Finally, Easter Is Over

"Finally, Easter Is Over"
Luke 24:1-12

I'm not sure how your Holy Week and Easter went, but mine was somewhat tense wondering how I was going to get everything done.  It wasn't that I had a lot of busy work tasks that needed accomplishing.  It was all the writing I was going to be doing.  Between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday I had five messages to write, one of which was a funeral service and message.

After the Easter worship service was over, I ambled across the parking lot to the office, sat on my little couch, and stared straight ahead for close to 20 minutes.  Finally, Easter and Holy Week were over.  The thought that struck me, as I sat there, was, Man, I wrote a lot of words this week.  That's all my mind could think of—how many words my sausage sized fingers typed out on my little MacBook Air.

This past Thursday, after breakfast, Alan asked me if I had my sermon all done.  I said I had barely started.  He was surprised because he knows I like to have it mostly done by Wednesday.  I replied I was kind of coasting this week, not sure if I had any words left to write another sermon.  But here I am, so you know I completed the task.

I admit, with a bit of disgrace, after a week like Holy Week, I was glad it was all over.  I had that, Finally-Easter-Is-Over kind of feeling.  I felt guilty, then, for feeling that kind of feeling.  I wondered if the disciples had that feeling also.  They didn't have to write sermons about it; they had to live through it.  I know how emotionally exhausted I was just writing message after message.  It's hard to imagine what it would be like living through all those Holy Week experiences like the disciples did.

I think I got a glimpse of it, though, in the Easter story that Nick read from Luke.  It's that part where Peter runs to the tomb, sticks his head in, looks around, and leaves to go home.

I mean, how long was Peter there?  A few minutes at best?  Took a look, said, "Hmmm," shrugged his shoulders, and left?  It says he was "amazed."  Yeah, for 15 seconds.  Not amazed enough to stick around and see if there was something more to check out.  Just what was he amazed about?

To his credit, he did go to the tomb, despite the other disciples pooh-poohing the women's story that the tomb was empty.  But for Peter's trip to the tomb, at least, the Resurrection didn't last long.  Did Peter stay only a few seconds because he was worn out from all that happened that week, and he only had enough emotional energy to be "amazed" a short while?

A much shorter time than the Resurrection lasts for most people—a day, that is, the day of; the time they spend in worship Easter morning; the amount of time when they get up on Easter morning, and have the passing thought, Oh, yeah, it's Easter.  Or as long as it takes to walk through Walmart and peruse the aisle that has all the Reese's peanut butter eggs and marshmallow Peeps.

Finally, all that's over!  Now we can get on to real holidays like Mother's Day and Graduation Day.  We can go back to Walmart and buy Easter candy, cheap (and give it to your mother as a gift)!  We don't have to hear about all that blood, singing songs with words like the river of blood that flows from Immanuel's veins.  We can put the plastic eggs away for another year.  We don't have to tell the improbable stories anymore about either an Easter bunny who hides candy-filled eggs around our homes, or, of a man who was horribly killed but came back to life.

The people whom Nick Squires calls the ChEasters (people who come to church Christmas and Easter) have fulfilled one half of their yearly worship obligation.  And then add to that the Sunday after Easter and the Sunday after Christmas are traditionally the lowest attended Sunday's for church.

That dreaded season of Lent has ended, so whatever it was we gave up can now again be over-indulged.  No more serious self-reflection or introspection of where we are in our Christian faith—which only a handful of people did—and can now wait until Advent in December to do it again.

YIPEE!!  We're done with all that!  All that is over, come and gone!  Finally, Easter is over!  We can be like the disciple Peter who was amazed for a moment, then "went back home."  Carry on.  Life unaffected.


But it's not.  Easter, I mean.  Easter is not over.  Well, let me qualify that.  The Easter that involves bunnies (hollow chocolate or real); plastic, hard-boiled, or Cadbury eggs; baskets filled with that annoying green stuff that you will be vacuuming up strands of for weeks; all that is over.

The Easter that has to do with Jesus, the empty tomb, the Resurrection—that is not over.  It will never be over.  If you think you get to stick your head in the tomb and see it's empty, then go home, that's not going to cut it.

The reason it isn't over, and will never be over, is because Jesus won't let it.  The Resurrection is about Jesus, not the disciples and their unwillingness to believe.  It is about Jesus risen from the dead whether the disciples choose to believe or not—whether you choose to believe or not.  It isn't about belief, like if I believe in the Tooth Fairy or not (which I do).  It's not about belief; it's about acknowledging the truth.

It is the risen Christ's resolve to not just let Peter stick his head in the tomb and go home.  The risen Christ is not going to let Peter or us do as little as possible in coming to the truth of the Resurrection.  You have to first believe the truth of the Resurrection's happening before you can believe in what it means.

That's the strategy Jesus takes.  A few days later all the disciples are together.  There's definitely some confusion in the air.  Two or three of the disciples have claimed they've seen Jesus alive.  The disciples have all gathered to hear their stories.  Have these others really seen Jesus or not?  Are the stories believable or not?  Do the others believe simply based on what two or three witnesses say they saw—especially the women witnesses?

Some of the disciples are clearly jealous of the two or three who say they have seen Jesus:  "Why did they get to see, and not we?"  Especially since one of those who hadn't seen Jesus yet was Peter—the stick-my-head-in-the-tomb-and-go-home guy.

In the middle of the disciples confabulation (yes, that's a word; look it up in dictionary.com), Jesus appears.  Because, like I said, the Resurrection is about the truth of Jesus, not the disciples.  Behind locked doors, Jesus appeared to them all.  In the midst of their doubt and discussion, their jealousy and pettiness, Jesus appeared.  How did they react?

They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost" (Luke 24:37)

But then, what did Jesus say in response to their terror?

But Jesus said, “Why are you so frightened? Why do you doubt? Look at my hands and my feet and see who I am! Touch me and find out for yourselves.  (Luke 24:38-39)

Let me read that last line again:  "Touch me and find out for yourselves."  That is so important.  Jesus knows that the disciples aren't going to care about what all the Resurrection means for them and the people of the world concerning the fear of death and the battle against evil.  All that won't matter unless they first believe the Resurrection happened.  That it was real.  That it is the truth.  You have to first believe it happened before you can believe in what it means.

It's that way with a number of historical facts.  Some don't believe Hitler had so many people killed.  It doesn't matter if you believe that, as if your belief, or lack of it, will change history—it's a historical fact.  Some people don't believe Shakespeare wrote all those plays.  It doesn't matter whether they believe it or not—it's a historical fact.  Some people don't believe United States astronauts landed and walked on the moon.  It doesn't matter if they believe that or not—it's a historical fact that it happened.  What you believe may or may not have happened doesn't change a historical occurrence, just because you believe it's so.  Belief isn't going to alter the facts.  Beliefs can alter what the facts mean, but not the facts themselves.

That's what Jesus is about and trying to accomplish in the early days after the Resurrection—just getting the disciples to believe the truth of it.  1 Corinthians 15:4-7 says:

Christ died for our sins,
    as the Scriptures say.
He was buried,
    and three days later
he was raised to life,
    as the Scriptures say. 
Christ appeared to Peter,
    then to the twelve. 
After this, he appeared
to more than five hundred
    other followers.
Most of them are still alive,
    but some have died. 
He also appeared to James,
and then to all
    of the apostles.

John started out his first letter with these words:

The Word that gives life
    was from the beginning,
and this is the one
    our message is about.
Our ears have heard,
    our own eyes have seen,
and our hands touched
    this Word.
The one who gives life appeared! We saw it happen, and we are witnesses to what we have seen.

So many people actually saw the risen Jesus.  Over 500.  That was Jesus' intention—to get a large number of people to actually see him, hear him, and touch him.  And then turn those people loose to go out into the world and tell the truth—Jesus was dead and is now alive.  That's where we all have to start.  Not, do you believe it.  But do you accept Jesus' Resurrection as a historical truth?

That's why Easter isn't over, and will never be over.  Each new generation (including the millennials—who may or may not exist) has to accept the fact and truth of the Resurrection.  That is our task, as those who have accepted the truth.

And then we move on to tell what the Resurrection means.  Which is another whole sermon (or 10) with a whole lot more words.