The Day of Resurrection
April 4, 2010
No Idle Tale, Remember
Luke 24:1-12
Remember What He Told You?
Remember What He Told You?
It is so obvious, isn’t it, now that the angels say it.
“He is risen! He is not here. Why do you seek the living among the dead?
“Remember how he told you,… that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Yes! Yes! Yes! That rings a bell, now doesn’t it?
Three times in each of the first three Gospels.
Three times Jesus said that it was “necessary,” yes, it was so “necessary,” for him to undergo great suffering…and be killed…and on the third day to be raised again. He “must.” He “must.”
Time and time and time again, Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for what was coming down the pike.
Yet They Were Shocked!
And yet, they were not prepared when finally it happened. They were shocked. And they were devastated. And they moped around in daze wondering how in the world they would take the shattered pieces of their lives and put them back together once again.
They were shocked & horrified
The women who came to the tomb on that first Easter day did not expect to find a Risen Lord. Their only thought was of the dead and who had rolled the stone away.
And the men…well, they were no where to be found. They hid in dark corners like a wounded animals licking their wounds. They did not dare to go outside at all.
And isn’t that just like us? A tragedy hits. A disaster strikes. And we forget everything that Jesus ever told us. We weep. We cry. We despair. And we forget every promise Jesus ever made.
Until the gospel word hits us right between the eyes. And we “remember” what Jesus said, that it was necessary for the Messiah to die and to be raised from the dead, so that repentance and the forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed in his name to all the nations of the world.
It was the love of God behind this “must.” This sacred “must.” Must die. Must rise.
The death of Jesus Christ was no accident. It was not a sad accidental mishap or a very bad mistake. It was God’s plan and purpose all along to save and to redeem an entire world.
They Dismissed It as an Idle Tale
They dismissed it as an idle tale
Don’t you remember?
The women did. As soon as the two angels pointed them back to the words of Jesus, the light bulb went on.
And immediately they left the tomb. And they became the first witnesses to the resurrection. They rushed, they hurried to tell “the eleven” and the rest.
But…their words “seemed to them an ‘idle tale,’ and they [the male disciples] did not believe them.”
And isn’t that a bite? Here the women are at least brave enough to go to the tomb. And amazingly they encounter two angels in a dazzling white.
And they are shaken to the bone…until their memories are jarred. And they remember the words of Jesus. And the bells of Easter joy start ringing in their ears.
And then they go and do what one “must do” when we catch on the Risen Lord and catch a glimmer of his glory—THEY GO AND TELL OTHERS.
And yet, the men— the men dismiss it all as a bunch of “idle talk,” and they did not believe them.
Who Says There’s No Humor in the Bible?
Who says there is no humor in the bible? I think Saint Luke is taking a jab at our all too common gender stereotypes. And he is right. He’s got me nailed.
I don’t believe everything all the women in my house tell me, either. Do you?
A few of them have been known to stretch the truth every now and then. They twist the facts to their advantage.
And it works the other way around, too. They don’t believe everything I say, either.
We all do our share of “selective listening.” It is not just men who are so hard of hearing.
Easter Faith Does Not Come Easily
But Saint Luke has a very serious point for us, too. The resurrection of Jesus is no idle tale. It is the rock-solid Gospel truth!
The Easter did not come easily or quickly to the first disciples. This is not a made-up story: a myth designed by early Christians.
The earliest disciples were hard-headed realists who demanded something far more substantial than just an emotional outburst or the rumor of an angelic vision.
Ultimately, it would take a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. Jesus walking through the locked door of their hearts and minds.
Eating food and breaking bread before their very eyes. And opening up their minds to all the Scriptures. How it was necessary. Yes, it was so necessary for the Son of man to be handed over the sinners and crucified and on the third day rise.
He must. He must.
We cannot "prove" the resurrection, but...
We cannot “prove” the resurrection of Jesus. It is not a piece of scientific data. We cannot explain how God can take a limp, dead body and make it come alive again.
It is a matter of faith, not of science. In fact, just ask your kids. Our secular colleges and universities raise more doubts and questions about all religions than they give answers.
Tough Questions to Explain Without the Resurrection
But, just because this is a matter of faith, does not mean that we have to park our brains at the door. And anyone who does deny or doubt the resurrection has some pretty tough historical questions to explain:
- Like how come women are the “first witnesses” at a time and in a culture that did not trust the testimony of women? What advantage is there in inventing a story like that?
- Or, why are the men displayed in such an embarrassing light? Our Lord’s closest friends are the very ones who desert him and betray him. What spin master makes up stuff like that when it doesn’t help their candidate?
- And why was there no early Christian worship around the tomb of Jesus, when the Jews to this very day still worship at the tombs of their prophets and their departed leaders?
- And why different resurrection accounts clearly written at different times in different places, and yet all with the same essential core, if this all come from one fictitious source?
- And why dream up a resurrection at all in the first place when there is no analogy to this in all of ancient literature. A dead corpse returning to an abiding life in living, physical flesh and blood that people saw and touched. There is no precedent for this in any literature of any people before that first Easter day. People didn’t want to return to this life—they wanted to move on to the next.
- And why did some Jews (from a religion, mind you, that fought quite hard and shed a lot of blood to champion their “one God”), why did they so quickly and consistently identify Jesus as equal in divinity to their one God, too? That is a tough one, a very tough one, to explain without a resurrection
- And how did those terrified and cowardly disciples become such bold confessors of the faith—to the point of martyrdom? Who dies for a rumor?
None of this Makes Sense, Unless it Really Happened
Makes no sense without the resurrection
None of this makes any sense. None of it. Unless it did indeed happen, really happen, just as the good news of the Gospel says.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is no “idle tale.” It is the “rock solid” Gospel truth, consistent with all of God’s gracious acts throughout all of history.
And it does indeed make sense, it does, when we remember. When we remember all that Jesus told us about how this had to be.
For isn’t this precisely the way that our good old faithful God has always worked? Changing death into life. And turning sorrow into joy. Much to our amazement and surprise!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster