Sermon – March 31, 2024 “It Makes a Difference”

Easter Sunday – The Resurrection of the Lord - Year B March 31, 2024

Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 John 20: 1-18

The story is told of two rather lazy fellows who decided to cop out on having to work the rest of the day. After all, it was a Friday afternoon, and it was a pleasant day outside. So, one of them, only ‘slightly’ more inventive and ‘with it’ than the other, said, ‘Hey, I’m going to pretend that I’m a light bulb’ and proceeded to climb up into the rafters of the building and hang upside down from that perch. Before long, the boss happened by, spotted him, and asked what was going on. When told that he was a lightbulb, the boss replied, ‘Well, you can’t be a lightbulb on company time. Get down and go home, right now.’ But then the boss was rather nonplussed to see the other fellow, a rather simple fellow really, packing up his toolkit and lunch box. ‘Hey, what are you up to?’ And the simple fellow replied, ‘Well, boss, you can’t expect me to work in the dark, can you?’

All of which goes to show that what you believe, and what you say about your beliefs, really does account for something, really does have an impact or significance. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to Easter and the resurrection of Jesus.

Now, a certain Anglican priest, who shall remain unnamed, was once heard to say as she began her Easter Sunday sermon: ‘Well, today is the day that we remember the resurrection of Jesus—if you ‘happen’ to believe that sort of thing.’ From the rest of the sermon, it was evident that she didn’t ‘happen’ to believe it. So, does that matter? Does it make any difference? And does the resurrection really have the evidence to back the claims that it really did take place?

So, let me take those two questions one by one. Firstly, what is the evidence for and against the resurrection being an actual, historical fact. There are six theories put forward against it being a fact, so let’s deal with them, and their rebuttals, one by one.

a) The first is that He, Jesus, never really died. He only ‘appeared’ to have died, and someone bribed the authorities to remove His body before death and take Him elsewhere to recuperate.

To counter that supposition, we have the fact that the Roman soldiers were trained executioners. They were professional ‘killing machines’, and they knew how to do their job. They knew when a person was dead and when they were not. Furthermore, they made sure of it by thrusting a sword into Jesus’ side. And, not only that, if a condemned man somehow managed to escape his lawful punishment, they knew that they themselves would face execution.

b) The second theory, often called the swoon theory, is that Jesus was

drugged while there on the cross, was taken down from the cross

and put in the tomb while still alive. There in the stone-cold tomb Jesus revived, managed to untangle Himself from the graveclothes wrapped around His body, roll away the stone placed in front of the tomb—from the inside no less, and scare away the guards. Just listing this, it sounds pretty fantastic, and pretty unbelievable. But, on top of all this, this badly injured, newly revived fellow, is supposed to have managed to convince His followers that He had conquered death and was now the Lord of life. Not very likely.

c) A third theory is that the women, and Peter and John, in the early pre-dawn hours of Easter morning, got mixed up in the dim light and went to the wrong tomb. But then, the authorities could have easily nipped that mistake in the bud by pointing out the correct one. But they did nothing of the sort.

d) Another theory is that the disciples stole the body and then made up the entire story to account for it. However, when you realize that most of the disciples met their deaths due to their stubborn testimony that Jesus had indeed been raised from death and that they had seen

Him with their own eyes, this idea seems pretty far-fetched. Very seldom, if ever, will people be prepared to die for a lie.

e) Another theory is that the resurrection appearances were no more than some mass hallucinations. That the first of them took place in darkened rooms on a Sunday night gives this some plausibility but when you realize that these appearances often happened in broad daylight, in multiple locations, over forty days and on one instance, by more than 500 people at once, the whole idea of hallucinations gets thrown out the window. Hallucinations, by definition, don’t work in this way.

f) And finally, the final theory, is that Jesus’ resurrection was spiritual only. ‘His Spirit ascended to be with God, but His body remained in the grave.’ But there’s a very big problem: the tomb was empty, the disciples saw Jesus in His body multiple times after that first Easter morning, and actually touched it. Furthermore, they even saw Him eat food in front of them. Not the kind of thing you’d expect of some sort of ‘spirit.’

No, many very learned people, skeptics in fact, have investigated the resurrection of Jesus and found it to be one of the best substantiated events of history. In fact, the only reservation that still stands is whether this kind of thing could actually take place, that is, whether a man dead for three days in such a horrendous death, can be brought back to life again. But that question is not historical but theological and philosophical. It is a question of whether God exists and whether God can act in our world. Otherwise, it has to stand as a stated and objective fact.

And, coming back to our other question, namely whether this matters, it does indeed matter. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then, as the apostle Paul says later on in today’s letter to the Corinthians, we Christians are most to be pitied. We are still awash in our sins, still unforgiven and still subject to Satan, evil and death. Furthermore, we are basically without hope and without a future, for without Jesus’ example of new life and resurrection, we have no reason to believe in eternal life either. Our faith in God has been rendered useless.

But the reality is that Jesus has been raised from the grave. Many people saw and experienced it as a fact back then, and countless others have known Him over the years. It is an undisputable fact, a fact of history. And so, we can believe, and trust, that we have new life, forgiveness, freedom, and a destiny that transcends this life--and even death itself. Thanks be to God for such a hope, and such a victory. Amen.