment of grace, but they hardly had time to wrap the body and lay it in the tomb before the Sabbath.  So early on Sunday, the women came to the tomb, carrying spices for anointing the body. 

When they got there, the stone had been rolled away from the tomb – which on one hand was a mercy, because they’d have had difficulty moving it, but on the other hand, they had to be concerned what they would find inside.  And what they found inside was…..the linen cloth in which Jesus  had been wrapped, but no Jesus.  Other than the linen cloth, the tomb was empty.

They were wondering what on earth this might mean – the possibility of resurrection wasn’t even on their radar – but then two men in dazzling clothes, who we can understand to be angels, 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 his words.   The women  – and Luke goes on to give us some of their names - Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the Mother of James – went to tell the apostles, but the apostles did  not believe the women.  But then Peter ran to the tomb, looked in to see the linen cloths by themselves, and then went home – as Luke tells us, “amazed at what had happened.”

I’d like us to focus on the question asked by the two men, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  The women had seen Jesus being nailed to the cross, had witnessed the death of Jesus on the cross, had seen him taken down from the cross, had seen him laid in the tomb.  He had died.  Where else would they look for him, but among the dead?  But the women were told, “You’re looking for him in the wrong place!  He was here, but he’s not here now, because he’s alive!  Look for Jesus among the living, not among the dead!”

While the women looked for Jesus in the wrong place, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus found Jesus – or rather, Jesus found them – but they did not recognize Jesus.  All they saw was a mysterious stranger who turned out to be an engaging conversation partner, a conversation partner who heard their sad tale of the state-sponsored execution of their teacher, and told their story back to them in tones of hope and expectation.  Only as this mysterious stranger took the bread, blessed and broke it, were their eyes opened to see the resurrected Christ in their midst.  Likewise, God meets us in our Emmaus road moments, in our moments of fear and loss, transforming despair into hope. And sometimes we need God working through one another to hear our experiences of despair, and to tell our stories back to us in ways that help us find home.  So we need vision both to know where to look for God’s saving actions in our midst, and to recognize God’s presence when we encounter it.

 “Why seek the living among the dead?”  The life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels models for us that which is lifegiving.  As Christ emptied himself for us, we are to empty ourselves on behalf of others.   As Jesus served the least, the last, and the lost, so must we.  In welcoming those whom society rejects, we welcome Christ.  As Christ was crucified, we also must be willing to suffer the crucifixion and putting to death of anything – economic security, our pride and our need for respectability, even, to the extent that they contradict the Gospel, our cherished traditions and beliefs – all self-seeking that stands between us and the ministry to which Christ calls us.  Only in letting go of our privileges and prerogatives, in being willing to part with worldly wealth and power, in serving others anonymously and sometimes thanklessly, in giving up our lives can we receive the true lives that God has in store for the faithful.

“Why seek the living among the dead?”  The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is for the living – the living, whoever we are and wherever we are on our journey through life – infants and young children exploring their world while growing up in the care of the church, teens discerning God’s calling for their lives, young singles and couples just starting out, families of all configurations raising children, “empty-nesters” adjusting to life after their children have set out on their own, the elderly dealing with the dual challenges of aging, aching bodies and as well as the aching need to feel that, at the end of the day, their lives have some meaning, some purpose, beyond themselves.  Good news for the living, and especially the poor, those in need, who were at the center of the Saviour’s earthly ministry and so near the Saviour’s heart.  Our mission is to offer the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to the living, inside and outside the church, with all their blessings and all their burdens.    We are Easter people, with a message that though we pass through the midnight of grief, joy comes in the morning; that beyond despair is hope; beyond death is new life;  beyond every crucifixion is a resurrection, that while today may be Good Friday, Sunday’s a comin’. 

Indeed, if we seek Christ’s presence, it is only because Christ has first found us.  As I said earlier, even on the cross, Jesus was gracious to the end, asking God to forgive those who accused and executed him, and promising paradise to a repentant criminal.  Even on the way to the cross, Jesus had sought to comfort the women who were weeping for him.  Even after he was crucified, according to the Apostles Creed, Christ descended into hell.  According to two places in I Peter, the Gospel was preached even to the dead:

1 Peter 3.18-20a
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago...

1 Peter 4.6
For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

We don’t read much about this in the Protestant church, but in the Orthodox Church there are many works of art depicting what they called the harrowing of hell.  Suffice to say that wherever we are, Jesus seeks us out, because Jesus, the Lord of life, offers life to all.

“Why seek the living among the dead? He is not in the tomb, but has risen!”  May our lives reflect the new life of the Risen Christ, and may our neighbors find the new life of the Risen Christ among us, the gathered congregation of Emanuel United Church of Christ. Amen.