Easter Sunday
Jesus is all about “salvation”- the origin of that word has to do with health. Jesus has come to heal us. The Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware says,
“... There are two basic principles concerning our Salvation. First, only God can save us. A prophet or teacher of righteousness cannot be the redeemer of the world. If, then, Christ is to be our savior, he must be fully and completely God. Secondly, Salvation must reach the point of human need. Only if Christ is fully and completely a man as we are, can we men share in what he has done for us. … Christ shares to the full in what we are, and so he makes it possible for us to share in what he is, in his divine life and glory. He became what we are, so as to make us what he is.” (The Orthodox Way, p.73, 74).
St. Gregory the Theologian said,
“The unassumed is unhealed” (Letter 101, to Cledonius).
This means that if there is an aspect of humanity that Jesus doesn’t have, then that part would not be saved. It was necessary, then, for Christ to be completely human. Christ takes on human flesh- human flesh with all the consequences of the fall- all our brokenness, but without sin. He had a human mind and will, just like we have. Everything that makes us essentially human, he took onto himself. He experienced life as a human being. We read in the letter to the Hebrews that He was tempted like we are-
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).
Christ wasn’t protected from living in a fallen world. In solidarity with us, he got into the mud with us. He didn’t sin, but he took on sin- St. Paul says,
“God has made him who knew no sin to be sin for our sake” (2 Cor 5:21).
God identifies with us to the point of experiencing life as one of us- the inner and outer challenges. So, Jesus is human all the way down. Everything that is essential to being a human being is part of Jesus. He became one of us, so that we might become like him.
At the Last Supper Jesus prays to the Father,
At the Last Supper Jesus prays to the Father,
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (Jn 17:22-23).
… Just as the temple was the place where heaven and earth overlapped, so Christ is the place where God and humanity overlap. The place where they touch is unique in all the universe and throughout all time. He became the doorway- God became one of us so that we can become like him. As Peter says in his 2nd letter, that we can be “sharers in the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).
God the Son becoming human, was an act of Salvation. Bishop Kallistos Ware says,
God the Son becoming human, was an act of Salvation. Bishop Kallistos Ware says,
“In an unfallen world the Incarnation of Christ would indeed have sufficed as the perfect expression of God's outgoing love. But in a fallen and sinful world his love had to reach out yet further. … Jesus Christ our companion shares not only in the fullness of human life but also in the fullness of human death. ‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows’ (Isa. 53:4) …. ‘The unassumed is unhealed ‘: but Christ our healer has assumed into himself everything, even death” (p.78, 79).
Christ chooses to allow himself to be taken by the hatred and violence of human beings and turns their state-sanctioned murder into a sacrifice for our benefit. …
But we shouldn’t think that this is something he did easily- it came with incredible inner turmoil, as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. A “Gethsemane” is an olive press. Jesus, like those olives, felt the crushing weight of what he was going to do pressing down on him. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46) is the very anguished and human cry we read about in Psalm 22. Jesus made that human cry into his own cry. We can’t hear that Psalm without thinking about him. He felt abandoned- from both human beings, and even mysteriously from God. It doesn’t mean he actually was abandoned by God, but he felt it. Just as we sometimes feel God’s absence, he did too. … No matter how bad we feel, Christ has gone there so we wouldn’t be alone in those moments. He has walked that road before us. He knows suffering. … And his love goes all the way down into all those dark places. His love didn’t end. There was no point when his suffering overtook his love. His love went all the way down. … And when we see that, our hearts are drawn to his. The hate is met with love, and something happens to our hearts when we encounter that kind of love.
But we shouldn’t think that this is something he did easily- it came with incredible inner turmoil, as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. A “Gethsemane” is an olive press. Jesus, like those olives, felt the crushing weight of what he was going to do pressing down on him. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46) is the very anguished and human cry we read about in Psalm 22. Jesus made that human cry into his own cry. We can’t hear that Psalm without thinking about him. He felt abandoned- from both human beings, and even mysteriously from God. It doesn’t mean he actually was abandoned by God, but he felt it. Just as we sometimes feel God’s absence, he did too. … No matter how bad we feel, Christ has gone there so we wouldn’t be alone in those moments. He has walked that road before us. He knows suffering. … And his love goes all the way down into all those dark places. His love didn’t end. There was no point when his suffering overtook his love. His love went all the way down. … And when we see that, our hearts are drawn to his. The hate is met with love, and something happens to our hearts when we encounter that kind of love.
This is something the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. learned from Jesus. He once preached saying,
“To our most bitter opponents we say: ‘we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. … We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non co-operation with evil is … a moral obligation. … Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.” (Strength to Love, p 40).
Luther was speaking about the love that was in Jesus as he forgave his enemies from the cross. It is a love that has the power to melt our hearts and transform our wills. It has the power to transform our own suffering because we know that love is still there, even in the darkest corner. Even death is now filled with God’s love. … We have nothing to be afraid of.
He was raised from the dead to show that this is not a fairy story, or a delusion. We really don’t have to be afraid because Jesus really did come back from the dead. God has validated the life and ministry of Jesus through the resurrection to let us know that we can trust him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. … And when the disciples experienced this, they went from a group full of fear, hiding behind locked doors, to preaching the name of Jesus everywhere, even when it meant jail, beatings, and eventually death. … They knew that His Love went al the way down, into every dark corner of the human experience. There is no place where their suffering wouldn’t be met by God’s love, and even in death God is present and just as Jesus was kept safe in that darkness, so they would be if they walked his path.
The resurrection changed everything for the disciples. It was not an interesting added extra- it was central. Our reading from 1st Corinthians ends at verse 11, but if we kept reading to verses 14 and 15 Paul says,
“And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised” (1 Cor 15:14-15).
… Paul also points to witnesses,
“and that he appeared to Cephas [That’s Peter], then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Cor 15:5-8).
Something amazing happens on Easter morning. Despite expectations, the tomb is found empty. People start saying that they have seen Jesus. We sometimes think that because they lived a long time ago that they are more likely to believe unbelievable things. But, that is really an arrogant thing to think. These are not stupid people. They know that people don't just come back from the dead. ... They say they have conversations with him, and eat with him, and touch him. Large groups see him. Small groups see him. Individuals see him. Enemies see him. And suddenly instead of being scattered and scared the followers of Jesus become bold and confident. They publicly declare that 'Jesus is alive', and the reply from the hostile authorities isn't to exhume Jesus' body for everyone to see so as to disprove the claim. They can't find his body. They actually accuse the disciples of stealing the body. … But, the followers of Jesus continue to build in their boldness and confidence that Jesus really and truly is alive. Their fear is transformed into joy. They knew that whatever trials they faced in this life were temporary. Joy and love would always be waiting for them, no matter what they experienced, and the resurrection of Jesus proved that. AMEN
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