Sermon Easter Day Year A Resurrection!People used to argue a lot about resurrection...I guess they still do...but did you know that in the ancient world... when our gospels were written...the word resurrection...in Latin or Greek...was never about what happens after people die.
At the time Jesus lived...Jewish understanding of resurrection ...was reserved... for that new bodily life which would come for everyone... in the last days.
When Jews argued about resurrection...they were debating
the second stage...of a two stage process...
life after death was one stage...the resurrection was to follow.
My favourite biblical scholar...Tom Wright says...
most pagans and Jews in Jesus’ time...believed in the first stage...life after death...but when it came to debating the second stage... well... pagans and some Jews...
argued against bodily resurrection. [i]
Sure... they all knew about ghosts, and spirits, visions and hallucinations...but when they were talking about resurrection Jews meant bodies...like when Herod thinks Jesus might be John the Baptist raised from the dead. Herod certainly doesn’t think Jesus is a ghost.
And it’s clear from the ancient Hebrew scriptures...
that most Jews looked forward to an eventual resurrection...
understanding God would look after their spirits...
till that day... when God would judge and remake the world... and give his people new resurrected bodies’[ii] You can hear this in Martha’s conversation with Jesus...
about the resurrection of her brother Lazarus.
And when the Sadducees... who don’t believe in the resurrection of the last days...try to trick Jesus...
Jesus speaks of the resurrection...
as a complete event in the future... when all the righteous will be raised...and in all of this Jesus consistently echoes what most first century Jews believe...[pause]
Except... when ‘he begins to tell his followers...that he himself is going to be killed...and then raised again three days later.’[iii]
Jesus disciples... simply can’t grasp what he’s saying...
It’s the last thing they can picture...So the one time Jesus tries to talk to them about his resurrection...his disciples have no idea what he’s talking about. They never imagined resurrection would happen to one person... ahead of everybody else. They can’t even imagine the Messiah would die.
And that’s why Jesus crucifixion...is the end of all their hopes.[iv] From their perspective...crucifixion means the kingdom hasn’t come after all...and Jesus can’t be the Messiah [pause]
As Jesus stumbles with his cross up that hill...his followers never dream of saying...‘Well that’s all right... he’s got to die... to save us...but he’ll be back in a few days.[v] On the contrary... those two days following the crucifixion...
are the end of all their hopes...as far as they’re concerned...
end of story. [pause]
But the story isn’t over...because something happens...
Something.... according to Tom Wright...that causes the first Christians to reform Jewish understanding of resurrection...
in seven new ways. [pause]
The first thing that was different about the Christian understanding of resurrection... is that when early Christians proclaim Jesus has risen from the dead, they mean something happened to Jesus... that had never happened...to anyone else.[vi]
...something no one ever expected to happen...
Second...for the first Christians...resurrection moves from a concept at the periphery of Judaism...to the very centre of their faith. Belief in Jesus’ bodily resurrection...is held so strongly by the first Christians...it leads many to their death
in the martyrs arena.
Third...the first Christians are clear...that while the resurrected body... is somehow new... transformed... and incorruptible...
it is nevertheless a real body...and not a disembodied soul, spirit or vision...a body that occupies three dimensional space...
a body that leaves behind empty tombs.
And fourth...before Easter... no first century Jew...expected the resurrection to be anything other... than a sudden large-scale event...that happened to all God’s people[vii] But after Easter...we find that Christians believe the resurrection has happened to one person... in the middle of history...
in advance of and guaranteeing the great final resurrection.[viii]
The fifth way Christians redefined resurrection proceeds from the fourth...if resurrection begins with Jesus...then in the power of the Holy Spirit...God calls Jesus’ followers to continue his work in their own personal and political lives...
... in anticipation... of the final resurrection...’[ix]
They...we...
are charged with transforming the present in light
of our future hope.
Sixth...before Jesus time... resurrection was used metaphorically in Judaism to stand for the national... ethnic...and geographical restoration of Israel...
but from the earliest days of Christianity...
that meaning disappears....
By the time Paul’s letters were written...there’s a new metaphorical meaning for resurrection...in the sacrament of baptism. As a dying and rising with Christ...in baptism...resurrection becomes a symbol of
the new life of obedience... for the believer....
The seventh and final Christian reshaping of resurrection... links it for the first time in religious history...
with the Messiah. In all previous Jewish writings...no one ever debated whether the Messiah would rise from the dead...
Why? Because no one expected the Messiah to die! Jewish texts promised a Messiah...who’d fight God’s victorious battle against the wicked pagans... rebuild and cleanse the Temple...a and bring God’s justice to the world.
But Jesus does none of these things...instead...
he dies at the hands of the pagans...suffers injustice... and annoys Temple authorities by knocking over tables. [pause]
Jesus does none of the things the promised Messiah was supposed to do... yet from very early on...Christians announce for all to hear that Jesus was indeed the Messiah...
and precisely because of his resurrection.
There had never been a story like it...
sure when we examine that time in Jewish history...we see Messianic pretenders and their movements are a dime a dozen. And it’s true that usually these movements end...
with the violent death of their leader...
But though their followers certainly understood them to be resting with God after they died...they did not understand them to be resurrected... that would only happen to all of them together ... at the end of days... [pause]
So something happened... even though gospel accounts differ... something happened to convince the first Christians to make Jesus’ bodily resurrection... the very centre of their faith...
Something happened... as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. Something so compelling…
it changes a quivering, terrified, defeated, and depressed band of mourners…some scared stiff to be identified with Jesus…
something so undeniable happened…
it turns broken men and women... into courageous champions of Jesus saving message of Shalom...turns them into people prepared to go any distance, and face any danger…
even death...for what they believe...
I love Easter... because it gives me the opportunity...
to tell you...what I hold to be true in my heart...
that nothing... but a face to face… touch to touch encounter...
with the resurrected Christ…
nothing else... would or could explain...the transformation
of the cowards of Gethsemane… into the heroes of Pentecost… may you also be transformed...as we enter into a time of silent listening.
[i] Wright, NT. Surprised by hope – Rethinking heaven, the resurrection and the mission of the church, Harper, NY. 2008. 37
[ii] ibid.
[iii] ibid 38
[iv] ibid.
[v] ibid 39
[vi] ibid. 37
[vii] ibid 45
[viii] ibid.
[ix] Ibid 46.
Questions for reflection:
When we argue about our faith what are we normally arguing about?
How earger are we to explore the history of what we believe?
What stops us?
Are we open to new ideas and perspectives?
Can we admit our understanding is only partial?
How well do we deal with mystery?
