Easter Sunday – Series C
Jesus has risen from the dead. He is not in that tomb. Even the disciples have a hard time with this message, so give your people a bit of a break if they are also struggling here, as were the people in Paul’s day (I Cor 15). In fact, let that befuddlement be the reason God has sent you to preach today. Just as God sent angels long ago to that empty tomb to straighten out the misguided apprehensions of those women, he has sent you. Just as he sent those women to bring good news to the disciples, he has sent you. You are here, preaching today to make sure they can hear the truth and rejoice with angels and archangels in heaven today. God is doing something very strange today. Do not look to the world for clarification or any pattern which will help us make sense of Easter. This is a shattering of those old ways. We must set aside our expectations of normal and natural today. God is doing something very strange indeed.
The angels directed those women to the promise which Jesus had made. Epiphany told us Jesus is God. Lent pointed Jesus to the cross. The events of Holy Week unfolded exactly as Jesus predicted, confrontation, betrayal, suffering, and death on Friday. Now, listen to the rest of the promise. On the third day, Jesus would rise. And rise he did! This is all according to God’s inscrutable and strange plan. Death itself is rolling backward.