God's Last Words

THE RESURRECTION

John 20: 1-18 (NRSV)

It’s Easter Sunday. Time to eat all the candy and marshmallow eggs.

 Time to pig out on an Easter Ham. There’s gotta be a nicer word for pig out. A euphemism, as it were. Hey, try to think up a nicer word for euphemism.

 And while you’re at it, think up a shorter word for abbreviation. And a synonym for Thesaurus.

 Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouths closed? And why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ such a big deal?

 Why do people claim it didn’t happen when so much historical evidence supports the facts? There are more facts for Jesus’ resurrection than we have for the historical characters of Robin Hood, King Arthur, Hannibal and his elephants, and the mysterious island of Atlantis, but people don’t doubt them.

 

Let’s read the resurrection story: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

 

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 

He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 

 

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 

 

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

 

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

 

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

 

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

I have heard many explanations and reasons to support the resurrection. I even have personal experience that leads me to faith. But the best argument I’ve ever heard comes from a source some people might not have considered:

When Charles Colson, onetime Watergate criminal-turned-founder of Prison Fellowship, is challenged about the truth of Christ’s resurrection, he responds:

 

“My answer is always that the disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then I’m asked, ‘How do you know they were telling the truth? Maybe they were perpetuating a hoax.’ ” Colson says, “My answer to that comes from an unlikely source: Watergate.”

 

He wrote this in his “Break Point Online Commentaries” in 2002:

 

Watergate involved a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States — the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state’s evidence, that is, testified against Nixon, as he put it, “to save his own skin” — and he did so only two weeks after informing the president about what was really going on!

 

The cover-up, the lie, only held together for two weeks, and then everybody else jumped ship to save themselves.

Now, all those around the president were facing was embarrassment, maybe prison. Nobody’s life was at stake.

 

But what about the disciples? Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, execution. (Yet) Every one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.

 

Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false.

 

The Watergate cover-up reveals the true nature of humanity. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of power will, in the crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face, and they knew he had risen from the dead.

 

No, you can take it from an expert in cover-ups — I’ve lived through Watergate — that nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord.

 

Two thousand years later, nothing less than the power of the risen Christ could inspire Christians around the world to remain faithful — despite prison, torture, and death. Jesus is Lord: That’s the thrilling message of Easter. It’s a historic fact, one convincingly established by the evidence — and one you can bet your life upon.

 

So there you have it, a compelling argument for Christ. A rational suggestion that the resurrection would have fallen apart if there were any shenanigans involved.

 

But we live in times of spiritual ignorance, skepticism, and religious shenanigans.

 

A woman went into a jewelry store looking for a necklace and said to the clerk, “I’d like a gold cross.” The man looked at the stock in the display case and replied, “Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?”

 

Easter is the day we acknowledge that the cross is not only empty, but the tomb is as well. We celebrate Jesus overcoming death. He is risen! Amen.