Easter Day Year C 17th April 2022
Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 65 v17-25; Psalm 118 v1-2, 14-24; I Corinthians 15 v19-26; Luke 24 v1-12.
Unbelievable to some, but true none-the-less.
“Why are you looking in the place of the dead for someone who is alive? Jesus isn’t here! He was raised from death. Remember that while he was still in Galilee, he told you, ‘The Son of Man will be handed over to sinners who will nail him to a cross. But three days later he will rise to life.’” Then they remembered what Jesus had said. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and some other women were the ones who had gone to the tomb. When they returned, they told the eleven apostles and the others what had happened. The apostles thought it was all nonsense and they would not believe. (Luke 24 v5b-11).
Did the disciples think that the women were lying to them? That grief had addled their brains? Presumably, the disciples thought that a dead man doesn’t get up in his own strength and leave an empty tomb behind. The disciples were right in the sense that Jesus could not have been raised to life by means of human action. They had forgotten that, just as in the raising of Lazarus, the power came from God (see John 11 v38-42). But unlike Lazarus, who was restored to ordinary life on earth, God raised Jesus from death to new (eternal) life.
The ‘angels’ who met with the women who had gone to the tomb early that morning, said “Jesus isn’t here! He has been raised from death.” (not simply ‘he has risen’).
The disciples took some convincing that Jesus had been raised from death, despite what the women had reported and the evidence of an empty tomb. Most of them were not convinced until they met Jesus later the same day. (see Luke 24 v36 -45).
Years later Peter was able to say of Jesus,“God set him free from death and raised him to life.”
(Acts 2 v24).
Saul (Paul) did not believe in a ‘risen’ Jesus, until he encountered him on the road to Damascus. Only later was he able to say, “Christ has been raised to life!” (I Corinthians 15 v20a).
Paul and the other apostles came to understand that God had acted decisively on Easter Day by raising Jesus to new life. Not only affirming the teachings of Jesus and the kingdom values he extolled, but also ushering in a new age, with the gradual establishment of God’s kingdom on earth via the actions of spirit blessed believers.
John records Jesus saying “I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved.” (John 10 v9a).
In today’s Psalm, the writer says, ‘Here is the gate of the Lord! Everyone who does right may enter this gate’. The stone that the builders tossed aside has now become the most important stone. The Lord (God) has done this and it is amazing to us. This day belongs to the Lord! Let’s celebrate and be glad today. (Psalm 118 v20, 22-24).
Hymn writers John Bell and Graham Maule in their Easter hymn say, (from Singing the Faith No 296 v4).
Christ has risen and forever lives to challenge and to change
all whose lives are messed or mangled, all who find religion strange.
Christ is risen. Christ is present, making us what he has been –
evidence of transformation in which God is known and seen.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Bible.