April 15, 2001
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on The Cross and Beyond It is the tradition in some congregations, that children dressed in their
Easter best will gather in fellowship halls and sanctuaries today. They will
stand in front of anxious, smiling parents, just like I did when I was little,
and recite an Easter speech. Elegant in their simplicity, often only a few lines
long, these speeches are actually short poems that have the power to terrify us
for all the weeks as we practiced to be able to say from memory something like:
Jesus Christ is our Savior and we love him this Easter day; All of the season of Lent has been an elaboration
on those simple words. The symbols of sacrifice, the series of sermons on
“Love On The Cross And Beyond”, the choirs anthems the hymns we have sung
all bring us to this moment. This is the day we
look beyond the cross and declare to all the world, love lives.
Honesty requires that we acknowledge that the resurrection
proclamation leaves some people confused and skeptical, even in the church.
For them the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus is nothing more
than an elaborate legend; almost a fairy tale. It is too fantastic to be real,
and too unbelievable be true. Such a story would never stand up in a court of
law, whoever had heard of such a thing? On the other hand there are those for whom the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is the foundation of their faith, of our faith. Everything, our sense of
purpose and perseverance, our integrity and ethics, our spirit’s hope and its
healing, depend on believing that Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried,
and on the third day raised from that death into life at the right hand of God.
No, we say, such a story would not hold up in a court of law. But the good news
is that it does not have to, we are not here to have a legal debate, we are here
to share a faith story. It happens to be my faith story, so let me tell you
quickly what I believe about it. I believe that in a grand rebuke to the evil of the crucifixion,
God did an amazing, loving thing 2000 thousand years ago. I believe that
Jesus’ very human cry, “my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” is a
description of a temporary condition, but in fact, God had not abandoned Jesus.
Instead God was writing a different conclusion
and instead of a dreadful ending on a cross, we were given a new
beginning as God raised Jesus and returned this divine Son to God’s right
hand.
I believe that when the women and others went to the tomb where
Jesus had been buried, it was empty because God had raised Jesus in such a way
as to make his physical body unnecessary. But somehow by the miracle of God,
Jesus appeared to those who had put their faith in him. Those who saw him were so stunned by the experience that his
disciples did not recognize him when he appeared to them. Not until they heard
his voice, or felt his touch, or watched as he broke bread and shared food, or
saw his wounds did they know who he was.
I believe that the witness of the disciples was so strong that those who
heard it and believed were led to their own encounter with the living, risen
Christ. Such an encounter has to this day the power to transform lives. Jesus
Christ, the symbol of God’s love for the world lives because we who bear the
name Christian live to tell this great good news.
That is my story, but I know that I would not have a story to tell
today were it not for the one big story. Christ has died, Christ has risen, and
our lives are changed. The big story is told in each of the four gospels, each from their
own perspective. Today we hear Matthew’s telling of the resurrection. We can
imagine that those first hours after the crucifixion must have been terrible. If
you have known grief, you know what it must have felt like for them. Friday
night Sabbath dinner seemed to stick in the throats of Jesus’ disciples. After
all, their Rabbi, their teacher had been killed in the most humiliating and
painful way possible, on a torturous cross between two thieves as if he himself
were a common criminal.
Three years ago, things had been so different. For a while, it
looked like they had. As they sit and reflect, they remember how they had moved
with such hope, how they had planned with such optimism, and how they had
allowed themselves to dream of freedom to work and worship, and live as God gave
them strength. They had been there when Jesus chose the twelve disciples. They
were there when he gathered children and women, and the poor and the rich, and
any who wanted to receive the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. They had
seen him heal, they had watched him perform miracles, they had seen him change
lives. They were certain that with the coming of Jesus into their lives, things
would change.
But the Romans kept oppressing them, and the religious leaders
kept obstructing them, until finally, it all seemed to turn quickly to ashes.
With stunning speed, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, denied, tried, convicted,
condemned, and crucified, and buried in a borrowed tomb, with haste so that all
could be finished before the beginning of the Sabbath when not even the work of
burying the dead could go on. What was that he said about rising in three days?
I did not quite understand it, but I guess it will become clear to us one day. Come with Matthew as he tells us that on the first day they could,
early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and a woman identified as the other
Mary, probably the mother of Jesus went to visit the tomb. We are not surprised
that it was these two. After all they were the closest women to Jesus, they were
the ones who knew him best, and they were the ones who did not flinch from the
hard and heartbreaking task of bearing witness to the final moments of the
Jesus’ earthly life. Things happen as they approach the tomb. The earth shakes, just as
it did in the moment of Jesus’ death. Then the shaking was a signal of
despair, now the earth quakes not because there has been a shift along a fault
line, but because an event not seen in heaven or earth has occurred, not like
this. An angel of God has appeared, shining in white, just like Jesus and Elijah
and Moses on the Mountain of Transfiguration, and the tombstone which had been
sealed to keep his disciples out of the tomb, now is rolled to the side and the
angel is sitting on it. The Roman soldiers faint. But the women remain steadfast and
receive this word. “It’s allright. There is no need for you to be afraid.”
I can hear them say, “yeah, right. After all that we have been through, you
show up out of no where, soldiers are passing out, the burial place of Jesus has
been violated, and you tell us not to be afraid? What do you mean?” They will
see the first sign of the resurrection. “I know you came to see Jesus. But come close, look and see, he
is not here. God has done an awesome thing. Remember when Jesus said that on the
third day after his death that he would rise? It has happened – God has kept
the promise for him. He is not here, the tomb is empty, and can go back to its
original owner now. “Go tell his disciples that Jesus has been raised and that he
will meet them in Galilee. Galilee was where Jesus began his ministry. He will
meet his disciples in the place where he taught them and sent them out to do
ministry in his name. Love lives as we remember where we first met Jesus and go
back to meet him where we can recover the sense of energy and urging we had when
we were new Christians. Love lives as we empty our selves and meet Jesus over
and over again.
They go. They start toward Galilee with their feelings in turmoil. They
go with fear and great joy. They are afraid, they have been trusted with the
great mystery of the Christian faith. They are joyful, they have been trusted to
share with those who knew Jesus the good news of his resurrection. Fear and
great joy. They may not know what happens next, but they know that what has
happened already is enough to set them running. Matthew is almost casual as he describes what happens next. As
they are moving out of the garden, the living, risen Christ meets the women and
speaks to them. “Greetings” which is what Matthew records does not really
capture the power of the encounter. Surely Jesus said something more than
greetings. That would be the equivalent of Jesus saying, “hey” or
“what’s up”, or “how are you doing?” Those are all perfectly good
greetings, but they do not quite describe the emotion of the moment. The verb used in Matthew means, rejoice. The
word for us today is the same as it was for them. Rejoice. Rejoice, the promises
of God are true and have been fulfilled in the one whose resurrection we
celebrate today. Rejoice in the one who stands before you now. Rejoice, and
receive this good news as we hear Jesus say, “I am the first and the last and
the living one. I was dead and see I am alive forever and ever (Revelation
1.18a).” Jesus appears to them, the women recognize him and are so moved by
the experiences that they worship him. Jesus sees their faces, senses their
anxiety and says to them, “do not be afraid. Go tell my brother disciples to
meet me in Galilee.” Then comes this little complication that really shows the power of the
resurrection. There are other witnesses to the resurrection. The guards at the
tomb have come to and they run to tell the religious leaders what happened.
Along with the women who believe in Jesus, these soldiers are among the first
witnesses to the resurrection. They did not mean to further the cause of Christ,
but they really weren’t in charge of the story. God was. We know that what
they are saying does not fit with the plan to discredit Jesus and his movement.
So the religious leaders hear the guards and conspire to shape the story. Today
we would say that they decide to control the spin. “Take this money and if anyone asks, says that his disciples
came while you were asleep and stole his body. Don’t worry about the political
leaders, we will take care of them.” It amazes me that these soldiers decided
it was better to be considered derelict, asleep on the post, and unable to do
your job, than to give credence to this wonderful thing that God has done.
But their spin does not stop the truth and we can thank God that
the truth of the resurrection does not depend on these reluctant witnesses like
the soldiers. Love lives because God has willed it so. It lives in the witnesses
to the empty tomb, love lives in the appearances and recognition of Jesus, and
love lives as we share news of the resurrection of Jesus. The good news of Easter is not for one spring Sunday each year, it
is the foundation of our spiritual lives. Go from this place and make disciples
of all people and tell the world that love lives. Go to all nations, all
Gentiles then, the whole world now. We are no longer a tiny sect of one
religion. Indeed there is no where in the world where Christians cannot be found
doing the work of Jesus Christ. And there should be no place where we are that
God’s love is not on full display. Jesus does indeed gather in Galilee with his
disciples. Some of them worship, and some of them doubt just like the church
today. They wonder like we wonder, what do we do now? Here’s what. We listen
and believe and we take on the same commission Jesus gave to those disciples
long ago. Don’t be afraid, Jesus says to us, go. Go, and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Go in the name of the source that created the world, the one who redeems the
world, and the power that sustains the world’s faithful. Go and baptize in the
name of God who in every dimension of our own spirits is with those who believe
in symbolic death and resurrection.
Go and teach them to observe all that I have taught you. And teach
they did. Love lives as we have learned and are learning still. They have passed
on to us the teachings of Christ about how to be blessed, how to seek God first
and wait for all the rest to follow. They have taught and we are learning how to
pray, and how to forgive, and to love as God loves us all. We have been taught
and we are learning We have been taught and we have learned how to serve as God gives
us the strength and the will, to seek and do justice, and to gather with a
community of believers in the church. We have been taught and we have learned to
share the good news and to know that as the message of Jesus Christ crosses the
world, what Peter told Cornelius is true. God shows no partiality, God does not
play favorites, whoever is faithful to God and to God’s Christ will receive
the unshakable, unbreakable, faithfulness of God.
Because love lives, new worlds have opened up.
We who are disciples of Jesus Christ can declare that love lives when we
acknowledge that the tomb is empty and that God is still at work in the world.
We see that work in the world every time we see, because we have trusted him and
the power of his resurrection to work miracles in us: joy replace sorrow;
healing replace pain, hope replace discouragement, and life replace death. God is at work when we allow the presence of God’s love to fill
our spiritual loneliness, and our confidence to replace doubt. Love lives when the risen, living Christ makes an appearance in
our lives and we recognize him for who he is, the one whom we trust while we
travel life’s journey and move from this life to life eternal.
Love lives when we go tell what we have seen and what we have
heard, how our hope is fulfilled and how we have the good news to lead others to
a relationship with the living Christ.
Love does live as we celebrate its life in one more Easter poem: “May
you experience this day the peace that faith imparts; the resurrection secret that Christ lives in
our hearts.” (An
Easter Prayer by
Janet Lombard) Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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