04.20.03 - Afraid of Easter (Luke 24:1-11)

Afraid of Easter
Luke 24:1-11
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003
St. John United Methodist Church
David Beckett, D.Min.

A story is told about a community-wide Easter pageant in which various people in the town were assigned to play the different parts. The character of Jesus went to a most unlikely person--a big, burly, barroom brawler, an oilfield worker, the most unlikely person to be typecast as our Lord. After several weeks of rehearsals, the day of the Easter pageant finally arrived. When they came to the part of the play where Jesus was being led away to be crucified, one little man, filling in as part of the crowd, got caught up in the emotion of the drama. He joined in the shouts of "Crucify him! Crucify him!" as Jesus was led away toward the cross. Then, the midst of the shouting insults at the top of his lungs, he accidentally sprayed some spit in the face of the character playing Jesus as the actor walked by carrying the cross on his back. The oilfield worker stopped in his tracks, reached up and wiped his face. And then he looked at the little man and said, "I'll be back to take care of you after the resurrection."

Now here's a guy who has a right to be afraid of Easter. If he knows what is good for him he will get as far away as possible from the resurrection. But why should you and I be afraid of Easter? Easter is a time for trumpets, joyous singing, and glad praise to God for the miracle of the resurrection of Christ. Why should we be afraid of pretty girls in new dresses, beautiful lillies, and baskets of candy?

The fact of the matter is that 2000 yr ago on the very first Easter morning, some women had gone to the tomb of Jesus expecting a dead body but instead found an empty tomb. Luke writes, "They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground." Think of it! Afraid of Easter! And clearly these women were frightened AFTER, not before learning that Jesus was risen from the dead.

Why were they afraid? Surely it was more than the thought of being inside a spooky burial vault. Surely it was more than ghosts in the light of Easter dawn to frighten them. Perhaps it was something much deeper that terrified the women and made them afraid of Easter. Something too easily overlooked. Perhaps it was the hard and terrifying reality that not a dead Jesus, but a living Christ confronts us at Easter. It is one thing to come prepared to anoint a corpse. It is something else to deal with a living Lord. They just weren’t ready for the resurrection.

Are you ready for the resurrection? Are you prepared for the changes and challenges that new life in Christ brings? Are you willing to let the risen Christ into your heart so you can become a better husband or wife? Will you dare to risk saying yes to Christ so that you can be healed of your bitterness and anger? If we are honest we will all admit that we are afraid of Easter, because we don’t want to change. Easter is about a dramatic change from death to life. It’s not just an event to be noted in history. The purpose of the resurrection is so that the dead parts of your life and mine will be changed and given new life.

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!"

It is one thing to be afraid of a thunderstorm. And we all have our phobias. I’m afraid of heights, snakes, and spiders. But there is a fear that lies deep beneath the surface of our beings. This is the fear that God desires us to face. Because it is precisely this fear that the resurrection is designed to confront.

Madelene L'Engle wrote a children's book called, The Summer of the Great Grandmother. She tells of being with her grandchildren at bedtime for reading and song. Her grandchild Lena turned to her and asked, “Is everything all right?” She said, ”Yes, of course, everything is all right.” Lena asked again: “Gram, is everything really all right? I mean really?”

L'Engle says she looked at that little child in her white nightgown and realized that she was asking the cosmic question, the question that is out beyond the safety of this home full of light and love and warmth. Every Christmas we come to the manger child and ask the same question: Is everything really all right?
Every Easter we come to the tomb and ask that same question: Is everything really all right?

I have it. You have it…this deep fear that wonders if everything is going to be alright. We must get in touch with this fear if the resurrection is going to make any difference in our lives.

A man who hid for 32 years fearing punishment of pro-Nazi wartime activity says he used to cry when he heard happy voices outside, but dared not show himself even at his mother's funeral. Janez Rus was a young shoemaker when he went into hiding at his sister's farmhouse in June, 1945. He was found years later after she bought a large supply of bread in the nearby village of Zalna . "If I had not been discovered, I would have remained in hiding. So I am happy that this happened," Rus told a reporter. Throughout those years he did nothing. He never left the house, and could only look down at the village in the valley.

How many of us are living in fear? Fear of being discovered? Fear of being exposed because of past sins? There are so many people who are like this shoemaker. They cannot believe that Christ forgives their past. And so they live in hiding, never daring to allow their true heart to come forward. They live behind a mask, a false self, a self to which they have become quite accustomed. If Easter means changing who I am, forget it, God!

We need some hope, some glimmer of light that can penetrate the deep, dark places in our hearts. Easter is scary because it means that you and I are called to focus on hope, not despair...possibilities, not impossibilities...life, not death. This way of living is not easy. Have you noticed how easy it can be to be negative…easier to look at the dark side rather than the bright side? Sometimes we give up so easily that we come up with excuses to justify our hopelessness. We point to death and disaster and say, "This is reality." It's true, isn't it? All we need is the newspaper or TV to see agonizing pain suffered by thousands of people every day.

22 years ago a young couple attended our wedding. Like ourselves, Keith and Brenda were beginning their lives together. The future was open, full of promise, hopes, and dreams. And then one frosty fall morning reality struck and exploded like a bombshell. Brenda was driving to the school where she was a new teacher. Perhaps the thoughts of the day's activities occupied her mind and caused her not to see the stop sign. There were no skid marks at the intersection. It was likely that Brenda did not even see the truck. Nearly every bone in her body was crushed. Brenda died instantly. Death is difficult in itself for survivors to cope with. It is much more difficult and traumatic when it strikes suddenly without warning.

With the painful reality of suffering in this present world it can be very easy to focus on despair. But there is another reality. There is the living Christ in the clear light of Easter dawn who embodies life and hope. Therefore we can say about Easter, "This too, is reality." Just as living with the reality of death takes some adjustment, so does living with the reality of life found in a relationship with our risen Lord.

Friends, I hope you have come here this morning with more than a sense that being in church on Easter is a nice thing to do. I hope you have come with a sense of anticipation and longing. There are sobering questions on our minds and much hangs in the balance. Is there hope? Is there new life? Is there reason for joy? The answer to your questions has arrived this day. It is here waiting for you. It is a three-word message: Christ Is Risen!

Good news for the depressed. Good news for those who have lost loved ones. Good news to those who have lost their joy, Christ is risen. Each one of us needs to hear the promise of resurrection, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen." For those who take seriously the reality of the resurrection, it can be scary. Yet for those who dare to believe, this promise offers a whole new dimension for living.

One afternoon while playing on a wooden picnic table, 4 yr. old Jordan ran a splinter into his finger. Sobbing, he called his pastor father at his office, and said, "I want God to take the splinter out." His dad told him that his mother could remove the splinter easily. "No," said Jordan , "I want God to do it. When Mom takes out a splinter it hurts. I want God to do it." It took an hour of convincing Jordan that God sometimes uses others to do his work. And sometimes it hurts. But the splinter was finally removed.

You and I are like this little boy when it comes to living day by day with the power of Easter resurrection. We get hurt and we are afraid. We want God to take away the pain. We want to be healed without painful probing. We don't want our wounds to be touched by anyone else.

But when you and I are afraid of Easter we are afraid of life. For an Easter life is exactly the kind of life God wants for us all. Why should we be content to live a Good Friday life filled with darkness, depression, and death when Christ offers us an Easter life... a life filled with hope and promise, healing and wholeness, joy and love? The gift is given. Jesus is there for us. We need to let go of our fears and say with faith in our hearts, "Yes, Lord, I receive you into my life. I want to be an Easter person in a Good Friday world." This is God's promise to you and me. May it be our prayer and our way of life.

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