Did your morning go the way you expected? For children it might mean an Easter egg hunt, for some it meant Easter sunrise service, for others it was a time with family prior to coming to church. Each day we expect the sun to rise, but not necessarily a brilliant explosion of color. That is still wonderful and rare. We expect rain, this year more than most, but we do not expect rainbows- they still elicit a surprised smile. We expect Easter. We spend all of Lent getting ready for this day. The calendar declares its timing. We plan for it, maybe get a new outfit, have celebrated it most of our lives.
That was not the case for the women. They had watched Jesus die on a cross, the man they loved and were devoted to. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary mother of James along with a few others, were women integral to Jesus ministry and the same women who had financially supported Jesus and his disciples (Lk. 8:1-3). Maybe their financial support is not what you expected. Yet honoring the sabbath, these compassionate and faithful women sat in grief, mourning his death. On the third day they rose in the cover of darkness to arrive at the tomb with the first rays of light. They expected to anoint Jesus body, embalm him if you will. But instead the stone is rolled away; the tomb is empty. Not at all what they expected! They did not expect a miracle. Maybe that is why Jesus tells of his death and resurrection in all the gospels up to three times in each. Maybe that is why the two men remind them of Jesus’ words foreshadowing his crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate miracle, but it can take time, information, even hindsight to move from “idle tale” to miracle.
I have to confess; this is not the resurrection account I expected. I love the passage in John with the race to the tomb and Mary declaring, “I has seen the Lord!” It feels immediate, complete, inspired, certain. The resurrection account we read today does not. The women are dismissed and disbelieved; the story they tell the disciples is called an “idle tale.” Peter runs to the tomb, is amazed but goes home. Yet there is an honesty to this account. Their humanity is evident. How do the women believe Jesus is alive? How do we? The two men ask this profound question. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” So I ask you, where do you look for Jesus? Where we look, what we believe, shapes how we navigate life. If we are certain miracles do not happen, then we will not be able to see them when they do. Easter is all about our celebrating the miracles, seeing the resurrections around us.
Resurrection is unexpected life after death. Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates God’s love and power and invites us into eternal life. As one commentator wrote, “Resurrection has the power to transform a graveyard into a garden brimming with new life. Resurrection has the power to break open tombs and tear down walls. Resurrection has the power to transform the rocky wildernesses of our hearts into instruments of grace. Resurrection has the power to show death for what it is: “the possibility for love to come again” (Rev. Jennifer Pick). Resurrection is not just something that happened 2,000 ago; a relic of history. Rather resurrection is a model, a motivator and a miracle.
Resurrection as a Model
Models give us a way of doing or understanding something. Children model parents, students model their teachers. The resurrection of Jesus is a model about how we can faithfully frame our lives. A woman recently shared with me how she had returned to church in another town. At a recent gathering she and her peers, all in their late 70’s, stumbled upon the realization of their own mortality. Having all lost their parents, and some women living alone, this elicited strong feelings, ones they wanted to hide from. I shared with her the power of the resurrection in light of her fears; both honoring the reality of death and the reality of God’s restorative powers. Easter is about seeing our own limitations, our own smaller deaths, and even our actual death and trusting in the resurrection to give us hope, peace, comfort today. The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, guarantees that we have eternal life with Christ. It also means we have comfort in our smaller deaths as we journey through life, because of our faith in Christ.
Resurrection as Motivator
The resurrection can be a wonderful motivator in life. It allows us to see our struggles and hardships through the lens of hope. It helps us to shine a light in the dark tombs of our lives.
Anne Lamott tells the story of David, a man with a facial deformity. David was born with a huge benign tumor on the left side of his face. While removing the tumor, doctors also removed his lower lip. Treating him with radiation at such a young age meant his face stopped developing and was covered with plum-colored burns. David could have seen his physical difference as a barrier to life. But because of the love and support of family, friends and God he chose to step out in faith and start a church- where his deformity would always be on display. He found the courage to welcome people in grace, to help them look within and see hope.
“We with facial deformities are children of the dark” David said. “Our shadow is on the outside. And we can see in the dark: we can see you, we see you turn away, but one day finally understand that you turn away not from our faces but from your own fears. From those things inside you that you think mark you as someone unlovable to your family, and society, and even to God.” (Plan B, p.107). Easter is about owning our fears and bringing them into the light, trusting that God will work in and through our lives to bring hope and resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus motivates us to seek God’s light. David said, “All those years, I kept my bad stories in the dark, but not anymore. Now I am stepping out into the light. And this face has turned out to be an elaborately disguised gift from God” (Plan B, p.108). Whatever your hardship or struggle, God’s transformative love through Jesus’ death and resurrection offer you hope and motivation for new beginnings.
Jesus’ resurrection is a model, a motivator and ultimately it is a miracle.
On Easter morning the women are perplexed. Into this space the two men declare, “He is not here, but has risen.” Oh, how I long for, “He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!” We know that this is the initial moment of resurrection hope and we see the women come into their own, finding the courage to share the gospel message for the very first time. This amazing message Peter runs with as we heard his sermons in Acts, inviting us to bear witness to the risen Lord.
By definition a miracle is unexpected, does not conform to natural laws. God created those laws and God has the power to bend them. Especially when God shows deep and abiding love for us both in washing away our sins on the cross and the restoring our hearts with the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of eternal life. Willa Carter wrote, “Where there is great love there are always miracles.” There is no greater love than God’s love for YOU. The miracle is not that Jesus was raised from the dead; the miracle is that you have the courageous faith to believe absolutely that God loves YOU that much. “The resurrection of Jesus is not the ending of the story, but the beginning of many hope-filled risings to come. And because the Love of God will come, again and again (and again!), to raise us out of death, we have hope. It’s just a whisper now, but if you sit in the stillness and the darkness, you can hear it calling you to rise, to hope.
We turn our hearts with hope this day to meet the risen Christ with us, within us, and within the love between us; within the unexpected that inspires us. We acknowledge that God is with us in our birthing, our living, our dying, and our rising again. Then, like (the women), we must each decide whether hope is stronger than fear, whether life is stronger than hate, and whether love really is stronger than death . . . every day, every moment, with all our hearts. That is what resurrection is” (Rev. Todd Pick, april-21-easter-sunday-year-c). He Is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!
