Easter 2

Easter 2 JESUS IS “OUT” TO GET YOU! 4/15/07

“Christ is risen!” C/ Christ is risen, indeed! So… “Now what?”

We would not, necessarily, know it by attending a worship service on Easter morning…

We might not readily admit it as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection…

We probably did not even consider it when we returned to our homes after worship on Easter day…but, every hour and day since Easter Sunday, we have been living our answer to the simple 2-word question: “So what?” Christ is risen! So what?” Did any of us leave worship this past Easter Sunday morning with fearful hearts? Did any of us leave worship in fear? Likely not, unless it was fear motivated by the thought of arriving late for the scheduled Easter brunch or of the over-flowing bean casserole in the oven!

With that said, the predominate response to the resurrected Christ on that first Easter day is fear. What has changed over the centuries? Why were the first disciples afraid on that Easter day and evening? Why are we, 21^st century disciples, not afraid on Easter, or at least not afraid for the same reasons?

Our Gospel lesson this week begins, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.” (John 20:19) We are told by John, himself among them, that the disciples are locked in because of “fear”, specifically, “fear of the Jews”. Were these “Jews” the friends and relatives of the disciples who might mock and ridicule the disciples because their “messiah” had died the death of a criminal, between two thieves? Here are these disciples of Jesus who had risked it all, who believed that He was the One who would redeem Israel. Now, this One they had trusted and followed was dead and gone, buried in a borrowed tomb, no less! As we look back a verse, Mary Magdalene has just told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” and she told them that he had said these things to her.” (Jn. 20:18) Might her Easter announcement be the cause of their fear? Or, perhaps, as in many large cities even today, being out after dark was not recommended, so the disciples huddled in self-imposed confinement until daybreak. We can understand, after the week-end of rioting and violence in Jerusalem in recent days, the followers…and, knowing what we know about the hours between Jesus’ arrest and death, I use the term “followers” lightly…have several reasons to be fearful, and “afraid” they admittedly were!

Perhaps the locked doors, behind which the disciples hid and huddled, are a metaphor for the church. The powers of the world…religious and civil…sent Jesus to the cross and tomb. We, the humble, devout followers of Jesus rail against His Good-Friday-accusers. On Easter Sunday we gather with great joy and hail the risen Christ and, at least here at Grace, saying “Amen” more than likely any previous Sunday! Yet, how quickly do we find ourselves again behind our comfortable locked doors? What are we keeping in? What are we attempting to keep out?

If we learn little other than this on this first Sunday after Easter, let us learn that nothing in all creation can prevent the fulfillment of God’s will! When God wants to raise His Son from death, nothing can prevent this! When Jesus wants to gather with His disciples, nothing can prevent this! There are no locks nor doors nor stones capable of defeating God’s desire through Jesus Christ! St. Paul wrote, after initiating a rather exhausting list in Romans 8: 38-39, that there is not “anything in all creation…able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Death is defeated, Jesus is “out”, and Jesus is “out” to get us!

This Gospel account is not about all the ways the world locks its doors against the claims of the Christian faith; rather it’s a story about the way Christians lock our doors against the world! The irony in our Gospel, and in our own faith-journey, is that in locking our doors out of fear of the world and what it might do to us, we have locked our doors to Jesus Himself and what He might do to us! These first disciples were so afraid of what the world might do to them that they almost missed what Jesus, alone, could do for them…to bless them, to give them peace, to forgive them, and to empower them!

I choose to believe that all our efforts and attempts to lock Jesus out and to secure ourselves against His incursions into our lives are unintended. Perhaps people don’t realize they are locking Jesus out when they absent themselves from regular worship…perhaps people don’t realize they are locking Jesus out when they knowingly refuse to study Scripture…perhaps people don’t realize they are locking Jesus out when they become too busy to pray…But, in fact, that’s what they…what we…do! As of Easter morning, the tomb is empty! Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Jesus is “out” to get us and to gather others through us! Amen.