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April 11, 2004; Easter Sunday, Year C
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

Little Tommy came running up to his mom after Sunday School on Easter morning and said, “Mommy, mommy, you’ll never guest what we learned today!  On Easter morning after Jesus had been dead for three days, God shook the earth with his hands so hard that the boulder that had been covering the opening to the cave in where they had buried Jesus, rolled away.  And then the Easter Bunny hopped into the cave and hopped right up on Jesus and hopped up and down on Jesus until he came back to life.  Jesus’ mom and some other girls came to the cemetery, and they saw chickens who were laying eggs for the Easter Bunny to color and hide.  The sun was behind the chickens, and the girls thought they were angels.  And then the chickens started clucking and the girls thought that they were talking to them.  The girls then ran home and told Peter and the other boys about it, and then they all returned to the cemetery to hunt for Easter eggs.”  What an incredible story.

If you watched the ABC special, “Jesus and Paul,” on Monday evening you probably noticed that many of the Biblical scholars interviewed by Peter Jennings stopped short of admitting to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.  They all agreed that something spectacular had to have happened after the death of Jesus Christ; otherwise the Jesus movement would have died out within a generation like all of the other religious movements of the time.

There is no way that we can possibly explain the resurrection.  We can listen to the stories that the Gospel writers wrote about Jesus’ resurrection, but there is little information describing exactly how it happened.  As a matter in fact, Jesus’ crucifixion is described in far greater detail than his resurrection.  Why even the three people that Jesus raqised from the dead, Lazarus and Jarius’ daughter, and the widow’s son at Nain, are described in greater detail than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  No wonder Tommy’s imagination filled in some of the missing details.

The story we have heard this morning is critical to our existence.  Yet, even when we piece the stories from the four gospels together, we are left with some questions.

On the first day of the week several women went to the tomb to care for the body of Jesus with spices and ointments as required by Jewish law.  When they arrived at the tomb they saw that the stone had been rolled away.  They went inside, but could not find Jesus’ body.  Luke says that they were “perplexed.”  In other words they did not know what to make of the empty tomb.  Confused, the women went back outside, and saw, not chickens, but men in dazzling array.   Startled they immediately bowed their faces to the ground, as the angels spoke to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”[1] (a)

Then fear seized them, for they began to realize that something unexplainable had happened.  According to the Gospel of John, they wept, for they thought someone had stolen the body of Jesus. [2]  Mark’s Gospel tells us that when a young man dressed in white told them that Jesus had risen and they would see him in Galilee, the women fled from the tomb for, “Terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”[3] (b)  

There were others who were also afraid.  The chief priest and the Pharisees were more afraid now that Jesus was dead than when he was alive.  They feared that their worst suspicion might come true – that Jesus might indeed come back from the dead.  According to Matthew’s gospel, they went and made the tomb secure by sealing it with a stone and setting a guard at the entrance.[4]

According to Luke’s gospel, when the women told the apostles what they had seen at the tomb and the apostles did not believe, for their “words seemed to them an idle tale.”[5] (c)

If we put all of the Gospel accounts together of that the first Easter Day, what we find among the followers of Jesus and others is fear, confusion, and disbelief.  It appears that no one took Christ’s resurrection for granted. (d) 

So how did they come to believe that Jesus had returned from the dead?  The women and the disciples had personal encounter with the risen Jesus.  In these encounters they must have recognized certain features of Jesus’ speech and behavior.  As in the incident on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus appeared, walked and talked with two of his disciples, and only after he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them did they recognize that it was Jesus.  Then they remarked, “Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked to us on the road?”   But I am getting ahead of myself.  We will hear more about the resurrection appearances of Jesus over the next several Sundays. (e)

The greatest witness that Jesus has returned from the dead is sitting here this morning.  In these pews, right where you sit, even though you may have some doubts, you are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There is no way that we can possibly explain how God did it.  We just have to accept it.  And in accepting it, the resurrection explains us.  It is because of the resurrection that we are here this morning to celebrate the faith found in the resurrected Jesus Christ.  It is because of the resurrection that we worship on the first day of the week instead of Saturday.   It is because the resurrection occurred that the teachings, miracles, and actions of Jesus were collected, preserved, and handed down to us in the Gospels.  It is because of the resurrection that the Christian Church, even St. Philip’s, exist today.   Take away the resurrection and there is no Christian faith.  Take away the resurrection and we would not be here today or any Sunday.

It is as simple, and as challenging as that. 

Alleluia, Christ is risen!!!

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