Nancy E. Petty
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church
March 23, 2008 — Easter
Text: John 20:1-18
Is Resurrection Real?
In Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Through the Looking Glass, the White Queen advises Alice to practice believing six impossible things before breakfast each day. Every Easter, Christians would do well to take the same advice. How else are we to prepare ourselves to hear this story about resurrection? The idea of resurrection, of the dead coming back to life, is about as preposterous as a young virgin giving birth. Yet, our faith challenges us to believe in such impossible things. Things like: a man building a boat big enough to carry around pairs of every kind of animal while a flood destroys the world; or a large fish swallowing a man who is running away from God and that man living inside the belly of the fish for three days and nights; or a bush that burns but is not consumed by the fire; or a woman becoming pregnant in her 90’s. And if those don’t get your attention in the category of “believing the impossible,” then think about such things as: loving your enemy; or praying for those who persecute you; or selling all you have and giving your profits to the poor; or denying your personal goals for the well-being of others. In the world in which we live, indeed it may be easier to believe in virgin births and the dead coming back to life than to believe that we could sincerely and fully love those who are different from us or pray for those who hurt us. Alleluia?
Maybe you are one of those people who would say to me, “But I don’t believe that our faith asks us to believe in the impossible.” And maybe you are right. Maybe the purpose in these stories is not about belief but about meaning. I would imagine that in this congregation this morning, there are those who believe, really believe, that Christ literally rose from the dead, that Mary was a virgin, that Jonah really was swallowed by a large fish. I also know that there are others of us who believe that these stories are simply metaphors for helping us understand faith and how God works in our lives and in the world. On this Easter morning, with the idea of resurrection insisting on our attention, even our concentration, I want to suggest that it doesn’t matter if you believe, literally and historically, that these events happened or if you believe that they are metaphors intended to help us understand our faith. What matters is what we will do with these stories in our lives and how we will allow them to shape our living. As Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan say:
“If you believe the tomb was empty, fine; now, what does this story mean? If you believe that Jesus’s appearances could have been videotaped, fine; now, what do these stories mean? And if you’re not sure about that, or even if you are quite sure it didn’t happen this way, fine; now what do these stories mean?”
Peter Gomes says of the resurrection story: “Easter is not a morning for artful arguments, subtle distinctions, the stuff of seminars. Not a bit; it does not creep up on us on little cat feet like the fog. Easter is confrontational; you are hit in the face by it. Confrontation of the highest order.” Why does Gomes say this about Easter? Because Easter—the resurrection—is God’s way of getting our attention about life and living; it is God’s way of getting us to wake up out of our slumber, out of our dead places and start living. Whether you believe in the resurrection literally or figuratively doesn’t matter. What matters is how you will deal with those dead places in your own life and whether you will choose life over death—or not. Alleluia.
Two weeks ago I preached on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead—a story that foreshadows this Easter story. There is an image in that text that I have not been able to get off my mind. It comes at the end of the story. Jesus calls for Lazarus to come out of his tomb. If you remember the story you will recall the image of Lazarus coming out with his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. When Jesus sees him, he says to those who are there, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Resurrection—the Easter story—is about being unbound and let go. It is about letting those strips of cloth—fear, greed, vengeance, guilt, arrogance, self-pity—that have us wrapped so tightly that we are no longer living fall to the ground. And the Lazarus story teaches us an important lesson about the unbinding and setting ourselves free and it is this: we need each other to do that. Jesus said to those standing around Lazarus, “Unbind him, and let him go.” We must take the first steps toward resurrection, toward life, but we also must understand that if the whole human family is to move toward life, we will do so only by helping one another. Alleluia.
The Easter story is about life, and life begins when we realize that by removing the fear of death, Christ has given us, for the first time, full possession of our own life. Fear and particularly the fear of death can be overwhelming to many of us. Everybody is fearful, terrified of some public or private demon, some cloud that hangs over our head or in the recesses of our spirit. We are fearful that we will be found out for who we really are. We are fearful that we will hurt or be hurt. We are fearful that the things we most believe and trust are not so. It is indeed a rare person who is not hostage to some fear. But the Easter story calls us out of that fear. The resurrection story says to us, “Be not afraid, you have nothing to fear.” These are the empowering words of Easter. Freedom from fear is the message of the resurrection—not freedom from death but freedom from fear; from all those strips of cloth that have us bound up. I can understand the fear of death. I have struggled with that fear most of my adult life. But I am learning that the far greater fear is fear of life and living.
Is resurrection real? One of life’s ironies is that oftentimes the things that are most real in life are the hardest things to believe. You’ve heard people say, “I can’t believe I got my dream job. It just doesn’t seem real.” Or “I can’t believe that you love me that much. It just doesn’t seem real.” Or “I can’t believe I have cancer. It just doesn’t seem real.” When I think about God raising Jesus from the dead, sometimes, it just doesn’t seem real. Can something that seems so impossible be possible? I don’t know. Maybe! What I can say on this Easter Sunday is that I do believe that resurrection is real. I see it happening in you and I see it happening in my own life. I see it happening in our community and in our world. People are choosing life over fear, over death. Resurrection is real. Not because anyone can prove that Jesus actually, literally rose from the dead. Resurrection is real because we have experienced what it is like to be dead—dead in spirit and soul; dead from fear—and then alive again. Because of this story we know that we too may live, with as much time as God gives us, free from fear of the past and free from fear of the future.
After finding out that she had cancer a little over a month ago, a friend said to me, “I will need some words about resurrection this Easter.” My dear friend, God’s word to you and to all of us this Easter is this: Fear not death. We all die. The far greater fear is to fear life. Live and practice resurrection each day, for it is real for those who choose life. And because I believe our faith challenges us to do so, I say to you on this Easter morning—believe in the impossible! Alleluia.