April 12, 2020
/Easter Day
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 28:1-10
The Rev. Jimmy Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
It is Easter Sunday and today we celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection to eternal life. We celebrate that because of resurrection, life now is different. It is changed. It is changed in this way: death is not the end, because there is no end to life – even death cannot bring our lives to their final moment. Our lives are permanently interwoven with God – nothing separates us from God, not even death – that is the Easter proclamation.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. Life is different. [Pause] Is it?
Let’s check and see. Hmm. Okay. COVID-19 is still out there. People are still getting sick. Hospitals are still struggling to meet a growing demand. We are still sheltering in place. We don’t know when schools will reopen, when churches will reopen, or when the economy will reopen. Millions of people are unemployed. Has Easter changed anything?
That’s a fair question, and it’s a question that might have been asked that first Easter day. When Jesus emerged from the tomb and appeared again to the disciples, they knew their lives would never be the same. They knew their lives would be different.
It was the resurrection of Jesus that compelled the disciples to go out and proclaim the news that Jesus was risen from the dead around the known world at the time. There is simply no other motivating factor (that I can think of) which would have caused them to do that.
Yet – while the resurrection changed the lives of the disciples, the change didn’t mean anyone’s life was going to get easier. The resurrection was a defeat over death, but it was not an invitation to an easier life. The resurrection of Jesus did not solve the problem of Roman occupation of Israel. The resurrection did not prevent the later suffering of the disciples and apostles, as told in the book of Acts. Neither did the resurrection set the church up for a life of ease for the centuries to follow. Resurrection has failed to be an answer to global hunger, war, famine, homelessness, and novel viruses.
The resurrection does not solve our problem about dying and death – we still must go through it. So, what is it? Does anything really change as a result of it?
Yes. And it is this. In the resurrection of Jesus, God is saying to Jesus “you are my beloved son, and my love knows no boundaries. Not even death can stop it.” What that means is that God is saying the same thing to us: “you - me, we, all of us are God’s beloved children, and the love God has for us has no end.” The resurrection of Jesus reveals to all of us that nothing God creates goes to waste. What belongs to God will never be lost, not even our bodies.
Like the early disciples, resurrection does not entitle us to a life without adversity, pain, hardship, disease, or hunger. We will continue to experience these. But it does promise to us that God is with us through all of it.
One more thing the resurrection does not do – it does not answer qualitatively all our questions about life after death. What will it be like? How will I look? Will I have my 44-year-old body or my 18-year-old body? Do I have a choice? All resurrection reveals to us is that God’s love is stronger than death. After that, we must be silent and leave the how’s, where’s, whys, and when’s to God. God knows the answers to all those questions – the answers are not for us to know right now.
Our Easter work is simple: to give thanks and to simply trust our God who defeated death and rose again. Life is changed – not ended, not easier, not entitled – but changed. For that Easter change, we give thanks to God. AMEN.