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The Sunday Of The Resurrection: Easter Day
Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by thy life-giving Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Scripture citation(s): Isaiah 51:9-11; Luke 24:13-35
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Isaiah 51:9-11; Luke 24:13-35
✛
Hopeful Living
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For many of us it is hard to understand the feelings of those who have lost loved ones in violent circumstances. As we celebrated the mass of Resurrection only a few hours ago, a suicide bomber walked into the children’s’ area of a park in Lahore, Pakistan, where families with children were enjoying their own Easter celebrations. The latest news reports that more than 60 are dead – mainly women and children – and hundreds injured. Our hearts go out to those families who have lost children or parents especially after celebrating a festival about love and forgiveness.
In utter contrast, the journey to my own parent’s death beds was, in many ways, an easy one; my mum and dad were diagnosed with different kinds of cancer, many years apart, but, as a family, in both cases we were involved in those journeys in a very full and satisfying way – leaving me the gift to be able to say that they had beautiful deaths. Sometimes, though, death cannot be described as beautiful especially when it is violent, unexpected or the result of evil intent. Some of you will have experienced the sudden death of a loved one and have the double agony of unanswered questions and unspoken conversations with the one who has died.
To all who are left with the agony of unanswered questions or conversations that needed to happen but couldn’t, Easter can be hard and, for some, simply a fantasy. I guess for those families in Lahore, there must be many questions this evenings.
The gospel we have just heard today connects the friends of Jesus with exactly those same feelings of bewilderment and loss. In fact, the gospel puts it very powerfully and simply; Jesus asks them why they are so sad. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were empty – they felt cheated of all that they had hoped for and, since they were engulfed by grief they were unable to recognise Jesus walking with them and yet, they knew the story. They had already heard about the Resurrection – with wonderful irony, they even recount the story back to Jesus – but they remained caught up in their grief and fear – and unable to believe, they had decided to get away.
It is fascinating how many of the first meetings of Jesus with his friends after his resurrection are marked by disbelief, doubt and fear. The oldest ending of St Mark’s Gospel does not have a meeting at all but the disciples running away because they were afraid (Mark 16:8). Perhaps this shows, again, the terrible consequences that violent and sudden death has on the lives of those close to the one they love.
But this time, things were different and it took some time for the disciples and followers of Jesus to understand what had happened over those three days from Good Friday to Easter Day.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus expounded the scriptures to them – the stories that these two disciples must have heard time and time again in the synagogue. Something was happening to them for later in the story they tell the apostles that their hearts had ‘burned within us’. But it was not until Jesus broke the bread that there eyes were opened and they recognized him and they were filled with joy – so much joy that they turned around and ran back to Jerusalem. As the prophecy from Isaiah puts it so beautifully, “So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.”
And why this singing and joy? Because of one word: Hope – the emergence of hope in a world that had, for thousands of years, been racked with grief, pain and sin. Hope – a challenge to apathy and the true answer to those difficult questions and untold conversations. Hope – which is grounded in reality and yet reaching into the future for its fulfilment.
The resurrection of Jesus is not the resuscitation of a corpse. Let me explain what I mean. A few months ago, I made my first visit to the sixth floor museum in Dallas. There I followed the story of the death of President Kennedy and the graphic depiction of that death. What struck me was the amount of time spent in the hospital trying to resuscitate him when, clearly, there was nothing to resuscitate. Even if they had resuscitated President Kennedy, and even if they had, miraculously, managed to make his brain function work again he would have died again in the future. The Resurrection of Jesus is not anything like that – it is not fantasy, neither is it miracle and it is not what human beings experience; the Resurrection of Jesus changes everything – his dead body is changed, not resuscitated, and that affords us hope.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus met the real Jesus who made their hearts burn within them as they talked on the road and who broke the bread just as he had done many times before and, significantly, at his last supper. Shortly after this encounter, Jesus appeared to his disciples in another upper room and they, also, met this same Jesus – Thomas saw the wounds and immediately recognised his Lord and his God. This was not a ghost, no apparition, no trick, but the real Jesus – their friend and now their Savior for he had truly saved them and the rest of humanity from their sins.
So, my friends, we live in hope and this hopeful living is, I believe, one of the greatest gifts of the Christian Church to our world today. We live in hope because God has revealed in flesh and blood that death is not the end and that, one day, he will make all things new.
