March 31, 2013
I’d like to speak on behalf of the guys in this story. The guys don’t come off very well in this or in any of the other accounts of Easter morning. It may just be a case of “Men behaving badly.” But I think we should take a closer look to see if we might learn something from them.
The first strike against them is that they are nowhere to be seen. They haven’t been seen since Thursday night. Most of them took off when Jesus got arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter did follow along to the high priest’s house. But that didn’t turn out very well for him either. In order to save his own skin, he ended up lying that he knew or had anything to do with Jesus.
Now it’s Sunday morning – the first day of the week. The big moment has come and the men are still nowhere around. It is women who go to the tomb where Jesus was laid after his execution. The women have, after all, been faithful followers and supporters of his ministry for a long time, all the way from Galilee. They are the ones who stay to witness his crucifixion. They have seen his body lain in a tomb. They are the ones who come to make the final observance of his burial.
Where are the guys? Well, putting it kindly, they are keeping a low profile. Yet, they are very likely at greater risk than the women. If the Romans executed Jesus because they considered him a political threat, then they would also be interested in executing his lieutenants. So, the men are steering clear of any Roman soldiers. They are in hiding. And who could blame them?
But that’s not the only reason the men don’t come off so well in this story. The women are at the tomb. They speak with the messengers who tell them what has happened. After prompting, they remember how Jesus had told them this would happen. They run back to tell the others. When the men hear it, however, they consider it an “idle tale.”
“Idle tale” is a fairly generous translation of the Greek word – leros. It is from this word that we get our word, “delirious.” A more accurate translation might be “utter nonsense.” But the men are definitely thinking – “These women are nuts! This is just crazy talk!”
The people who are closest to Jesus, who spent the most time with him, who listened most closely to him, and who loved him most, have trouble believing in the resurrection. The women have the advantage of speaking with heavenly messengers, who remind them of Jesus’ words. But when the disciples are reminded by the women, they do not believe.
Why are they “slow of heart to believe?” (22:25) We could speculate that they are so overcome with grief, so deeply disappointed in the events of the previous days, so filled with remorse at their own unfaithfulness to Jesus, they are still so afraid, that they just didn’t want to think about it. It was just too painful.
The story, however, doesn’t tell us. And I think that is a good thing. I think it’s not just the disciples who have trouble believing. I think many people do. Then and now, many people have doubts. But doubts can be a good thing. They can provide us impetus to explore important issues in our faith. As Rob Bell says, “Doubt is often a sign that your faith has a pulse.”
Many of those doubts may arise out of the fact that resurrection is unheard of. It is not something we have experienced ourselves. We have lost loves ones and they have not come back from the dead. Yes, some folks have come back to life seemingly after taking a step through death’s door. But, after a time, they eventually died. So, bodily resurrection is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
And some doubts may come out of our fear of what it would mean if such a thing really were true, if Jesus’ resurrection really happened. The resurrection of Jesus breaks the rules. It upsets the apple cart. It turns the world on its head. And even if we don’t like the rules or the world as it is very much, at least we know it. We know what to expect. We’re comfortable with it. Someone coming back from the dead? That would be more than a game-changer. It would be a world-changer.
And with all of those doubts, even with any of those doubts, the word of a few women doesn’t seem like quite enough.
The book of Hebrews states: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So, even though I have not seen the resurrection for myself, let me share with you some of my convictions.
The first is this: there is more to life than meets the eye. There is more to the universe than we can see. And the universe is a miraculous place. This is not only what religion tells us. I believe this is what science shows us.
On the one hand, the universe is so huge it boggles the mind. Even the words, “huge” and “boggle” don’t do it justice. The edge of the universe is 90 billion trillion miles away and it’s expanding. It’s called, “galactic dispersal.” If your kids have a hard time sitting still, it may be because the universe doesn’t seem to be able to sit still either.
On the other hand, the universe is so small it boggles the mind. It’s not just atoms and protons and neutrons and electrons, like I learned when I was in school. It’s bosons and hadrons and neutrinos and mesons and leptons and gluons and quarks, to name must a few. Even more, at the smallest levels, the universe doesn’t act anything like we expect it to. Sub-atomic particles do not travel from point A to point B like normal people. They appear in one place and then all of a sudden appear in another place. They are constantly in motion, not just taking boring old straight, linear paths. They are exploring all the possible paths between points A and B. And when they are being observed, they behave differently than when they are not observed.
Now I’m not going to go on since this is not a science lecture. Suffice it to say that, it’s a strange world down there at the subatomic level. Nobel Prize winner, Niels Bohr, said that anyone who wasn’t outraged on first hearing about quantum theory didn’t understand what was being said. And quantum theory isn’t just some theory that has no practical application. It is the physics behind x-rays and MRI machines and lasers and fiber optics and computers. It is arguably the most successful theory in the history of science. So, it’s not just crazy talk!
There is more to life than meets the eye. The universe is a miraculous place.
That’s my first conviction. My second is this: Death does not have the last word. Love has the last word. And love is stronger than death.
I know this is a big leap. How do you get from quantum theory and galactic dispersal to love? Isn’t the universe pretty loveless? Isn’t the universe cold and uncaring? I can say that the universe is astoundingly miraculous. I can say that the universe is super-abundant with life. I can say that I feel amazingly blessed just to be alive.
But I also know there is a lot of mess, a lot of suffering. There are a lot of things we don’t understand. So, I also do something else. I don’t merely look at the universe and life all around me. I also look at my own heart. Now there’s a lot of mess there, too. There’s fear and anger. There’s vulnerability and pain. There’s greed and selfishness. There are stories I tell myself over and over again, even though I know they are not true.
But beneath it all there is love. There is profound caring for myself and for other people. There is caring for all creatures and even for this universe that is so big it won’t fit into my head, but will somehow fit into my heart.
But I not only see it in my own heart. I see it in the hearts of other people. I see in the hearts of two people have shared years and years of life together and I see it in the heart of one grieving at the death of the other. I see it in the hearts of people who get together to share joy and even more when people get together to share tragedy, to support one another and care for one another. I see it in the hearts of people who do acts of kindness, not only random acts of kindness, but regular, planned, intentional acts of kindness day after day after day.
And when I can’t see love in the universe, and when I can’t find love in my own heart, and when I can’t even see in in the lives of others, then I remember. Just like the angels told the women, I remember what Jesus said:
“Love your enemies and do good…and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”
“While he was still a long way off, his father saw him, was filled with compassion, and ran to him.”
“What is impossible for humans is possible for God.”
“But I came among you as one who serves.”
“The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Love is stronger than death. I can’t show it to you. I can’t point it out to you and say, “There it is!” I can’t prove it to you beyond the shadow of a doubt. But it is my firm conviction – a conviction of things not seen – but sensed in the wonder of the universe, in the caring in my own heart and in your hearts, in the words of Jesus and in the openness of the tomb.
We could fault the men for behaving badly, for acting of our fear rather than faith, for resisting the great good news of Jesus’ resurrection. But we can also see ourselves in them. Their doubts are our doubts. Perhaps our doubts will continue to make us look in the hope that we will also see, just as the women did, just as the men did.
We will look until we too hear and believe the words – Why do you look for the living among the death? Jesus is not here – he is risen! He is risen indeed!
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