The Crucible of Easter

When I was at university in the USA, I worked as a night porter in a mortuary.  It was a great job.  It was dead quiet at night and I could get on with my studies.  I only had to answer the telephone and open up in case a body needed to be delivered after hours.  Well, it was strange sitting there in that little office with dead bodies in the next room.  Every little noise made me look up and wonder if somehow someone was not really dead.  I do not know where we get the idea that dead people might come back to life and start moving around.

          This Easter you and I face the reality of the risen Christ.  He who once was dead is now alive.  Death has failed.  Jesus is vindicated.  The Saviour lives. What are we to do?  How are we to respond?  If it is true that he is no longer dead, no longer in the tomb, then we are faced with a crucible of faith. When you encounter the glory of the risen Christ, how will you respond?

          First, let's reflect on this Easter story from Jesus' perspective.  The whole drama from Palm Sunday with the triumphal entry to the Last Supper, to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the arrest, trial, mockery, crucifixion, and death is a tale of unbelievable tragedy in which in the end a reversal of incredible proportions occurs, the resurrection.

          We see Jesus in this tragedy coming to terms with his fate, his impending death.  His life and ministry faced a gruesome end and he sensed it all.  In the Garden he faces for  the last time the hard choice of accepting his death.  At the beginning in the desert, there is the story of Satan tempting Jesus to take a short-cut to glory and fame without trotting the path of servitude.  Now, in Gethsemane, Jesus wrestles with a hard choice, whether to accept his Father's will.  He faces it and accepts the way of death. 'Not my will, but your will be done', Jesus prays.  He embarks on the way of the cross, trusting, believing, hoping.  This crucible of obedience becomes for him the means to triumph, vindication and exaltation. 

          As a result of making this hard decision, as a result of facing this crucible, his life and ministry is transformed through the cross and empty tomb to become a universal and cosmic ministry which extends to all, those dead and alive, those present and those in ages to come.  Out of Jesus' death comes the gift of resurrection life to all who believe. 

          But what about you and me?  Today, we celebrate the resurrection, the triumph of God's love and God's power.  In proclaiming this resurrection in our liturgical words and actions, we are faced with a crucible as well.  We are faced with the choice of the resurrection life, with the unbelievable truth that God has confronted all our sin and failure, confronted our rebellion and selfishness, confronted all our fears and enemies, even death, and triumphed.  Each Easter, we come face to face with the one who was dead, but now is alive. We come face to face with the glorious risen Christ.  We face the choice of responding in faith, acknowledging Christ as Lord or choosing to go our own way as if he is still in the tomb.  When you encounter the glory of the risen Christ, how will you respond?

          For many people, they stumble on the details.  Did Jesus literally rise from the dead?  Now I do not want to get side tracked about whether you have to believe in a literal rising of Jesus from the dead, or as the once Bishop of Durham said, a conjuring trick with bones.  However, such an understanding is not beyond the realm of God's power.  Whatever we think happened, we cannot sit in this service and carry on as if nothing happened.  And if something happened, then there is a hard choice for each of us in all this.

          Paul puts it another way, 'If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead, you will be saved'.  The Easter story is God's story.  It is a story of unconditional love, of God's love for us.  It is a story of God reaching out to us and demonstrating the power of a life of faith transcending even death.  The grave could not hold Jesus, the grave transfigured him, propelled his life of service to new heights.  The resurrection infused Jesus' life and ministry with power which broke open the tomb and unleashed spiritual power that still transforms people and circumstances today.

          When you encounter the glory of the risen Christ, how will you respond?  Our response becomes the hard decision for us, the crucible we face.  To believe in the resurrection means entering into a life of faith; it means identifying with God's action on our behalf; it means choosing God's way.

          For many that is exactly the problem, they want to keep control.  The life of a middle-class western European is quite comfortable, thank you very much.  All this talk of the resurrection is slightly beyond, a touch too mysterious, too spiritual.  The death and resurrection becomes a stumbling block.  People are willing to say, I believe in God, and I am willing to serve my neighbour...but let's not get carried away with all this supernatural, over the top, fanatical religion stuff.

          But that is exactly the point.  The resurrection is a demonstration of God going over the top, of God pulling out all the stops, of God reaching out to you and me and saying the life I offer is stronger than death. The life of faith is a life which transcends the mundane existence of the purely human perspective.  The resurrection presents to you and me in the strongest way possible the choice between the life of faith or the life lived my own way.  When confronted with the risen Christ, you cannot ignore it or pretend it did not happen.

          After all the services of holy week and all the services today, I am faced today with the awesome, unbelievable Easter story that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is risen.  If I say yes, he is risen indeed, if I believe and affirm the Easter reality, I know what it means.  It means, that in some sense my life is not my own.  It means I believe God has reached into my rather self-contained life and broken down the fences in which I have made myself comfortable.  It means I have opened myself to God’s power to transform my life and offer to me a new life.

          And how will you respond when faced with the risen Christ in all his glory?  Will you say, yes to the resurrection life?  Will you open your self to the new life that is in Christ?  Will you say with faith in your heart and soul, Alleluia, Christ is risen.