'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.'
Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus which is central to our faith as Christians. It was only because of the resurrection that Jesus' followers began to understand the significance of his life, his teaching and his death, and came to worship him as Lord. Indeed, if they hadn't been convinced that Jesus was alive again, they would soon have dispersed in fear and disillusionment and there would be no church and we would not be sitting here in St Ursula's this Easter morning.
For those early Christians, the resurrection was certainly not just a metaphor, as perhaps it is for some today: the daffodils are out, spring is on its way and there is hope of new life again. No, they believed the resurrection of Jesus was a real event; something unique and remarkable had happened.
So what does it mean that Christ is Risen? And what implications does it have for us?
Easter Sunday comes round every year. Every year we hear the solemn and painful story of Jesus' passion and death on Good Friday and then celebrate his resurrection on Easter Day. We know how the story goes. But it is good for us to try to capture afresh the utter surprise of that first Easter morning.
The women arrive at the crack of dawn with spices to anoint Jesus' dead body. They had watched him die on the cross. They knew he was stone dead; they weren't expecting him to come back to life. As one commentator puts it humorously: 'They weren't going to the tomb saying to themselves "well, we've got the spices in case he's still dead, but let's hope he is alive again." They knew well enough that dead people remain dead.'
But to their total surprise, they find the big stone at the entrance of the tomb has been rolled away, and inside there is no body. All four of the gospels stress that the tomb was empty. The body of Jesus is not there. The women are totally perplexed, utterly at a loss. They are further terrified when two angels appear with their message. 'Why are you looking for the dead among the living? He is not here. He is risen.' The angels remind the women that this is what Jesus had said would happen. So they rush off, no doubt still in a state of shock and perplexity, to tell the disciples what they have seen and heard.
The first response of the male disciples is one of complete disbelief. They dismiss the women's words as total nonsense, an 'idle tale'; they have no time for such a story from hysterical women. But Peter decides to go to look for himself, and he also finds the empty tomb, and then goes away 'wondering what has happened.' It is not clear that Peter fully believes at this point that Jesus is Risen, but he does have a sense of questioning wonder.
Of course, if we go on and read further in the gospel, we will hear of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus encountering the Risen Christ, and later his appearance to the eleven disciples in Jerusalem. Gradually, the followers of Jesus come to believe that he is truly alive again.
It's tempting to think that people at the time of Jesus were much more gullible than we are and that it was much easier for them to believe that someone could come back to life. But they knew that dead people remain dead just as much as we do. All the gospels record that the first reaction to the news of Jesus' resurrection was utter perplexity, disbelief, confusion and fear. And each of the four gospel accounts also tell of it being women who first see the empty tomb and hear the message that Christ is Risen. If the early Christians had wanted to make up the story of the resurrection, they certainly wouldn't have made women &ndash: believed to be completely unreliable as witnesses &ndash: as the first to receive this news. The fact that the gospel accounts all speak of women being the first witnesses to the resurrection and the men then gradually coming to believe this for themselves points to the authenticity of the gospels.
Of course, no one can 'prove' the resurrection is true. There were no eye witnesses to the actual moment when Jesus rose from the dead; there is no documentary video footage. Jesus' resurrection cannot be 'proved' but there are strong pointers to this being what happened: the empty tomb, the testimony of those who, like Peter in our reading from Acts, claim to have been witnesses who ate and drank with the risen Jesus, and perhaps most strikingly, the birth of the church and the willingness of those first Christians to die for their faith in Christ. These people were not promoting a comforting metaphor; they believed that something real had happened.
But what did it all mean and how does it relate to us?
Paul writes in length about the resurrection to the Christians in Corinth. They were obviously somewhat skeptical, however, as Paul at one point (a few verses earlier than our reading this morning) asks: 'How can some of you say there is no resurrection from the dead?' We don't know exactly what has made the Corinthians skeptical; it may be that, exposed to sophisticated Greek philosophy, they objected to the idea of the resurrection of the body (like many people today). Paul responds by insisting that Jesus' resurrection is not an illustrative fable but a real event. It is about bodily resurrection and not about abstract theological truths.
He points out that if Christ is not raised then his preaching and their faith are in vain. It is all pointless; 'airy nonsense' as one writer puts it. If there is no resurrection then Christ is not who he said he was, there is no forgiveness of sins, and those who have died in faith in Christ have simply perished. 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.' Paul says. He continues (as we heard in our reading): 'If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.'
For Paul and the early Christians, the Christian faith was not simply a moral code concerned with loving God and loving our neighbour. The Christian faith was based on what God had done in Christ, and if the resurrection didn't happen, none of this was accomplished. As one person points out: 'Take out the resurrection, and there is nothing left on which to rest faith.' If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then he was just one more failed Messiah, and we who put our faith in him are putting our faith in an illusion. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we may as well go home now.
Paul's response to this skepticism is a huge BUT. 'But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died'. Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of a big harvest. Paul points out the connection between the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection. Because Christ has been raised, we can be confident that we too will be raised to life. Paul is not talking about the immortality of the soul or some kind of ghostly existence after death, but the resurrection of the body. Just as the Risen Christ was raised in the body, so we too will be raised in the body. Paul goes on to try to explain that this body may be different from our earthly body, as the Risen Christ's body was different, nevertheless the whole person is raised to life.
The resurrection vindicates Jesus as Lord of all, the Lord of life and death, and through him, ultimately, death itself will be destroyed. The resurrection of Jesus is not a metaphor to bring us comfort, but offers us a real solid hope as we face the death of our loved ones and our own death. Many of us were present at the memorial service last week when we commended David Winfield to God's mercy, confident in the hope of the resurrection of the dead through Jesus Christ our Lord. The resurrection of Christ offers hope for us as individuals, but it also speaks into the pain and brokenness of our whole world. Christ has conquered death and in Christ all things will one day be restored and all creation will be remade and perfect. Isn't this the good news that we and our broken world so desperately need to hear?
This good news has strengthened Christians down the ages. I think of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for his opposition to Nazism. Bonhoeffer was hanged on a Monday in April 1945, and the day before his death was the first Sunday after Easter. On that Sunday, when Bonhoeffer did not yet know that he had been sentenced to death, his fellow-prisoners asked him to lead a service for them. He agreed to do so, and he preached on the resurrection of Jesus and how this gives us new and indestructible hope and joy, whatever sufferings we may have to endure in this life. Bonhoeffer finished preaching and an English prisoner who was present describes what happened next: '(Bonhoeffer) had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said: "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready to come with us." Those words 'come with us' - for all prisoners they had come to mean one thing only- the scaffold. We bade him goodbye - he drew me aside – "This is the end", he said, "For me the beginning of life..."' 'This is the end...' - Bonhoeffer knew he was about to die, and yet 'For me the beginning of life' - Why? Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, on which Bonhoeffer had himself been speaking only moments earlier. Bonhoeffer's faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord was the source both of his courageous action during his lifetime and his confidence as he approached his death.
So what do we make of the resurrection of Jesus which is at the core of our faith as Christians? Of course, belief in the resurrection doesn't come to us naturally as human beings. It is a surprise, an act of God beyond our expectations and imaginings. As we listen to the accounts of the resurrection this morning, where do we find ourselves in the story? Perhaps, we may find ourselves simply perplexed, as the women were when they found the empty tomb. Or we may be like the male disciples in their initial response to the women's tale, thinking this is all nonsense. Or perhaps we are a little like Peter who is not quite sure what to believe but goes away from the empty tomb with a sense of wonder and amazement. Maybe we are rather sceptical like the Corinthians, questioning how there can be a resurrection of the body. Or perhaps we are confident, with Paul, that the resurrection of Christ truly happened and is the firm ground for our hope and faith.
Wherever we are at the moment, I pray that we will all grow in this faith; that Christ, Crucified and Risen, will be the centre of our lives now and the source of our hope for the future, not just for ourselves but for the whole world.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed, alleluia.
Helen Marshall