This Changes Everything
Commentary
It can not only be hard, but in some cases not possible to say much at all on Easter morning, what with Easter Breakfast, perhaps a cantata, a children’s choir, and an Easter egg hunt swallowing up any space you might have for preaching. But this is the central message of our faith. Jesus is Risen. This changes everything.
Now do not despair. You can preach Easter every Sunday. For the earliest Christians every Sunday was Easter! Even so, if you’re feeling squeezed you can still take one of these passages and make an important point.
The Resurrection is fact. That’s made clear in the passage from the Gospel of John.
The Resurrection provides meaning to our lives, to our suffering, and to our victory. The apostle Paul clarifies the significance of the Resurrection
The Resurrection has consequences and calls for a response. This passage from the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates the consequences of the Resurrection.
Acts 10:34-43
There was a time I wondered why this passage was part of the Easter lectionary texts but now it makes perfect sense. We go from death -- the barriers that separated us from each other at the temple -- to life, the vision of the Lamb as God’s Temple in the Revelation of John in which we see people from every language, nation, tribe, and tongue. The dream of Isaiah and Micah, when everyone would climb the mountain of the Lord, beating their swords into plowshares and studying war no more, comes alive in this text, as Peter’s dream becomes reality. At first he may have wondered if that dream was a nightmare as he contemplated the unrolling of a sheet that reveals unclean animals. His gorge must have risen, even in his sleep, at the thought God wanted him to eat and make part of himself something he had been taught to avoid at all costs. But Peter has already taken the first steps of taking down barriers, because he has been staying at the home of Simon the Tanner, a Jew who cured dead animal hides, something that made him ritually unclean. Yet Peter wasn’t afraid of getting cooties.
The Holy Spirit orchestrates a meeting between the apostle Peter and the Centurion Cornelius and his family that breaks all the barriers of class and culture, throwing out the definition of clean and unclean that kept peoples apart. So it’s not enough to simply say “Jesus is Risen!” (though that’s pretty cool!) This leads to Call and Response. The Holy Spirit calls. How are you going to answer? So what are you going to do about it.
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Earlier in this crucial chapter to the Corinthian believers, Paul includes a dramatic list of witnesses to the resurrection, although oddly enough he leaves out the women, including Mary Magdalene (who is sometimes referred to as the First Apostle), perhaps because in the Roman Empire women weren’t considered reliable witnesses in court. Jesus doesn’t seem to share this prejudice.
What is important about this passage is the clarity Paul brings to the situation with his statement: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (15:19).” The Resurrection is the pivot on which history turns, not a theological necessity that barely brushes the need for reality.
And then Paul adds, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died (15:20).” Far from being pitied, we live, not just forever, but right now. The Good News of Jesus Christ calls us to authentic living now because life really matters. Kind of like that song, “Because he lives….”
John 20:1-18
Believe in the Resurrection in John is not a theoretical imperative of some sort, a conclusion drawn simply on what is seen -- an empty tomb in the case of Mary Magdalene, the Beloved Disciple, and Peter -- or the report of another, as in the case of Thomas. It’s real life. Jesus is a personal savior. The resurrection begins the resumption of personal relationships. Mary first sees an empty tomb, but only when Jesus calls her name does she recognize him! That recognition leads to comfort and joy! Mary becomes a witness. She tells the story!
If you read further in this chapter, Jesus appears to the disciples. They experience a more peaceful Pentecost, with the Holy Spirit coming upon them gently, but with all the strength that we associate with the Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. Some refer to Thomas, who was not there, as Doubting Thomas. I prefer to call him Believing Thomas, because when Jesus appears to them a second time and Thomas is present, he responds, “My Lord and my God!” a stronger affirmation than any made previously in the gospel.
And as the lectionary continues you will be retelling the encounter of Jesus and Peter. Peter, with the personal commissioning of Peter that amounts to forgiveness for his denials of Jesus as well.
Each of us should consider how this fact of the resurrection is part of our personal relationship with Jesus. We don’t necessarily stand at the threshold of an empty tomb, but we are witnesses to what a change we have experienced, and how the Resurrection has become a fact in our lives that changes everything.
Now do not despair. You can preach Easter every Sunday. For the earliest Christians every Sunday was Easter! Even so, if you’re feeling squeezed you can still take one of these passages and make an important point.
The Resurrection is fact. That’s made clear in the passage from the Gospel of John.
The Resurrection provides meaning to our lives, to our suffering, and to our victory. The apostle Paul clarifies the significance of the Resurrection
The Resurrection has consequences and calls for a response. This passage from the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates the consequences of the Resurrection.
Acts 10:34-43
There was a time I wondered why this passage was part of the Easter lectionary texts but now it makes perfect sense. We go from death -- the barriers that separated us from each other at the temple -- to life, the vision of the Lamb as God’s Temple in the Revelation of John in which we see people from every language, nation, tribe, and tongue. The dream of Isaiah and Micah, when everyone would climb the mountain of the Lord, beating their swords into plowshares and studying war no more, comes alive in this text, as Peter’s dream becomes reality. At first he may have wondered if that dream was a nightmare as he contemplated the unrolling of a sheet that reveals unclean animals. His gorge must have risen, even in his sleep, at the thought God wanted him to eat and make part of himself something he had been taught to avoid at all costs. But Peter has already taken the first steps of taking down barriers, because he has been staying at the home of Simon the Tanner, a Jew who cured dead animal hides, something that made him ritually unclean. Yet Peter wasn’t afraid of getting cooties.
The Holy Spirit orchestrates a meeting between the apostle Peter and the Centurion Cornelius and his family that breaks all the barriers of class and culture, throwing out the definition of clean and unclean that kept peoples apart. So it’s not enough to simply say “Jesus is Risen!” (though that’s pretty cool!) This leads to Call and Response. The Holy Spirit calls. How are you going to answer? So what are you going to do about it.
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Earlier in this crucial chapter to the Corinthian believers, Paul includes a dramatic list of witnesses to the resurrection, although oddly enough he leaves out the women, including Mary Magdalene (who is sometimes referred to as the First Apostle), perhaps because in the Roman Empire women weren’t considered reliable witnesses in court. Jesus doesn’t seem to share this prejudice.
What is important about this passage is the clarity Paul brings to the situation with his statement: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (15:19).” The Resurrection is the pivot on which history turns, not a theological necessity that barely brushes the need for reality.
And then Paul adds, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died (15:20).” Far from being pitied, we live, not just forever, but right now. The Good News of Jesus Christ calls us to authentic living now because life really matters. Kind of like that song, “Because he lives….”
John 20:1-18
Believe in the Resurrection in John is not a theoretical imperative of some sort, a conclusion drawn simply on what is seen -- an empty tomb in the case of Mary Magdalene, the Beloved Disciple, and Peter -- or the report of another, as in the case of Thomas. It’s real life. Jesus is a personal savior. The resurrection begins the resumption of personal relationships. Mary first sees an empty tomb, but only when Jesus calls her name does she recognize him! That recognition leads to comfort and joy! Mary becomes a witness. She tells the story!
If you read further in this chapter, Jesus appears to the disciples. They experience a more peaceful Pentecost, with the Holy Spirit coming upon them gently, but with all the strength that we associate with the Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. Some refer to Thomas, who was not there, as Doubting Thomas. I prefer to call him Believing Thomas, because when Jesus appears to them a second time and Thomas is present, he responds, “My Lord and my God!” a stronger affirmation than any made previously in the gospel.
And as the lectionary continues you will be retelling the encounter of Jesus and Peter. Peter, with the personal commissioning of Peter that amounts to forgiveness for his denials of Jesus as well.
Each of us should consider how this fact of the resurrection is part of our personal relationship with Jesus. We don’t necessarily stand at the threshold of an empty tomb, but we are witnesses to what a change we have experienced, and how the Resurrection has become a fact in our lives that changes everything.
