Easter sermon: An Idle Tale

Luke 24:1-12

An Idle Tale

James Sledge                    Resurrection of the Lord                         April 21, 2019

In recent weeks I’ve seen several versions of an Easter Facebook joke that goes something like this. “In an effort to be more biblical, only women will be attending the Easter sunrise service.”

Over the years, many have remarked that the story of women being the first witnesses to the empty tomb must be historical. No one would invent this sort of Easter story. People still dismiss what women have to say in our day. Imagine what it was like in a day when women were not even citizens, when they couldn’t be witnesses at a trial, when they were considered property that belonged to a man, either their father or husband.

And sure enough, in Luke’s version of that first Easter morning, no one believes the women. You’ve heard the story before. Some of Jesus’ female disciples, and apparently none of the men, had followed when Jesus’s body was taken to the tomb. Then they had gone back, prepared spices, and rested on the Sabbath as the commandment required.

Early Sunday morning, they took the spices to the tomb, hoping to give Jesus the tender care they had not had time for on Friday evening. But when they arrive, they find the tomb open and the body missing. As they are wondering what to do, two men in dazzling clothes, later described as angels, say to them. “He is not here, but has risen,” and remind the women how Jesus had told them that he would be crucified and rise on the third day.

And so Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women hurry back to tell the eleven and the others what they had found. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

I probably wouldn’t have believed them either, even if this had happened in 2019 where women aren’t routinely dismissed… unless they are contradicting a man. I know what’s possible and what isn’t. I know that dead people stay dead. Even if I believe that a soul moves on somehow, I know that the body stays in the grave. “He is not here, but has risen.” What a cockamamie idea. Who would believe such a thing?

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He was among those who didn’t believe the women’s report, and yet he rushes to the tomb. Why rush to investigate an idle tale? 

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Every week I receive a number of emails informing me that I or this congregation have several million dollars waiting to be claimed. A person I’ve never heard of has died and wanted her money to go to someone or some church that would use it well. All that is needed is for me to provide certain information, and the funds will be on their way.

I’ve never bothered to respond to one of these emails. I know that they are scams, designed to steal financial information. I know that they truly are idle tales.

There are those who think similarly of the Easter message, “He is not here, but has risen.” It is an idle tale created to make people do foolish things, to give money and time and energy to institutions built on that idle tale.

Such thinking likely isn’t common among those gathered to celebrate Easter. But that doesn’t mean that our skepticism and cynicism, our certainties about what is and isn’t possible, don’t get in the way of embracing the power of resurrection, the hope of Easter.

Like me, you probably know that dead people stay dead. Perhaps like me, you worry about evil and hate. You see the resurgence of racism in America, the ease with which people are manipulated to fear those who are different from them. Perhaps you once thought that the world was on an inexorable march toward a better day with more freedom, more democracy, and a rising standard of living. But now authoritarians are on the rise, the environment is in peril, and income disparity is a growing problem. It is increasingly difficult to trust in the inevitability of progress or some innate, self-correcting goodness that keeps humanity from going completely off the rails. It is easy to become anxious, even depressed.

“He is not here, but has risen.” The power of evil is real, human beings are capable of terrible things, and there is great trouble in the world. But the power of God is greater. In Jesus, God enters decisively into the human condition, into its pain and suffering. Evil seizes the moment and does its very worst. A cross and the grave… Evil has won. Hope has died. Except, “He is not here, but has risen.”

You and I know better than to believe such a foolish, idle tale, yet here we are. Like Peter, we have felt the power of God at work in Jesus. And so we rush to the tomb and find it empty. He is not here! Could it be true? Could he really be risen?

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There is a curious thing about gospel reports of the resurrection. They do not report it at all, only its aftermath. There’s no light from heaven, no glow from the tomb, no transformation of Jesus’ lifeless body, only an empty tomb and some left over linen cloth.

For the gospel writers, the resurrection is mystery they do not attempt to depict or explain. They are not in the least concerned with mechanics, with any sort of how. What matters to them is, “He is not here, but has risen.” What matters to them is this improbable, impossible news that what God is doing in Jesus cannot be stopped, not by the worst that evil can muster, not ever by death itself. “He is not here, but has risen.”

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Thanks be to God!