The Resurrection of Our Lord

SERMON 9: EASTER SUNDAY The Power of the Easter Promise Luke 24:1-12 Christ is risen! [He is risen, indeed!] Alleluia! This morning I want to start by telling you about a commemorative plaque. In 1972 a Swiss man named Dieter Meier took part in an expansive art project in Europe. Dieter was a young, well-to-do man who dabbled in his own art projects, but aside from that he had little notoriety. Not many in his hometown of Zurich knew his name and outside of that he was a complete nobody. Nevertheless, he participated in this art project by going to the railway station in Kassel, Germany and installing a metal plaque which said, "On 23 March 1994, from 3 to 4 pm, Dieter Meier will stand on this plaque." Perhaps not such a big deal. After all, it was just a plaque in an art project. Even the timeframe involved made the whole thing a bit absurd. Adding to the unlikeliness of the whole thing was that seven years after this art project, Dieter met a man named Boris Blank who was starting a music band. There were three to begin with, but soon it became just Dieter and Boris and their rather eccentric band, Yello. Yello wasn't much to begin with either, but in the late '80s, a number of movies, such as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," used Yello's song "Oh Yeah," on their soundtrack and suddenly Yello was being played everywhere. They've stayed comfortably in their eccentric ways and so they are not so much a household name anymore, but Dieter and Boris are still very much active and producing new music to this day. All of that is to say, after all of the business of life, after the fame and the music, the tours, and all the rest, the likelihood that Dieter would remember his promise wasn't looking good. But that plaque still sat there and people came to wait and see, mostly out of curiosity than any real expectation. But, contrary to speculation, promptly at 3pm, 22 years after the plaque had been installed, Dieter stood there and entertained the audience and the passengers with his trademark panache and bass vocals. Our reading this morning from Luke 24 puts on display the power of a promise. It's a promise that was good because of who made it. It's a promise that was good, even though people forgot that the promise was made, even though when they did think about the promise, some people just knew that the promise wasn't any good after all. But the angel said to the group of at least five or six women that first Easter morning, "Remember. Remember how he spoke to you. Remember what he said would happen. Remember the promise." And the promise came true in power back then, and that same promise is true also today. Ponder this reading with me, and marvel at the power of the Easter promise. We'll start with something obvious. A promise is only as good, as powerful as the person who makes it. So, when we reflect on this reading, we can ask, "Who is the powerful person? Who are the powerful people in this reading?" I'll start by saying that it's not the holy angel, oddly enough. Angels are powerful, I suppose, but he is just a messenger. He does nothing but speak to the women (although he does terrify them, which is what holy angels do really well). The promise's power doesn't come from the angel. Now here is another obvious thing to say, but this one is more important. The powerful people in this reading are not the women, and not the apostles and the others with them on that first Easter. What the reading shows us, in fact, is the weakness, and even more, the impotence and complete inability and helplessness of the women and the men who were there. We won't point fingers or mock them, because none of us would have been any different if we had been there. But when you think about it, it's almost funny, in a way. Luke writes that the women rested on the Sabbath, which is what they normally would do. Oh, normally. They thought that life was still going on the way it had gone on before. They rested on the Sabbath, and then they thought it was their turn to do the work. In their minds, nothing had changed since Friday afternoon. In their minds, nothing had changed since evil had done away with their teacher and master. Nothing had changed-so they came to do their duty for the corpse. It's very beautiful in a way, and brave and loving. But completely, utterly wrong. They didn't even know that he was the Lord. But he was. And so Luke writes that they entered the tomb, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. The angel's words to them shows how unaware and helpless and confused they were. "Why are you seeking the living among the dead?" They're in a place with tombs, and they are at one particular tomb. And we all know-just as they did-how it works when people die by crucifixion. Governments are good at killing people; the Romans were very good at it. What sort of people do you find in tombs? Dead people, and they think that Jesus is dead. Do these loving, confused, wrong-headed women have anything to do with the Easter promise? Nothing at all. In fact, they are living as if the promise had no power, as if the promise was never even made. The apostles come off worse, in a way. The women tell them about the empty tomb, and what the angel told them, and about the promise. But it doesn't do any good. Luke writes that the women's testimony "seemed to the apostle an idle tale." And Peter even runs to the tomb (and it's not very far-half a mile, maybe a mile or so). And he sees that there is no corpse there. But all he can do is marvel as he goes home. He doesn't get it-not yet. Here's the point again. The power of a promise does not reside in the people to whom the promise is made. The power comes from the one who makes the promise. In a beautiful way, this Easter story shows us, actually shows us, that no one is saved because of their own efforts, or their own sincerity, or their own anything. The powerful promise was there-but the women and the men had nothing to do with providing that power. The power comes from the one who made the promise. And that is why the angel told the women, "Remember!" Remember what you have forgotten, what you didn't believe. Remember that he told you, while still in Galilee, that these things must happen. These things had to happen. Jesus told you: he would be delivered into the hands of sinful men, he would die on a cross, and on the third day ... that's today, by the way ... he would rise. Dead no more. Never to die again. It must happen, the angel said. It was the Father's plan, and Jesus promised it. And it happened because, as we have been reflecting during the whole season of Lent on the Gospel of Luke, Satan and Pilate and everyone else meant it for evil ... but God meant it for good. Jesus-who preached good news and healed crippled hands-was betrayed into the power of sinful hands, the hands of sinful men. And sinful hands are strong, and they do evil things. You know that; so do I. Our hands are too often sinful hands. And they crucified him. The evil of injustice and mockery and blasphemy came against the innocent Son of God, and it had to happen. It was necessary, even though no one knew why at the time. Jesus was numbered among the transgressors, with a criminal on his right and on his left and in front and behind and before and after and all the way down to this very day, to you and to me. He is one of a kind; in his own category-pure, holy, perfect, innocent, righteous. But God's plan was for him to be with us, in our place, to die when he didn't deserve to die and to take the evil of the world upon himself ... so it would not come against you. So that your sins would not cling to you or be fastened to you. No, God's plan was that the evil would be fastened to Jesus, when he was fastened to the cross. And he had to rise. He had to, because Jesus came to bring light into darkness, and to drive back the power of evil. And the unexpected, strange, saving promise meant that God would take the evil and use it for good. And so, death was undone. The tomb was opened. No body was there-because this is the Lord Jesus, and Jesus is the Lord. This is the promise, and it happened because of the one who made it-Jesus did, in the power of the Father's plan. Easter is not about the women, or about the apostles, or about you or me. It is about the One who made and kept the promise. As he promised, Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed!] Alleluia. And the power comes from him, not from them or from you. And yet-the power was for them. The power is for you. And the reading shows the beginnings of this, especially in the lives of Mary Magdalene and the other women. The power of the Easter promise is a power to turn things around, turn them upside down, reverse and transform lives then, and now, and forever. The power of the Easter promise transforms lives. It may seem strange to say this, but the first life transformed by the promise ... is the life of the Lord Jesus himself. When he came among us so long ago at Christmas, he came in a certain way. It was God's plan-from eternity, it was the willing choice of God's Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus came in a certain way-lowly. Vulnerable. And although he had power-just ask the people that he healed!-he moved toward the time when he would set his power aside, lay it aside and be numbered among transgressors. In a mystery that we can't actually understand, Jesus emptied himself and became weak and vulnerable. He was mortal, and they killed him. And evil seemed to have the last word. But the power of the promise that Jesus himself has made transformed him, and the Father raised him from the dead. Don't misunderstand me. He is still Jesus-still the God-Man that he always was. But now the lowliness is gone. Not the gentleness-but the lowliness, the weakness is gone. He is still our human brother-but he is no longer mortal. He cannot die. He lives ... forever. This was the plan, and this was the promise, and it has come true. And he is ascended to the right hand of the Father's power, and he rules, and he reigns in the power of the Easter promise. Humble no more; powerful to save, to save even sinners whose hands were so willing to put him to death. The power of the promise emptied the tomb. And right at the tomb, you can see the power of the Easter promise beginning to turn the women around, turn their lives right-side up. They come, thinking that they have work to do, work for the dead Jesus. But the angel says to them, "You're too late! The work is done! Remember! Remember the promise he made." And Luke simply writes, "And they remembered Jesus's words." And it doesn't mean only that in their brains they recalled what Jesus had said. It's that they remembered; they realized; they believed. And the change begins. Their agenda is gone. Their plans have vanished, like fog burned off in the warmth and the sunlight of the day. They literally turn around! Luke writes, "And they remembered Jesus's words and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." What were the women saying to each other after the promise turned them around? I wish I knew. Luke only says they were changed, they returned and spoke to the eleven and the rest. The eleven. Ah, yes. Our reading stops at verse 12. We could keep reading in Luke 24 to see that the promise began to transform them as well. But stopping here gives us a chance to remember something about promises that are filled with power, and about promises of any kind, really. A promise-any promise-is an invitation ... to trust, to faith, to extend an open hand. The promise says, "You have nothing-let me give you everything." But the mystery is that not everyone trusts the promise. The women began to trust right away, but it took some time on that first Easter before the apostles began to be transformed. Why? I don't know, and no one else does, either. Why do promises come to some people, but the power never goes to work because it is not met with faith? I don't know, and no one else does, either. All we can do is remember and speak the promise, and trust in its power to transform. It did transform the apostles, of course. And as you read the New Testament book of Acts, you see that the Easter people of Jesus were not perfect, and they frequently faltered. But the power was there, the power of Jesus to forgive and restore helpless people like Mary, and Peter, and so many others. That power is available today, this morning, because the promise remains the same. All the evil of the world-Jesus took it, and then overcame it. Jesus died faithfully, carrying out God's plan to take evil and use it for good. Rising from the dead, Jesus broke the power of death, and the power that sin has to accuse you and to separate you from God. Make no mistake. Sin is evil, and every day sin separates people from God. But Jesus lives and he has the power, the authority to forgive and to restore and to preserve-Mary Magdalene, and Peter, and me, and you. This promise is for everyone here-and right here and right now I offer you the promise and invite you to believe it, once again, to trust it. The promise turned the women around- literally and spiritually. Once again, you and I can turn from our plans, thinking that our lives are our own or our need for Jesus isn't all that great, or we know best what to make of our lives and our world. Whatever form it takes, turn from all that pride or unbelief or despair- and be forgiven. Be restored. Be changed. What will happen when we do that? Well, some things we know for sure. God will forgive you, for Jesus's sake, because the Lord died and rose. As far as the east is from the west- that's how far he removes your sins from you. And God will welcome you, no matter what your past, no matter what you've done. Peter fell as far away as you can fall. But Jesus turned him again and claimed him and welcomed him. God does the same thing for us through the power of the Easter promise. What else will happen in my life, or in your life because of Easter? Well, to be honest, I don't know the whole answer to that question. You see, because of Easter, all bets are off. If God can take all the world's evil and mean it for good, who knows what he will do with me or with you? I don't know what blessings and opportunities await you. But I do know this. Jesus lives, and he will be at work. His working will never stop. He will be at work all the way until the day of the final transformation, the day of his return in glory. By his almighty power he will raise you from the dead, and he will give to all who trust in him a pure and beautiful and strong eternal life-life that will never end. Life with God and with one another, in a renewed world, the new heaven and earth. This is the power of the Easter promise. Because God made the promise, and he meant it for good. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.