by Rev. Dr John Evans
Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
As I reflect on Easter Day sermons, I think there are two sorts. The first are the ones about the HOW of the resurrection. How did the resurrection happen; how did the actors in the drama feel, who moved the stone; or who were these angels; and why did no-one recognise Jesus immediately and so on. And indeed how does one treat the claim that was made last year that the bones of Jesus were discovered in Jerusalem. In other words, to our very rationalistic and scientific minds, is all of this resurrection stuff really true? Now in this sermon – with some qualifications perhaps, the preacher would say – yes – this great event, this great religious event happened. There was, after all, an empty tomb.
The other sort of sermon, not denying that there are scientific and rationality issues involved, would ask why. What does it mean that Jesus is no longer dead, but alive? If you like, not the truth of the story issue, but the meaning issue.
This is a second style of sermon.
So take Peter at Cornelius’ house – our Acts reading today. Peter suggests that the good things that Jesus did – his teaching, his acts of service, his healing might still go on even though he is no longer physically around. Those who are witnesses of him, like him and the other apostles, must give testimony about him, so that his message and works continue. Peter also says he was an amazing human being – he was “ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” And if you can accept that Jesus was such a person – if you can “believe in him”, then you will “receive forgiveness of sins through his name” – like what Jesus offered when he was alive. So in this address, the resurrection means forgiveness.
But soon other insights emerge as to what the death and resurrection of Jesus might mean.
The apostle Paul soon says the resurrection means new life. As he says in Colossians, and elsewhere in his writings, we have died with Christ, and now have new life with him; we rise with him. As he also says in I Corinthians 15 – “Death has been swallowed up in victory . . . where, O death, is your sting?” Christ has conquered death – and as we are his heirs – we, too, may conquer death. The resurrection for Paul is thus about salvation and eternal life.
The resurrection of Jesus is central to our faith, but I hope you can also see that this event we celebrate today may be understood in many, many ways. Some may resonate with your experience and life more than others.
Another way of trying to grasp the meaning of the resurrection comes from the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He suggests that the resurrection is an invitation to recognise one’s victim as one’s hope.
I personally find this a helpful way to couch the meaning of the resurrection. You may too. It also fits with how I explored Christ’s death on the cross in our service on Good Friday. I there suggested the Christ indeed was our victim. In a sense this sermon is literally a sequel to that one – as perhaps an Easter sermon should be to the Good Friday one.
There is a lot of talk today about being a victim, or being a victimiser today. People are the victims of their circumstance, their upbringing, and whatever else has happened to them. On Friday I told a story in which two you men who alleged they effectively had been victims, or at least feared they would be victims, so they had justification for being the victimisers and brutally murder their parents. Playing the victim is a pretty standard human behaviour.
What might it mean to see the resurrection as an invitation to recognise one’s victim as one’s hope?
To begin with, Jesus was the victim, in fact the pure, righteous victim.
Jesus, as I suggested on Good Friday died because of our sins.
Our sins of betrayal – like that of Judas;
Our sins of denial, like the denial from Peter – three times while Jesus was being tried;
Our sins of indifference and self interest, like the disciples who fell asleep on the job in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Or are our sins like that of the religious leaders who wished to silence this person who was different from them, who just didn’t believe and understand God as they did, worse, he actually challenged their authority and power over people?
Or are our sins simply not being able to understand the true desire of God, or God being love? We cannot cope with this; we reject Jesus’ proclamation of the coming of the kingdom of God.
Or is it like the simple desire for a quiet life like Pilate – who could see the goodness in Jesus, but found it would all be too hard and really washing his hands of him was so much better.
Consistently in the passion narrative, in the story of Jesus’ suffering and death, we are confronted with a victim who is our victim. Now through the resurrection we are not saved, forgiven – given new hope to start again – by us just forgetting, having no memory of those sins. Our sins are real enough. Rather the victim – here Jesus – triumphs over those sins, in rising to life. The resurrection means that the judgement of the judges of Jesus is over-turned. The victimisers are proved wrong. The judges – those who condemned Jesus, are themselves exposed to judgement.
Time and again in the preaching of the disciples after Easter they address the very people who allowed Jesus to die, or who actively put Jesus to death. This Jesus, the disciples say, who ‘they’, sometimes it is ‘you’, put to death, is alive.
Stop and imagine what impact that would have had on their hearers. That troublemaker, that person who pricked your conscience, that person who got you thinking – is still continuing with their life and message. You would feel judged, wouldn’t you? You would begin to wonder about this person – their teaching, their life of service and healing. You would begin to think this person had been vindicated, and very soon you would be seeing them as your hope. You would have thought he had gone away . . . but no, this person is still around.
You would begin to look to Jesus – the victim, for the source of transformation, and hope. In his resurrection he overcame their, or is it our, condemnation . . . and he wipes all that away – and shows a new and different way of life. Our condemning of Jesus (our sinfulness) makes us the victim – wounds and diminishes us – and we can easily descend into a blame game . . . like in the story of the Zeichners. However, this judge and victim thing itself gets transformed – Jesus the victim offers new life.
Sometimes the role of the victim in our experience is elevated – and the victim can themselves become oppressive and manipulative. People play their victimhood for all it is worth. It happens in families, it happen in world politics. Most revolutions have this scenario. The downtrodden, rise up, and the victors reverse the oppression. The victim becomes the victimiser. Boundaries being a victim and oppressor can become very fluid.
Hope, however, is not just the reversing of the roles of victim so they may become the victimiser.
In Jesus we look to a transformed relationship for all people – not just a simple role reversal. The pure and righteous victim alone, can offer this hope. Jesus in his trial did not say “one day I will get back at you”, or “one day I will come back and correct you for this wicked thing that you are now doing”. He remains silent, and thus becomes the world’s true judge – he is the judge who does not condemn. Remember John 3:17: “God sent the son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that he world might be saved through him.”
The pure victim, the righteous victim and his suffering, absorbs the evil and the sinfulness of others; and so with his rising, he overcomes that cruel death and offers new life. Jesus, in the great affirmation of Easter that he is not dead but alive, is the source of our ultimate hope. To hear the good news of salvation, to be converted, is in fact to turn back to the condemned and rejected one, the victim – and acknowledge that there is hope nowhere else.
This all happened first in Jerusalem when the disciples preached about “this Jesus” who was crucified and now raised from the dead. These disciples had “seen the Lord” – they were now able to move on past their own guilt and hurt for what they themselves had done. They were the deniers, they ran away, they fell asleep. They could now move on. There was now another way of living. The victim continued to offer life and hope.
Today my simple message is that we of the Easter faith, we who are followers of the risen crucified one, have to again and again be challenged, and be excited by the events we mark today. The events of today are not just to be assessed on the basis that there may be bones lying somewhere, or the accounts of the resurrection in the Bible align, or we can use science to prove something; whatever. The significance of today is about how you personally understand that “this Jesus” who “they”, or really “we” condemned, is the basis of new life and hope.
Christ’s resurrection may mean many things – and we have seen how the theologians can get a hold of this event and tease out so many different insights. Ultimately however, it is not what others say, but whether the death and resurrection of Jesus transforms your life, and gives it meaning and hope.
I hope and pray it does – and this is a great day for you.
