Easter Day Year B 2024

The Resurrection of Our Lord, Year B

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

When we state this, we are stating historical, provable fact. This is not merely a statement of faith - it’s that also - but it is a matter of record. The Roman empire kept records. They have records of a man named Jesus from the region of Galilee, being executed by crucifixion under the supervision of Pontius Pilate. This has all been shown because there are those who want to deny that Jesus of Nazareth was even a real person. They want to claim that he, like all the rest of the Bible, was just something a bunch of radical Jews made up, and used this story to perpetrate a hoax and a scam that started during this time - around 33 AD. Sadly for them, we have found the records to show that this man did live a life, and he was executed on a Roman cross.

“But how can you prove the tomb was empty?” they will say. Let’s put it this way: if you were going to make up this story, you would want to make it as credible as possible. You’d want your case to be as strong as possible, so that it would survive the attacks of skeptics and critics of the day. So what you would NOT do is make your key witnesses a bunch of women. Let me share a scholar’s view of all this: To some readers the story of the empty tomb sounds like a pious fraud. They may have little difficulty believing that Jesus’ immortal soul survived the death of his body and that his disciples felt his spiritual presence with them, but they find the story of the resuscitation of his body totally incredible. We must remember that the story was no more believable in the first century than in our own day. It must have seemed as ridiculous as some of the tall tales that are presented as “news” in our supermarket tabloids. If Jesus’ disciples, despite disillusionment over his failed messiahship, had decided to honor the memory of their martyred teacher by teaching what he taught, there was certainly no point in fabricating the improbable report of the empty tomb, which could only repulse potential adherents. Moreover, no Jewish follower of Jesus would have made up the story as we have it, for women were not regarded as credible witnesses in Jewish courts. The story is told in a simple, restrained fashion, without any defensive attempt to make it less incredible than it is. [Douglas R. A. Hare, Mark, ed. Patrick D. Miller and David L. Bartlett, Westminster Bible Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 223–224.]

If the apostles were fabricating this story, but trying to make it believable, they did EVERYTHING wrong. If the Roman leadership or the Priests and Scribes had Jesus’ body - they had plenty of opportunity to produce his corpse and expose the fraud. The apostles were Jews; they went to honor the body of their dead teacher. If he was truly dead, they would have treated his tomb with respect and reverence. This was part of their culture. “Jews venerated the graves of their prophets and martyrs, but there is no record of early Christians venerating Jesus’ grave. Indeed, its exact location seems to have been quickly forgotten.” [Ibid., 224] Of course, there was no need to remember it; it was only his tomb for part of a weekend.

Jesus’ death on the cross was devastating to his followers. They didn’t expect him to die. If you recall, several of them flat out refused to accept it. Peter was quite vocal about it. Even though Jesus told them … not only that it was *going to* happen, but that it *must* happen. This is the most vital part of God’s plan of salvation. It is His Will for this to happen. And Jesus went and willingly accepted that excruciatingly painful death - the price to be paid for the sins of the whole world. We hear him praying about this in the Garden of Gethsemane before he is arrested. This is the scene you have been looking at in the stained glass above our altar - Jesus praying at Gethsemane. He is looking up to his Heavenly Father and saying “not what I will, but what You will.” Perfect obedience.

You might remember me telling you that I once heard a live performance of a contemporary Christian song titled “The Cross has the Final Word.” As I listened to that very talented singer perform this song, I couldn’t help but think to myself about how much that song misses the point of what Jesus did. Our celebration of Jesus is not based on his death. It’s based on his being raised from the dead. Our celebration is not on Friday; it’s on Sunday. Yes, we remember the day that he died. But we CELEBRATE the day that he rose from the dead. The Cross, dear singer, does not have the final word. The empty tomb has the final word.

Jesus’ death on Friday left his followers hopeless, fearful, and in despair. Their idea that Jesus had come to save them was shattered. Many of them gave up at that very moment. Some ran - out of fear of suffering the same fate - just for being associated with him. They simply had stopped doing what Jesus had called them and taught them to do. It was a dark time for the Apostles and the other disciples, too. A world without Jesus is a dark place. A life without Jesus is a dark life.

But as we heard in our service last night, Jesus’ resurrection brought us out of this darkness and into the light of his glory. Just as the very first step of creation was for God to bring light to the darkness, Christ’s resurrection is the start of a new creation, and His light shines brightly in the darkness of the sinful world around us.

Just like the women in this morning’s Gospel lesson, when we see the empty tomb and hear the heavenly messenger explaining the absence of the body, we are reminded that death is not the end of Jesus’ story. The grave could not hold him. God has complete authority over everything - even death itself. And if God can raise His Son from the dead, He can do the same to all of us. And He will, when His Son returns. We know that death is not the end for any of us, and we know this because of the empty tomb.

The event of the death of Jesus of Nazareth on that Roman cross is a critical event for all of us who call ourselves Christians. Mark’s Gospel account tells this story in a somber way. It seems evident that Mark is reminding all of us that to be a disciple of Jesus means following the crucified Jesus. He was the epitome of an obedient Son of God, and his obedience is certainly the best example we could follow…or at least try to follow. But just as we cannot focus only on the cross, we cannot only focus on the empty tomb. “Those who make Easter rather than Good Friday the focus of their religious devotion are in danger of [giving in] to a [religious practice] that is essentially selfish. It is not from the wondrous victory of the Resurrected but from the humiliating defeat of the Crucified that we learn to humble ourselves, deny ourselves, and consider the needs of others above our own.” [Ibid., 223]

Put simply, we must not stop on Good Friday… for it leads us to Easter Sunday. But there is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday. Our faith demands that we remember both, and recognize the importance of both. The event itself is only complete when we examine both together.

And finally, we must learn from those first witnesses and not repeat their mistake. We have no need to be afraid to share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. The women *had* to tell the apostles what they had seen, or the men would not be able to meet Jesus in Galilee. The next part of Jesus’ plan required the women to overcome their fear and share the news. If you read the next few verses of Mark’s Gospel, you find that Mary Magdalene did finally tell the disciples that she had seen him… and so she answered His call to her. We have been given that same call - to tell the world that Jesus Christ died for everyone, and won victory over death, emerging alive and well on that first Easter Sunday morning. He proved to everyone that death is not the end. And when he returns, he will show us that again.

Brothers and sisters - we call ourselves Christians because of what we are celebrating this morning. We call ourselves Christians because the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth changed the world - for everyone. This is the most important event in our faith. It is the most important event in the history of the world. We worship on Sunday because it is the day of the Resurrection. It is the day of the new creation brought about by our Risen Lord. We are Christians because of what happened on this day. We are Christians because of the empty tomb. Let us not be afraid to share that with others. Let us proclaim it loudly and frequently:

Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!)