Easter Sunday Yr C 2025
Easter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 8 viewsJesus’ resurrection is not just wonderful conclusion nor a story planned out and made up by the apostles, but the basis for announcing Jesus as the judge of the living and the dead and the means of our realizing that our real life is not in this age but is hidden in God with Christ. The disciples did not get it at first even when they realized that his body had disappeared through the graveclothes. It took later appearances for him to explain how it completed the scriptures and that is was real. The penny seems to drop when he eats with them, especially when he “breaks bread.” Sp ;et it determine your whole life. The best means to this is attentive meditative time at mass and in adoration. That will transform you to be people of the resurrection.
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
Jesus’ Resurrection is not just a wonder; it is our life
Outline
Outline
When Peter first proclaimed the good news to Gentiles, the resurrection of Jesus was the high and defining point
When Peter first proclaimed the good news to Gentiles, the resurrection of Jesus was the high and defining point
He did not gloss over his Spirit-empowered healings nor his execution (although he uses polite language), but his focal point is that Jesus’ resurrection was real, visible, physical, and was the basis for proclaiming that he is the judge of the living and the dead - and that commitment to him will bring about the forgiveness of sins.
When Paul writes to the Colossians he insists that the basis for all of a believer’s life is a real identification with the risen Christ. His death is your death, his life hidden in God is your real life, his position, seated at the right hand of God, is where you sit with him, and his future appearance is when you too will appear with him in glory. So, says Paul, put your focus there.
Now this is not something that even his closest disciples grasped at first.
Now this is not something that even his closest disciples grasped at first.
Mary of Magdala and other women go to the tomb to anoint a dead body and are shocked out of their wits. Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple did not say, “Oh, yes, that is what he said he would do,” but raced to the tomb and did not believe a miracle had happened until they saw the collapsed burial cloths still intact because of 100 lbs of sticky spices and a hole where the face should have been and that cloth neatly rolled up separately. This was no theft or removal to a different grave but somehow the body had passed through the cloths and wanted folk to know it so had removed the facecloth and set it neatly aside. Yet they still did not understand the scriptures. It is only in Luke that we learn that after hearing about the events at the tomb and more two of the group get personal instruction in the scriptures and yet, while their hearts burn, they still do not get it until Jesus breaks bread, celebrates Eucharist, in their home. Then then penny drops.
So, [brothers and] sisters, spend time pondering this and particularly before the “breaking of the bread” so that you get it.
So, [brothers and] sisters, spend time pondering this and particularly before the “breaking of the bread” so that you get it.
The narrative could not be made up, for who would have painted such a picture of denseness in their group’s leaders. They were not expecting what happened.
We must spend time, yes, tracing through the scriptures to see how they find their fuller meaning in the resurrection, for God was not surprised, but mainly in attentive, meditative time at mass (“Behold the Lamb of God!”) and in adoration until the penny drops for us. And it tends to drop gradually and only then sink in deeply.
Then you will realize what it means that you have died to this world and that your life is hidden with God in Christ, then you will realize that Jesus is the one who will judge the living and the dead and so determines your life. And that will change your life and my life the deeper it sinks in.
The resurrection is the core of Christian commitment because it ushers us into the meaning of life and the means of the renewal of the world.
