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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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The Sunday Of The Resurrection: Easter Day
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Scripture citation(s): John 20:1-18
A Sermon by
on
John 20:1-18
✛
Would You Like to be Famous or Immortal?
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A couple of years ago The New York Times ran an article entitled “Who’s more famous than Jesus?” (March 14, 2014) It was an article on a newly launched website called ‘Pantheon’ in which a team of designers, engineers, and scientists worked together to quantify, analyze, measure and visualize global culture. It’s fascinating; you tap on ‘Lithuania’ and you discover that 66% of famous Lithuanians are politicians. I tapped in ‘USA’, and I discovered that nearly 49% of famous Americans are… Actors, Singers and Musicians!
The New York Times went on to suggest, “You are legitimately famous…if a Wikipedia page under your name exists in more than 25 languages.”
‘Legitimately famous.’
St Paul writes, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” or “most to be pitied.” What we have celebrated this Holy Week is not just the life and death of a famous man but our hope for immortality, and immortality which is rooted in God’s forgiving love rather than the number of hits on a website. You will, of course, remember Woody Allen’s famous words on being immortal: “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.” (On being funny, 1975)
But Paul says, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Immortality, for the Christian, is not about fame; neither is it about avoiding death or even living as long as we can. Death is the one inevitability in our lives; we live, and yet, with the one certainty that this day will come to each one of us. When we celebrated Good Friday this year we did not simply remember the death of a good man. We did not even think about God experiencing death; the death of Jesus has changed everything in a way that no other human death can. Speaking to the first gentile converts, Peter said, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
‘Forgiveness of sins through his name.’
Many of us justifiably question death and are fearful of it; many of us are horrified at the senseless taking of lives in the terrorist attacks during Holy Week; many of us are appalled at the cruel and barbaric execution of innocent people by extremists. The death of Jesus has changed everything, including our fear of death and even the manner of our death because he conquered death and his resurrection affords us hope. Otherwise, like Paul says, we would only hope for this life and we know the inevitability of this life.
In his Resurrection Jesus did not, somehow, avoid death. He died and then was raised from the dead. But the Resurrection of Jesus is not the resuscitation of a corpse – if it had been, Jesus would have had to die again. The Resurrection is the breaking into time and space of God’s immense power and love. Suddenly, in a world of broken promises, of violence and sin, there is hope – hope for something greater and far more fulfilling than human fame and the cheap lure of immortality in this world. Immortality for the Christian is to be caught up into the love of God – to allow our story to be cherished by the God who created us and to journey with him.
The death and Resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) Truly alive – which is a depth and a quality of life that will be all fulfilling in the presence of God.
So what is our response? Have you ever pondered the strange details of John’s account of the Resurrection? After telling Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved that the tomb was empty they, being men, didn’t wait for Mary but ran – really ran. In that race to the tomb, one of the disciples got there first; Peter, however, made up for losing his sprint by boldly entering the tomb – an unclean place for a Jewish man. The writer of the fourth gospel says that they believed. What did they believe? I think they believed the story of Mary Magdalene that the tomb was empty, but they did not yet believe in the Resurrection; the gospel says “For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” They couldn’t know yet because the resurrection was about a person not a fact. They heard Mary’s story; they ignored her involvement and they went home. Why didn’t they take her with them? Instead, Mary Magdalene waited at the tomb and through her faith, and through her tears, became the first to witness the hope of the entire world. The angels were no match for those tears – she had no fear, for love is stronger than death – but it was the presence of her Lord that allowed her to see the truth in spite of her tears.
Notice how Mary had two stories. The first was “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” That is what Peter and the other disciple were fixed upon; they were in such a hurry, and so full of their own assumptions and expectations that they probably wouldn’t have even noticed the angels had they been there; like the two disciples walking to Emmaus who were so downcast they did not even recognize Jesus when he was walking with them. The first story was a story about human loss and human despair; it represented the way that we, sometimes, view the world and our place within it – as a hopeless place. If only Peter and the Beloved Disciple had remained with Mary Magdalene – for her second story takes her beyond the confines of this world and into heavenly realities: “I have seen the Lord!” she said. But soon, Peter and the Beloved Disciple discovered the truth, a truth shared by Christians ever since.
What is our response? Today we share that second story which, over the course of 2000 years still affords hope and will, ultimately, conquer all evil and terror and, as Paul says, even death itself. Like Mary Magdalene, we can say: Alleluia. Christ is risen!
