Easter year C Sermon
With nagging persistence and political cunning…
the Jewish Temple authorities persuade
the Roman governor…to play the final card…
It’s illegal for the Jewish courts to execute anyone…
and the religious establishment wants Jesus dead …wants the upstart pretender to the throne of David eliminated…what’s needed is a display…
of the absolute power of the Roman Empire …
to execute criminals by crucifixion.
Since this Jesus continues to claim a higher authority he needs to find out what…unlimited power actually is … defy it and it can just have you killed… challenge it and you will die…the end…that’s all she wrote…
And so Jesus receives the highest penalty Rome can dish out…. [pause]
But killing him isn’t enough…Matthew’s account tells us… the chief priests and the Pharisees are going to leave nothing to chance…even with him dead… everyone’s heard the insane rumours that Jesus thought he’d come back after three days… if he were killed…
Something has to be done… to stop Jesus’ followers from stealing his body and telling everyone he’s been raised from the dead. That sleight of hand would be the last straw…
…and so as the sun rises on day two…the chief priests and the Pharisees…demand the Roman governor officially seal the tomb under tight security.
A boulder displaying the Roman Seal …
weighing maybe one and a half… maybe two tons…
is rolled across the entrance…and guards are posted.
To tamper with a Roman Seal was punishable by death.
And morning dawns on the third day… [pause]
The horrible and humiliating death of their leader has dealt a shattering blow to the faith of Jesus’ followers and family. They’d actually started to believe he was the anointed one of God… the Messiah who’s save Israel from its oppressors once and for all…
Now they’re thrown into a spiritual and emotional crisis… deep and agonizing they are gutted…and all their hope destroyed…
Just three days into their grief…the women who arrive at the tomb aren’t expecting anything to have changed…they’re bringing spices to ward away the smell of death.
Traveling with Jesus…they hadn’t known what to make of his reference to rising again. At that time in Jewish history… resurrection for all the faithful … was what God would do at the end time… giving a new body…to everyone from their ancestor Abraham on down through time. Resurrection was always going to happen on a grand scale…
and only after Israel’s great and final suffering. [pause]
Resurrection’s definitely not on their minds as the women approach the tomb on the third day. So when they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty…they have absolutely no idea what’s going on…
What they were certain of… is that Jesus really died …there was no doubt about that. The Romans were grimly efficient with their crucifixions… no one survived…even the 39 lashes of the flagrum Jesus endured… were enough to kill some people…
A seven inch spike through both heel bones…and in the wrists…the suffering…the suffocation…
[pause]
And after he died…these women had watched…as the hope of Israel…was laid to rest in the tomb…they would’ve given anything for a sign of life…
So it’s not at all surprising … how terrified and bewildered they are to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty…in Luke’s version they’re dazed and confused…yet as that third day unfold the unimaginable and inconceivable starts to happen.
And over the next forty days… whole crowds of allegedly sane rational human beings…reported speaking with Jesus…walking with Jesus…sharing food with Jesus and being blessed by Jesus… People touched him and were touched by him…
Jesus was seen…individual people weren't reporting visions or subjective spiritual experiences…whole groups of people were encountering Jesus together.
[pause]
And somehow Jesus followers emerged from the
spirit-crushing events of the crucifixion…and went on to proclaim the resurrection and divinity…of the one who was crucified dead and buried.
And the movement they founded…and the church they founded for all its weaknesses and flaws is still gathering … even here beneath these mountains and beside these lakes…at the ends of the earth. [pause…………]
What could be so compelling… to change a quivering terrified… defeated…despairing band of mourners… …some scared stiff even to be linked to Jesus…
What could be so convincing… to turn these frightened hopeless emotional wrecks into courageous messengers … ready to travel any distance and face any danger… for the sake of Jesus’ cause. [pause]
I believe nothing else… but meeting the risen Christ… could galvanize that cringing bunch…who stood back in the shadows even denying him… as the soldiers led Jesus away…
Oh…but maybe the da Vinci code is right and Jesus didn’t really die after all…maybe he just lapsed into a coma …and then revived.
Maybe despite the flagellation and the loss of blood…the spikes…the spear in his side…and the tight binding of the grave clothes…maybe Jesus came to… pushed the boulder away from the inside… overcame the guards… in urgent need of medical attention then walked or crawled on pierced feet and hands…to collapse at the door of his followers
Why would they proclaim him to be the conqueror of death… and Prince of Life…Emanuel…God with us. [pause]
And yet after that third day…there was a dramatic change in Jesus friends …[pause]
I still see this transformation today in the lives of people who name Jesus as the one they follow. Naming him not as just a great role model from the distant past…
but as the one they encounter today…the one who is there.
…the one who gives us strength and courage…
in the face of ridicule betrayal and persecution…
The one who convinces us to act justly and compassionately toward those who hate us…to show mercy to those who hurt us…
The one who teaches that revenge and retaliation will never lead to peace…but that evil will be overcome with love.
The one who enters time and space… to reveal God’s purposes of reconciliation and re-creation for all humanity… simply can’t be stopped… by the worst humanity can do. Because God’s love is stronger than even death.
