March 31, 2024 [RESURRECTION SUNDAY]

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6.23)

“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as He said‘ Come and see the place where He lay. Now go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Then the angel said [as he departed] ‘Now I have told you.’” (Matthew 28.5-7)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

[Author’s Note: Maintaining a spiritual disciples I have practice since writing these reflections on God’s Word since 2006, I do not post on Saturday. It is a type of sabbatical which I have practiced in that someone will heed it and recognize the value of “keeping the Sabbath.” We all must have a rest, though not a rest from God’s Word. It is a feast for the soul and the senses which must be kept as a steady diet. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention “Shroud Saturday” before moving forward with Resurrection Sunday. In several recent online Q and A’s I have positioned myself in equally honoring the biblical witness of the events during this Holy Week, as it is traditionally called within Christendom. In it I have given thought as a challenge to some teachings which are heartfelt and well-intended but not scripturally verified. One such assertion made was that the disciples waited in the Upper Room knowing that Sunday was coming and Jesus would be raised from the dead. The scriptural witness is clear that if the disciples were fully engaged in the prophecy which Jesus reiterated (arrested, convicted, crucified, buried and on the third day was raised) their surprise is a matter of grace over grief or that they had so refused to believe that Jesus would be killed they had settled themselves into their own “valley of the shadow of death.” Judas was hanged and in such failure fell to the ground below in the Kidron Valley and burst open spilling his already maggoty organs. Thomas was lost someone in or near Jerusalem filled with doubt and unable to even find company among the remaining disciples. The rest, including especially Peter, remained cloistered in the Upper Room which was perhaps not even cleaned from the leftovers of the Seder Feast just days earlier (the number of days depending on whether you follow the Johannine story of the Synoptic story. Windows shut, drapes drawn, doors locked and shadows hugged awaiting the knock on the door from Roman soldiers and Temple guards coming to arrest them that they might follow their leader to the cross. It would have been a possible scenario since Jesus had commanded all disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. But, for the authorities to act on that would have only verified that they believed the rest of what Jesus said. In the words of the man born blind but healed by Jesus and questioned by the Jewish leadership, “Why do you keep asking me unless you want to believe in Him, too.” Even the story of Cleopas and his wife returning to their home in Emmaus on Sunday morning reveals their awareness of the crucifixion of Jesus but no sense of the anticipation of the resurrection of Jesus; truly leading to the surrendering of Jesus as the true Messiah sent to deliver Israel from their Roman bondage and that inflicted upon them by their Roman puppet spiritual directors called Priests. Even the Marys and Salome had no sense of the resurrection even though they were quite possibly witnesses to at least the raising of Lazarus who had been four days in the tomb and perhaps other instances where Jesus brought the literal dead to life. They approached the tomb in the hours before the sun was to rise since the Sabbath day had ended the evening before. Their intent was to properly prepare Jesus’ body for His burial. On Friday before the Sabbath began, Joseph of Arimethea and the women had quickly put Jesus in the tomb so as to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. Now that Sabbath had ended, duty called. It was not a duty to become witnesses of the resurrection but confirmation that Jesus was indeed a good man of God now buried after suffering a wrongful death. No, none of the followers expected Sunday morning coming with the good news of great joy that unto them and all the world the Savior reigns! I am even doubtful that they truly honored the Sabbath by worshiping and praising God and celebrating that “next year Jerusalem.” The other major topic of discussion was, of course, the timing and meaning of “on the third day.” While there is much debate on the timing of these events and whether a special Sabbath (as John indicated which I now believe is the most accurate) or not, “on the third day” does not indicate a literal three days and three nights attributed by the teaching of Jew and Jesus on the ministry to Nineveh by Jonah. Such a literal designation had become terminology for the finality of death and the beginning of life. It had become a convention of language used to even accentuate the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Perhaps it was this that actually allows the timing of John’s recollection to be the most accurate as the Synoptics renderings invite the “on the third day” as Day 1: Jesus buried before Friday sundown; Day 2: the Sabbath day and Day 3: Sunday, the first day of the week. It was not a literal 72 hours which is read into and out of the Synoptic remembrance of that fateful 8 days. And, as many of us will contend, over three days or a literal three days doesn’t alter the fact that on the first day of the week, the tomb was found empty and the body of Jesus was not there leading to a consensus reading of “He is risen. He is not dead. Come and see!”]

It is there that we find ourselves today: Resurrection Sunday. Matthew tells us that early before the sun rose on the first day of the week there was a violent earthquake which rolled the stone away. The Roman guard(s) on duty to ensure that no one came to steal the body and thus begin the spread of the world that Jesus was not dead but alive and well on planet Earth, we so struck in fear at the thought of being negligent in guarding the tomb or of the earthquake or seeing one who was dead walking out of the tomb and being met by angels were found catatonic. Mark’s rendering showed only that the stone was rolled away and inside a young man in a gleaming white robe told them to inform the disciples to return to Galilee (at an appointed place known only to them, I suppose) and meet Jesus there. The women, however, did not do as they were told because they were so afraid. Luke has the women find the tomb empty as the stone was rolled away. Suddenly they were confronted by two gleaming beings, indicating a valid testimony based on the witness of two, who came them their marching orders which they recognized as the fulfillment of Jesus’ teaching concerning His death and resurrection and they followed them to the letter. John has only Mary Magdalene approaching the tomb and finding it empty went to Peter and John to tell them that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. She had no idea where the body had gone or if it had been taken. Upon the witnesses of two, it is Peter and John alone who go and find the scene as Magdalene described. Once verifying her testimony they returned to their “hiding place” and waited to see what would happen next. It demonstrated further that they had no since of the resurrection as Jesus taught. Magdalene, however, remained behind lost in her wonder and grief. It was there that Jesus appeared to her and revealed His resurrected self. Amazed and inspired, she returns to tell the disciples as the first witness “I have seen the Lord. He is alive just as He said. He is ascending to our Father in Heaven.” But, there was no immediate response from the disciples at all. Only later that evening as they sat down to dinner did Jesus appear and the testimony of resurrection truly came to life. What a day! What a Resurrection Sunday!

But, I will not call it an Easter Sunday. If I were to ask you, “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” what would your answer be? Of course, most people will say “the egg” seeing only the world as it is and that an egg is the place where chickens come from being hatched. Others might take a more theological approach and seizing upon the Creation story, profess that chickens came first or else there could be no eggs. And that answer certainly makes the most sense. Or does it? I often toss in “the thought of chickens and eggs” came first. My answer dives behind the veil of “in the beginning” and professes that God who sees and knows it all considered in great design what life should be in its continuing evolution of becoming and then, by His Holy Spirit, took the image of the heavenly drawing board and made it come to pass. After all, whether you adhere to the Genesis 1 or Genesis 2 creation story, God made humankind in His image and then brought them into being by the power of His Holy Spirit. If so with us, then why not the rest of creation, too? But, I am not here to answer that question nor the one the Pharisees loved to argue (How many angels can dance on the head of a pin…or is it a pen?) No, I am reflecting on “Which came first: Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday?” Now honestly, every one should be able to answer this question correctly. Only in the modern world thinking can we put “the egg before the one who lays an egg,” “the cart before the horse so as to drag the horse along but only downhill” and “Easter before Resurrection as if the words are synonymous.” If you will allow me to say that before you want to defend your own “Easter Tradition” as the church has proven wont to do since the 12th century, take a step back and think on this for a moment. Its ramifications are tremendous on the state of the world as it is, on our lives as they are and on the testimony we are to present being mighty ones of God in the name of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ, the Resurrected Jesus.

It was in the 14th Century that an effort was made by the Church in Northern Europe to “Christianize” pagan holidays. The effort was to aid in “bearing witness” as well as condemning “paganism.” We experienced that with the 4th Century effort to establish the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ as in contradistinction to Saturnalia and the beginning of the Winter Solstice. There is no historical evidence as to when Jesus was actually born except perhaps that it was not in the summer as the shepherds were watching their flocks by night near Bethlehem. In the summer they would have been in higher altitudes where it was cooler and greener grass by melting snow-fed streams would have flowed. It could have been Rosh Hashanah in the fall near the autumnal equinox or at Hannukah near the winter solstice or at Passover near the vernal equinox. Theological treatises and anecdotal evidences can be derived for each. (My preference aligns in part with the Byzantium Church and an alignment with a Spring birth, except I will go all the way to Passover.) As we look in scripture, we see these seasons ascribed as high holy days (thus holi-days). What we do not see is Labor Day, Halloween, Christmas or Easter and others which people are so wont to “consecrate” in celebrating themselves and the human condition. The effort to Christianize pagan holidays has, I believe, created less holy celebrations in the Church because they are fraught with the traditions of the pagan holidays such as worshipping evil spirits, celebration of elves bearing extravagant and self-serving gifts around evergreen trees and rabbits sharing chocolate goodies. None of those traditions had anything to do with a belief in Yahweh Elohim or Jesus the Christ or the Holy Spirit. They do celebrate animism, hedonism and sectarianism which the Judeo-Christian faith stands against.

Aren’t we taught that we are called to “be in the world but not of it”? (John 15.19+) Jesus said that He was calling people of out the world. It is because of the world that people are lost. Having lives defined by the ways of the world and the gross misunderstandings of the design of God for love and righteousness creates that sense of lostness. Jesus declared that He had come to “seek and save those who are lost.” His ministry was built on the recognition that “all have sinned and fallen short” but “God’s grace is sufficient to save us from the debt which we owe because we follow a life of sin instead of righteousness.” Yet, Jesus also knew that standing for the truth which meant kneeling only before God (as He did in service to the wounded, weary, broken and outcast) would put Him and all who believed in Him in mortal danger. To this, He taught during the Last Supper, “The world will hate you because they first hated me; fear not, for I have overcome the world.” It would seem to me that accentuating the truth of our faith in, as James called it “a pure religion which God approves,” and sharing the gospel in the language which Jesus deemed powerful and spirit-filled is what we are authentically called to do. Why do we have to adopt the language of the world as if the spiritual language (not glossolalia) is insufficient because nobody knows it nor understands it? How will they know if they are not taught? Paul captures this when he affirms to the believers throughout the Roman Empire “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the [preaching] of the Word of God.” (Romans 10.17) To take a stance that is acceptable and agreeable to the world with a hope that they might hear the world of God is to stand on sinking sand. Yes, it may do well as an introduction to establishing a relationship but that always within the bounds of good moral and ethical sense. But, to leave it at that accommodates more of the world than of the Kingdom and thus we fail to “strengthen and encourage the building up of the body of Christ, that is-the Church.” We start to create a Christianity that is far from what Christ lived for and died for and was raised from the grave for by God so that we might have life and have it abundantly and eternally.

We are called, mighty ones of God, “to preach Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2.2) If we are not bearing witness to the crucifixion and the resurrection, then the truth of the gospel is vacated and our testimony is invalidated. In other words, we exchange the truth for a lie. The world is very well capable of doing that all on its own. It doesn’t need the Church to align itself with it and thus make a mockery of God, of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. We have a language, it is the language of love, that has already been verified, validated and enacted as the most powerful force on earth. Jesus calls us to bear witness to that power as it is evidenced in His own life where resurrection transforms “those who dwelt in darkness” to come into “the light of truth which sets all people free.” “Easter” cannot do it. Bunnies, eggs and egghunts, baskets, chocolates, and overstuffed meals and fellowships do not bear witness to the everlasting truth to which we are called. How do we communicate the “fun of Easter” with the “Gospel of the Resurrection”? We will be held accountable for the testimony we bear “in Jesus’ name.” Today asks of all Christ followers “Is it the truth? Is it the testimony of God’s justice? Does it build authentic eternal relationships? Does it benefit others to adopt a life which glorifies God and shows true love for one another? This is what that first Resurrection Sunday asks of us all. While the stories may differ from gospel to gospel, the bottomline is this “God raised Jesus from the dead and demonstrated that death in this world is not the end to life on earth as it will be in Heaven!” In the words of angelic closure to the women at the empty tomb, according to Matthew, “Now I have told you.” The point of that declaration is “Now go and tell others!” What are you waiting for?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.