What is your favorite movie rescue scene? What about the scene in Star Wars when Hans Solo comes out of nowhere to save the day just when it seems that Darth Vader and his forces would prevail? What about in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when the army of Rohan shows up just before the Orcs and allies overwhelm Gandalf and his side? Or do you have a favorite among the Avengers movies or the Harry Potter movies? The fact is last minute rescues are a stable of any action film going back to the arrival of the cavalry in old Westerns or the Perils of Pauline in the old silent movies.
We all love a good rescue, as any movie producer worth his salt knows.
Don’t you know that the disciples of Jesus had hoped and prayed for such a rescue on Golgotha? With bated breath, these women in Luke surely looked for some evidence that Jesus would use his messianic power to escape the clutches of his captors. With deadening hearts, they must have looked to the skies, hoping against hope, for some band of angels to swoop in and lift him from that horrifying cross. Or they listened to see if Pontious Pilate would offer Jesus a last-minute reprieve.
But there was no such reprieve, no such rescue. Jesus died. His corpse was hurriedly laid in a tomb late Friday, just before sunset and the beginning of the Passover Sabbath. Now it is early Sunday morning, and a group of women are going to the tomb to complete Jesus’ burial by anointing him with spices. Their hearts are leaden with heartbreaking grief. They walk to the tomb in silence – indeed God and the whole world seem silent. No trumpets or resounding hymns of joy for them.
Although the mood of our Easter Sundays is usually far different from the mood of the women on that first Easter morn, we do know something about what they are feeling, don’t we? Haven’t there been times when we longed for someone to show up to rescue us from some predicament? Haven’t we looked for a divine reprieve to save a loved one from the desperate situation they find themselves in?
When the diagnosis is stage 4 cancer, we look to the latest drug trials for a medical reprieve.
When tyrants wreak havoc and destruction on neighboring counties or their own people, we long for new leaders to rise up to stop the madness.
When the unpaid bills mount up, we wonder if a winning lottery ticket or night at the casino can suddenly offer a way out.
When a marriage is unraveling and a divorce seems inevitable, we desperately reach out to a minister hoping she can offer a last-minute rescue for the marriage.
But then, what happens when there is no last-minute rescue or reprieve?We can easily imagine what these women are feeling as they walk to the tomb on that first Easter morning, can’t we?
Who are these women? Luke gives us some of their names: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James – but there are more than that. Some of them were named back in Luke 8 as financial supporters of Jesus’ ministry. They are disciples of Jesus, outside of the core of Peter and the 12 well-known male disciples, but disciples nevertheless. And unlike Peter and the 12, these women were there at the cross.
In other words, these women are not flighty. They are realists and they are workers. They go to Jesus’ tomb to do the work to prepare his dead body for a proper burial. They travel to Jesus’ tomb with spices – and dead hopes.
But when they get to the tomb, they are in for a series of surprises. The tomb is opened and the heavy stone which blocked the entrance has been moved. And then, they find the tomb empty. The women are startled by two men in white who ask the women the question for the ages: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
Luke records no answer from the women – with all they have been through in the past 3 days, they have no bandwidth left to process what they are encountering. Their minds and hearts are too confused for them to find the words to respond. But we can imagine what they are thinking.
“Why do we look for the living among the dead? Why indeed?” Because there was no last-minute rescue. Because we saw Jesus’ violent death on the cross. Because we saw his corpse laid in this tomb. This is what our senses tell us. This is what human logic tells us. This is what we know to be certain, surely the women are thinking.
“But wait!” say these two messengers to the women. “Jesus is not here – but he is risen!” “Just as he told you. He told you that he would be arrested and handed over to the authorities. He told you that he would be killed by crucifixion.” But Jesus also told you something else: that “on the third day he would rise again.” Don’t you remember?
They do remember, if only vaguely. But even if they had remembered, would they have expected anything different when they walked towards the tomb? Because when Jesus was arrested and sentenced to die, these women lived in a world with only two options: option one – Jesus would die on the cross and that would be the end. Or option two – Jesus would be rescued and saved from death.
But at the empty tomb, these women are finding out that their world has changed. The cosmos has shifted. Now there is a third option they had never encountered before. That Jesus could die – and then live again. Not rescued but resurrected.
Resurrection – the idea of it defies human expectations and human logic because it is not human; resurrection is something only God can do. The tomb is empty. Looking for Jesus among the dead is futile because he s not there; he has been transformed by God’s boundless love and power from death into life.
When the women have a chance to process the sight of the empty tomb and the words of the two angels, they drop their spices and run back to give Peter and the rest of the grieving and depressed disciples this startling good news. But there they are met with disbelief. The other disciples consider the women’s testimony to be an “idle tale,” Luke tells us. Actually, that English translation of the underlying Greek word understates the level of disbelief. The Greek word is the root of our English word, “delirious.” In other words, the other disciples think these women are crazy when they start talking about an empty tomb and resurrection.
The other disciples stay where they are – they are still stuck with the two options. But Peter, bless him, just can’t stay there. He who had denied Jesus not once but three times, he who is surely overwhelmed by guilt and despair for all that has been lost, is given at least a glimmer of hope. So, he runs back to look into the tomb for himself. What he sees leaves him amazed.
What about us – do we think that talk about resurrection is crazy? Do we think that this is an idle tale? Do we think that we exist in a universe with only two options – either death or rescue?
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” What Jesus’ resurrection means is that sin remains real; evil remains real; death remains real. Jesus really was crucified and buried. But they are not the end of the story, because Jesus’ resurrection is just as real. The real end of the story is that God’s grace is greater than human sin. That God’s love ultimately prevails over the evil in the world. That God has the power to bring life out of death.
What Jesus’ resurrection means is that what he said, what he did, in his mortal life, was all true and real. Christ is the Son who clearly reveals the character and power of God, who show us what God is like.
What Jesus’ resurrection means is that even where there is no army of angels swooping in to rescue, even where there is no reprieve from what appears to be defeat, that does not mean that God is not present and at work. Even when it is dark, that does not mean that the Son will not rise.
Do you have room in your thoughts and imaginations for this third option – resurrection? Can you not just believe in the idea of resurrection – but can you have a resurrection faith?
Like Peter and the others who hear the women’s testimony, we would like some proof that this is not some idle tale, not just some feel-good fable with a happy ending. You know the best evidence for the resurrection is not the testimony of the women nor the empty tomb, important as they are. Many a converted skeptic has pointed out that if you are going to make up a story of something miraculous like a resurrection in first century Palestine, you would not have women be the first witnesses since their testimony was thought to be too unreliable to ever be heard in a court at the time. And you would not make up a story about an empty tomb when the Roman and religious authorities would be all to happy to stop this potentially dangerous Christian movement in its tracks by displaying Jesus’ dead body.
The real proof of the resurrection was not the women’s testimony nor the empty tomb, but something much more compelling, much more convincing: the transformation of the disciples. From cowering followers hiding behind locked doors and denying they even knew Jesus, they would go out into the open and boldly proclaim Jesus’ teachings, spreading the word about his life, death, and resurrection, even if it meant persecution. Even if it meant their own deaths. Who would die for a lie?
They grew to have a resurrection faith. Do we have a resurrection faith? To be sure, sometimes there will be a divine rescue. Sometimes miners trapped underground are rescued. Sometimes, the new medicine will work and our cancer will go into remission. Sometimes, we walk away unscathed from an accident that should have crippled us.
But because of what happened in that tomb in first-century Palestine, we now live in a world where we can assure one another, “Resurrection happens!” Even when rescue does not happen, that does not mean that God is absent or not at work. God has the power, the desire, the love to transform death into life, and God does! And when we trust this resurrecting God, God can transform not only our death but also our life!
With a resurrection faith, we know that no matter how big our problems might seem, there is no problem that we cannot face with God’s help. There may not be a way around, but God will always show us a way through to the other side. No matter how broken our lives might seem, there is no brokenness that God cannot mend. No matter how small and limited our gifts might seem, there is not one of us who cannot be useful in God’s hands. With a resurrection faith, we know that we need not fear death, because death is not the end. Indeed, the best is yet to come!
When I was a child, the boiler underneath the sanctuary of our Methodist church literally blew up one evening. Fortunately, choir practice had ended an hour before and no one was in the sanctuary at the time so no one was hurt. But the chancel area was destroyed and every stained glass window in that sanctuary was shattered.
What I remember most about that episode – apart from the excitement of having church meet for a long time in a local high school – were the Christmas ornaments that were sold by the women of the church as a fundraiser. Those women took those broken pieces of stained glass and put them together in a new way to make beautiful ornaments.
Friends, our lives may be shattered by death which comes too soon to loved ones, by suffering which unjustly blows through our lives, or by our own explosive sins. But even when our lives are shattered by sin or suffering or death, we are not a people without hope. By God’s love and power even those shattered remnants can be transformed into something new, a work of beauty, through which the light of God shines.
This is no idle tale:
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!