Jesus
Invites Disciples Back to the Future
Easter Sunday – April 12, 2020
“Resurrection”
YouTube video of this sermon is here.
Our world is in a Holy Saturday moment.
· A sabbath of sorts, though
it doesn’t feel quite like we might envision sabbath to feel like
o
Sabbath as time of rest and renewal and reconnection
· This pandemic-initiated
sabbath feels perhaps more like the experience of the women we find in Mark’s
gospel going to the tomb early Easter morning
o
Jesus dying Friday – taken from the cross in time to be laid
in the tomb before sundown, when sabbath began
o
Sundown Friday – Sundown Saturday = sabbath
§ Sabbath law would have
allowed them to go anoint Jesus’ body, but they did not have the spices they
needed, and buying them was not allowed
on the sabbath
§ So nothing they could do but
wait
We have an extended sabbath
· Not that no work is being
done, of course – to the contrary! Many of us do not find this enforced time at
home to be all that relaxing, as we try to do multiple “jobs” at the same time
· But normal life is suspended
as we wait at home for this time to pass until we can be “set free” in the
wider world again
· Much to do as we wait – but
we wonder during this time
o
And fret, maybe, about what we will find on the other side
when the stay-at-home orders are lifted
· What will the world look
like?
o
Will we find ourselves going to the tomb of what once was?
o
A way of life that, if it hasn’t died, has certainly shifted
and changed
o
No going back to exactly the way it was, whatever normal we
were accustomed to
o
This is a before & after kind of event that we’ll use to
mark time
As Mary and Mary and Salome go, wondering and worrying
about how they will get past the “very large” stone that sealed the entrance to
the tomb
· thinking that they will
offer one last act of love and devotion for their beloved teacher and friend
· and then close the chapter
and move into a world forever changed
· their expected future
changes yet again, suddenly!
· The stone is already rolled away!
o
Entering, they find, not a dead body, but a young man dressed
in a white robe (Bible-speak for an angel), who starts with what they already
know: “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified”
o
But the next words are utterly unimaginable: “He has been
raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell
his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you
will see him, just as he told you.”
· And just like that – the
women find themselves with a new job, a new and joyful (and terrifying)
mission!
o
Not to prepare a body for its
final rest – but instead, sent to share the amazing, incredible, nearly
unbelievable good news that Jesus has been raised from the dead and invites his
followers to follow him into a new future!
· It’s not a surprise to me
really that the women tear off into the morning terrified and amazed and too
afraid to tell anyone, at least at first
o
b/c this is just too good to be true
· and yet ultimately we know
the women must have shared the story
o
realizing that Jesus has called them and the male disciples
into a future they only could have dreamed and hoped for just a few days, a few
moments! Before!
And as we wait here in our Holy Saturday world, we
hear these words come to us too
· you are looking for Jesus of
Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here!
· Go tell the world that he is
going ahead of you – he will meet you, just as he said!
On this Easter morning, so unlike the ones we have so
often known, Jesus is calling to us, inviting us to follow him into the future
that he is creating
· Though we may be anxious
about the pandemic and the many effects it will have on our future, Jesus reminds us that he
waits for us there, just as he walks with us now
Easter reminds us that Jesus has conquered death and
the grave!
· That goodness is stronger
than evil
· That light is more powerful
than darkness
· That love is stronger than
anger and envy and hatred
· And that life ultimately
wins out over death!
As we live in this in-between time, we, like the
women, are called to prepare
· Not just to care for the
bruised and broken (which we are certainly called to do)
· But to hear and believe and
share the good news that Jesus is risen – he is risen indeed!
· And that changes everything.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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