Resurrection of Our Lord
Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then, they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But, these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Four Gospels
The Easter story appears in all four gospels. It makes sense, because it is the event that essentially defines us as Christians. But, these accounts were written by different people, in different places, in different time periods, for different audiences, so of course, they don’t line up perfectly. In fact, the details between the four gospels vary wildly, especially when you compare the Easter stories to each other. In our gospel reading for today from Luke, three women are named among the women at the tomb: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. In Mark, the three named women are the only ones who are mentioned, but instead of Joanna, we have Salome. Matthew only mentions Mary Magdalene and the “other” Mary, while in John, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb by herself. In all the gospels, there is an encounter with seemingly otherworldly beings, sometimes two, sometimes one, but they all say to the women that they need to tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead. In three of the gospels, they do just that, but in the Book of Mark, they were too afraid to tell anyone.
Some might ask, with the differences being so drastic, doesn’t this diminish the credibility of this story? I don’t think so. Research into human memory tells us that memory isn’t as reliable as we like to think it is. Our memories are always changing; they’re susceptible to suggestion, things that we see or hear after the fact, our own biases. And, every time we retrieve a memory, we do so imperfectly, and the most recent interpretation of that event overwrites the previous version in our brain, becoming the only version that we know. That’s why eye-witness accounts of the same event never quite line up. In fact, if they line up perfectly, that might suggest that someone is lying.
So, it doesn’t bother me that there are these discrepancies between the gospels. In a way, I feel like it lends to their authenticity. What’s more important is what this story is trying to tell us. And, perhaps, we might want to think about what we can learn by looking at the four versions together.
Because, this goes beyond the question of whether this story is true or not. That is something that you have to feel inside of yourself. That is you being open to the Holy Spirit speaking to you, your willingness to listen to what God is telling you. No one can force you to do that.
But, we can talk about the fact that these gospels have been sharing space with each other for two-thousand years. And, they’ve been sitting right next to each other for over fifteen hundred years, from when the Bible was first put together some time around 400 CE. They’re not the same, and they sometimes seem to contradict each other, but they are similar, very similar, and they’re all trying to tell the story of Christ’s resurrection.
As human beings, we have a tendency to be suspicious of people who are different from us. We’re suspicious of different foods and customs, different ways of doing things. But, we’ve always been more similar than different. We are all human, and we all experience things in a human way. It’s almost like God was trying to tell us something by having these different versions of Jesus’ life, all sitting there right next to each other in the same book. Differences aren’t a bad thing. Differences help us to see things in different ways, to understand more, and experience more. God intended for us to be different.
And, that might include the way that we see the resurrection. If you put a hundred people in a room, you’re going to get a hundred different understandings of why Jesus died and what his resurrection meant. How do we figure out who’s right? It seems like a futile endeavor. The resurrection was a divine, eternal, cosmic event. I don’t know if we’re even capable of truly understanding what happened that day. And, maybe that’s why there are so many different ideas about it. We all see it in a different way, and there’s truth in all of the different ways that we see it. Perhaps the deeper truth is when all of our different ideas come together.
There are too many people in the world who think they have all of the answers. But, thinking that you have all the answers is a recipe for disaster. We all have our theories, of course, about what it all means; people have been arguing about Jesus ever since he started his ministry. But, if anyone tells you that they know everything there is to know about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, be careful. There is too much that we don’t know, and too much that we don’t understand. Our human brains just aren’t capable of comprehending the full majesty of God, and the full mystery of the resurrection.
But, no matter what you believe about it, we have all come here today because we know that something special happened. God came into the world, and worked a miracle for the whole world to see. God was in our midst, and the people knew it. They could feel that it. Everything changed that day, and we tell this story every year to remember the miracle that God performed for us.
Jesus was God walking among us, to experience life with us, to experience our hardships and our triumphs, to love us as our brother. He taught us how to love each other and take care of each other. He brought the evils of the world kicking and screaming into the light, and he told us to fight them. But, the world didn’t like this, and sought to destroy him. But, God is the Creator of the world. God is the Creator of life, and nothing is more powerful. Jesus rose from the dead, and in doing so, brought us with him, rescuing us from sin and from death. We are all part of God’s family now, because of what Jesus did, bonded forever through his eternal, sacred, divine act of grace.
We are the descendants of faith from the movement that Jesus started. A movement based on equality and peace, on generosity and love, on justice and mercy. That is what God calls us to do, to make sure that the movement continues, until all people have been set free from the tyranny that we have imposed on ourselves. We have to fight against our human nature that tells us to be selfish and greedy, to distrust those who are different, to seek ways to take advantage of those whom we are able to control. Jesus lived and spoke to dismantle all of that. He died to dismantle all of that. He was killed because what he was trying to dismantle was what the people understood, and they weren’t ready for change, to see a better way. But, he came back, proving that his way is the better way. His way is the way of life and light.
Easter is the holiday of resurrection, renewal, and rebirth. We have been made new through the cross. We don’t have to live in fear, wondering what’s coming next. We know what’s coming. The resurrection is coming. We don’t have to carry the burden our sin anymore. We don’t have to carry the burden of our past mistakes and our past humiliations. Jesus took all of that to the cross and left it there. We are a new people, resurrected through Jesus the Christ. So, show the world who you are. Share your new self with a world that so desperately needs hope, joy, and love. We are the mercy and the generosity that the world needs, right now. We are the vessels that carry God’s justice and compassion to those who need it most. So, be strong for the weak, be kind for the downtrodden, and be the light for those who are living in the shadows. Jesus is alive inside of you, empowering you to do all of these things. So, be bold. Be courageous as you do God’s work, and remember that you have been made new in our risen Lord, Jesus the Christ. Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
