Resurrection: end or beginning

This morning we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. After the journey through Lent, the Palm Sunday parade, the betrayal of Thursday evening, the brutality of Friday, the confusion and grief of Saturday, finally it is Sunday, finally we celebrate.

But what is it we are celebrating.  In many ways it is the culmination, the fulfilment, the climax of the story. We made it to Sunday. We made it to the day of Resurrection, the end of the story. And we can think of this as the end of the story, Jesus is killed, buried, and defeated death, he is no longer dead.   That could be the end of the story, and I am guessing that for many people that is the end of the story. Jesus was born, lived, did great things, killed, buried, rose. The end.

Is resurrection the end of the story?

To me it isn’t the end; and not because there are more pages in the Bible after this account. While in some ways the resurrection is the climax of the story, it isn’t the end of the story, not if we live as resurrection people.

Resurrection is the beginning of a story, the story of new life, of Jesus being present with people in a totally different way. The pre-crucifixion Jesus could only be in one place at a time, just like all humans. The post-resurrection Jesus is present everywhere, at all times. Resurrection is the end of one story, and the beginning of another. Resurrection is the crossover point, where two stories meet; the story of Jesus in Israel, travelling with the disciples, and the story of Jesus with all of us.

Some people struggle to believe in resurrection at all. How is this possible, do I really expect sane, intelligent people to believe that Jesus is no longer dead, that somehow, something happened, something impossible, something unnatural. Modern people can’t be expected to believe in such events. We all know that when you are dead, you are dead, and you stay that way.

I would like you to think for a moment, why you believe in resurrection, or if you believe in resurrection. I know this is probably a dangerous question for a minister to ask, but why do you believe in the resurrection; maybe because it is in the Bible, for some people that will be the reason.  But for others that isn’t enough to satisfy their intellectual and spiritual curiosity. Why believe in resurrection, for me, because resurrection means that we can still experience Jesus. Jesus is not just a historical figure I have read about and heard about. Jesus is a real part of my life, and that means he isn’t dead. So while I can’t explain how it happened, I don’t have any difficulty believing it happened.

What does all this mean, or is it just word games.

Resurrection is Good News; it is Good news that in a world where death and despair seem to hold sway, that Jesus, condemned and executed, is freed, liberated, by the love of God.

Resurrection is Good News; because God’s love is greater than anything else, greater than evil, greater then betrayal, greater than violence. We need not conform to the messages of status and wealth. We don’t have to justify our existence or prove ourselves. God loves us.

Resurrection is good news; we no longer need to live with fear and insecurity.  

Why do so many of us, even in church, live with insecurity and fear? Maybe living as people of resurrection seems too hard, too amazing, that we can’t get the idea straight in our heads. If we lived as the people God claims us to be, if we lived as the Body of Christ, I wonder what that would look like in our daily lives.

I have a coffee cup here, it says on it: Life is a mystery to be lived not a problem to be solved. And I think that could be said about our relationship with God: resurrection, grace, mercy, all are part of the mystery of faith, and we live within that mystery, rather than trying to explain it in rational, scientific or historical terms.

The evidence for resurrection is all around us, and within us. We are the evidence for resurrection, our transformed lives, the Holy Spirit bringing us new life; we are the evidence for the reality of resurrection.

This Easter I encourage you to think about your experience of resurrection, the ways in which Jesus has and is transforming your life.

Are you open to God’s transforming grace in your life? Are you living in as the transformed people of God?