Luke 24:1-12 Response

Resurrection Seems to Us Like Nonsense: Luke 24:1-12

Easter Sunday, the Sunday of Sundays!  What better place from which to preach than the Story itself.  Pastor David took us to the tomb through the eyes of Mary and the women who, full of faith, were committed to anointing the body of Jesus that morning.  They expected to see a dead Jesus.  But the bond they felt to him – their personal relationship with him – caused them to be sold out, even though he was dead.  These women demonstrated real faith by their actions and devotion to the Lord.

The women got a shock as they entered the tomb.  Not only was the stone rolled away, but the body of Jesus wasn’t there.  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”  Aren’t these some of your favorite words?  Ever??  They are mine.  Pastor David pointed out that the angels were almost puzzled by the women coming to a gravesite.  “You can’t have a resurrection-preaching Jesus in a body-filled tomb.”  I loved that.  How true it is!  Yet sometimes (perhaps often?) I say that I believe in the resurrection-preaching Jesus, but I live like I expect to see the dead body.

Mary was the first to witness the resurrected Christ.  When she heard him call her name, she fell at his feet.  And having grabbed hold of Jesus, she didn’t want to let him go.  She saw, she touched, she was witness to the real resurrection.  Being tasked with telling the disciples the news, she ran back to tell “all these things.”  The others, though, thought her words seemed like nonsense.  Peter ran to the tomb himself to find the grave clothes lying there and was himself puzzled, as any human would be.

I’ve seen the power of God in my life, from giving me new life to answering that prayer in the lives of others.  Not to mention answering less dramatic prayers over and over.  So why is it I often live expecting the dead body instead of the empty tomb?  Is it because Jesus didn’t raise every dead person he knew?  He didn’t heal every sick person he saw?  Yet we ought to trust him in everything because he always is the God of resurrection power.

After all that God has done for us, isn’t he for us?

We can’t take or leave the resurrection.  If we think it’s nonsense, we should be challenged to think differently.  If we do believe it, we should give our lives to Christ.

Do I really believe in the power of the resurrection?  That same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in me.  Do I live like that?  Do I trust like that?  In the big things and the small?

Let’s not wait until next year to remind one another about God’s resurrection power.  Let’s live every week in the knowledge and hope of that power and make every Sunday a little Easter.

~Nina Walters