Experiencing Resurrection
Sermon
I wonder whether Jesus knew there would be a glorious resurrection when he hung there nailed to cross? Through all that pain and sadness and suffering, did he know things would be all right in the end? Was there a hint of resurrection to come? Or was the agony of it all made even worse by the conviction that this was the end, that even God had deserted him - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
It seems to me that human beings can never be absolutely sure that things will be all right in the end. We may believe they are going to be all right, we may have faith in the future, but there's always that nagging doubt. And there are times that are so awful that we may be convinced things will never be all right again.
That's the position the two Marys were in when they went to the tomb in the garden early on the Sunday morning. Their favourite person, the person in whom they had invested all their hopes, had been killed. And he hadn't done much to prevent it. He hadn't even protested his innocence or attempted to load the dice in his favour. So on that Sunday morning the women must have been experiencing a huge tumult of emotions, anger and terror and shock and horror all overlaid by immense grief.
John tells us Mary was weeping so profusely that when Jesus appeared she was unable to recognise him. She thought he was the gardener. Matthew has a slightly different version. He has two Marys in the garden, Mary Magdalen and some other Mary, perhaps Mary the mother of Jesus. Matthew doesn't bother to fill us in on the emotion and the grief, but gets straight to the action. Matthew has the James Bond version of the story, all excitement and rapid movement.
It starts with an earthquake, during which an angel of the Lord floats down from heaven, rolls back a massive stone which normally requires three or four men to move, and then perches himself on the stone. The guards were so terrified they collapsed, and don't feature in the story again. But the women are made of sterner stuff. Presumably they were afraid, for the angel reassures them, then proceeds to give them a message. He knows exactly why they are there, and invites them to look inside the tomb implying that they won't find anything.
Then their task is to search out the disciples and tell them the incredible news that Jesus' body is not in the tomb, for he has been raised from the dead and is therefore alive. As the two women hasten to do the angel's bidding, they meet Jesus.
Unlike almost everyone else who meets Jesus after his resurrection, the women recognise him instantly and prostrate themselves before him - which seems odd. From what we read in the gospels, they would never have acted in that way while Jesus was alive, for they regarded him as a personal friend as well as a teacher. It seems reasonable to suppose they would have been more likely to hug him than to kiss his feet. Jesus tells them not to be afraid, but to tell the disciples to leave Jerusalem and go to Galilee where he will be waiting for them.
It's a fantastic tale, quite unlike John's version of what happened that morning, and fairly unlike Luke's version. In the original, Mark didn't have a version at all. His gospel ended with the crucifixion, but a resurrection ending was added later by an editor. Luke follows the story as far as the women passing on their message to the disciples, then he adds a lovely little comment. He says, "These words seemed to the disciples an idle tale and they did not believe them!" (Luke 24:11).
Perhaps it's not entirely surprising that the story was not believed. An earthquake, an angel floating down from heaven and moving a massive stone, a disappearing body, and a crucified man alive and well? This is the stuff of adventure fiction, of romance and excitement and a world of fantasy.
What are we to make of this story today? Because each of the gospel writers has a different version of the story I don't think we're expected to literally believe every detail we're told, especially every detail we're told by Matthew. But however they report it, all the gospel writers consistently report an event which was out of the ordinary, an event which had a huge impact on the lives of those who witnessed it, and an event which they all refer to as resurrection from the dead.
There seems no doubt that many people at several different times experienced Jesus in a very real way after he had died. This experiencing of him went on for about six weeks after his death, and then he was never actually seen again.
Even today, bereaved people occasionally experience their loved one who has died, for a few weeks after the death. Generally speaking, after a few weeks any sense of the appearance of the loved one ceases, but some bereaved people report a continuing sense of their loved one's presence always with them.
And it was like that after Jesus' death. People continued to have religious experiences which they were convinced were meetings with Jesus, long after his appearances on earth ceased. St Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, but he did have a dramatic experience in which he saw a blinding light and heard a voice from heaven, and he immediately identified this as an experience of Jesus. And as more and more people experienced Jesus in this and other ways, Jesus gradually became identified as God himself, as God in human form.
Such experiences of Jesus continue today, after 2,000 years. They may be sudden and dramatic and have an unforgettable impact. Or they may be slow and gradual, an almost imperceptible growing towards God.
The only real indication that the resurrection ever happened, that Jesus continues to live in some different dimension even today, is some personal experience of him. All human beings have God within them. Deep within every human being is the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus.
Anyone who wants to experience Jesus can do so by tapping into the God within. There are many different ways of tapping into the God within, but they all require time, commitment and patience. It isn't easy, and it can be scary, for God it is much vaster than we can ever imagine and his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways.
But all that time, commitment and patience, all that struggling with what is difficult and scary, is rewarded. The reward is experiencing personal resurrection, discovering personally the deep peace which passes understanding, and discovering new, vibrant life. Life in Christ is life lived and enjoyed and experienced to its utmost, so that suddenly the whole universe seems fresher and brighter and alive in a different kind of way. And the whole universe becomes ultimately hopeful rather than hopeless.
Personal resurrection doesn't mean that nothing bad or painful happens ever again, but it does mean that when anything bad happens, you can handle it, for Jesus is present in Spirit ready to guide you through the darkness and support you when you're liable to faint.
So if you really want help in your darkest moments, if you really want a life full of hope and life which is vibrantly alive, if you really want to experience resurrection here and now, then tap into the Spirit within you and get to know Jesus for yourself.
It seems to me that human beings can never be absolutely sure that things will be all right in the end. We may believe they are going to be all right, we may have faith in the future, but there's always that nagging doubt. And there are times that are so awful that we may be convinced things will never be all right again.
That's the position the two Marys were in when they went to the tomb in the garden early on the Sunday morning. Their favourite person, the person in whom they had invested all their hopes, had been killed. And he hadn't done much to prevent it. He hadn't even protested his innocence or attempted to load the dice in his favour. So on that Sunday morning the women must have been experiencing a huge tumult of emotions, anger and terror and shock and horror all overlaid by immense grief.
John tells us Mary was weeping so profusely that when Jesus appeared she was unable to recognise him. She thought he was the gardener. Matthew has a slightly different version. He has two Marys in the garden, Mary Magdalen and some other Mary, perhaps Mary the mother of Jesus. Matthew doesn't bother to fill us in on the emotion and the grief, but gets straight to the action. Matthew has the James Bond version of the story, all excitement and rapid movement.
It starts with an earthquake, during which an angel of the Lord floats down from heaven, rolls back a massive stone which normally requires three or four men to move, and then perches himself on the stone. The guards were so terrified they collapsed, and don't feature in the story again. But the women are made of sterner stuff. Presumably they were afraid, for the angel reassures them, then proceeds to give them a message. He knows exactly why they are there, and invites them to look inside the tomb implying that they won't find anything.
Then their task is to search out the disciples and tell them the incredible news that Jesus' body is not in the tomb, for he has been raised from the dead and is therefore alive. As the two women hasten to do the angel's bidding, they meet Jesus.
Unlike almost everyone else who meets Jesus after his resurrection, the women recognise him instantly and prostrate themselves before him - which seems odd. From what we read in the gospels, they would never have acted in that way while Jesus was alive, for they regarded him as a personal friend as well as a teacher. It seems reasonable to suppose they would have been more likely to hug him than to kiss his feet. Jesus tells them not to be afraid, but to tell the disciples to leave Jerusalem and go to Galilee where he will be waiting for them.
It's a fantastic tale, quite unlike John's version of what happened that morning, and fairly unlike Luke's version. In the original, Mark didn't have a version at all. His gospel ended with the crucifixion, but a resurrection ending was added later by an editor. Luke follows the story as far as the women passing on their message to the disciples, then he adds a lovely little comment. He says, "These words seemed to the disciples an idle tale and they did not believe them!" (Luke 24:11).
Perhaps it's not entirely surprising that the story was not believed. An earthquake, an angel floating down from heaven and moving a massive stone, a disappearing body, and a crucified man alive and well? This is the stuff of adventure fiction, of romance and excitement and a world of fantasy.
What are we to make of this story today? Because each of the gospel writers has a different version of the story I don't think we're expected to literally believe every detail we're told, especially every detail we're told by Matthew. But however they report it, all the gospel writers consistently report an event which was out of the ordinary, an event which had a huge impact on the lives of those who witnessed it, and an event which they all refer to as resurrection from the dead.
There seems no doubt that many people at several different times experienced Jesus in a very real way after he had died. This experiencing of him went on for about six weeks after his death, and then he was never actually seen again.
Even today, bereaved people occasionally experience their loved one who has died, for a few weeks after the death. Generally speaking, after a few weeks any sense of the appearance of the loved one ceases, but some bereaved people report a continuing sense of their loved one's presence always with them.
And it was like that after Jesus' death. People continued to have religious experiences which they were convinced were meetings with Jesus, long after his appearances on earth ceased. St Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, but he did have a dramatic experience in which he saw a blinding light and heard a voice from heaven, and he immediately identified this as an experience of Jesus. And as more and more people experienced Jesus in this and other ways, Jesus gradually became identified as God himself, as God in human form.
Such experiences of Jesus continue today, after 2,000 years. They may be sudden and dramatic and have an unforgettable impact. Or they may be slow and gradual, an almost imperceptible growing towards God.
The only real indication that the resurrection ever happened, that Jesus continues to live in some different dimension even today, is some personal experience of him. All human beings have God within them. Deep within every human being is the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus.
Anyone who wants to experience Jesus can do so by tapping into the God within. There are many different ways of tapping into the God within, but they all require time, commitment and patience. It isn't easy, and it can be scary, for God it is much vaster than we can ever imagine and his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways.
But all that time, commitment and patience, all that struggling with what is difficult and scary, is rewarded. The reward is experiencing personal resurrection, discovering personally the deep peace which passes understanding, and discovering new, vibrant life. Life in Christ is life lived and enjoyed and experienced to its utmost, so that suddenly the whole universe seems fresher and brighter and alive in a different kind of way. And the whole universe becomes ultimately hopeful rather than hopeless.
Personal resurrection doesn't mean that nothing bad or painful happens ever again, but it does mean that when anything bad happens, you can handle it, for Jesus is present in Spirit ready to guide you through the darkness and support you when you're liable to faint.
So if you really want help in your darkest moments, if you really want a life full of hope and life which is vibrantly alive, if you really want to experience resurrection here and now, then tap into the Spirit within you and get to know Jesus for yourself.
