Luke 24:1-12

Luke 24:1-12 (NRSV)

 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶ Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸ Then they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened. 

Year C

Easter

March 27, 2016

Cross~Wind

Title: Transforming Vision 

Introduction

nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star. 

I begin with a different kind of search for life among the dead.

My childhood fascination with the results of the explorations of science has remained with me. Yes, the first efforts of launching into space in the 1960s and 1970s had me glued to the television. Whether a spacewalk or a moonwalk, such scientific accomplishments made my imagination soar.

Of course, along with that is science fiction. Traveling through the galaxy or even to different galaxies always gets my imagination going. Yes, I like Star Trek and Star Wars.

I imagine that as long as humans have been looking at the stars, they have wondered if there is life on distant planets. In our imagination, we picture distant worlds where aliens exist -- aliens either who look very much like us, or who look very much unlike us. We might one day get to know such creatures, or, if a lot of science fiction is correct, we may run screaming away from them. If the X-Files are correct, they are already here guiding a conspiracy.

Batman vs. Superman (2016) raises the question of how we would respond to an alien, Superman, if he had great power.

NASA, of course, is always on the case. With new technology like the Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have been looking deeper into space for more signs of potentially habitable, perhaps life-sustaining, planets that look more like our own. Among the disappointing results is that life is scarce in this universe. Yes, we can detect beautiful patterns and huge distances. We discover amazing things. Yet, most of the universe is empty space, with some bright objects (sun) and some cold, hard rock.

In fact, searching for signs of life in the universe is something like searching for life among the dead.

Thus, imagine my fascination when NASA recently found one such cousin to Earth approximately 500 light years away. Given that light travels 5.88 trillion miles in one year, well, you do the math. It is a long way!

NASA has named the planet Kepler-186f. NASA is looking for planets that are within the habitable zone in relation to its sun so that the planet will be neither too cold nor too hot. It orbits its star every 130 days and the sun at high noon there is only about as bright as it is here about an hour before sunset. No sunscreen needed.

Like with most of these discoveries, however, the scientists do not yet know if Kepler 186-f harbors any life. The surface appears to be rock, unlike earth, which is 71% water, the basic building block of life. The chances for life are slim, but we keep looking for life among the dead stones and craters of those distant worlds. We keep searching for life out there, among the dead.  

Application 

Yes, all of this makes me think of the darkness, emptiness, and death that is so much part of life on this planet.

The close of our Maundy Thursday service is always powerful for me. This year, we took down the Lent symbols in the sanctuary, and took the lighted candles out of the sanctuary, symbolizing the light departing the Upper Room. During the Good Friday service, Adam Speicher noted that we must not rush past this day and Saturday in order to get to Easter. Rather, we need to ponder what the crucifixion means. The cross reveals the overwhelming nature of death and darkness in this world. The cross reveals the sinfulness of humanity in condemning an innocent man. Such sinfulness and violence came from religious people, who thought they were doing the work of God. Such sinfulness and violence came from political leaders, who sought to preserve their power. We feel powerless in its presence. At the Men’s Lent Breakfast at Calvary Presbyterian, Jeff Allen of the Nazarene Church referred to Luke 22:53, part of the arrest of Jesus at Gethsemane. As Jesus faced the guards, he told them, “But this is your time (or hour), when darkness rules.” In fact, even the first Easter, with the discovery of the empty tomb, the response was one of wondering. If the empty tomb stood alone, it would not be the sign of life that it has become.

We live in a world full of sin, darkness, and death. I appreciated so much the prayers which many members of this congregation expressed for what is happening in our world for our prayer vigil. Locally, think of Deputy Karl Koontz and his death in a shootout at a trailer court, simply serving a warrant. Think of the violence through a radical and militant Islam that we have seen again in Brussels. Think of the violence displayed by ISIS against all persons, but especially Christians, throughout the Middle East, where we witness a form of religious genocide. Yes, we live in world of sin, death, and darkness. It seems overwhelming.

 

Yet, Easter changes everything.

            First, Easter changes the way we look at Jesus.

            In the church year, we call this Holy Week. For Christians, this week is holy, precious, different from other weeks, because we recall the events that are the foundation of what we believe and who we are as Christian communities of faith. When the news is about March Madness, terror, or the next President, the church resists and says no, nothing is more important than Jesus is.

Easter is both the most powerful and the most challenging Sunday on which to preach each year. The church asks people to believe things difficult to believe. When Thomas says to the other disciples, 'Unless I see … I will not believe,” we can identify with him.

I understand the difficulty. I have family and friends who will say to me, quite skeptically, almost as if they think I am stupid, “You do not really believe that, do you?” Behind the question is the modern skeptic that always wonders how we can “know” anything to be true. Behind it also is the post-modern question of authenticity. Do you really believe or are you just saying you do?

Well, in I Corinthians 15, we have a list of witnesses to the appearances of Jesus after his death. These witnesses lived and died for what they believed. The first Easter changed their lives, and continues to change the lives of people – like you and me.

Second, Easter changes the way we look at God.

The church makes the claim that if people are to know God, they will have to look to this Jewish man, Jesus of Nazareth. Everything Christians know about God, Christians discover there. In particular, we know that God is love because the Son died for us and received new life.

            Third, Easter changes the way we look at what makes a human life whole.

Even if one could “prove” it, it would not be enough. An historical event does not change your life. What does change your life is when you entrust yourself to its truth. When we come to the resurrection, the church is not asking you to make a historical judgment. Deciding an event is historical does not change your life. The church is asking you to consider your core values and beliefs. The church is asking you to look at what gives your life its meaning and power. The church is asking you to become a disciple, a follower, of Jesus Christ to transform this world of sin, darkness, and death into a place that reflects our creation in the image of God, reflects light, and brings life.

            Fourth, Easter changes the way we look at human destiny.

After all, we live in a world where death is so final.  We live in a Good Friday sort of world.  The friend of these women had died Friday.  They must have experienced the same pain any of us feels when a loved dies.

            One of Suzanne's best friends died suddenly around Easter, 1995.  She was called on a Friday, and we went to the funeral on Saturday. Suzanne has had a long love for horses.  She has even gotten me out on a horse and trail riding. This woman introduced her to that love.  The woman had gone to work that morning, had lunch with her husband, and cleaned the house.  She mentioned she had trouble breathing.  He called the ambulance.  They were there in six minutes.  She was already dead.  While at the funeral, we were at the casket with her husband.  "I don't know what I am going to do next," he said.  That is the way death can be.  It can be an enemy that snatches away a friend, a loved one, right when we least expect it.
 

            For many people, death is the end of the story. 

             God had a different idea.  

Frederick Buechner: “Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.” 

Luke tells us that the disciples did not believe the message of resurrection proclaimed by the women. Gary R. Koester comments this way. 

Unbelief does not mean that people believe nothing. Rather, it means that they believe something else. People say "I don't believe it" because there is something else that they believe more strongly. Yet here is where the Easter message begins its work, by challenging our certainties. Experience teaches that death wins and that even the strongest succumb to it. Experience teaches that life is what you make it, so get what you can while you can because it will be over soon enough. And the Easter message says, "Really? How can you be so sure?" Death is real, but it is not final. In Jesus, life gets the last word.[1] 

Yes, it is difficult to keep the dream and hope alive. Jerome Groopman, in The Anatomy of Hope (2004, xiv), says, 

Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them. For all my patients, hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication I might prescribe or any procedure I might perform.- Jerome Groopman, The Anatomy of Hope

Easter tells us that it is never too late to have hope. 

Conclusion

Because of this, those who follow the living Christ are always seeing life where others see death. The world is not a cold, lifeless, rocky, death-like, dark place, but a world with a hope and future. We live and work in the present, no matter how darkness seems to rule for its “hour,” with that future in mind. Paul says to the Corinthians, "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (I Corinthians 15:58). God turned over a rock and revealed life. That is the best news this planet has ever received!

NASA is still searching for life on worlds that are so far away that it would take us 500 years to get there if we traveled at light speed. God has brought a new world to our doorstep in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead! In fact, God has brought this life to the door of your heart and mine. All we need to do is open the door, welcome it, and embrace it.

 

Notes that likely will not make it into sermon:

As Paul Tillich (Systematic Theology, Vol. Two, Part III. II. 6) puts it, memorably, I think, “A wrong faith can destroy the meaning of a life; a wrong historical judgment cannot.” The truth of the gospel is not just for the head. The truth of the gospel is for heart and life. Such truth and such change require people to look at their lives in a different way. One must now live life in reference to Jesus, and not just in reference to self.

            Lloyd Douglas, in The Robe, has Marcelus, the Roman centurion who had the robe of Jesus become a Christian and tells his fiancee the story of Jesus.  She responds, "It's a beautiful story, Marcellus, but we don't have to do anything about it, do we?  Let's leave it just where it is."  Marcellus says, "That's just it, I cannot forget it.  Because it happened, things can never be the same for me again." 

            For those who first discovered the tomb empty and for those who saw him after he died, things would never be the same. 

Going deeper 

Luke 23:56b-24:1-12 is the story of the discovery of the empty tomb. The source is Mark.

            Luedemann shows the places where Luke diverges from Mark, which I have put in red.     

In the account of the discovery of the empty tomb by Luke, we find the women coming to the tomb, unconcerned about who will roll the stone away. Luke also has the disciples remain in Jerusalem, where his account of Pentecost will take place in the opening chapters of Acts. Luke stresses the emptiness of the tomb, as well as what others have done to the body of Jesus. His story will end in the temple with the disciples praising God, even as the Passion narrative began in the Temple.  Note the whole of Luke’s account occurs in one day.   

Luke 24:1-12 (NRSV)

 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [The names of the women differ.  Luke has transported Joanna from 8:3, identified as the wife of Chuza.  He mentions other women, again transporting from 8:2-3.]  [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. [First, the women see the tomb of Jesus and prepared spices and oil the evening before and then rested on the Sabbath.  In Mark they saw from afar and bought spices to anoint the body after the Sabbath.  There is no mention of the intent to anoint the body.] [Third, the women do not worry about who will roll away the stone.]  ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body. [There is a stronger stress on the emptiness of the tomb by this reference.] ⁴ While they were perplexed [here is the effect of the Easter miracle. They are still trying to comprehend Jesus in death as they did in life, wholly in human terms.] about this, suddenly two men [Two men, instead of one, who appear again in Acts 1:10.] [this might be a reminder of the Mount of Transfiguration, as Jesus stood transfigured before then with Moses and Elijah on either side. That dialogue focused on the "exodus" or "departure" which Jesus would soon accomplish at Jerusalem.  The empty tomb offers mute evidence that such a departure has now taken place.] in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? [This proverb had become well-known.] He is not here, but has risen. ⁶ Remember how he told you, [here is the heart of the scene. The purpose is to present Jesus as victor over death.] while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” [The statement of the angels is slightly different from Mark.] ⁸ Then they remembered his words, [the women have an immediately favorable response.] [Verses 6b-8 differs considerably.  In Mark, they are told to go to Galilee with the disciples, while here they are reminded of a saying of Jesus made in Galilee to the effect that Jesus must suffer and die.] ⁹ and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. [They share the message with others, while in Mark they remain silent.] ¹¹ But these words seemed to them an idle tale, [here is the response of the disciples, contrasting to that of the women. The testimony of the women does not engender faith.] and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, [this seems uncharacteristically cautious and timid] he saw the linen cloths by themselves; [he sees the same thing as the women did] then he went home, amazed [contrast this response to the believing response of the women, so instead of running out with a word to proclaim, Peter slips away “wondering to himself”] at what had happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=558