Easter Sunday – Luke 24:1-12
First Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis, IN

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Christ is risen! [HE IS RISEN INDEED!] Today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We get to rejoice in the God who brings life out of death. We geet to give thanks for the God who makes a way where there is no way. Easter is the day when we get all the good news right up front.

Except, have you ever noticed that the resurrection isn’t really a happy story? Sure, it’s easy for us to cast it in a happy clappy way. We have the whole story. We know where Jesus goes next, what he does, and what he says to his friends. But his friends aren’t there yet. They’re mourning. It’s only been three days since Jesus died. Who processes grief that fast? And it’s not like he just died. He was murdered by the state. So there’s a whole lot of trauma and fear going on. Jesus’ friends are creeping around early in the morning or late at night, and hiding in locked rooms. After all that’s happened, who in their right mind would advertise that they were all buddy-buddy with Jesus? It might get you killed. But now there’s a whole new level of stress on top of all that – where’s the body?

The first problem is that none of Jesus’ disciples believed that resurrection was a thing. Now, the women had a lot of reasons to go to the tomb. They wanted to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. Partly because it’s a loving thing to do, like dressing up the body. Recognizing its God-given dignity. And partly because, remember what happened when Jesus called Lazarus out of his tomb? “He stinketh.” They’ve seen Lazarus raised, why wouldn’t Jesus be the same? But, if the women really believed what Jesus had said, then they shouldn’t have been so surprised that the body was gone. Shocked, sure. Who wouldn’t be? But if Jesus’ teachings hadn’t taken a backseat to human instinct, then God wouldn’t have needed to send angels to remind them.

And then comes the next problem. When the women go back and tell the men everything, the men don’t believe. Despite every time that Jesus warned what would happen. All forgotten. “These words seemed to them an idle tale.” No offense guys, but I want to ask the women among us, are you surprised? I’m sure there’s some gender dynamics going on. Peter had to run to the tomb and see for himself, because what do they know? And I bet there’s jealousy too. The disciples were always fighting about who Jesus loved best. “How come the women get angel messengers and we don’t?” Maybe Peter doesn’t just run to the tomb to make sure it’s empty. Maybe he wants to see the angels too, and he’s in for a big disappointment.

Now, we shouldn’t be too hard on the disciples. If we’re honest, do we really believe in the resurrection? Just because we say it in the creed doesn’t prove anything. We say a lot of things. But humans have always been skeptical. And 2000 years of science just makes it harder to believe. We’ve learned a lot about bodies and brains and death. Of course, we hear stories about folks who have near death experiences. One guy in Cleveland was dead for 45 minutes and suddenly came to. He insisted it was proof of an afterlife. Though we argue about that, it doesn’t change the fact that he saw what he saw. But it’s also not the same thing as resurrection. Resurrection is like birth. It only happens once.

But you know, we only argue about this stuff because we think resurrection just has to do with death. And we’ve never seen it with our own eyes. So we get hung up on the physical stuff, and we get hung up on getting to heaven. But Jesus’ resurrection is way more than that. It’s the thing that God began 2000 years ago on the cross. The beginning of turning everything upside down. Of bringing down the powerful and raising up the powerless. Resurrection isn’t just spiritual or physical stuff. It’s political stuff too. But that’s a scary thought, because 2000 years later, does the world really look any different than the day when the Roman Empire nailed Jesus to the tree? We still wage wars, greed, and injustice. We still have the same problems.

So, what difference did Jesus’ resurrection make?

The difference is that it gives us hope in the power of God. Hope in things we can’t see. Hope in an empty tomb and a missing body. Because that body couldn’t hold Jesus anymore. It wasn’t enough. Jesus’ plans are too big. He needs a bigger body, with countless hands, and feet, and voices to do the work that he set before the world. He needs all of us – the body of Christ that people see and hear and touch. So Jesus gives us a promise, “The ones who believe in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (Jn 14:12) This is a promise. It’s not maybe, or conditional. It’s a vow that we will heed Jesus’ call. That we’ll be filled with the Holy Spirit and every good thing that we need to step forward in the power of hope.

And here’s another thing. Whether or not we believe in the resurrection, we NEED it to be real. Because if this God can turn death to life, then this God will move even the immovable heart to get what God wants. And that’s not just spiritual. That’s physical. That’s making dead bodies like ours jump right up. All to prove that in every time of crisis such as ours, and there have been so mnay, that we will be more than ourselves. More than our best days. More than whatever we thought was possible. And God’s not going to wait around for us to decide what we believe. God’s not going to wait for us to finish arguing about whether the resurrection is a thing. The time is now.

That’s what we mean when we say, “Christ is risen.” 3 little words that speak volumes. Of course, we’re not naive. We’re going to mess up. We’ll feel like we’re stumbling. And there are always folks who won’t believe us, who want to argue. But thanks be to God that we can simply say, “Don’t take our word for it. Watch and see.”