Happy Easter! Here’s my 2019 Easter sermon for St. Peter Lutheran Church here in Greene, Iowa. This year we’re in Luke’s account of that first Easter morning, so the text is Luke 24:1-12 with a little bit of 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 and Isaiah 65:17-25 thrown in. I was particularly inspired by Pastor Tim Brown’s blog post on his Reluctant Xtian site.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
As I’ve been thinking about the Easter story this year, I keep getting stuck on one line from the Gospel.
We hear the story every year. It’s early in the morning on the first day of the week and a group of Jesus’ female disciples go to the tomb to take care of his body.
They discover the stone’s rolled away, and the body isn’t there. Instead, two angels tell them Jesus has risen. So Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them rush back from the tomb to share the good news with the eleven apostles.
Here’s the line where I keep getting stuck: “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
The Message paraphrase puts it like this: “They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.”
It seemed like an idle tale. They thought they were making it all up.
Why don’t they believe the story?
One reason is in that time and place, women had a reputation as unreliable gossips, as the sort of people who would tell idle tales. Somehow, I’m quite confident that reputation came from men.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say we’ve moved beyond that kind of sexism and misogyny, but we know even our modern society isn’t there yet. Even in the church, there are groups who think women can’t be pastors or can’t teach men, even though that’s exactly what happens on Easter morning.
The breaking news of the most important event in all of history is entrusted to the women to share. Despite the best efforts of the culture to contain them, these women are faithful disciples. They’ve been following Jesus throughout his ministry, just like the men.
All four of the Gospels mention the women faithfully watching by the cross as Jesus is crucified. It’s the women who stay with Jesus’ body and watch to see where it’s buried. So it makes sense that these women—Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them—are the first people in history to preach the gospel. They’re the ones to tell the scared, hiding male apostles that Jesus is alive!
But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe the women.
Of course, it’s possible they’re right. Maybe their witness is worth something. I mean, they sure seem excited.
So Peter goes to check it out for himself. When he gets there, he finds the empty tomb, but the disciples still don’t quite believe it. Even seeing the proof of the resurrection themselves, they aren’t quite sure.
And you know what? If I was in their place, I don’t know if I’d believe it either.
If I’d seen Jesus die, if I’d gone through the emotional rollercoaster of the week the disciples experienced, I don’t know that I’d be ready to accept this kind of good news. It’s so good it almost seems too good to be true.
He can’t be alive again, right? We’ve grown up with the story and it’s still hard to believe!
And the stakes are huge. I mean, the resurrection changes everything. If Jesus is alive, then we can believe death has been defeated and this life, this world is not all there is.
The resurrection means we can believe in what Jesus said, what he taught about God. We can believe him when he says God so loves the world, that God has entered into creation to redeem it. If Jesus is alive, then you can know God loves you. But it all hinges on Jesus being alive. Paul writes, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Atheists say we’re delusional for being here this morning. They say there is nothing out there, we’re alone in the universe, each of us is going to die and that’s it, so we might as well stop wasting our time searching for a higher purpose.
And they have a point…if Jesus had stayed dead.
Paul continues, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” The prophecy from Isaiah is true: God IS doing a new thing. The rules of life as we know it have changed. We hear it from the women’s testimony. We see the proof in the empty tomb.
If you’re interested in it, there are volumes of work on the historical facts of the resurrection. But ultimately, it’s an article of faith. For me, some of the most compelling proof is in the changed lives of the male disciples.
Because although they could have saved themselves some effort by just believing the women, they do eventually catch up. Jesus gives them some extra proof. Some of them get to meet Jesus later that afternoon on the road to Emmaus.
In the next few weeks, we’ll hear about them gradually understanding as Jesus appears to them while they’re hiding in a locked room. Later, he shares breakfast with them on a beach. They need time to look back at what Jesus said and taught before he died so they can figure it out.
This morning’s reading ends with Peter returning home. He’s amazed at what happened, but he’s not sure what to do about it. The women knew—they immediately went and started sharing the story, proclaiming the good news. But it takes Peter some time to process, so he goes back home. But he doesn’t stay home, and neither do the other disciples.
Jesus rising from the dead changes their lives. Within a few weeks, all of them are absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is no idle tale. They tell everyone they meet about the good news that Jesus is alive.
Eventually, every one of them will die as a martyr. They’ll give their lives for this story. And in doing so, they’ll change the world by founding the church.
We are here this morning because the story has been passed on to us. We are here because the women shared their testimony. We are here because the Holy Spirit gives us the faith to believe and to trust that Christ has in fact been raised from the dead.
The message is entrusted now to us, to you and me. This world desperately needs to hear the hope we have. God calls us to follow the women’s example, to share the good news. Share the hope of Easter. Maybe we’ll be believed, or maybe people will think we’re telling an idle tale. If so, we’re in good company.
The truth is, Christ has been raised from the dead, and that changes everything. Death has been defeated. That’s worth sharing. Sins are forgiven. We have hope, because Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed.