Sermon for Easter Day, April 4, 2010
Solemn Mass
By the Reverend Stephen Gerth
Year C: Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:14-17, 22-24; Colossians 3:1-4; Luke 24:1-10

In the night of Jesus’ arrest, his principal disciple denies him, two or three times. In all four gospels, the disciples react to Jesus’ arrest and death with fear, not faith. Some try to flee. They did not expect Jesus to be condemned and to be crucified.

It turned out that not even his closest disciples really believed in him. His words were heard; his deeds were seen. The kingdom of God did not begin its reign in his disciples’ lives when lepers were healed, the hungry were fed, or the dead were brought back to life.

In today’s gospel account from Luke, as in all the gospels, the women who go to the tomb expect to find Jesus dead – and there is no living Jesus around to do anything about it. In Luke, the women find what they do not expect,[1] an empty tomb and “two men in gleaming robes” who say to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised.”[2]

Luke tells us that the women then went to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard. The disciples do not believe their words. For my part, I’m not sure the women understand or believe what they had seen and heard.

In my preparations to preach through this week, I was surprised to realize how little there is about Jesus’ resurrection in the four gospels – and to wonder why I hadn’t noticed before. For the record, I don’t remember any of the books that I’ve read making very much of this absence of stories either.

In the best, oldest manuscripts of Mark, the gospel ended not as it does now – with the handling of snakes among other things, but a resurrection event that goes hand in hand with Mark’s desolate Jesus, dying alone, in agony, forsaken by all who knew and seemed to love him, and forsaken by his God and Father.[3]

The women find the stone unexpectedly rolled away and encounter a man dressed in white. They learn from him that Jesus is not there but risen. The man in white tells them to find Peter and the others to tell them to go to Galilee where Jesus will meet them. The women leave, but go away so afraid that they say nothing to anyone.[4]

In Matthew, the women encounter not a man but an angel in white. They head off to speak to the disciples, and on the way Jesus himself appears to them. In Matthew, the women “take hold of [Jesus’] feet and worship him.”[5] Beyond this, in terms of resurrection stories, Matthew recounts just one meeting with the disciples in Galilee.[6] The crucified Jesus is a matter of historical record; the risen Lord is a matter of faith. It’s not clear to me why there is so little resurrection in these gospels.

By comparison, John and Luke give us a lot more. In John, it’s Mary Magdalene who goes to the tomb and she doesn’t wait around for an angel. She sees the empty tomb and goes to tell Peter and that unnamed disciple of this gospel, identified as the disciple whom Jesus loved. They run back to the tomb with Mary Magdalene. The men go in and find it empty.  Mary Magdalene remains outside, and Jesus himself finds her and speaks to her. She recognizes him because he calls her by her own name.[7] We’re in John where Jesus is the Good Shepherd who knows all his sheep by name.[8]

In John there are three other encounters with the risen Jesus, one where Thomas is absent,[9] the other when he is present[10] – and then a final appearance of Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias to Peter and four others who have gone fishing.

In Luke, in addition the encounter at the tomb, Jesus meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus. We have one encounter where all the disciples are present and Jesus says to them, “Why are you troubled . . . See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see.”[11] And then Luke’s Jesus ascends to heaven.

Death is not the hard thing for faith. Only the youngest among us have not seen or do not know about death. But we aren’t here because Jesus died; we are here because he rose from the dead and lives.

The encounter with the risen Jesus not only changed the lives of those who met him; it continues to change the lives of those who come to know this faith, that in Jesus, God revealed himself to humankind and God revealed the destiny of humankind for eternal life.

None of the four evangelists would use the word “theology” to describe their work, but they were writing and thinking about God – and that’s what theology is, thinking about God. Each of our four gospels has its own theological approach, like each of the individual books of the entire Bible, and not at all unlike the unique perspective which is the gift of every human life.

Luke makes one particular theological claim, if you will, about the resurrection that strikes me as entirely correct: he wrote, “He is not here, but has been raised,” that is, raised by God his Father. 

Jesus does not raise himself from the dead. The resurrection is the gift, the plan, the will of the Father for his Son. Luke’s understanding of the Father raising the Son is part of the structure of his thinking about God’s work in making us and giving us life in Christ in this world and in the world to come. Remember, Luke is the gospel of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one sheep that is lost so he can bring it back to the flock.[12] Luke is the gospel of the forgiving father who rejoices when his prodigal son returns.[13] Luke is the gospel where Jesus himself seeks out the tax collector Zacchaeus because he has come to seek and save the lost.[14] Our life is the gift of God. Our hope and our faith, like Jesus’ resurrection, is simply that too – the gift of God.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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