It’s Easter—Are You Listening?
Luke 24:1-12
Hanging with the drop, the Guillotine, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection are all, like crucifixion, means of execution. Yet, they are unlike crucifixion in on important way. Strange as it might seem to our modern sensibilities each of these means of execution, unlike crucifixion, were devised to do their work as humanely as possible. They were designed to minimize the pain and suffering of the victim.
Crucifixion—death by a cross—was a study in inhumanity, designed to maximize the suffering of the victim. Describing crucifixion as death be slow torture is accurate bur covers up the brutality inflicted on the one crucified. And, in the first century, the Romans were masters of this horrific art. Good Friday recalls how they applied this art to Jesus.
As Luke 24 opens, Jesus has already died and his body has been placed in tomb, the gift of an admirer who could no longer keep his devotion quiet. It is now the morning of the third day following Jesus’ death. It is the first day of the week. Listen to what Luke says. [Read Luke 24:1-12]
As I studied this passage I began to realize something. It is a skillfully written story. It has feeling, movement, and tension. Short as the passage may be, it has both a beginning and an end. Like most stories do. But here is where we see Luke’s skill.
Luke’s story begins with the end and ends with the beginning.
Let me explain.
Luke begins by telling us about a group of women who were convinced it was the end.
These women Luke writes about had dared to believe Jesus was God’s Anointed One, the Messiah. Though they may not have fully understood his mission, they believed he had come to change things. They believed he would bring them closer to God. They had sat under his inspiring teaching, marveling as stories about a God who was like a father who yearns for his prodigal son to come home. They had seen him heal the sick and set others free from the power of Satan. One of the women Luke mentions, Mary Magdalene, could testify to having experienced that liberation. They had sensed his respect for everyone regardless of social class or gender. They devoted their time and their possessions to his cause. Then they had watched him die. There was nothing “good” about that Friday for them. For them it was the end.
Do your best to put yourselves in their hearts. Try to forget you’ve heard the story before and you know what’s about to happen. Erase Easter from your mental calendar. Think yourself back to that early morning as these heartbroken woman walked toward the tomb they believed held the body of the man they had placed their hopes in. Above all, don’t be too critical. Remember it was a frightening, painful time. But still they set out on a mission of love.
Heartbroken as they were, they wished to perform a final gesture of respect to honor Jesus. He had been quickly buried. Some efforts had been made to prepare the body, but they wanted to do more. The men burying Jesus had rushed to finish before the Sabbath; they would take their time. So, at dawn on the first day of the week they set out to do this final act of devotion.
Who were these women? Luke names some of them. There was Mary Magdalene, a woman Jesus had set free from “seven demons.” There was another Mary who was the mother of one of the apostle James the Less, called that to distinguish him from John’s brother James. There was Joanna, who was the wife of an official in Herod’s court and who may have been healed by Jesus; Joanna used her personal wealth to support Jesus. Some scholars believe Joanna was Luke’s source for this story. And there were others Luke for some reason doesn’t name.
We can sympathize with these women. As they walked to the tomb that morning, the reality of what had happened must have weighed heavily on them. Maybe they resolved to do their best to keep Jesus’ memory alive. But they probably knew that in two or three generations their family members would think of Jesus as just a man the old folks used to talk about.
While they may have had such thoughts, we know from other gospels they had more practical concerns. They wondered who would roll the heavy stone away from the tomb’s entrance so they could perform their task. As it happened, when they reached the tomb, they found the stone was already rolled away. And, the tomb was empty.
Well, at least the body of Jesus wasn’t there.
Now Luke ends this story by telling us of a group of women who were told of a beginning.
Three times in his writings Luke used the phrase “suddenly three men.” He used it here, at the Transfiguration, and following the Ascension. In each instance, he is reporting the presence of heavenly visitors. In this instance, these “two men in dazzling clothes” were angels.
Perhaps Luke intends to remind us that Jesus’ birth was announced by angels to the frightened shepherds. Now angels have another announcement for these frightened women.
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen.”
The announcement begins with a kind of heavenly logic: If you’re looking for Jesus, the cemetery is not the place to begin.
It was an astounding announcement: Jesus the one they had seen crucified, was alive. Before they fully grasp this news, the angels go on to explain the cause of their problem. They hadn’t been listening. In a gentle rebuke, the angels say, “Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”
Well, once reminded, they did remember. And remembering, everything made sense. So they hurried back to tell “the eleven apostles and the other disciples” the great news. They told them and, wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t listen. Actually, they thought what the women said was “pure nonsense.”
There were probably a couple reasons for this response to what the women said.
First, it was women who said it. I don’t want to make too much of this, but this was a culture that didn’t consider women to be especially reliable witnesses. A woman couldn’t even testify in court. So, despite Jesus’ example of treating women with respect, the disciples were still reluctant to accept their report. Ultimately, they hadn’t listened to Jesus either.
Strangely, this becomes an important pointer to the authenticity of this account. If Luke or the other gospel writers had wanted to fabricate a story that the mass of people would accept, they wouldn’t have given women such a key role. Yet each writer presents women as the first to hear and share the news of the resurrection. That seems to suggest this is just what happened.
The second reason they rejected what the women said is more significant. Dead people don’t come back to life. Death is permanent. Death is the last enemy and cemeteries around the world are reminders of that enemy’s many victories. In the minds of the disciples who rejected the women’s story as “nonsense,” death had claimed one more victim—Jesus.
Remember, the apostles hadn't listened either. Three of those apostles had witnessed the Transfiguration where they saw Christ in his glory and heard the Voice from heaven say, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to Him." Luke brackets the Transfiguration with Jesus' warnings about his death. The Apostles didn't listen to the women because they didn't listen to Jesus. But remember how Luke crafts his story.
Luke concludes his story with the beginning. Soon the disciples would be convinced by “many infallible proofs” that Jesus had defeated death. It would be the beginning of a new way of thinking about God and about the future. It would be the beginning of Christ’s people carrying on the Risen Christ’s work.
Luke’s story might not be as exciting as some of the other post-Resurrection stories but it presents an important lesson.
Doubt, despair, and confusion are our reward for failing to listen to Jesus.
As I thought about this, I remembered an incident that took place years ago. Some of you will remember Bob and Cheryl and their two children Lauren and Conner. On the day Conner was born Pat and I took care of Lauren who was only about five. We took her out to eat, took her to see the butterflies at Franklin Park, and took her to some other places we thought a little girl might enjoy. At one point, as we were heading down Broad Street I failed to make a turn Pat had told me to take. From the back seat I heard Lauren say, “You don’t listen very well, do you, Jim?”
Don’t be smug when you think about these women who hadn’t really listened to Jesus. Even though we have the benefit of Easter-shaped hindsight sometimes we don’t listen very well.
When news reports or our experiences fill us with fear we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.’”
When bitterness and anger consumes us, when we yearn for revenge toward the one who has wounded us, we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, ‘Forgive your enemies and pray for them.’”
When the challenges of life threaten to crush us, when we feel we can’t face one more day at a toiling at a thankless job or one more night caring for a loved one, we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’”
When we worry that following Jesus will cost our friends, we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, ‘I assure you that everyone who has given up… brothers or sisters or mother or father or children… for my sake-… will receive now in return a hundred times as many…brothers, sisters, mothers, children—even in the midst of trial.’”
When we complain that life is insipid and we have no purpose, we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’”
When we grieve the loss of a loved one who has meant so much to us, we need to say, “I must listen to Jesus when he says, ‘Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.’”
When we shudder in the face of our own mortality, we need to say, “I must listen to the Risen Jesus when he says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die.’”
It’s Easter. Are you listening?
