In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
Wow! What a good looking group you are in your Easter finest! As you all know, the date of Easter fluctuates throughout the spring based on the lunar cycle – but Easter always comes just in the nick of time. The news cycle has been pretty rough of late – war, soaring gas prices, a government that seems to be less useful than even a broken clock. Plus, I know we’re all carrying some burdens this morning – maybe a recent diagnosis; worrying about your marriage, your children, your job; or perhaps you’re trying to figure out how to deal with a bully or a crush at school; or it could be the addictions or anxieties that you’ve been dealing with for a while. Into all these spaces of deadness, the Good News of Easter comes just in the nick of time, and it is my immense joy to celebrate the gift of Easter with you all.
We heard from the prophet Jeremiah the words of God to all of us and each of us: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Some of you are here this morning because there’s nowhere else in the world you’d rather be at this moment. Some of you are here because you made the political decision that though you’d rather be somewhere else, keeping your parents happy is worth a few hours of your time. Whatever brings you here this morning – God’s love is for you, and it is given to you in, for, and by Grace. That’s the Church’s way of saying that your belovedness is based not on how much of a good boy or good girl you are, not based on your looks, your GPA, your accomplishments, your voting record, your military rank, or the confidence of your religious convictions.
If you hear only one thing this morning, hear this: You are loved because the God who created all things and who raised Jesus from the dead loves you. No matter what mistakes are you in your past or what doubts, questions, or burdens you bring with you this morning, you are welcome here, you are loved, and the message of Easter is for you. We heard in Jeremiah that God gives grace in the wilderness – whatever the wilderness you’ve been in, we are so glad you are here because your presence allows us to celebrate Easter more fully.
And what is the Easter message to proclaim? Easter is God’s rebellion against Sin and Death, which means that Easter makes rebels of us all. Easter is when we see that God’s love is, as the band Boston sang, “more than a feeling.” Love is not an abstraction, not an attribute of God that we pontificate about. No, love is an experience, love is the foundation of the world all around us, love is a rebellion that blows open the tombs that we have found ourselves in.
Easter is not the story of God doing something really nice for his son in an act of divine nepotism. If that’s the case, then this story is no different from all the legends from history about people rising from the dead. Take your pick, Osiris, Odin, Harry Potter, the Phoenix, or the natural cycle of spring following winter. All of this is a bit much for one person rising from the dead. Even in the Gospels, Jesus raises the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and Lazarus, and while those are wonderful stories, they aren’t the basis of faith.
No, Easter is bigger than a good thing that happened to a great guy. Easter is a rebellion. Afterall, this is Grace & Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, not the Grace & Saint Stephen’s Chapter of the Jesus of Nazareth Historical Appreciation Society. Easter is the dawning of the New Creation. As significant as were the first words of “Let there be light,” the words “He has been raised from the dead” are just as foundational to our existence.
This is the truth expressed in the art on the front of your bulletin this morning. It’s an icon written by the modern-day Ukrainian iconographer Ivanka Demchuk. You see a resplendent and risen Jesus emerging from the tomb, which almost looks like the vastness of the cosmos. And if that was the only aspect of the Resurrection – well, great news for Jesus, but not really newsworthy for us. But the very Good News of the rebellion of Easter is that we are included in it.
You’ll notice that Jesus is holding the hands of two people – Adam and Eve, representing you and me. He’s pulling them out of their graves, out of death into Resurrection. See, Resurrection isn’t an event that happened once in time, Resurrection is the reality in which we live. That’s what makes Easter a rebellion.
When Jesus burst out from the tomb and raised us up with him, it is the declaration that the verdicts of this world have been overturned. Jesus was pronounced dead, but now he lives. The earth quakes at this dawning of the New Creation. The guards, symbols of worldly power, are stupefied and powerless, upending the status quo of “might makes right.” Even the angel who speaks to the women sits perched atop the tomb stone like the cool kid sitting the hood of his sports car as if to say “Oh, death. Yea, that’s been defeated.” Easter is a rebellion against our expectations, our fears, our assumptions of what is possible.
You might be guilty, but Jesus declares you forgiven. You might feel lonely and out of place, but you belong here. Violence, cruelty, terror, and death might seem to have had the last word, but Jesus offers an further word, “Greetings.” Easter emancipates us from living in a world of cause-and-effect, of mere fate, of hopelessness.
I wonder, what the rebellion of Easter will open in your life? Might Easter lead you to forgiveness, generosity, courage, mercy? Could Easter upend your need to be in control, or to have all the answers, or to have success only look the way you always imagined it would? What tombs is the Risen Jesus pulling you out of?
To be sure, rebellions are not for the faint of heart. This is why Matthew recounts that the women left the tomb with “fear and great joy.” They were fearful because rebellions mean things that we used to count on, even if they weren’t good things, are changing – and we like predictability. They were afraid because they knew that eventually those soldiers would wake up. They knew that Rome had more crosses. They knew, as a title of a great movie puts it, that the empire always strikes back.
If there is one thing that Easter is not about, it’s rose-colored glasses or willful ignorance. I’m not gaslighting you and saying that betrayal doesn’t sting, that stress comes from a lack of trust in God, that you won’t make mistakes anymore, that injustice will vanish, that you and your loved ones won’t die. Beloved, as much as much as I wish that was true, Easter is even a rebellion against our sense of knowing what is best for us.
There’s a small detail in the Easter story that is so helpful and hopeful. The Resurrection is, quite literally, the greatest news ever and the most urgent of all messages in history. And the angel sends these women out as the first evangelists of this Good News. But first, the angel says, “Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples.” Before they are sent out, the two Marys are invited to come look at the place where the body of Jesus had been laid.
Easter is not about ignoring our grief or fear. Easter is not God clicking a divine “undo” button. Easter does not eliminate the pains, the losses, the brokenness of life. Easter is a rebellion, not an erasure. It’s why the risen Jesus still bears the wounds of crucifixion.
I don’t know what tombs you have been in, but look into them. Name before God the hopes and plans that never came to be, the friends and family whom you miss, the scars that you still bear, the doubts and despairs that you can’t seem to leave behind. The rebellion of Easter begins from those places of brokenness. Jesus teaches us that “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” Our God is a rebellious God who brings beauty out of the ugly, reconciliation out of estrangement, Resurrection out of death – and that’s so much more miraculous, amazing, and rebellious than simply pretending there was no tomb to look into. We can be honest about our pains before embracing the great joy of Easter.
And here’s where Easter’s rebellion makes us rebels – we live as those who know and trust the great truth expressed in the reading from Colossians, that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. That word “hidden” means kept secure and safe. It’s a verbal statement of what that Easter icon reveals – we have been raised with Christ and are a part of his New Creation. We are not defined by our mistakes or accomplishments, and our deaths are not the end of our story. Resurrection is always on the table.
The joy of Easter is that we can take our belovedness for granted and take bold risks for the Gospel. We can be so courageous as to stand up to injustice and earthly rulers, knowing that their power is as limited as Rome’s. Sure, Rome was fierce in its day – but where is Caesar now? Pontus Pilate is found in history books, but the Risen Jesus is found here, among his beloved community called the Church, and in the bread and chalice.
We can be so rebellious as to believe that we are loved, as to forgive those who wrong us, as to love our enemies, as to care for the least of these, as to welcome the lost, as to know that it is more blessed to give than to receive, as to say “You know what? I want to be a part of the rebellion and I’ll be back next week.” We can be so rebellious as to give generously to make sure that money is not the god we serve, so rebellious as to be a people marked by joy, so rebellious as to trust, as Saint Julian said, that “all shall be well.”
What allows us to be rebels is the promise spoken by the angel – “He is going ahead of you; there you will see him.” There is no place we can go where Jesus is not. There is no brokenness, no pain, no sin, no death that has not been Resurrected. A lot of people think that “Joy to the World” is a Christmas hymn. It’s not. It’s just a paraphrase of Psalm 98 and it’s just as true at Easter as it is at Christmas, “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” Jesus has gone on ahead of you, paving the way with the wonders of his gracious and rebellious love.
Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, and we with him. May joy be our rebellion. Amen.
