Eyes Wide Open: An Easter Sermon
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Luke 24: 13-35, Rev. Marianne Niesen, April 12, 2009
The words of the choir anthem you just heard seem to capture the feeling of this day don’t they? My Lord, what a morning when the Son of God arose . . . gone was all the fear . . . gone was all the grief . . . My Lord, what a morning with the Son of God arose.[1] Not much more needs to be said than that. From our vantage point, we imagine that first Easter morning as a wondrous moment of joy and illumination. Death conquered. Grief abated. The pain of the past giving way to the promise of the future. A fledgling community becoming the church of Christ. That is the tone of most Easter songs, of course. We sang two of them today. Christ the Lord is risen today . . . Love’s redeeming work is done, fought the fight, the battle won. . . Where O death is now thy sting?[2] And, up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph o’er his foes . . . he arose, he arose, hallelujah![3] What’s not to like about those hymns? Those words of joy and exaltation? They are a welcome relief after Lent and, for those of you who participated in the Holy Week services, they are what everything has been leading to. And, while I enjoy them every bit as much as do you, let me suggest that, for the most part, they really don’t accurately describe the experience of that first Easter morning.
Let me explain. We hear the account of the resurrection from our perspective. It is the perspective of faith . . . resurrection is how we describe the ongoing and very real presence of Jesus immediately after his death and in our world today. But, for those first disciples, resurrection was the furthest thing from their minds early in the morning on the first day of the week when they went to the tomb. Jesus - their friend and mentor and teacher and leader - was dead. Brutally murdered by the Romans, a victim of the death penalty. When the body came up missing, resurrection was not their first thought. And joy was not their first reaction. It was fear that overwhelmed and paralyzed them. In fact, the earliest ending of our earliest gospel, Mark, tells us simply that the women who went to the tomb were terrified. And they left the tomb, saying nothing to anyone, sealed into silence. Fear was the primary response of all those early disciples. That’s why they locked themselves in a room afterward. That’s why the resurrected Jesus in Matthew’s gospel tells the women to tell the others he’ll meet them in Galilee. They were already on the way ‘out of Dodge.’ And their fear was well founded. They were all in danger. The resurrection story I recalled from scripture today - the story of the travelers to Emmaus - tells us that those two disciples were depressed, disappointed, dejected and getting away from the scene of it all. Their fear was so great, they didn’t even know Jesus when he showed up. The gospels are quite clear about this. The first response to Easter was fear - a deep, real, overwhelming fear. The disciples were not prepared to experience resurrection after death, they were simply afraid, sealed away in a deafening silence.
Of course, there were clues that something was different. The gospels describe ‘men in dazzling clothes’ or a man in a white robe or linens rolled up and put aside and a gardener who looked like he knew something. The women in Luke’s gospel were convinced something great had happened but Peter and the others dismissed their words as an ‘idle tale.’ It’s hard to hear good news if you don’t expect to, want to – or when fear holds sway! My Lord, what a morning indeed - but it was not the kind of morning we usually imagine! And so those two travelers to Emmaus escaped Jerusalem and headed on home, so dejected, they hardly noticed the stranger who joined them. But finally, after they got to Emmaus, probably home, and invited him in, and sat at table with him and he broke the bread they recognized him. Luke tells us their eyes were opened - and nothing was the same after that! With renewed energy, they headed back to Jerusalem, to the thick of things, where they met the others who also, by that time, had their own conversion. Their eyes had been opened as well.
And that is what the resurrection is all about. The resurrection is about living with eyes and ears and hearts wide open to the presence of God among us - in the good times and the hard times. I think some of the contemporary arguments about whether Jesus really rose from the dead are misguided. Conservatives and liberals alike can argue about that until the cows come home. Their conclusions won’t change a thing. The fundamental truth of the resurrection is that hope trumps fear, life beats death, love wins, generosity and service cannot be overcome by evil. The resurrection is not so much about what happened to Jesus. It is about what happens to us as we follow the way of Jesus, seeing his work and doing his work in a world every bit as dangerous as was his world; in times every bit as frightening as were his.
Mary Magdalene went to an empty tomb and saw a gardener at first. But when she looked closer - she saw Jesus. Love wins! She knew it for sure! Those two on the way out of town met a stranger and saw . . . well, a stranger. But when they looked closer, they recognized Jesus - which meant there was indeed hope in the face of fear. To live the resurrection is to live with eyes wide open, ready to see Jesus, ready to be healed by hope. That’s what resurrection means.
I experience resurrection hope each Sunday when I listen to the wonderful questions and answers of our children during children’s time. I experienced hope at our Maundy Thursday celebration meal when our fellowship hall was filled and our youth helped cook and serve a meal and we sat around and learned about the Passover meal Jesus celebrated with his friends long ago. I experienced resurrection on Good Friday afternoon when I heard Ellie Parker and Kathy Bramer and Fay Buness here in an empty church practicing for the evening service. They had other things to do, surely - but they were here, willing to share their gifts. I experienced resurrection as several of us met here that same day to ponder the issues we have with our projection system. It will cost us $4000 to get it right . . . and within an hour, a member of our congregation gave over half that amount to see it happen. I experienced resurrection when several members of our church gathered on a cold Thursday morning at Resurrection cemetery to bid farewell to our former custodian Mike who died on Monday, age 43. And, when the Catholic priest who presided at the graveside, invited a United Methodist pastor - me - to offer a prayer, I had a renewed hope that someday those things that divide us will be no more.
Hope happens like that - unexpectedly - and usually in little ways. That’s why we need our eyes wide open, our hearts ready, our ears attentive - to notice resurrection moments. There are many nay-sayers out there of course. When fear threatens to overpower – as it seems to do right now in this world of ours – hope can be a rare commodity. Hopeful people are suspect. But, Easter 2009, reminds us that resurrection is the ‘gift that keeps on giving.’ So, with eyes wide open, look for resurrection, here and out there – because it really is true - we have it on good authority - hope wins every time.
[1]Easter Anthem for mixed voices: What a Morning by Robert C. Lau, Lorenz Publishing Co., ©1998.
[2]Christ the Lord is Risen Today, UMH #302.
[3]Up From the Grave He Arose, UMH #322.
