EASTER SUNDAY 2023 What if God was one of us???

In the year 1995 a song hit the charts, What If God Was One Of Us, by Joan Osbourne.  These words are part of the song: If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see -If seeing meant that you would have to believe -In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints - And all the prophets?

 

Today is a good day to ask those same questions.  Would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe?  How would it impact your life if you were to meet the risen Christ in the flesh?

 

Our Gospel reading tells us that the two Mary’s went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, as an angel of the Lord came and rolled back the stone, and the guards were afraid.  The angel begins with a typical Angelic greeting, “Do not be afraid”. 

 

The angel announces that Jesus had risen from the dead, just as he had said that he would.  Risen from the dead?  What does that mean?  What does it mean for us in the year 2023?

 

There are many things about our faith that are difficult to believe, but if we believe the resurrection, we understand that God is powerful and can do ANYTHING.  Some try to make sense of resurrection within our human limitations, imagining that Jesus was only partly dead and recovered.  But this was a man who was so very dead that while on the cross, instead of the soldiers breaking his legs to ensure his death, they found him already dead.  Therefore, just to be really certain, they pierced his side and blood and water came out.

 

Now, they say that this water is a sign of the pericardial effusion- The capillaries leak watery fluid into the tissues and this results in a build-up of fluid around the heart and lungs. However, what all this says to me, is that Jesus gave absolutely all his life for us.  He shed all his blood and he was most certainly, beyond any shadow of a doubt, dead.  A friend recently reminded me of the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion, and how it left her so disturbed.  She remembers there being SO much blood.  Jesus’s death was horrific and after all that, they pierced his side, how could it be that he was then alive on Sunday morning?  What do we believe happened?  Is it something worthy of belief? 

 

It is a fact that Jesus was born and lived.  This fact and the fact that he worked miracles, is recorded by non-Christian sources and most notably by the Jewish historian, Josephus.  I wish that this was taught in every school as the most important part of history because so much of our society has been impacted by Jesus.  Our naming of the year, is proof of Jesus’ reality.  We can call this the 2023^rd year in the common era, rather than the year 2023 AD – Anno Domini meaning of our Lord…** meaning 2023 years since the birth of Jesus Christ, - We can deny this fact by calling it the common era, but we still need to ask the question of what happened in history to have the years named this way.  And the answer is, that the years were counted from the time that Jesus was born.  Many people in 2023 don’t think about or even realize this fact, and most believe that you can believe in Jesus if you want, or not believe if you don’t want.  This is silly.  It is like saying you can believe in the sun if you want… or not if you don’t want.

 

We do believe in Jesus.  More than that, we believe he was more than a good moral teacher, more than a legendary, historical figure, and more than a wise leader.  We believe that he is who he claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah - the Saviour who died to redeem us -to buy us back.  But wait… there is more.

 

It is important that the angel was the one to roll the stone away.  The fact that there was no miraculous saving of Jesus from the cross left many wondering if Jesus was indeed approved by God.  Jesus had been condemned to death – pretty much by the church, and crucified as a criminal for claiming equality with God.  An angel from heaven rolled the stone away as an important sign that Jesus was indeed the victorious Messiah.  He achieved His earthly mission and was innocent of any crime.  He is the rightful King of heaven, approved by God the father. 

 

We began our service today with many readings telling the story of mankind from the fall through to the miraculous exodus of God’s people out of Egypt.  This is important, because these tell the story of why we needed a saviour, and how God had prepared the way and always knew that he would send us his son.  The exodus of God’s people from Egypt is more than a record of an event, it is a prophetic sign of what Jesus would do.  In the book of Exodus, God’s people living in Egypt were desperate to be saved from their slavery and at the climax of that story, they were saved from the angel of death by the blood of the lamb.   A perfect lamb was sacrificed and the blood of that lamb was placed over the doorway.  The Angel of death passed over the households where the blood was found. 

 

This event tells us the significance of the Messiah’s sacrifice.  Jesus became that lamb of God during the feast of Passover and was sacrificed for us.  Jesus’ blood covers us and saves us from death…  Spiritual death, and most importantly from the second death, which is eternal separation from God. 

 

While the very real life and existence of Jesus is a fact, we may think that the resurrection is a matter of faith, however, there were eye witnesses.  It is quite reasonable to weigh up all the facts and the testimonies and make an informed decision for believing in Christ and the resurrection.

 

You may be familiar with Anne Hegarty from the show, The Chase.  She is a devout Christian who claims that she looked into the evidence for the Christian faith, she admitted: “I couldn’t come up with any arguments against it.” She states , “For me, the most important bit about Christianity is when Jesus says: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ I keep focusing on the word ‘truth’. Some people believe things because they find them comforting, but… I have to know that this stuff about Jesus actually happened. And I do believe it happened – because you couldn’t make it up. It seems so plausible to me.”

When Anne meets people who don’t believe, all the arguments do is strengthen her faith, because “I know that I can defend it… in my mind, Jesus is the incarnate God -God in a human body – that’s central and essential to me.”

 

It is only natural that we will struggle to understand some elements of our faith, because God is supernatural and he is beyond our comprehension.  That this God should be so concerned with us, that he would suffer and die for us, is phenomenal! ….and today, pondering the resurrection, we are challenged to ponder the implications.  Do we accept the greatness of God?  Do we acknowledge that Jesus rose from the dead… not as a ghost, but bodily rose?  The tomb was empty and no body was found.  What does this mean for us, other aspects of our faith, and what does it mean when we contemplate God’s ability to intervene in our life?

 

Those women at the tomb experienced something incredible…. So incredible that not all the disciples believed them.  It wasn’t the fact that it was women telling them about the resurrection that caused their doubt, but simply that this was somewhat hard to believe.

 

”The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. “

 

The tomb was the place of death and the women were running from it.  They were afraid, yet joyful.  These were a people where death was a fact of life.  It isn’t death that they were afraid of, but life, and all that a resurrection might mean for the future of their life, their religion and their own personal understanding of life.  As Joan Osborne puts it, would you want to see, if seeing meant that you would have to believe?

 

It is worth our reflection.  This abundant and eternal Life that Jesus brings us, means to change and move from the known, familiar and comfortable, to a new way of thinking about faith, a new unknown way of being.  It can be quite frightening to embrace the resurrection because we need to move on from who we were and become who God is calling us to be.  The old ways are the tomb… it may be familiar and comfortable, but it isn’t where life is.

 

Face to face with Jesus, the women fall at Jesus’ feet and worship him.  Change is inevitable.  They have met the risen Lord, they will never be the same again.  When we encounter the risen Lord, it is inevitable that we become changed also.  Something inside us comes alive.  It is the Holy Spirit of God, who moves us.  It is exciting, but also a little unsettling and a little frightening.

 

For us who have been Christians for some time, we are still changing as we continue to experience the risen Christ.  “Jesus said to the women, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.””

 

The angel said, “Do not be afraid”, and Jesus said, “Do not be afraid”.  In spite of our fear, we are encouraged also, to not be afraid.  Today we are called to respond to the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. 

 

Just as the women were called to go and tell the brothers to go to Galilee, where they would see Jesus, we are called to tell others the truth about the resurrection… the truth about Jesus, and invite them to places where they can also meet the risen Christ.  Don’t be afraid, but continue to be changed by living in the reality and presence of the risen Christ.  Know that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us by the Holy Spirit.  How amazing is that!  I suspect we don’t yet realize a fraction of the amazing life that God has in store for us.

 

Very soon we will have a renewal of our Baptism vows.  In baptism we are united to Christ.  We are the children of God and we rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  God lives in us. The risen Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit is with us, and if God is for us, who can be against?

Jesus has risen from the dead and that power of God is in us through our baptism.  Jesus came and died for us so that we might have life and have it to the full… in the ever after but also in the here and now.   God’s desire is to truly bring us to life… here and now, as individual people, but also to bring life and goodness to our church and community.  May we live in this reality and celebrate it this day, for Christ is risen, Alleluia.  He is risen indeed, alleluia, alleluia.