Jesus is Risen! - So What?

If you ask, most people will tell you the four evangelists give us all the wrong information about Easter morning. One source is Luke 24:1-12. Inquiring minds want to know:
• how did this happen
• when was it - just before dawn, at dawn, or after dawn
• did Jesus raise up, or was he raised up
• was the tomb’s stone pulled out or pushed out
• who folded the linens
• does the son of God make his own bed
• was there 1 angel like Mark says, or 2 like Luke says
• were soldiers on guard, as Matthew says, or not.
Of course, if those archeologists are right and they’ve found the bones of Jesus, none of that matters.

This is at least the second team of scientists in the last 30 years to make such a claim. So before we get too bothered about what they found, maybe we should let them finishing arguing over which group has the right set of Jesus’ bones. It reminds me of the time I spent a month touring Europe. Having gone through nearly 30 churches and cathedrals I saw at least 12 kneecaps belonging to John the Baptist. Remember, the Bible says John ate locusts. It doesn’t say he ate so many he turned into one!

If we believe the evangelists don’t answer the right questions, it could be that we’re asking the wrong questions. Most of us have lots of experience with that. Students ask teachers, “Will this piece of information be on the test?” The teacher answers, “The test is on the whole unit.” You say, “Hey Mom, what’s for supper?” She says, “I’m the adult here; whatever I fix, you eat; understand!” You ask a dealer how much a car costs and you get about as many prices as there are ducks floating in a shooting gallery. Ask your spouse, “Honey, what do you want for your birthday?” He or she says, “Surprise me.” You just have to make sure that really doesn’t happen.

The evangelists are not answering “how” questions. They’re answering the “so what” question. Now most of us don’t ask that question. Because we’ve been through this story so many times; because we’ve heard so many sermons, that question isn’t much on our minds.

We imagine God rewarded Jesus for being such a good guy. Or, God finally admitted that since Jesus was willing to jump through such a huge hoop on Good Friday, God owed resurrection to Jesus. In our own way half-hearted amazement, we say Jesus’ resurrection is God’s way of fixing God’s “Oops!”

Amazement is not a bad thing. Luke says Peter, once he’d proved to himself that his women friends weren’t hysterical with grief, was amazed by the empty tomb. Luke also says, in verse 12, Peter left the tomb as unbelieving as he was before he ran there. Amazement doesn’t address the “so what” question.

The word “amaze,” or some form of it, is used roughly 60 times in the bible. No one who has that feeling is moved to faith merely by having that feeling. The same bible uses the word “remember” just over 200 times. Even when the word is used in reference to God, as in, God set a bow in the sky so God would remember the promise God made to Noah (Geneses 9:8-17), remembering brings those who do that into relationship.

Amazement is often the feeling we have when we’re hanging so tightly onto the last thing we believe God did, we have difficulty believing the next, new thing God is doing.

Luke says, in 24:6-10, when the women followed the instruction of the two men in dazzling clothes to remember Jesus’ words, faith seized them and they ran to tell the apostles that Jesus was risen.

Amazement looks backwards, fixes its gaze there. Remembering reaches backwards and brings something forward into our present reality.

Remember Christmas? We say God is doing a new thing for the world; such a new thing, in fact, that God requires a new name, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.

Remember the Sermon on the Mount? We say God is teaching a new thing to the world.

Remember Maundy Thursday? We say God is feeding a new thing to the world, and establishing a new way to remain present in the world.

Remember Good Friday? We say God is finding a new way to conquer evil, as well as a new way to demonstrate the depth of God’s love for us.

So what is Easter? It’s God’s new way of saying, “I meant what I said and did in my Son, Jesus. I’ve come down to deliver you from bondage to sin and death. I’ve come down to save the world, not to condemn the world.”

Will you be only amazed by that, or will you remember that, from the beginning, my heart’s desire is to keep creating you, to keep saving and freeing you and to keep on blessing?

Will you be only amazed by my promises, or will you remember them well enough so you can see and join me in living in, with and under them, as they keep unfolding in your life and in your world?

Will you be only amazed by my Son, Jesus’ wise teachings, wonderful works, and profound prayers, or will you remember to expect him, alive, to go ahead of you each day, everywhere you go, offering you new opportunities to complete the good work God has begun in you?

Will you be only amazed by these new things or will you remember them, bringing them forward to help you to comprehend and to celebrate whatever way cool way I dream up next to hold you, to forgive you, to love you and to lead you?

Will you be only amazed by one long ago Easter, or will you remember that Easter is more than an event; it’s more than a nice story designed to tidy up a messy Friday. Can you remember; Easter is a new relationship, a new identity, your new autobiography, alone and together, you are my Easter people.

So what will you remember? Will you remember, tomorrow, and the day after, that because we are an Easter people we not only remember differently, we live differently, and God’s world is alive, anew – for the love of God – Alleluia!