A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Easter
March 23, 2008
Scripture Lesson: John 20:1-18
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The 1980, best-selling novel by Umberto Eco, entitled The Name of the Rose, is a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. In one of the chapters, a monk harshly criticizes a fellow monk for daring to think that Jesus Christ ever laughed. You see, the medieval picture of Jesus was that of a stern-faced savior whose defining moment was his agony on the cross, a picture which corresponds to the medieval fixation on the cross, and explains the bizarre assumption that Jesus was not capable of laughing.
It may still be true today, however, that the image of Jesus laughing is not one of the more common mental pictures of Jesus we carry around in our heads. I once had in my possession a black-and-white drawing of Jesus laughing, his head angled back, his eyes bright with mirth, and his mouth wide open in enjoyment of a good belly-laugh.
Whenever I showed that drawing in a class setting or in a children’s sermon, the reaction was always the same – surprise and even a little uneasiness. In fact, one mildly offended church member said to me after a service in which I had used that drawing with the children, “You know, Pastor Batt, I have never read anything in the Gospels which indicates that Jesus ever laughed.” For this person, as for many, I expect, Jesus and laughter don’t mix, nor do piety and laughter, especially in church. It helps to explain the fact that the faces of many people at worship are generally expressionless at best or piously grim at worst. You ought to see the view from up here!
But it has not always been so that godly equals grim. In Dante’s classic work about the Christian life, his Divine Comedy, the poet says that after he had made the tortuous ascent from hell to purgatory, and had been drawn close to the heavenly realm, he suddenly heard a sound that he had never heard before. He stopped and listened carefully. Dante then writes in Italian, “Me sembiano un riso del universo,” which, translated into English, means: the sound was “like the laughter of the universe” – the sound of God laughing!
It could be that our difficulty with picturing Jesus having a good belly-laugh has to do with the fact that there doesn’t seem much to laugh about in God’s world, either in Jesus’ day, or ours for that matter. Two wars with no end in sight - terrorist groups on the increase, their destructive potential unthinkable - an unstable economy on the brink of deep recession - good jobs disappearing - gas prices skyrocketing – once-controlled diseases making a frightful comeback - climate change threatening massive global problems – hunger, debt, and AIDS decimating some Third World countries - politics as usual - the church divided against itself…I could go on, and so could you.
The point is, when we consider the state of affairs in the world and the church, not to mention the immeasurable personal hurts and heavy sorrows borne by millions of people, there seems very little to laugh about. No wonder the image of Jesus laughing takes us by surprise, and no wonder Dante’s description of the sound of laughter emanating from heaven (God laughing!) makes us wonder why. Yet, writes the psalmist, “(God) who sits in the heavens laughs.” And we respond, “What’s so funny? What is there to laugh about?”
Well, here’s the punch-line that, I think, brings on “the laughter of the universe.” This is what makes God laugh.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb…Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying…They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there….
That’s the punch-line! Had Mary’s eyes not been so filled with tears and had her ears been rightly attuned to the things of God, she might have heard “the laughter of the universe,” the sound of God laughing on that early Easter morning. And we, too, might hear it on this Easter morning, this “Queen of Days,” when we come together to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who, on the third day after he was cruelly executed and hastily buried, was raised from the dead, thus leaving behind an empty tomb, a cohort of confused guards, a handful of stunned disciples, and the sound of laughter emanating from heaven!
What happened on that first Easter day? In answer, let me say that very few of my Easter sermons over the years have not included this quotation from Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian clergyman and author.Buechner speaks plainly about what happened on that first Easter morning, while honoring its majesty and humbly acknowledging its mystery. Here’s what Buechner wrote,
…what I believe happened and what in faith and with great joy I proclaim to you here is that he somehow got up, with life in him again, and the glory upon him. And I speak very plainly here, very un-fancifully, even though I do not understand well my own language. I was not there to see it any more than I was awake to see the sun rise this morning, but I affirm it as surely as I do that, by God’s grace, the sun did rise this morning because that is why the world is flooded with light.
Yes, Jesus “somehow got up, with life in him again, and the glory upon him.” It was a one-of-a-kind event – never happened before and hasn’t happened since. There is nothing to which it can be compared, nothing by which to measure its truthfulness or judge its credibility. It was the resurrection of a dead man, not a mere resuscitation of sick man, as if Jesus had merely fainted and later unaccountably returned to consciousness. “He somehow got up, with life in him again, and the glory upon him”!
And, what’s more, the Gospel accounts of his resurrected body all agree – it was the same body as before his death, but also different. The risen Jesus could talk, eat, drink, and be touched. He was recognizable as the same Jesus they had known before his death. Yet there was also a difference – his resurrected body could appear and disappear unaccountably; it could pass through locked doors.
In short, Jesus’ body seems to have been transformed in a way for which we have no experience, no explanation, no precedent, and no parallel. The nature of Jesus’ risen body remains for us an impenetrable mystery, one we shall not understand until, that is, that day we ourselves are resurrected, for, as St. Paul said, “We will be like him.” (I John 3:2)
But even this is not enough to make God laugh. The rising of one man in the middle of history does not, of itself, cause the “laughter of the universe” to ring out from heaven. To understand God’s laughter requires that we ask not just “What happened on the first Easter?” and not just “With what kind of body did he rise?” It requires that we ask the question, “What does it mean that Jesus was raised from the dead?” Of course, answering this question in the few minutes which remain to a brief sermon is impossible, and, in fact, is beyond the capability of this preacher no matter how long the sermon may be! Even so, I am under a mandate to try.
There may be some here today who think the answer is obvious - what Jesus’ Resurrection means is that, when we die, we will all go to heaven and live there in disembodied bliss with our loved ones forever and ever. Isn’t the promise of life after death that we come here in greater numbers to re-affirm on Easter Sunday?
Well, friends, if that’s the case, if what Jesus’ Resurrection means is simply that there’s life after death, then why doesn’t the New Testament say so? You can read about the Resurrection of Jesus in all four Gospels, in all the Epistles and the final book of Revelation, but you won’t find much evidence at all that this is what the Resurrection of Jesus is primarily about.
Now, let me be clear. The New Testament does say that there is life after death; make no mistake about it. It says that when we die, we go to be with Christ. And there is great comfort and peace in this assurance. It gives us courage in the face of death, our own death and that of our loved ones. You do remember what Jesus said to the man being crucified next to him? In response to the man’s statement of belief, Jesus said, “Today...you will be with me in Paradise.”
But the Resurrection of Jesus is about something yet larger, something far better, something much grander, something beyond life after death, and also something which has an impact on our lives here and now. You see, we’re like very little children at Christmas who don’t quite know what’s going on. The littlest ones are attracted to the pretty boxes. They turn them this way and that, quite content to play with the brightly wrapped packages, not realizing there’s something better within. Then, when an adult helps the child to open the box, often the child ignores what’s inside, pays no attention to the real gift, and continues to play happily with the box. Have you ever seen that happen in your family on Christmas morning?
Well, it happens at Easter, too. We hear the Gospel story of Jesus being raised from the dead, and many are content to think it means simply that there’s life after death; or simply that we can have an ongoing relationship with Jesus now that he is alive again. Well, these are wonderful things, and they are undeniably true, but the real gift of Easter is even larger, grander, better, and far more relevant for our lives here and now.
You see, the explosive good news of Easter, friends, the thing that propelled those first disciples out into the wider world, where many were killed for their witness to the risen Christ, the news that changed the world forever, the news that makes tyrants quake, the news that makes us who we are in Christ, the news that made God laugh, can be summarized by saying these three things:
1. Jesus Christ, crucified as a failed messiah, has been vindicated. He is the true Messiah, God’s only Son.
2. The enemies of God which did their worst to Jesus – the powers of sin, evil, and death – they have been defeated in principle, and on the coming great Day of his appearing they will be vanquished forever.
3. God’s new creation has dawned, and when it is complete, God’s people, including you and me, will be given new Resurrection-bodies to live forever in God’s new heaven and earth. Not just life after death, but bodily life after “life after death.”
Four simple words bring all this together in a way that we can easily remember the deep meaning of this day, four simple words that help us carry it with us every day, and live out its meaning every day, and rejoice in its truth and promise every day. Here they are: Jesus Christ is Lord.
Say it with me, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Again, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Not Lord in some far-off heaven while lesser lords run the earth their own way, but Lord of heaven and earth. Remember Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” This is what Easter means. This is why God laughed. This, finally, is why today we sing our alleluias.
This is why we can say, adapting the chorus of the Gaithers’ popular Gospel song:
Because He lives, we can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because He lives, we know his way is true,
Because He lives, we have here His work to do;
Because we know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives!
To the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality
and dwells in unapproachable light,
be honor and eternal dominion.
Amen.
