Easter Day:
Sunday of the Resurrection (C)
April 8, 2007
A Sermon by the Rev. Joe Parrish
i-Church Assistant Pastor and
Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church
61 Broad Street
Elizabeth, New Jersey 07201
The Holy Gospel according to Luke 24:1-10
On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the [women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The 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. 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, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.
May we find the Missing One already in our hearts today. Amen.
He is missing. That is a cry of urgency and of panic. She is gone. Where did she go? Surely some parent has had that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach at one time or another. Where did my child go? I've looked everywhere!
And the panicked child who can't find his mother or her father in the huge warehouse store screams out, “Where are you, Mommy, Daddy?! I can't find you! You're lost! I'm lost!”
Being lost is not a good feeling, but knowing someone else whom we love is lost is possibly an even worse feeling. We can imagine all sorts of things could have happened to them, none of them good things.
The women who came to Jesus' tomb early that first Sunday morning found it empty. The huge covering stone was rolled back, leaving the tomb entrance open. And to their horror, when they went in they found nothing; the tomb was empty. The text says the women were “perplexed”, uncertain about what had happened. John's Gospel later interpolates that Mary Magdalene figured the gardener had come into the tomb and had taken her Lord's body somewhere else.
Buried bodies just don't get up and walk away, especially dead ones that had spear puncture wounds in their hearts, as Jesus' body did. He was stone cold dead–those women saw Jesus' body being put into the tomb on Good Friday, and then the tomb was sealed with the huge round stone over its opening; but now the stone was moved back, the tomb was wide open, and his body was missing. It surely sent chills up their spines.
But then, lo and behold, two dazzling angels appear beside the women in the empty tomb, surely frightening them even more. And these two heavenly figures ask the simple question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
I recall my younger brother being lost one day when I was just a young teenager. We called and called, but no answer. Finally a man came driving up in a car with my little brother in the front seat. He had found my brother wandering blocks away in a cemetery. My little brother said he had found a cave and was investigating it. Of course my Mom chastised him and told him never to go that far away again. I suspect he didn't listen because the cave was so mysterious, and he had heard about bats being in caves. Bats! Batman! Gotta find Batman!
But we, or actually someone else found my little brother and dutifully brought him home. Or course my brother was a bit miffed since he knew where he was, regardless whether we did or not.
In this story in Luke's gospel, no one knows where Jesus was. And Jesus himself could not possibly have gone out himself. He was a corpse — stone cold dead.
Jesus however did seemingly know his way around cemeteries. Recall the visit of Jesus and his disciples sailing across the Sea of Galilee to the region of Gerasenes where there was a madman who had been banished to the town cemetery; the man had broken all the chains that had held him, had removed all his clothes, and had terrified all who went there. Cemeteries are not that friendly a place, most would say. Spooky. But the evil spirits which had inhabited the man immediately were cast out by Jesus� presence, and the demons sought refuge. Jesus allowed the evil spirits to go into a large herd of nearby swine, who turned and rushed down the bank into the lake. Jesus tamed the madman, and the man returned to his right mind.
But the townspeople were not amused by this miraculous demonstration and urged Jesus to leave them, because what Jesus did terrified them even more than the man whose mind had been restored. And besides, having Jesus wander around a cemetery could have “consequences”; recall the dead son of the widow of Nain; Jesus simply laid his hands on the lad and he got up off the funeral bier. The men of Gerasenes couldn't tolerate such a possibility! Some of their relatives they surely wanted to stay in their graves!
But now on Easter morning it was Jesus who was lost in a cemetery, and no one knew where his body had gone. Yet thinking back on it, the centurion's slave and the synagogue ruler's daughter and Jesus' friend Lazarus all came back to life in Jesus' presence. So death was something Jesus could “toy” with, Jesus could tamper with death in the face of all odds, Jesus could reverse death, and actually four dead people we read about in the gospels came back to life by the call or touch of Christ. Death to Jesus was no big deal. Death cowered in the presence of the Lord.
But in his own tomb things seemed different. Jesus himself was no longer alive, so how on earth could he effect his own resuscitation? The answer was, Jesus didn't resuscitate himself; Jesus' heavenly Father restored the Son of God to life–resurrection they call it, since this time as he rose from the tomb his body wasn't quite the same physically as before: this time Jesus' body, though completely real, recognizable, and able to consume food, this new resurrected body of Jesus could somehow go through locked doors, and appear at distances suddenly and disappear suddenly. Recall after Jesus' resurrection his visit with the two on the Emmaus Road, who only recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, and then suddenly he disappeared from them. So Jesus was alive! And for forty days, the Lord appeared to them speaking about the kingdom of God, the book of Acts, Chapter 1, Verse 3 says.
The very first human witnesses who testified that Jesus had survived death were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and some other women, Luke's gospel tells us.
The women were completely caught off guard by the angels' notion that Jesus was alive. But Jesus had warned them that the Son of Man would be put to death and rise in three days. But did they remember his words of prophecy? Absolutely not. Nor did Jesus' disciples remember what he had been telling them, although in the gospel according to John 20:8, the beloved disciple upon seeing the empty tomb did believe his Lord had survived his traumatic death.
Most of us here have dead ones we loved dearly. They are gone from us now; we cannot bring them back; but we have faith that one day we will see them again, much like the disciples got to see their Lord again after he had died. This terrifying thing called “death” is simply a portal all we mortals have to go through. Death is a daunting door we all one day will face; and we who believe on Jesus shall go through the door of death into the presence of the God whom we love.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that all who believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That is what we proclaim this Easter and every Easter, that God has defeated death; God has looked death in the eye and has stared it down. Death cowers before God's gaze. Death has no power in God's mighty presence.
My prayer for all who have come here today is that you too will place your hand in the one who stilled the waters, that you will hold onto the one who calmed the sea. For when by the grace of God you are in God's presence, you shall never perish forever, but you will be saved. And you will have life eternal in the presence of God and God's beloved Son.
Few things will never fall in the face of modern technology given enough time and money. But death is one thing that no modern person can conceivably cure. Death is inevitable; death is sure; death is in all of our futures, like it or not.
So we as Christians cannot live our lives in fear of death. Sure death is not attractive. And death will cause our absence from our loved ones. And they will be sad. But we know in our hearts that Jesus has them in his hand, that Jesus is the true light of the world, and that Jesus has us in the palm of his hand.
More importantly, Jesus can bring the living back to life. If you have not found anything satisfying in your life recently, pitch in and serve others, help others, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Jesus is the bread of life; by his body we are sustained week by week, year by year as we drink the cup of his blood and eat the bread of his flesh in the Holy Communion every Sunday and on a weekday. Here we “remember up again” Jesus words to us, encouraging us to be his disciples in the world.
What are the things in life that make us feel empty? Recall the feeling of the women in the empty tomb. They were totally bewildered, but God sent angels to comfort them, to bring them to their senses, to give them a direction to find the body of their Lord elsewhere, anywhere but in the tomb. So if your heart feels wounded and empty today, turn your gaze upon the risen Lord as we reenact again on this very day the miracle of transformation of the Eucharistic bread and wine into the mystical body and blood of Christ.
By his wounds we are healed. By his death and resurrection we and our loved ones too will be raised. Only believe in the one who destroyed death, Jesus our Savior.
Amen.