Amazed - Easter Sunday 2019

21 April 2019 – Easter Sunday

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12

It’s been a wild couple of weeks for this congregation, hasn’t it?  Worship, prayers, and Bible study attendance have not been great, and we can pretty much pick our excuses – and we do in our skewed priorities.  Some have gotten bad news from a doctor, others good.  The national and international news has been, well … it’s hard to say, but from what I can gather, the sky is apparently still falling.  We’ve celebrated, we’ve grieved, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve hated, and we’ve loved. 

Things happen – some good, some not so good – that we cannot always explain, though Lord knows we always try to find meaning in every little thing – maybe especially in the trivial things.  The truth is, we need meaning.  We cannot seem to fathom anything random, and we won’t say it’s just “bad luck” or admit that maybe a series of bad ideas and poorly thought-out decisions came full circle.  Some struggle through each and every day while others seem to glide right through.  Fortunes have been made, and fortunes have been lost.

But that’s life, isn’t it?  These are the things we deal with every single day.  And too often we take so much for granted that we do what we do out of habit or routine.  We know the “what” of what we do, but we don’t always consider the “why”.  We just do it because it has to be done, it’s what we’ve always done, or we just want to.  I think, though, that if we really evaluated our work-a-day and reconsider the “why” of the things we do, we might be amazed at how meaningful – or meaningless – the things we do really are.

Some 2000 years later, it seems the same applies to the Resurrection.  We know the “what” – that Jesus was raised from the dead – but thinking of the “why” has long been brushed aside because the “what” has become more important – that it just happened because it was supposed to.

Of course, the “why” of the Resurrection cannot begin at the Resurrection.  There is a lot to take in that will lead us to this point and will help the “why” to make some sense.  The Resurrection cannot be relegated only to “what” lest it lose its meaning – which it may have already. 

To be sure, come funeral time for a loved one, we do think of the Resurrection – not of the Messiah but of our loved ones; and we’re not so amazed as we are grateful.  It gives us a great deal of comfort to believe our loved ones are not truly dead; and were it not for the depth of our grief, we might even find real joy.

Again, however, the Resurrection did not just happen.  We have to get there.  We cannot go directly from Christmas to Easter without taking in all that took place in Jesus’ life on this earth because death always precedes resurrection.  We have to die; but if we wish to be raised in Christ in the Resurrection, we must first learn to live for Christ in this life.  To do this, we must die to self.  Only then can the Resurrection have any real meaning.

There is a twist in this, however.  Note Peter’s speech as recorded in Acts 10.  He said, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power … He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him … they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree …”

Who is “they” who put Him to death?  The Romans?  The religious leaders who falsely accused Him and handed Him over to the Roman authorities?  Or was it the many who hailed Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with rejoicing – many of whom had been healed by Him - only to turn against Him a few days later?  Remember they called for His death over a known criminal (Barabbas) because of what they may have heard from the religious leaders and the crowds in general.

Over the centuries the Church had pretty consistently blamed the Jews in general for the death of our Savior without fully realizing how many actually had a hand in this travesty.  Yet as our Lord hung on the Cross, He called upon The Father to forgive them (all of them and perhaps us as well) in their ignorance.  They had no idea what they were doing, and Jesus didn’t specify who “them” was in His plea to The Father for mercy. 

Then on the third day, Peter – the only one whose active betrayal and denial is recorded for us – ran to the tomb to find only the burial clothes.  And as it is recorded by Luke, “He went home, amazed at what had happened”.

It seems to me Peter had to be included among those for whom Jesus prayed as He was dying because his denial indicated not only a profound fear for his own life but also a much deeper doubt about all Jesus had taught them.  How else to explain how easily Peter turned, this same Peter who had sworn to Jesus he would stand with Him even if it cost him his own life?

So in our perpetual hope that is the Resurrection – the only real hope we can have in this life – we hear the consistent cry of our Shepherd who was, and still is, determined to show us The Way; “forgive them, Father”.  For it is in our mercy toward others where we will find mercy for ourselves.  In this Mercy is the “why” of the Resurrection found, and it is in the depth of this Mercy where we will be utterly amazed.

The “why” of the Resurrection is hope and mercy in spite of our often willful ignorance.  We look to the Resurrection not merely because it happened but “why” it happened.  It is the depth of The Father’s love for His people; that despite the hatred of a world determined to eliminate all reference to Him and His glory, the Blessed and Eternal Father will raise up His own.  That’s you … and perhaps even me.

As the late John Paul II once proclaimed, “We are Easter people, and halleluiah is our song!”  So we proclaim the mystery of our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. 

Glory to The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.  Amen.