Hallelujah! Christ is alive!

(Shuffle papers on the lecture. Look around frantically.)  Well, where is it? I know I left it right here on the lecture – and now it’s gone. Sam, did you move it?  Gary?  Janice?  Did either of you take it with you? I know I left it right here, and it obviously isn’t here now.)  How many of you have every lost something, and you know exactly where you left it – or at least are pretty sure where you left it? But when you go back looking for it, it’s gone, just disappeared?   I think most of us have had that experience – and probably more than once in our lifetime.  It happened to me on Friday when we got in to start the noon service - We have a tendency to live pretty fast lives and especially when we are in a hurry we forget things or lay things down without thinking about it.   

Well, around 30 AD people didn’t live lives as fast as we do today. At least I hope they didn’t. They didn’t have phones ringing in their ears (literally). They didn’t have baseball and TV and movies and theater and Nascar all vying for their attention – taking them away from church and family on Easter morning. Oh, wait; they didn’t have Easter morning either, did they? 

I’m told that many years ago, there were missionaries on a remote island who were teaching a group of natives about Jesus.  These natives had never heard the gospel story.  They were filled with joy and hope as they learned about Jesus, what he did and said.  Then came Good Friday and the missionaries told them about the arrest, trial and death of Jesus.  Not knowing the rest of the story, they went away with     heavy hearts at the devastating loss of this Jesus whom they had learned to love.  Then on Sunday morning they returned to the missionaries under the shadow of death and were (as Paul Harvey would say) told the rest of the story - the resurrection.  Their joy at learning of the resurrection of Jesus was unbounded.  They leapt for joy and danced around singing and rejoicing.  I think we’ve lost that kind of response to the resurrection story.  Yes, we are happy about it, but in a reserved way.  “Oh yes, Jesus died for us, and he was resurrected and that means we will have eternal life.”  Where’s the “Hallelujah!  Christ is alive!”?  

That first Easter morning was the day after the Passover according to John.  Jesus had been buried in a hurry – but they knew he was dead and they knew he was buried and they knew exactly where he was buried – and they had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb.  So when Mary saw the stone rolled away, she was very confused.  She ran back to the disciples and told them that Jesus was gone.  Peter and John ran to the tomb.  John being younger reached the tomb first and looked in.  The scripture said that he believed – he believed that Jesus was gone. The scripture also says that they didn’t yet understand the scriptures.  Peter went inside to look around and John followed him in.  So being men, they simply decided there was nothing else they could do.  They may have believed that Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, but there was nothing more they could do.  So they let it go, and they went back home.  Not unusual for the disciples, they misinterpreted the meaning of the empty tomb. Since Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, they accepted that they would not see him again.  

Mary wasn’t quite in the same place emotionally as the men. This was something of a devastating loss for her. For many of us, it’s important to be able to go to the place where our loved one is buried. It allows us to feel close to that person – even when we know “they” aren’t there. Sitting by the graveside can become a place where we meet and speak with God about how much this person meant to us. It can be an acknowledgement that we’re going to miss them, that they were an important part of our life. Even though we know they are gone, it helps us to feel close.  

Mary had gone to weep, to mourn - to grieve in the only way she knew how - to be near Jesus even in death.  But now even that was denied her.  And she missed that opportunity to feel close – to grieve at the tomb where his body lay.  She stayed and not being able to accept that he was gone, she asked the gardener, “If you have carried him away, please tell me so that I may take him away.”  She wasn’t expecting to see Jesus – only his body, so when the person she thought was the gardener called her by name it surprised her, but she recognized the voice speaking her name.  

When we are terribly grieved; when we feel all alone; when we are lost and don’t know where to turn; it is then that the Lord speaks to us.  Through the pain and confusion, Jesus calls us by name.  And he says, “I am here.  I will sustain you.  Do not cling, but go and tell others that I live, that I will come to them also, in their hour of need.”  

The message we receive is that because Jesus has risen and has ascended to the Father, he has escaped the prison of this earthly life and is now available to anyone who need him.  There are stories of children who have never been to church, never heard the name of Jesus,` who in a time of great need meet and are sustained by Jesus.  When we feel the most lost, when we are the most hopeless, that is when Jesus comes to us, in our pain, and through our confusion.  He is there.  He is here!  He is risen.

You are called to continue the story – it is your turn to go out and to tell others that Jesus Christ has indeed risen from the dead.  Our presiding bishop, in his address from Jerusalem reminded us that “Because He lives, we can face tomorrow.”  I can face tomorrow!  You can face tomorrow!     Regardless of what tomorrow brings! 

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

Christ is risen!

Listen to the sermon.

 

A number of years ago, while I was still in seminary, Sam and I happened to be driving by a cemetery the week before Easter.  There was a huge banner over the front entrance proclaiming, “Easter Sunrise Service Here on Easter Sunday.”  My first thought was, “What a strange place to have an Easter Sunrise service.”  But then I remembered that the first Easter took place at sunrise – in a cemetery – and it all made perfect sense.

In Jerusalem there are two separate locations claiming to be the tomb of Jesus.  That’s not unusual – there are two locations claiming to be most of the places that are associated with Jesus.  Yesterday I read a sermon, the whole of which discussed which tomb was the right location – I thought what a waste of a sermon.  The location itself is not so important – but what happened there is!  

The two locations are the Garden Tomb and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  We visited both while we were in Jerusalem.  The church of the Holy Sepulchre is a huge building covering an area larger than most city blocks - and the last five stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem are inside the church.  

You go to one chapel to see the place where the cross was – and another to see where they gambled for his clothing, etc.  There are a lot of side chapels, and then you stand in a long line waiting to go into the little grotto where the tomb is supposed to be.  That was in the news recently because it was closed off to the public to be refurbished.  It reopened several weeks ago to be ready for Easter.  The church is a busy place with lots of people and a lot of ambient noise.  There is really no place to go and be still and just absorb what it is all about.

A story is told about one of the keepers of the Holy Sepulchre who was found sitting on a bench at the Garden Tomb.  A worker at the Garden Tomb knew who he was and asked why he was there.  The man answered, “I know we have the right location of the tomb – but the garden here has the right feel.”

Picture yourself – early in the morning you are grieving the loss of the one your love, the one you have pinned all your hopes and dreams on.  It is early spring – the flowers are beginning to come out and the birds and bees and butterflies are flitting around – and yet you wonder how life can go on.

Every gospel interpretation of the empty tomb is a little different.  Matthew’s gospel is an apologetic – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are both listed as witnesses to the crucifixion and death, the burial and the resurrection.  

In this way Matthew refutes stories that the disciples stole the body, and that Jesus didn’t really die.  In Jewish law, there must be two witnesses to establish any fact.  Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were both witnesses and they vouch for the certainty of death, of the burial, of the empty tomb, and of the risen Lord.  

Matthew wants to be sure that we understand that Jesus did not raise himself.  There was an earthquake – that served to open the tomb, but Jesus was already gone.  There is an angel but he is simply the messenger – he did not raise Jesus. God and God alone raised Jesus from the dead.  God validated and vindicated Jesus – his life, his message, his ministry.  

The empty tomb is important – and the message of the angel – both served to give them hope, but the women didn’t really understand until Jesus met them on the path – and they were able to touch him. Even though the angel told them he was risen – it is the witness with their own eyes in which they experienced truth.

Part of the power of the resurrection is in its unexpectedness.  Yes, Jesus had predicted it, over and over, but none of them had understood it – therefore they did not expect it.  They went to the tomb to be near and to mourn and to weep.  And when they arrived, they found joy to replace the tears – they found hope to replace despair.

The angel told them, “Go quickly and tell…”  When Jesus met them on the path, he told the women, “Go and tell.”  They went – and they told.  

Why do we still remember a man (a backwater preacher/teacher) who lived 2000 years ago – who never held a government position or conquered a nation – who never traveled more than 100 miles from where he was born?  The reason is because those who were witnesses went and told others who also told others.  That telling has come down through the centuries to us.

One minister ended his sermon on Easter Sunday saying, “Maybe you came here this morning looking for Jesus – sorry, he’s not here….”  I understand the sentiment – but argue the fact.  

Jesus is here!  Any time two or more people gather in his name, he is in the midst of them.  Turn around and look at your neighbor – the person next to you.  Look around at everyone who fills this place and know that – not only has Jesus risen from the dead – but because he is risen,  Jesus is here today.   Because he is risen, we have hope for the future.  Because he promises that we will rise also, we know that our lives have significance beyond the grave.  Because he is risen we can share in his kingdom both here on earth and in heaven.  Because he is risen, we are called to continue the story - to go out and tell others:

Jesus Christ is alive.  He is risen from the dead and he stands among us.  He brings the certainty of life after death.  Certainty that this world is not our ultimate home, but that there is something more waiting for us beyond the grave.  Christ is risen!