Easter
Sunday - A March 23rd, AD 2009
Meadowvale
Lutheran Church
Pastor
Peter Lisinski
“EVIDENCE
OF EASTER"
(Matthew
26:1-10)
In
the midst of all the mystery shrouding the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one
thing is certain. Nobody expected
it! Even though Jesus had told his
disciples that he would be crucified, and then raised on the third day, the
women who went to his tomb on Easter Sunday morning expected to find his dead
body. The Gospels of Mark and Luke
tell us they went to anoint him. But
Matthew, whose story we heard today, offers no explanation for their visit.
Only one thing is certain. None
of Jesus’ disciples expected to hear the good news of Easter:
"You are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here; for he has been raised”!
How
different from all of us! Whatever
our reasons for being in church today, all of us have come expecting to hear the
good news of Jesus' resurrection. And
when we find ourselves standing at the graveside of someone we have known and
loved, we cling desperately to the Easter faith that "Christ is risen!”
But, when the funeral is over and we are left alone with our grief, we
are haunted by the same doubts and questions that must have haunted Jesus' first
disciples: Is it really true? Did
it really happen? Will we see our deceased loved ones again?
In a world just as full of suffering and death after Good Friday as it
was before Good Friday, what evidence is there for the Easter faith that
"Christ is risen indeed!"?
We
need look no further than today's baptism of Marleah Helen Roche!
Her baptism is the evidence of the Easter faith that has nurtured her
mother Stephanie's family ever since her great-grandparents heard it proclaimed
by German Christian missionaries in India.
And the faith of those missionaries -- which inspired Stephanie's
maternal grandfather, the Reverend V. Simon to become a pastor -- is the
evidence of the Easter faith rooted in the sixteenth century preaching of Martin
Luther which, in turn, stretches all the way back to the Easter faith of Jesus'
first century disciples -- the very disciples who did not expect, and at first
did not believe the good news of Easter, but considered them to be an idle tale
told by grieving women!
The
most reliable evidence, perhaps the only reliable evidence for the truth of
Jesus' resurrection is the fact that this frightened group of ordinary people,
who had betrayed, denied and abandoned Jesus to the terrible fate of Roman
crucifixion, were suddenly transformed into a fearless missionary community
which still exists two thousand years later, and today claims nearly two billion
believers from every nation on earth. It
simply is not possible that this collection of fishermen, tentmakers, accountants
and homemakers would willingly endure persecution, im-
prisonment,
torture, and even martyrdom to defend a cleverly devised fraud, or a
grief-induced self-delusion, or some kind of mass hallucination!
Whatever
it was that those first disciples of Jesus experienced in the wake of his
crucifixion, the only word they could come up with to describe the mystery
adequately is the word 'resurrection'! And
even though it was not a new word among the chosen people of
God, it was a new reality
among them! And so there was,
indeed, one thing new in the world after Good Friday that made it different from
the world before Good Friday -- the presence of the Christian church!
The
Gospel of John tells us that after Jesus died on the cross a soldier pierced his
side with a spear, uttering forth a flow of water and blood (John 19:34).
The church receives its life-giving sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy
Communion from the very body of the crucified Jesus.
And the presence of the risen Jesus keeps the Easter faith alive in his
church -- and keeps his church alive in the Easter faith!
Despite its own lapses into betrayal, denial and abandonment of Jesus,
the church remains the best evidence of his resurrection, and the sign that
nothing --not even the crucifixion of God's only-begotten Son -- can prevent
God's will to make the whole creation new, and gather all people into the
salvation of God's eternal life and love.
Today,
in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, Marleah Helen Andhra bears witness to the
church's Easter faith: Christ is
risen! Christ is risen indeed!