March 31, 2013 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
“And they remembered
His words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the Eleven
and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother
of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,
but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
St. Luke does the Eleven no
favors in his description of Jesus’ disciples that Sunday morning. He does not
hide their doubt and unbelief. He doesn’t conceal their dismissal of the women’s
“idle tale.” No spin is found in his
gospel. There is the exhibition of the unadulterated truth of the matter—good
and ill—so that his audience can hear an accurate portrayal of the events
surrounding Jesus of Nazareth.
The Evangelist’s depiction of
the Eleven places them in the category of people that St. Paul described in
today’s Epistle reading: “people most to
be pitied.” It makes us pitiful people, if the resurrection of Jesus never
took place, or if we fail to believe it. What would that leave us with?
Certainly there would be ritual and a moral philosophy. There would be a group
devoted to Jesus’ social teachings. Perhaps there would still be a Christian
Democratic Union or Christian Coalition with representatives in parliaments
across Europe. But to what end? Without life everlasting, there is no real hope
in anything more than this world. In light of what Jesus had said, with no
resurrection there is no redemption.
That realization is what plagues
the Eleven. They consider three years’ time with Nazareth’s so-called prophet
to be wasted. They contemplate their lost hopes and dreams. They could recall
the grand entry into Jerusalem and the awe-inspiring Passover they had spent with
Jesus. But their minds are also haunted by His betrayal, arrest, beating, and
condemnation. They themselves had abandoned Jesus. They wonder what had gone so
horribly wrong. And when the women come back with reports of Jesus’ return to
life and sights of angels, they dismiss it out-of-hand, an “idle tale” with no basis in cold, hard fact.
But are the Eleven alone in
acting that way? Or do we act in the same way? Faced with the failures of our
life, with the broken dreams and lost hopes, we doubt. We doubt that there is
anything good in life, that there could be something greater than our lives’
troubles. We may even act like the women first did that Sunday morning: “seeking the living among the dead,”
looking for solutions among our wisdom, inventiveness, or genius. Turned into
ourselves, we see there is no hope, nothing to cling to. And with that mindset,
we can even miss the eternal good that is to be found outside of ourselves.
That is what the resurrection
account is meant to overcome in our lives. It directs us away from ourselves,
away from our own created realities, which will lead us to nothing but death
and despair. Into that environment, the resurrection of Christ enters, shining
brightly through our gloom. It is unbelievable and unfathomable. It may even
seem like an idle tale to us because we know that human beings are powerless
over death. We know our weaknesses, and like the disciples, we infer that
weakness about Jesus as well.
But exactly there, Jesus’
message—the one repeated by the graveside angel and reported by the faithful
women—comes into play. The powerful message of the resurrection hinges on just
who has risen from the dead: “Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son
of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on
the third day rise.”
So much significance and
importance is found in that term: “Son of
Man.” It tells us that not just any person was laid in the garden tomb near
Calvary. The title informs us that He is divine. “Son of Man” is a title of God, the promised Messiah. It is a name
with a message like “Son of David” or
“Immanuel.” With that, we are forced
to put aside our assumptions about human weakness and broken promises and lost
hope. If it is God Himself, the Author of Life, the Eternal Word-made-flesh,
that hanged dead on the cross and lay still in the tomb, then we can believe
that He has power over death itself—just as He says.
That is what the angel’s message
reminded the women, the Eleven, and all of us. Those words take the Eleven’s minds
back to where there was no doubt, no thoughts that Jesus’ words were idle tales.
It takes us back to Galilee earlier in Christ’s ministry, to the place where
even Peter himself confessed that Jesus was that Son of Man, the promised Christ.
Peter is confronted with his own previous testimony about Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living
God,” as well as the prophecy of all the events in Jerusalem that unfolded
just as Jesus said.
Confronted with that, Peter’s
doubt is eroded away. No longer does he dismiss the women’s report, but sprints
to the tomb to see for himself: “But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw
the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had
happened.” But this
is a reaction not of unbelief or doubt, but disbelief: amazement and wonder.
Peter also remembers Jesus’ words and sees that they have come true. The events
have happened as Jesus had foretold, down to the very last detail—betrayal,
death, and resurrection. Promises are kept. Weakness is overcome. Hope is
restored.
That is what the news of the
resurrection does for each of us. It turns us back to the One more powerful
than death, who backs up His promises with actions. The Word that Jesus speaks
with His own mouth and through His messengers comes to us, carrying the good
news of forgiveness, life, and salvation. It removes trust in ourselves or in
our experiences. That misplaced trust is replaced with faith in what Jesus has
accomplished on our behalf, relying on Him and His actions, despite what our
reason or senses might say.
That message of Jesus carries us
back to the events of Gethsemane, the Judgment Hall, and Calvary. It shows that
it has all been done with a purpose—that these weren’t just bad happenstance,
the result of unfortunate circumstance. Not only a purpose, but that we are the
ones meant to benefit. Jesus’ words confront us with the fact that He
deliberately endured all this for our sake. Jesus suffers and dies, knowing
that this brings us salvation, fulfills the will of the Father, and meets all
He has guaranteed. That is what the women experience at the tomb and the Eleven
come to realize that first Easter Day. It is also what occurs in each of us, as
the message of the Risen Lord enters our hearts and minds.
So we do not consider the women’s
report “an idle tale.” Nor do we
consider what the apostles handed down to us to be mere legend. Instead, we
find in it our hopes restored, our lives reborn, our destinies transformed. We
marvel at what has happened, not in unbelief, but in awe, reverence, and
wonder. For what has happened to Jesus is what He promises us as our own
future.
Thus the apostle, a proclaimer and
witness of the Risen Jesus, wrote: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But
each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who
belong to Christ.” Such
news overwhelms doubt, tramples unbelief, removes weakness. This is what this
day and every Sunday achieves and reminds us: a time will come when our tombs
will be opened and none shall find us remaining in them. So it shall be, since
our Lord Jesus Christ “has been raised
from the dead,” and our enemy death is destined to be destroyed forever.
Let that cause your reaction of
joy on this day, no longer considering Jesus’ words and works and the Church’s
confession of them to be idle or worthless, but an eternal treasure which is
stored up for you with the Risen Lord in heaven: the promise of your own everlasting
life.
+ In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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