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Sunday, April 12, 2009
WHY LOOK AMONG THE DEAD FOR ONE WHO IS ALIVE?
15th in a series on Questions from the Bible
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Scripture: Luke 24:1-5 in the Good News Bible translation 1 Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, 3 so they went in; but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them.
5 Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, "Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?
You and I come to Easter Sunday full of joy and celebration, but it was not that way on the first Easter.
Did you hear the reaction of the people who went to the tomb in Luke’s story of Easter? They were puzzled and then they were filled with fear. The reaction was the same in the gospels of Mark and Matthew and Luke. In Mark the women who were at the empty tomb were so upset and afraid that they ran away and could not tell anyone. In another gospel, one friend of Jesus, who was not present when Jesus appeared, was entirely skeptical and doubtful: “I won’t believe it until I see him and touch him myself.”
Others were in despair. Later on in Luke’s story, two of Jesus’ friends are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus when they are joined by a stranger whom they don’t recognize. It is the risen Christ and this is one of the times when He seems so different that no one knows who He is at first. He asks them why they seem so grief stricken and they tell him and say some of the saddest words that can be said: “We had hoped He was the one to redeem and restore our people.” They were in despair. Their deepest hopes had been destroyed. The first Easter happened to people who were in such drastic need of some good news, people like us.
By the way, Tom Wright, the British theologian, says that what is amazing is the fact that Easter happened at all. It is amazing that we are here at all because there were so many other movements similar to the Jesus movement. A dozen other charismatic leaders in the first century had passionate groups of followers, but when their leaders died, the movement died as well. Marcus Borg is quoted as saying that: “if it had not been for Easter, we would have never heard about Jesus. If his crucifixion ended his life and his influence, we would not be here. What lets us be here as his friends and followers today is the mystery of what happened during Easter.
Even though we know about the Joy of Easter, we are like those first friends of Christ because we are in need of some good news, some hopeful news. In the past six days I have learned of three additional church members whose jobs have disappeared. At the end of one day, they were called in and told they had no job as of that moment.
When our staff team prays for people at the end of every Tuesday’s staff meeting, the stories are heart wrenching: one member had surgery for tumors at the age of 33, another is having a bone marrow transplant, another has died, and yet another is grieving the loss of a child.
We bring our need for Easter new to this day. We bring our longings and our shattered hopes as well. And there is good news! There is good news for any of us who have stood helplessly around a hospital bed and held the hand of a loved one as we watched their life slowly drain away and we heard and saw them barely able to breathe. There is great news for anyone who has gathered around a grave with the casket poised over the open hole in the ground and a hand was placed on the casket. Amidst our tears, we said a prayer of thanks for the way the gift of this life continues to make a difference in our lives and in the world.
Paul the apostle says death has been conquered now. Death does not have the last word anymore, God has the last word. “Where is your sting, O Death; where is your victory?” Paul says, God has the victory in the resurrection of Christ. God is the victor, the God who raised Jesus from death and who confirms in this resurrection that this is the One for whom we have been waiting. We are to pay attention to Him and follow Him. That is the second part of the good news, the GREAT NEWS that we celebrate, that God, in Easter, not only saves us from the final enemy of death, but God saves us from a trivial life and God saves us for the fullest life possible in this world.
Most people are surprised by this. Jesus talks very little about getting people to heaven. Jesus rarely, if ever, says that he has come so we can go to heaven after we die. He does say that he has come so we can have abundant life, right now, so we can enjoy the love of God and love of each other right now. He shows us a God who is compassionate and merciful. He shows us a God like the father of the two sons whose younger son runs away and wastes all the money and ends up starving and ashamed. When the son decides to go back and begs his father to come home and work as a slave, Jesus says the father welcomes him home and loves him just as much as his faithful older brother. The father tells the jealous, faithful brother that we just have to do this, this is the right thing to do, because this son was lost, and now he is found and he has found himself again.
Have you ever been lost? Have you ever lost your way? Have you ever done something which you regret and feel so badly about and need to be forgiven for that you just need to go back and ask if you can start again? Jesus says that God is like that father, that gracious welcoming father, that saving father. That is how Jesus saves us from the worst in ourselves, and saves us for the best life we can have.
There is more. Jesus says that we can be like that also. We can be gracious and compassionate, welcoming the outcast, full of integrity. When we imitate Jesus, when we follow Jesus, we can have the best life possible. When we forget, when we major in minors and try to find our identity in our job, in our power, in our status, in where we live and what we drive, what happens when we lose the job or lose the status? Who are you then? What happens when we worship the false gods of affluence, achievement, appearance and those are taken away? “Whose gonna love you when your looks are gone?” Paul Simon asks. His answer is right from the Bible. Who’s going to tell you who you are when those temporary markers of success are taken away, when we near the top of the ladder and realize we have leaned the ladder against the wrong wall? There is a wonderful story from the presidential re-election campaign of the first President Bush, George H. W. Bush, in 1992. He was campaigning in a town where there was a fairly large nursing home. He was in the nursing home hallway shaking hands and as he approached one man and extended his hand, he smiled warmly at the elderly gentleman and said: “Sir, do you know who I am?” The resident looked at President Bush and said, “No I am sorry, I don’t, but if you ask that nurse at the station right there I am sure she can tell you who you are!” Who tells you who you are; the people where you work, your customers. What happens when work disappears? Who tells you who you are; your family, your classmates, your teachers? What the risen Christ says after Easter is: “You are my beloved friend. You are forgiven. You are my companion on this journey. You are a wondrous child of God. You can bring your broken hopes and we will resurrect them and journey together if you will follow me and walk beside me. I will be with you.”
The last point is the message from the empty tomb from the two messengers there to the frightened friends of Jesus. Why are you looking among the dead for the one who is alive? He is not here in the tomb anymore. He is alive. What do you think about that? Is Christ alive for you really? Is He at work in our world still bringing hope and new directions for people, or is He still up there on that cross? Which cross are you gathering around? Is it an empty cross that says, this radical teacher and prophet is loose in our world doing the same thing he did a long time ago, changing people, and creating Easter people. Is He creating people who are so committed to him that they have become messengers of hope and life, caring sacrificially for others and following the words of St. Francis 800 years ago, who said, “Preach the good news at all times, and if necessary use words.” Here are some examples of Easter People. The folks who have been worshipping for the past 13 weeks at our AFTERHOURS, 5 PM Sunday evening worship service. They have established a relationship with the El Centro program in downtown Denver. This program is for day laborers who go there hoping, not knowing but hoping, they will be able to work for a day and earn a little money for their family. In 13 weeks, our afterhours worship group has made 650 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for sack lunches. These are taken down on Monday morning so the men who are hoping for work that day will at least have one meal to eat, a meal that may be the only meal. They have also contributed 1200 Ramen noodle cups in the same period of time for hungry and needy workers. Christ is alive in our world working through people who are willing to be Easter people. Let me tell you about the person in our church who told me about her involvement with prisoners in the Douglas County jails. She is part of a program where, each week, she meets with prisoners who take a children’s book and read it into a recorder. The tape and the book are then sent to the prisoner’s child along with a personal message from the parent at the end of the tape. It is a way of keeping a relationship between child and parent in a terrible tough time in a family’s life. Our church member says that rarely does a father or mother finish the personal message to their child without having to stop and collect themselves for a moment. It is holy work. It is hopeful work. It is Easter people work.
Let me tell you about the physician in our congregation who is leaving next week for her second medical mission trip. She and fifteen other physicians, dentists, nurses and other Christ disciples are going to Cambodia. The group will be in a different village almost every day. This is not only very hard work but she is making an additional sacrifice because she is a white knuckle flyer. She is very frightened of flying. She is about to get on a plane for 13 hours and go through a scary experience, (feel the fear and do it anyway), because she feels called to bring hope and healing, to “share the good news and if necessary, use words!” She is living the Easter message of hope and new life.
This is holy work. These are Easter people at work. If we do more of this, do you know what will happen? Handel’s words will come true: “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” May it be so!