Jesus is Alive Forevermore
Jesus Christ is Risen Indeed. A Homily for Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord.
Acts 10:34
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9
Jesus is alive! When we say that Jesus is alive, we do not mean that he is figuratively alive, or symbolically alive, or merely alive in our hearts (although he does live within our hearts, or at least he should be living there). When we say that Jesus is alive we don't even mean that he is alive in the Eucharist, although in the Eucharist he gives us his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, and in a very real way he demonstrates his living power in the Blessed Sacrament. No, when we say that Jesus is alive, we mean that he is Risen from the Dead, that the Apostles and many of his followers saw him alive, spoke with him, and carried on conversations and ministered to him for 40 days after he rose from the dead. After all of that he ascended into Heaven bodily, and will physically return one day, just as alive and risen from the dead as he was on the day that it happened.
It can be difficult for human beings to accept that God, being all powerful, can do things differently and connect outside of the ordinary processes of nature. These are processes, after all, that he created, so if and when he wants to act outside of those very processes, God can do it. Our faith teaches us that not only was Our Lord physically raised from the dead, but that he physically appeared to his apostles and other followers of his many times in the 40 days that he was here on Earth prior to his Ascension into Heaven. The Lord physically Ascended into Heaven, the apostles saw this and told us so. He also promised that he would return again, and this is our faith, this is the faith we profess, it is the faith that we will restate once again when we renew our baptismal promises today. How did all that happen? We cannot possibly know all the answers because when we begin to try to seek for human explanations for that which is inherently beyond the realm of human explanation, we begin to do the natural thing and seek scientific explanations for things that are beyond the realm of human explanation because they are within the purview of God and God alone. For example, not only did Jesus rise from the dead, one of the things we know about the Resurrected body is that Jesus was able to walk through walls and doors, the Scriptures even tell us this. In this resurrected form, Jesus could appear wherever he pleased at will, it happened even in the first Resurrection account. On the very night after the Resurrection itself Jesus appeared in the upper room and the Apostles who were present weren't even sure that it was really him, they thought they had seen a spirit or a ghost because Jesus just showed up. He proved that he really was a risen human being when he asked for something to eat. Yes, this is beyond normal human explanation, and this time of year you see it all over television and the internet, so called experts trying to explain how it is that this happened and what really supposedly happened at the Resurrection. It is my humble opinion that we should avoid such content, it could have the effect of undermining our faith.
It is a normal human reaction, after what the apostles had been through, after everything they had seen over the last week, after all that they saw Jesus do and say over the three years of their lives that they spent with him, for them to say “is that really him, we just saw him die on Friday, and we were so scared to death most of us ran away before that happened in the first place.” Judas may have been the traitor who betrayed Our Lord, but all of the Apostles except John ran away when the going got tough and they had the first chance to put their faith in Jesus to the test, they all had failed that test, and they all knew it.
Mary Magdalene ran and told them all that Jesus was alive, she had seen him, she had even tried to touch him and he asked her not to do it. I can just imagine their reaction. “Oh Mary, you've had a long few days, you need some rest.”
Then, of course, there was Thomas's reaction when they all told him they had seen the Lord. Thomas gets a lot of grief for being the doubter, but I think if we are honest with ourselves we could see a lot of ourselves in Thomas. “I won't believe it unless I put my hand into his side and touch the nail marks in his hands.” Jesus could have been a little less than merciful and really chastised Thomas heavily for doubting, but he didn't. He let Thomas see him and touch him, but he reminded him and all of us that the real blessing is reserved for those who have not seen but do believe.
Jesus's words were directed as much to us today as they were to the Apostles in his Resurrected presence that evening. Too often, in Western culture and society today, supposedly religious people treat the things of God with a thinly disguised contempt. Well intentioned people often do this, usually in the name of trying to be non-judgmental or more charitable, not wishing to offend their neighbors with the reality of the Gospel. Shocked, surprised, and overwhelmed, Thomas himself was forced to do what Saint Paul tells us all of humanity will do when our Lord finally returns. Thomas was forced by reality to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and God.
The Resurrection is so central to who we are, it is so inseparable from the very faith in God that we profess that Paul also very clearly reminds us that if Christ is not raised from the dead our faith is in vain, we are still in our sins, and we are, in his words, “men most miserable.”
We are here to commemorate and celebrate today because the Resurrection is not merely a matter of pious hope, we believe that it happened just as surely as the sun rose this morning, and that because it happened, we are not only free from our sins, but we too will rise one day in a glorified body and stand before the Lord, and that because he rose we will rise also, and we shall see him as he is. That is what Easter is about. The Cadbury and the Reese's eggs are just a nice bonus.
Jesus Christ is alive, and because he lives we can live forever, provided that we are willing to follow him. He's asking of us the same thing he asked from the apostles, who he forgave, by the way, for forever showing the world their fragile humanity by running off like frightened children when the going got tough. Jesus's request of them and us boils down to the same two words: Follow me.
I would be remiss if I did not mention all of the visitors here this morning. We do this every Sunday here at Holy Trinity, and I know I'm not alone in saying that we’d love to see just as many of you back each and every week. Jesus loves you so much but he died for you and he rose from the dead. We love you too, and hope to see you again.