Easter Day: 4th April, 1999
The Rev'd Dr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's Eastern Hill
Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Jn 20:9
The penny dropped: the last piece of the jigsaw fell into place - we have images of speech to describe that moment when the light dawns when everything comes together. And then, we really do know. We really do understand. Sometimes this can be a most unpleasant realisation, such as when we have been taken for a monumental ride and badly let down. Something happens, and then everything falls into place. But this can also be a very positive experience - something that can influence the whole direction and purpose of our lives.
That first Easter morning was like that. Just consider the situation of all the characters, all the people we have heard about and got to know a little in the re-telling of the story over this past week. All of them must have thought the what happened on Friday could scarcely have been surpassed. Caiaphas the High priest. Herod the King. Pilate,the Roman governor. Judas has by now killed himself. The resurrection morning gospels tell us of the reaction of Mary Magdalen, the very first, and of the other women. They tell us of Peter and of John. We are told nothing of the reaction of the LordUs mother, but she must surely have been at once involved. And what of some of the smaller players? The soldiers who had been guarding the tomb? Uncertain career prospects. Simon of Cyrene? Veronica? The centurion?
The stories spread. An empty tomb. Undisturbed grave-clothes. Actual appearances to very many people, including widely different locations. Eating food, being able to have his wounds touched. Just incredible, but too widespread to be discounted.
Seven weeks later, Peter, one of the first to whom the risen Lord had appeared: the same Peter who had denied the Lord three times on the Thursday evening, declared to a huge crowd: God raised him up...because it was not possible for him to be held by death. Acts 2:24 It was not possible. It was as irresistable as the new life that comes with the Spring.
This realisation, this supreme hope and confidence , had not been there all along. All the disciples had no doubt gone through bitter grief and confusion, and probably despair. By almost any reading, on Good Friday the earthly mission of Jesus of Nazareth had ended in disaster. But, as Archbishop William Temple of Canterbury reminded us: even in his dying, our Lord was placed between our own two possible responses to his call. One thief on a cross on one side recognised him for who he was, and asked RJesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdomS, and the other was scornful, would have nothing to do with him and saw no reason to change his pre-existing attitudes and behaviour. Those are our options too.
But from the dying and above all from these tumbled events of that first Easter Day comes that most central of Christian qualities - hope.
The hope, the re-newed hope that was given to the disciples on that Easter morning, re-fired their faith, their belief and trust in their Lord, and filled them with an overwhelming and powerful love, for him and for each other. That in turn is held up as the basis of every subsequent Christian community and congregation. Without the resurrectiion there would assuredly have been no Church. And the continued existence of the Church down the centuries, through thick and thin, bears witness to the truth which it was first summoned to proclaim: God is with us. The risen Lord is with us. Every book of the New Testament bears witness to this.
There are some who would have it otherwise, but let it be said clearly: all other Christian doctrines are dependent upon the proclamation of the resurrection. -the significance of Christmas lies in the fact that the child who was born of Mary is the one whom God was to raise from the dead. -Good Friday would only have been the anniversary of another martyrdom unless the one who died is not also the one who rose again. -where is the living power of the Eucharist itself, were it not the means for the Lord to make himself known to us, as on the road to Emmaeus, in the breaking of the bread? This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you.
God was in Christ, says St Paul: God is in Christ, reconciling us to himself.
You will forgive me my favourite dentist story. It relates to the time, years ago, when I was a curate here and went to a dentist not so far away. I have over many years observed an unbreakable rule relating to the professional behaviour of dentists. It relates to timing. First you are placed at a decidedly unusual angle in a chair. Bright lights and mirrors are put in place. Needles of varying levels of awfulness are inserted, adding to the joys of cotton wool padding. Then and only then, the dentist begins a deep and meaningful conversation. My dentist, who has now retired a rich man, was a conservative Christian with a tough edge, I discovered. And he warmed to his theme. You know that man over there, he said, indicating the general location of the large church diagonally opposite: he doesn't even believe in the resurrection! Well, what can one say? Very little in the circumstances I was in. My reponse could only be a mortified growl. But he was right to be so concerned.
Certainly, we are dealing with teachings that are on the face of it, hard to
take on board. It seems to go against everything that is rational and common
sense. But can we truly say that the events and the workings of this world or
our own lives are operating totally on principles of pure reason? One thing is
true: if we are talking about the acceptance of the propositions that the power
of God, the power of all that is good, does and will ultimately prevail over
all that is bad, including the finality of death itself, then we are talking
about something that is life-changing. It is certainly a message that needs to
be heard in these times of international horrors.
The Easter proclamation that Christ is risen, is in fact the starting point for a whole new way of looking at life. A whole new way of ordering our sense of meaning and purpose. And a whole new basis of motivation for action.
In Christian teaching, everything extends out from this point. Everything extends from the acceptance in faith of the working of the power and purpose of God in this way. It is the principle of the new, bursting from the ruins of the old. Of life where there was death. Of good where there was evil. Of closeness to the love and mercy of God, where formerly there was separation. Of closeness, service and outreaching care to each other. Of commitment to living and working for justice and peace.
St Paul examines and develops an understanding of resurrection in considerable detail in 1Cor15. Then he moves from his illustration from the natural world of the grain of wheat for instance needing to die in order that the new full head of so much more grain can grow and live, to a specific claim:
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile....If for this life only have we hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
God in Jesus Christ shows us the nature of God. The nature of God is love. God in Jesus Christ shares our humanity. God knows our hopes. God knows our failings and our fears. And God is with us
So today, we celebrate this festival of all festivals: the feast of the resurrection of the Lord. It was this resurrection that gave to those followers (who had, we are told, all forsaken him and fled,) that complete revival of faith which was to so characterise their living and sharing of the good news in the years to come. It was this teaching, this belief, this reality, which was in the firmest way to give authority and legitimacy to everything that the Lord had said and done and taught. It was to shape and to stand as a potential reproach to everything that the Church was and is to do in successive generations.
The gospels declare and the creeds of the Church confirm - when we look upon Jesus Christ and he looks upon us , we are looking upon God. God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Risen, ascended, glorified.
And for our sake, was all this done.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
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