Easter Sunday 2010

Text: John 19:28-20:10

● My Senior Trip involved a white-water rafting excursion down the Chattooga River which divides South Carolina and Georgia. Toward the end of that section of the trip, there is a class 4-5 rapid, depending on the conditions, known as “Bull Sluice”. Up to that point, you can’t really see the waterfall itself, but you can hear the noise and observe how all of the water seems to be coming together at a certain point just prior to the falls.

The objective is to navigate the falls/rapids at the place where all of the water converges. The irony is that if you are successful, you find yourself in the context of this frightening turbulence.

● As we hear the resurrection story, we are compelled to consider the scene and ‘hear the turbulence’ and see all of the pain and brokenness and evil of the world converging at this one point, upon this one man, and being asked to consider it as somehow affecting our peace, our wholeness… even though we’re not sure what will happen next.

On Friday, we hear Jesus say, “It is finished”, and that’s exactly what we thought. We hold our collective breath and wonder if it’s really over.

All of our attempts at making sense of this Easter narrative only domesticate it unless we first understand that for Jesus’ followers and family, it was a pointless death which undermined all of their hopes and aspirations which they had connected to Jesus.

“Finished”… a word that in the first century would have been written across a bill that had been ‘paid in full’. 

“What was finished?” The work that the Father had entrusted him to do: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8)

● Jesus’ “work” was to deal with all of the ways that God’s good creation had been defaced and corrupted due to evil and break its hold on us once, for all.

At the tomb, we ‘wait’.

There’s not much else to do on Holy Saturday but ‘wait’; wait and process our confusion and disillusionment like the two on the road to Emmaus: “We had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21)

Holy Saturday is no time for explanations; it’s no time to be hashing out theories or reaching some mental conclusions. They will only add to the disorientation.

At the tomb, is where we allow ourselves to feel the sheer devastation and hopelessness.  We ‘dig our nails in’, along with so many others throughout history who became convinced that even ‘evil’ and ‘chaos’ were at God’s disposal and could be used to eventually accomplish his purposes. We call that ‘sovereignty’. It’s what Martin Luther called the “left hand of God” [our only other option is to believe that God is somehow unaware and just as helpless as we are. But, that’s of no consolation either].

We’re not sure what God is up to, but we’re committed to sticking around to find out, and, when we do, what results is a hope that is a different sort of hope than what brought us to this scene. It’s hope that’s not confined to my own understanding or my own expectations of how God would and should act.

● That’s why Saturday is a time of ‘rest’. Remember, rest is what God did after he said, “It is finished”. “Shabbat”, in Hebrew means ‘to cease’ and was characterized by worship. The day of rest was made for us! It is a day which is meant to remind us that we are not in control; that we must trust.

The most striking thing about is that is begins by not doing anything! Stop… take a look around…notice… listen; it’s all so wonderful and complex that all you can do is worship.

● Following the chaos and turbulence of Good Friday and the challenge of waiting presented to us on Holy Saturday, comes the Resurrection.

The point of the resurrection is that a bit of God’s new world (future) has come to meet us in the present; that Jesus was not “undead”, but “alive”.

For example, right now it is about 11:00 a.m. on Sunday in Plain, but it’s already Monday morning in Auckland, New Zealand (6:00 a.m.) They are already living in the new day, just as God has already gone through death and out the other side into God’s new world. It’ why we are challenged to ‘live in the light” even though it’s still dark.

“You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (also, Ephesians 5:8; 1 John 1:7, 2:9)

To “deny the resurrection” is not merely to dismiss it as a historical fact, but it is to fail to live out its implication; to continue to live as if God’s new world has yet to arrive.          

In resurrection theology, we not only view the world as it is, or as it should be, or even as it will be, but as it can be as we begin to get a foretaste, a sampling of the life which is to be consummated in the future.

Could it be that as we gather to celebrate Easter and the resurrection, it gives us the hope that the life that we all long for is available now, even if it is still fragmented and incomplete.

“Be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless.” (1 Cor.15:58) This is the summary that Paul offers after his thoughts about the meaning of Christ’s resurrection.

● The goal is that what was inaugurated at Easter through the resurrection of Jesus will continue to be implemented by his followers until it is thoroughly complete.  It means that every act of forgiveness, love, mercy and justice counts for and toward the Kingdom that has come and is coming [i.e. not motivated when it doesn’t count]. We are not just ‘practicing’ for the real thing… this is the real life (eternal) both anticipated and offered to us now.

“Wouldn’t you rather have ‘some justice’ now than be content to wait for God to fully establish it in the future? Wouldn’t you rather experience at least ‘some level of wholeness and shalom’ in the present rather than live with the brokenness and disorder you are currently experiencing?”

I love how this story goes about addressing the human dilemma, brought on by evil (calling us ‘sinners’, positioning us as ‘separated from God’, identifying us as ‘enemies of God’, etc.) and still maintains our worth as image-bearers.

This is a story of love; the incomprehensible expression of a God who would go to any lengths to restore and recover what he loves. God is passionate for us and he hates what sin does to us.

In order to be compelling, in order to capture our hearts, this story must be viewed as restorative and not just punitive.

Easter is not about some expression of arbitrary punishment---- God was angry and was just looking for someone to take it out on, but it’s about the pro-active movement on God’s part to put an end to the destructive effects which sin had upon his good creation. 

Remember, Jesus was God in the flesh. This is God dying for his creation.

I guess I am saying that knowing that Jesus died for me because he loves me is much more inspiring that believing that he just did it because he had to.

            The idea of restoration was birthed in the heart of the Triune God.