Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3-22; Luke 24:1-5; 2 Corinthians 5:21 Series: Easter
Because the Easter messenger announces that the risen Christ is no longer among the dead, those who were spiritually dead — like the restored Peter — can rise to new life now, not just in heaven.
Illustrations: obsolete-jobs, jack-athens-sparta, dont-shoot-the-messenger, angels-dancing-pin, body-in-the-cave, augustine-wonderful-exchange
Easter
1 Corinthians 15:3-22
Luke 24:1-5
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:3-22
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. - Luke 24:1-5
Technology has replaced a lot of jobs. Typewriter repairman is not popular today. Switch board operator. Lamplighter, town crier, ice cutter. Main frame computer installer does not have a big market.
Messenger is not a coveted job today. I don’t mean courier or postal worker or amazon delivery truck person (we know those jobs keep growing like crazy), but a messenger, a person whose job it is to go from one place to another with a message. It was a deep profession in the ancient world. There were messengers, both informal and formal. Informal messengers were usually people of convenience. Jack was going from Athens to Sparta and they said, “hey Jack, when you get to Sparta, can you tell King Leonidas that the Persians are coming in a month?”
There was some importance to this action that we have the idiom. Don’t shoot the messenger! To say, don’t shoot the messenger assumes the existence of messengers that one would want to shoot. If someone brings you bad news, you shouldn’t shoot the messenger because they are not the ones responsible, they are providing a service.
It is Easter morning and some women go to prepare the body of the man they love. They followed him, but they were also following the tradition that he was a part of. It was the Sabbath, so they rested. They did not labor. They did not prepare his body on Saturday, on the sabbath. They waited and practiced their faith, so they came early on Sunday with the oils to prepare his body in the grave that he had been given near Golgotha.
They go inside and he is not there. In his place is a messenger. An angelos. I mean, it is usually translated here as angel, but once you start putting angels into the equation, we get into these complicated cosmologies and hierarchies and all these sorts of layers. How many angels can dance on the head of a pen? How many angels can actually dance? what are the dancing capabilities of the angels? Have they seen the latest TikTok? Can they follow it.
The plain meaning of angelos is messenger. A messenger from God. God has an important message for you. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here. Where is he? He’s not here.
The starting place of the Christian theology of resurrection is this negative claim: he is not here. It’s not about where Jesus is, but where he isn’t. He isn’t where we expected him to be. He isn’t where he was set down on Friday afternoon. This is the message that the angel brings. At first, it seems quite an innocuous message.
I think the ladies who went to the tomb would have figured it out pretty quickly. I mean, I’ve never been looking for a dead body in a cave, but I’m pretty sure I could figure out if it was in there or not. Jesus wasn’t playing hide and seek. I mean, the smell might not be too bad after a day and a half, but you don’t have to be a mortician’s assistant to look around a room and see if a body’s there. That’s what the tomb is. The tomb is a grave. A tomb is where the dead are, where the dead are laid or the dead remain. Not only is Jesus not in that physical location, he is not among the dead.
That is the radical faith claim of Christianity. The Romans killed this man. but he is not there among the dead any more. He used to be. He was among the dead. He was a participant with the dead. He descended to the dead, but he is not there He’s not there among the dead. This is the message. This is the starting place. If Christ is not there among the dead, in my own life, when it seems like I am moving among the dead: aimlessly, purposelessly, painfully, that is not my ultimate end; that is not who I am. Christ used to be among those people, too. Christ was among the dead. Christ was among the damned. Christ was among those in pain.
As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the justice of God..
Sin is missing the mark. Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is disobedience to ourselves, to who we were created to be. Sin is self destruction. Jesus took sin on himself to free us from it.
There is a sense, as well, that Peter was among the dead before he had heard the good news that the women shared with the disciples. Some Christian traditions continue the Greek phrasing of the Easter good news. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. In Greek, this is Christos Anesti! Anesti Alethea!
As the passage from Luke 24 continues, the disciples hear word of what has happened, and Peter anesti. Peter rises up. Peter is resurrected. The Peter who denied Jesus three times is no longer there. He is a changed man. He was dead, but he is alive again because Jesus, who was dead, who was killed, is not alive.
He is not there among the dead and we don’t have to be there, either.
He’s not there among the children of idolatry and we don’t have to be there, either. We don’t have to stay on the path of self destruction. We don’t have to stay on the path of vanity. Self-destruction couldn’t keep him down. Vanity couldn’t keep him down. Sin couldn’t keep him down not even death could keep him down. He is not there. He has risen.
Accordingly, he effected a wonderful exchange with us, through mutual sharing: we gave him the power to die, he will give us the power to live. The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves.1
We cannot do it on our own. We cannot save ourselves. We have tried, but death still comes. Pain, sickness, tragedy. Christ was there on the cross. He was there in the grave. But this is the message. He is not there. And we don’t have to be either. He did it for us.
So let us not live for ourselves. Let us rise up like Peter. Right now. May we be resurrected to live new life not tomorrow, not just in heaven, but now. Today.
Christos Anesti! Anesti Alethea! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
In the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Footnotes
-
Saint Augustine ↩