Easter: My Sermon from 2019

The Resurrection Revolution

He showed up in a locked room. He ate a piece of fish. He touched his disciples and they touched him. Later he cooked breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus’ resurrection shows he did not die to make us some kind of non-corporeal nonentities but fully restored humans in resurrection bodies.

For Christians the cross is not a sign of death, but a sign of the end of death. Together, the cross and resurrection of Jesus mean we are forgiven and have a new start as fully human, human-beings. Death has been clobbered, and we are rescued and repurposed for a great and glorious future. That is why we say “Alleluia, Christ is risen.”

Have you ever wondered, “How on earth did the crucifixion, something so crazy and scandalous and foolish become central so quickly in Christian thought and teaching?”

It would have been easy for the early Christians to play down the cross and instead to highlight the life-giving force of the resurrection. Some of the so-called Gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, that tried to make a comeback several year ago, airbrushed out the cross and redefined the resurrection as a nonbodily resurrection. It reduced Jesus to a wisdom teacher and not a Savior who died a sacrificial death and then overcame the grave.

But Jesus did die for our sins. He died that we might have the right, having been put right, to become children of God and part of God’s plan to put right the whole world. That is how the resurrection revolution of Christianity works. We are put right with God to work with God to put right the world—a world in which human trafficking does not exist; a world in which people do not go to bed hungry and afraid for their lives; a world in which there is no rape or murder or idolatry or stealing, lying, and cheating.

The central story of the New Testament is Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Yet many people question, “Did anything actually happen on the cross that makes a real difference in the world? Unless there is a reason that Jesus had to die that particular and horrible kind of death, it is hard to see how his death is actually a loving achievement.

St. John explains the meaning of the crucifixion for us this way: “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins.”

Jesus chose the moment and setting of the Passover to do what he had to do on the cross. The first Christians looked back to the Passover to understand the crucifixion. The cross was a fresh act of deliverance to undo the exile from God and bring in forgiveness of sins.

It opened the way for the Spirit to be poured out to equip God’s people to be part of the ongoing divine plan of blessing the world as their primary vocation.

Sin, then, is the human failure of this vocation. When we sin, we abuse our calling, our Children of God status and privileges, and our assignment to recreate the world. That is what image-bearing is all about.

Our primary human failure is the failure of worship. Those who worship that which is not God, will inevitably distort and corrupt the world. When we do not reflect the God in whose image we are created, there are consequences. By turning away from the source of life, we invite death to fill the void. The cross takes on both sin and death. That is why the cross launches the resurrection revolution of whom Jesus is the first fruit, the preview of what we all will become one day.

Luke is emphatic in his gospel and in Acts that the ultimate destination of God’s people is the resurrection. God’s kingdom is not a place called heaven, detached from earth, but the rule of heaven coming to birth on earth. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proves the cross worked and gives us a glimpse of our future.

It also tell us something about the true character and love of Jesus. Jesus was lord of all, yet he became a slave. He was all-powerful, yet he became weak. He was equal with the Father, yet he refused to take advantage of his status. He was innocent, yet he died the death of the guilty. The cross establishes God’s kingdom by bearing and removing the weight of sin and death. Deal with sin, and the idols of the world are reduced to a heap of rubble. The crucifixion is like the great fire of Notre Dame that destroyed its roof and sent its heavenly pointing spire crashing down in a heap. The resurrection is like the new Notre Dame that will be birthed and the renewed place of ministry it will have the potential to be in a city far removed from its Christian heyday.

The resurrection of Jesus, then, is not simply a surprise happy ending. It is and will always be the glorious beginning that proceeds from the ashes of the cross. The darkest and strongest power in the world, the power of death itself, has been defeated.

After the resurrection, Jesus’ followers on the road to Emmaus wondered why he who seemed to have authority over death would place himself under it? Jesus responded: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And later that day he said: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus is it written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father, the Holy Spirit, upon you.”

The true followers of Jesus are those who get it, who make the connection between his death and our sins, who do the real business with God of repenting, of saying that we are wrong and he is right, and that the only way we can be right is because Jesus is right for us.

This is the apostolic teaching the Holy Spirit led the disciples, who saw the resurrected Jesus, to proclaim. The apostles link the cross with our sins. They understand that on the cross Jesus did something for us which we could never do for ourselves. And they acknowledge that on the cross God was at work reconciling the world to himself and making all things new

Do you get it? I know and love many people who do not get it. There was a time when I did not get it. But God opened my eyes. The Scriptures were opened up to me and became alive. Behold, he is making all things new in the resurrection revolution of Jesus.

Jesus is alive and will come to you. Jesus can and will teach us to follow him. Jesus will lead us into the truth about himself and into living in the resurrection revolution.

He will meet you in your sins because he is undaunted by sin. He has defeated sin and death. He will meet you in your hopelessness, your unbelief, and your defeat. He will bring you hope and faith so that you may believe and live in the resurrection. That is why he came, that is why he died, that is why he is risen, and that is why he is here with us this morning. “Alleluia Christ is risen.”

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, you are making all things new, including each one of us. Make our hearts and minds new and rooted in you—in your love and mercy. Give us eyes to see you in the revolution of your resurrected glory. And as we sing the Hallelujah Chorus this morning, let us experience your resurrection power that we may truly know you as King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.