Easter Sunday                         Luke 24:1-12                         April 4, 2010

In the life of the Christian Church, this past week is the highlight of our faith.
In basketball you have the Final Four.
In hockey--the Frozen Four.
In the Christian Life we have the Forgiving Four, other wise known as Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and today Easter Sunday.
And while it might sound like these four days might constitute it's own sort of divine final four, the reality is, it is an ending of something old, and also just the beginning for something new.

Without the events of the past week and particularly without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith would be no different than any self-help plan or philosophical moral teaching.
Because of Easter—because of the resurrection—there is a flurry of activity within Christian churches around the world.
All around the world Christians are wrapped up in the celebration of Christ's resurrection in countless bright and colorful ways.

Easter eggs have been decorated and hid
Chocolate rabbits have found there way into Easter baskets along with the jellybeans and those Peeps.
In bygone days women and girls would show up for church on Easter mornings all decked out with new dresses and hats, while men and young boys would appear in sharp suits and shinny shoes.
Across the country and around the world people will enjoy festive meals with families and friends, together they will feast on meals of ham, lamb or other favorites.
Flower shops and nurseries have been busy providing Easter lilies and other springtime blossoms to decorate homes and churches.

Within sanctuaries around the world triumphant hymns proclaiming the resurrection are being sung with joy and conviction.
Across the nation and around the world people of faith are celebrating in a great variety of ways and this is a good thing.

But I would like to suggest yet another way—the way Jesus celebrated Easter.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think Jesus would get too whipped out of shape over some of the fluffy add-ons we have tacked on to this glorious day—as long as we don't let the fluff over take and cloud the real reason for the season.
What I am suggesting is that we consider another way—
a more appropriate way—to celebrate in the way Jesus celebrated Easter.
That is, we celebrate Easter by forgiving somebody who doesn't deserve forgiveness.

Let me explain.
The events of Holy Week are one long account of how Jesus gets tossed out of this life through the contempt of his enemies and the cowardly behavior of his friends.
People—just like you and me—give Jesus the bums rush through a kangaroo court and then in a perversion of justice nail him to a cross and left him to die.

That's what he gets for all his troubles:
The healings he accomplished,
His meals for the multitudes,
His wise words and unforgettable stories.
That's what he gets for giving hope to the hopeless.
Light and sight to the blind,
Acceptance to the outcast.
He is deserted by his friends, then roughed up, humiliated, and executed by people whose security is threatened by his compassion and concern, and by those whose ideology is overturned by his announcement of a new and better kingdom.

They nailed his body to a cross, stab him with a spear to make sure he's dead, then return his corpse to his motley crew of friends and followers, stick it in a tomb and roll a huge stone across the entrance.
A stone meant to keep the world outside.
A stone blocking the evidence of their cowardly behavior.

But, in the spirit of Paul Harvey—"And now for the rest of the story!"

Something happens.
Something that no one expected!
This dead man Jesus shows up again.
Jesus is flesh and blood and bone, able to touch and be touched.
He's the same Jesus as before: the scars left by his execution no longer bleed, but they remain visible.
No longer a corpse, Jesus is back and ready for the business of bring in new life—resurrected life.
He's alive, as alive as anybody and perhaps even more so that anybody here this morning.
Compared to him, it's we who seem like corpse.
This Jesus comes back to his disciples resurrected with new life!

Jesus shows up to celebrate Easter, and he celebrates it in his own way.
He forgives.
He forgives those who don't deserve it.
And Jesus forgives all who are willing to receive the gift of forgiveness and even those who won't.
His friends and his enemies!
The Jews and the Gentiles!
People of his time and people of our time!
Israelis and Palestinians!
Iranians, Afghans, Iraqis and Americans!

Jesus comes back in the power of his unending life to forgive them for what they did to him on the first Good Friday.
He comes back to forgive them and us for what has been done to the least of his brothers and sisters.
In other words, Jesus forgives us for all the times we have rejected, humiliated, and scorned others.
He forgives our sins of commission and our sins of omission.
For the times we have spoken poorly of others and those times we have remained silent when we should have spoken up.

On Easter we all have our place under his Easter tent, the canopy of his forgiveness.
Each one of us is there with the boss we can't stand,
the neighbor who irritates us,
and the family member we don't get along with.
Under the canopy of his forgiveness each of us is gathered with those persons with whom we need to seek and receive forgiveness.
All of us are there beneath his big rainbow tent.
He forgives us, even though we don't deserve it.

Jesus celebrated Easter in his own way and the irony becomes apparent.
We thought he was dead as a doornail, but he turns up again, alive as life, and shows us we're the dead ones, not him.
We remain dead as long as we fail or refrain from accepting his gift of forgiveness.
We remain dead as long as we refuse to forgive those who offend us.
We remain dead as long as we hang onto those grudges, when we cannot let go of the bitterness, when we harbor ill will, when we stew in our perverted versions of righteous indignation.
We remain dead as long as we allow the rancor of our bitterness to snuff out any warmth of love.
And quite frankly—that's no way to live, it is a miserable way of life, in fact it is not the kind of life God created for us to live.

Today's Gospel reading—in fact the entire focus and center of our worship this morning hinges on the Jesus showing up in this often sad and broken world—ready to celebrate Easter in a way that only he could do—he forgives those who don't deserve it and he invites us to do the same knowing full well that once we do—the world will begin to look differently.
It looks different because we begin to feel different—resurrected—blessed—loved—hopeful.

Today is not only his resurrection day, but ours as well.
The miracle of his empty tomb meets it match in the miracle of our new and living hearts.
In the light of Easter, even our enemies start to look different.
We even look different and we look at the world differently.
Why, because Jesus forgives us.
He forgives the secrets of our hearts.
He knows our sin better than we do.
He knows us and he still forgives us.
In doing so, he heals our brokenness, he gives us the sight to see the world in a new light and he gives us new life, a life filled with hope.
Today's Gospel reminds us that Jesus makes his unparallel trip back from the grave to give us this gift of grace.
And once again God's divine irony and humor shines forth.
The dead man returns to call us back to life!
He rolls the stone away from the entrance of our own personal tombs that we like Lazarus may come out into the light of Easter morning.

This morning Jesus invites us to forgive others and he invites us to join him in the way he celebrates Easter, by forgiving others, those who don't deserve it.

In a moment or two when I wrap up this sermon I am going to ask you to take some quiet time before we sing our hymn of the day.
In that quiet time I want you to recall a person you need to forgive and who doesn't deserve it.
It makes no difference whether that person is living or dead, near or far, out of our lives or closely involved with you.
You can decide that the death that has bound you has gone on long enough and it is time for resurrection.

Then later in the service when you approach the altar for communion or a blessing, you are invited to pray for the grace to forgive as you have been forgiven.

You can ask Jesus to lead you and that person past this death to the abundant life God wills for both of you.

By forgiving somebody who doesn't deserve it---you can celebrate Easter as Jesus does. Amen!

Pastor Stephen Blenkush
Zion Lutheran
Milaca, MN
www.ZionMilaca.org

 

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