EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodically authorized minister. The journey together these past four years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Easter, April 17, 2022.
This week's gospel: Luke 24:1-12
The Resurrection of Jesus
24 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
The message:
A lot can happen in three days.
That is a phrase used to describe the period from Good Friday morning through Easter morning that I find illuminating.
Sure, on the surface, it can kind of sound like a cliché. … “A lot can happen in three days.” … It’d certainly make for a good bumper sticker, wouldn’t it?
But, if we seriously take a deeper dive into what those seven words can mean, we start to see the actual importance of those 72 hours that took place between when Jesus is arrested, condemned to death, beaten and humiliated, dies on the cross and then rises again in all his divine glory … just three days later.
It’s then we come to realize that this little mantra isn’t so meaningless after all. … A lot can happen in three days.
So, just what is it that we mean that a lot can happen in three days?
Well, in our earthly minds it’s easy to start calculating how much work we could get done, right? Or how many projects around the house we could finish in a weekend.
That is how our earthly minds tend to measure time. Isn’t it? … How much can we accomplish?
But in time in God’s Kingdom, think about how much differently three days is measured!
In the Kingdom of heaven, in just three days, the God who came to earth in the form of a mortal human, and suffers an excruciating and unjust death at the hands of religious and government authorities for threatening the status quo of how this world is ordered on Friday morning, rises in glory … conquering death on Sunday morning. … Easter morning.
You see, a lot can happen in three days.
In three days, Jesus alters the course of human events unlike anyone ever had in the previous thousands of years of recorded history, or anyone since.
Because let us not forget that prior to Jesus’ birth, humans had been walking this earth for thousands of years, and not one of them -- no king or emperor or religious leader -- ever could solve the sinfully corrupt problems this earth had.
But Jesus did. … In just three days.
Jesus was not defeated by the hands of those whose evil had kept so many people oppressed in history through corrupt systems of justice, commerce and government.
But rather, in just three days, Jesus crushed all of those systems of oppression by rising again, assuring that evil and death would not have the final word!
Yes, indeed, a lot can happen in three days.
In his stinging rebuke to death, Jesus flipped this world on its axis. All of his promises throughout his short life of ministry here on earth became true.
The powerful here were put in their place by a God who loved us so much that he was willing to come to earth in mortal form, suffer a humiliating death and through his weakness shake the very foundations of what a kingdom should be like.
No longer was the rule “might makes right” … but rather the rule became “love and mercy and compassion for all.” Jesus toppled all of the man-made kingdoms that had ever existed -- even the mighty Roman empire -- with his one, selfless act of compassion.
He forever changed the world, and he did it in three days.
So, yes, a lot can happen in three days.
Jesus, the outsider …. the rabbi who spoke of love and mercy and compassion for all of society’s outcasts … changed the world for all of the people who previously seemed unimportant in these worldly affairs.
Jesus’ death defended the poor, the widowed, the enslaved, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the lepers and, yes, even people of other faiths.
In his death on the cross, Jesus showed those who reigned in his day that despite all of their power, wealth and influence, one single man, in a loving act of defiance could upend all of their earthly rule.
And to all of those oppressed and forgotten people, Jesus demonstrated that despite what this world had to offer them, in God’s Kingdom they would be celebrated just the same as anyone else.
As the meek here on earth, they would inherit all the riches of the imagination in God’s Kingdom, just as Jesus did in his death. … Jesus demonstrated that through his inheritance of the kingdom, so do we inherit the kingdom.
In other words, Jesus crushed the natural order of the earthly world and instituted the rule of the Kingdom of Heaven … in just three days.
Oh, Faith Family, a lot can happen in three days.
For thousands of years, prior to Jesus’ arrival, the people of earth were not only ruled by the hands of kings and emperors and religious leaders.
But they also were ruled by a very serious set of rules in the Old Testament that supposedly determined one’s worthiness of getting into heaven.
Rules that determined what you could and couldn’t eat. Rules that determined who you could and couldn’t hang out with. Rules about how to treat neighbors and strangers, how to plant crops and raise livestock and how to deal with one’s financial interests.
Lots and lots of rules. … All designed to determine one’s worthiness of gaining heaven.
And then along came Jesus, and in one supreme act of compassion, he sacrificed himself so that we all would have eternal life, regardless of whether the rules determined we were worthy.
In his willingness to go to the cross, and suffer an excruciating and humiliating death, he demonstrated that truly there were only two commandments that mattered: Loving God with all of your heart and mind and soul and strength … and loving your neighbor as yourself.
In just three days, Jesus rewrote what it meant to be faithful to God and who earned the right to enter God’s Kingdom. And unlike the earthly rules, Jesus showed us that everyone was worthy of entering God’s Kingdom.
Jesus rewrote thousands of years of religious doctrine … in just three days.
So, you see, a lot can happen in three days.
And that is why Easter is such a joyous time for those of us who follow Jesus. Because through his death and sacrifice on our behalf on the cross, we know that we too receive eternal life.
Death does not conquer us either thanks to Jesus’ ultimate gift to each and every one of us. But rather, we will live on in the Kingdom of God where no one goes hungry or neglected or jailed or naked or homeless.
We celebrate Easter because we know that all will enjoy the same mercy and endless compassion.
All of those here on earth that were shunned but Jesus hung out with anyway -- the have-nots, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the widowed and the lepers -- will be seated at the same table as the kings and government leaders and the unrighteously pious of this world.
Easter reminds us that, yes, on that dark day at Golgotha, the powers of this world tried to end Jesus’ life and his threat to them.
But in his final act as a mortal, Jesus defeated them, and in so doing, promised everyone a new life. One that will last for eternity in a kingdom so much more beautiful and unimaginable than this one!
Easter is a wonderful celebration of life!
And it reminds each of us that no matter how dark of a time we are journeying through, that come Easter morning, Jesus will rise, and in doing so, he will conquer the death of this world again and again!
For he will not be found in that tomb! … But rather, he is risen and active and present in this world!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! … And Faith Family, that is the Good News on this Easter morning, 2022. … Amen.
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