This Side Of Easter, April 20, 2014

This Side of Easter

Easter Sunday

John 20:1-18

April 20, 2014

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Miller

The Story of Walter  Last February 28th, Walter Williams  of Jackson, Mississippi, 78 years old, was pronounced dead. The coroner came, placed him in a plastic bag, zipped him up, put him in the hearse and took him to the funeral home. Walter’s family went into mourning. Tears flowed with great abundance. Plans for his funeral got underway. But when the funeral home began preparations to embalm Walter, they were startled to notice that the body bag was moving! Walter’s leg was kicking! So immediately they unzipped the bag and rushed Walter to the hospital where he recovered and is still alive today. So instead of planning a funeral, the family was seen on the morning news shows singing praises to God that their beloved family member is still alive. Imagine the great swing of emotions Walter’s family experienced! From desolation and despair and tears to elation and praise and laughter!

The Story of the Disciples  I imagine they experienced some of the same emotions as the disciples of Jesus felt.  They had gone through the anguish and despair of watching Jesus arrested, tried, convicted and then die on the Cross. Imagine how they must have felt. Feelings of doom and gloom were the order of the day. Tears flowed freely. To have someone whom they loved more than life itself be crucified as a common criminal was nearly more than they could bear.

Then it happened. The most astounding and wonderful event took place. The women went to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of their Lord.  To their astonishment, they found the tomb empty. Immediately they thought someone had come and taken the body of their master away. However, Angels were there and said to them, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said.”   

Then Jesus appeared to them!  Gloom and doom turned into elation and rejoicing. Their Lord was alive! I imagine they began to laugh and cry at the same time! It was a profound, life-changing experience for each of them, for now they were on this side of Easter. They had experienced life on both sides of the resurrection.

This Side of Easter  We, on the other hand, were born on this side of Easter. All we’ve ever known, from childhood to today, is the fact that the tomb was empty and that Jesus is alive and that because he lives, we too shall live.

But we weren’t there when he was crucified, were we?

We weren’t standing there watching as they scourged Jesus, were we?

We didn’t go through the agony and despair of the crucifixion did we?

And we weren’t there as he emitted his last human breath, were we? 

We didn’t experience the once-in-a-lifetime exhilaration of discovering that he was alive, did we? 

No, because we have forever placed on this side of Easter. As a result, all we can do is read about it and imagine what it must have been like back then. 

Peter and Cornelius  In our scripture from the Book of the Acts, we find Peter being called by God to share the good news with Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter shared the events of Jesus with Cornelius, telling him that Jesus died on the Cross and that God raised him on the third day. As a result of Peter’s testimony, Cornelius became the first Gentile to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. And like each of us here this morning, Cornelius was living on this side of Easter.

An Empty Stage  The story is told of Anna Pavlova, the great Russian ballerina of the early 1900's. She was scheduled to appear at the Apollo Theater in London to dance in the role she made famous, the dying swan. All tickets had been sold. People eagerly looked forward to watching her dance. However, two days before the opening performance, she died of pneumonia. How disappointing to her adoring fans!

But then a strange event took place. On the night she had been scheduled to dance, a crowd of her fans jammed the theater. The orchestra began to play. The curtain rose, and a spotlight flashed upon the empty stage. The entire audience rose to its feet gazing at the pool of light as it moved hither and yon around the stage. And as the light moved and the orchestra played, they remembered - they remembered their Anna Pavlova. In their hearts and minds they could see her dancing, with her flashing dark eyes, dressed in white. When at last the music stopped, they gave Anna a thunderous ovation that echoed on and on into the night.

Yes, an empty stage filled only with light and music enabled her memory to live on in their hearts. It’s a beautiful story, isn’t it?

A Living Christ   Yet, as touching a story as this is, we are not called as Christians to gather around an empty stage once a year at Easter simply to applaud our superstar Jesus. We are not called to sit in our pews, sing beautiful music, and walk down memory lane. If this is all that Easter means to us, we forever remain spectators to the most significant life-changing event in history. In such a case, we would appreciate our Jesus, but we would never be inwardly changed by him.

Just as they applauded a dead Pavlova, the temptation for many Christians is to applaud a dead Christ. We always must remember that the pyramids of Egypt are famous because they contain the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian Kings. Westminster Abbey in London is renowned, because in it rests the bodies of English nobles and royalty. Arlington cemetery in Washington, D.C. is revered, for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans. But the Garden Tomb of Jesus is famous because it is empty!

Yes, we are asked to reach out to a Christ who is not dead, but alive! And the stage upon which he appears is not empty, it is our life. We are no longer spectators remembering a past event, but rather are interacting with the living Lord right now.

Such interaction means that the resurrection is not just a one-time-a-year celebration. Nor is it simply dusting off an event sequestered in the halls of sacred history. Instead, Easter becomes an every day event in which our lives are constantly renewed and enriched. Time after time, we feel the anguish of our sin, followed by the exhilaration of forgiveness. Our songs of resurrection must be sung not just on Easter Sunday, but each day of our lives. The sounds of resurrection are heard in the silence of a warm, safe hug, or in the verbal proclamation of love and trust to one’s beloved. We hear the sounds of new life even when faced with great times of hardship and testing.

So the sounds of Easter must echo throughout our homes, throughout our marriages, throughout all our relationships. Living on this side of Easter, we go forth singing the sounds of love, the reverberations of forgiveness, and the arias of acceptance to all whom we meet.

Promise of Ever-laughing Life    Perhaps we can learn from a little girl named Mary.  Mary came out of Sunday School one morning all excited about a new scripture verse she had learned - John 3:16.  Her parents were delighted and asked her to repeat it for them. So Mary proudly said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not die, but have ever-laughing life.”  

In a way, ever-laughing is an appropriate substitute for everlasting, for it reflects the exuberance and joy that can be ours because Christ not only rose from the dead 2,000 years ago, he lives in our hearts right now.  As we leave here this morning, we have a choice: we can either live as nothing is a miracle, or we can live as though everything is a miracle. Amen.

John 20:1-18 NRSV

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."  Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.  The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.  Then the disciples returned to their homes.  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.  They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."  Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).  

Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.  
Acts 10:34-43 NRSV

The background of this scripture involves a Gentile named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort in Caesarea. An angel came to him and told him to send men to Joppa and bring back a man called Peter. Peter had been told by God that salvation was for both Jews and Gentiles. Our scripture begins after Peter’s arrival in Caesarea.

“Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’ “