I Have Seen Resurrection

Easter Sunday 4-20-14

Matthew 28:1-10

Resurreciton,
Otto Dix 1927

 

In Matthew’s Easter Story,

there is a lot going on, it’s real, it’s action filled.

There’s an earthquake,

there’s a flashy lightning angel,

and then that angel moves the great big stone

out of the way of the tomb.

The guards are so afraid they pass out.

Real, physical things happen in this story.

And when the stone is rolled away,

the tomb is empty and Jesus is not there.

The one whom everyone saw was crucified and laid in a tomb

was not in the tomb any more.

They all seemed surprised.

There had been guards posted in front of the tomb,

so they knew that Jesus body wasn’t stolen.

And then the angel speaks and clears everything up,

she says:

“Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for

Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.”

In other words, Jesus told you this was gonna happen.

Jesus told them all that he would be arrested

and killed by the authorities,

and that after three days,

he would rise from the dead.

Peter and the rest seemed to get hung up on the dying.

The part where he told them

to deny themselves and take up their cross.

But they forgot about the promise that came at the end.
The promise that after three days he would rise again.

  

Sometimes we get hung up on the dying part too.

We live in fear of it, and so we avoid the commitment.

We only hear that we are asked to follow the way of Jesus,

denying ourselves,  -- dying, in many ways,

to our egos, our greed, our false selves.

It feels like a heavy demand to be with Jesus,

but the reality is, when we are with Jesus we find the

burden is easy, because the promise is so great.

Because when we die with Christ, we rise with Christ again.

Now some people have suggested

that maybe Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead.

Actually, the theory has been around since the very beginning.

People have been proposing that maybe it was a vision,

Maybe Jesus just came and spoke to them in dreams.

maybe it was just a collective illusion.

Maybe it was just an elaborate PR stunt.

Maybe nobody really saw anything that day.

But to me, that argument is irrelevant.

I believe that Jesus rose from the dead on that day.
But if someone doesn’t want to believe that’s fine.

Because I’m here to say that I have seen resurrection, first hand.

I have seen God take what was once dead

and make it alive -- Real physical things.

I have seen people who once lived in fear of drug dealers

out in the streets having block parties, reclaiming their neighborhoods.

- I have seen people who were beside themselves with mourning

regain their ability to love again.

- I have seen people enslaved to alcohol

overcome their addictions and rejoin life.

- I have seen people who lived

in cardboard boxes beside a river in Honduras

come together, move to higher ground, and form a community.

- I can see the resurrected Christ in people,

Christian and non Christian , who give their time,

their hope and their possessions away to help other people.

- I can see the resurrected Christ in the way Gethsemane serves others,

building houses for strangers, helping people in our neighborhood,

caring for each other.

That is Jesus. Alive today.

And those are just the things that I’ve seen.

You’ve probably seen many, many more.

Where have you seen Jesus alive?

What empty tombs have you seen for yourself?

We can probably put together thousands of Jesus sightings between us!

Resurrection is not just something

that happened to one person 2000 years ago,

resurrection is happening here and now. Christ’s power is with us.

Tombs that were once filled are now empty.

God is working today to make things alive.

We should not be afraid of death, dying

and the other setbacks and tragedies of life.

Because sometimes the only way to really live is through dying

through pain and through hurt and grief.

Giving up what once was, and embracing what God is doing today.

And we should not fear death because God

will never run out of sunrises, or out of songs, or visions, or insight.
God will never run out of Easters.

The message of Easter today is the same message

that the resurrected Jesus told those women at the tomb that early

Sunday morning - “Do not be afraid.”

Do not live your life in fear of the unknown or the unpredictable.

Have faith and know that God is with you.

So live boldly and believe !

Believe in the resurrection,

believe in the promise! believe in hope!

and know that Christ is risen!