Easter Sunday: Making sense of the Resurrection
Scripture Reading: Luke 24: 1 - 12 (NIV)
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.
9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Message: Making sense of the Resurrection
Joy and Confusion
Today is the greatest day in the church calendar - the day that epitomizes what our faith is all about
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we may live in a restored relationship with the God who created us
We believe that Jesus is risen from the dead so that we may have life - after death, but also right here, right now
Today is a day of joy
We celebrate the new life that was given to us
Freedom to live before our God without guilt and without the burden of having to prove ourselves or to earn our freedom ourselves
Today we remember the events of Easter Sunday morning
We remember the women going up to the tomb to perform their mourning ritual - feeling the pain of loss and wanting to do something
We remember the shock they felt when they discovered that the tomb was open and empty
We remember the encounter they had with two men asking them a strange question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
We remember how these men reminded them about the words Jesus had spoken to them in Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”
We remember the women realizing that Jesus foretold this - He would rise again from the dead
We remember them returning to the eleven disciples and sharing the news with them
We remember the disciples not believing the news and thinking the woman was talking nonsense
We remember Peter going to the tomb himself, only to discover that what the women was reporting, was true
And we remember Peter walking away from the tomb, wondering what was going on
The combination of the emotions of joy and confusion…
Feeling the joy bubbling up at the thought of their Lord being alive, but at the same time, negotiating the confusion in their minds of what was happening
Start of a new journey of making sense
Little did they know that was to be the start of new journey in their lives
Following their Rabbi would take on a whole new meaning for them
They were going to be challenged over and over again, trying to make sense of the meaning of what happened
They had to discover that faith is not about having all the answers
The new journey for them was a journey of making sense
They had to let go of the notion of having it all figured out
On this new journey, they would learn that it was ok not to have all the answers
That they would make sense of it all as they were going…
Journey of discovery
Not having it all figured out, opens up the opportunity for discovery
Jesus did not leave them with a blueprint plan of how they would go about after Good Friday
Their time of crisis, of not knowing what’s next, opened them up to discover new levels of their faith
Even when Jesus appeared to them after Easter Sunday, at every appearance, they discovered new insights that prepared them for the road ahead
I would even think that they discovered more and more about the words of Jesus even as they started to bring the good news in the places where they were led to go
This is true about our journey of faith today - it is a journey of discovery
We can never say, despite two thousand years of Theology, that we have it all figured out
Our journey of faith is still a journey of discovery
Perhaps we can do well in our faith by having a mindset of discovery - being on the lookout to discover more as we practice our faith?
To be surprised
This journey of discovery would lead to many surprises
On Easter Sunday, we are acutely aware of the emotions of surprise as Jesus appeared to his disciples
But they were surprised on so many different levels as they were going along
Think about the vision Peter had (Acts 10) that we heard about in the children’s story this morning…
Think about the leap they had to make in their thinking about circumcision and all their religious practices…
The question for us today is, are we still open to being surprised in our faith?
Do we think we have it all figured out so much that we have become oblivious to new discoveries on our journey?
Living in a restored relationship with the living Lord
Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate our living faith in the living Lord
We don’t worship idols or ideas or a set of rules
We worship the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
We live in a restored relationship with the Triune God
And in this relationship with our God, we don’t have it all figured out
But we are on a journey of discovering new dimensions of our faith
We are on a journey where we are open to being surprised by God
It is a journey where we are still making sense of the resurrection as we go
May you be surprised at where God takes in making sense of the resurrection!
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