April 4, 2010
Is Easter an Idle Tale? - Luke 24:1-12
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadIf you have read the title of today’s sermon, you are thoroughly offended at it. “Is Easter an idle tale?” Of course it’s not. If you are anything like me, you have never missed an Easter Sunday in your life. If Easter is not true, then life itself is not true. “Is Easter an idle tale?” It’s still a valid question, though, and if you ever have thought it, then you are certainly in good company. Jesus’ disciples, everyone of them, asked the same question. In fact, when the women told them of this empty tomb the first thought that went through the disciples’ minds was “nonsense.”
I have become a subject matter expert recently on the story of Snow White. My oldest daughter is fascinated with Snow White. I have watched it with her at least a dozen times and she and I have almost memorized it. I won’t bore you with the details (I can later if you’d like), but I’ll condense Snow White to a sentence. Snow White falls in love with this prince, and through a series of mishaps and dangers, she ends up riding off in the sunset on a white horse with her cute, little prince beside her. There you have it.
It’s a cute little story, Snow White is, and you can’t help but like it. In fact, you can even learn a few things from Snow White. But it’s also an idle tale. It’s nonsense. Snow White is obviously fiction. It’s make-believe. But that’s not why it’s nonsense. It’s nonsense because it’s over. Snow White finds her sugar daddy, and they ride off and live happily ever after. That’s it. Other than the joy of watching your three-year-old become enthralled with it, and maybe even other than a few little morals to it, Snow White has no bearing whatsoever on us. It has no claim on us. It does not give us any direction and it certainly does not give us hope. Iran (I know going from Snow White to Iran is a sharp contrast, but bear with me) is rapidly gaining nuclear weapons. You have just lost your job. Your marriage is on the rocks. You are dying. Your father or mother has just died. What does Snow White have to say about any of that? It’s nonsense, you see.
At the end of Chapter 23, Jesus was nonsense. He was nonsense not because he was fiction, or because what he taught us was not true, or because his life was not meaningful. He was nonsense because he was dead. Jesus’ story was over at the end of Chapter 23. He therefore had no claim on us then. Like Snow White, and like anybody else in history, fiction or non-fiction, we can learn a lot from him, we can be challenged by him, we can remember him with great fondness, but he had no claim on us then. Jesus cannot save us if he’s dead. We cannot belong to him, we cannot have hope in him, we cannot anticipate the day when he returns to make everything new again if he is dead. And at the end of Luke Chapter 23, Jesus is dead.
That’s true, or will be true, for all of us, you know. Theodore Roosevelt was a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, soldier, politician, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States, and the 26th President of the United States. And, at the age of 42, he remains the youngest person ever to hold that office. And, he was the intellectual superior to his cousin, Franklin. He spoke multiple languages, read several books a day, was a third degree brown belt in Judo, and skinny dipped in the Potomac River every day throughout the winter months. That’s not a bad list of accomplishments, is it? I heard Theodore Roosevelt mentioned recently in an interview on conservation, which may be his greatest legacy. As President, Roosevelt was conserved 230 million acres in the United States in national forests and parks. What an incredible legacy, that has long outlived him. I wish that I could do a fraction of what he did. But Theodore Roosevelt is dead now, and much of those 230 million acres is in jeopardy of development. If only he were here, this person said in that interview. He’s not here, though, you see. He’s gone. Even with all of those meaningful accomplishments, and with such a lasting legacy, Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, is gone. Therein lies the point, or the lack of a point. That’s what death does. It makes all of us, and everything that we believe in, empty and idle tales.
But Jesus’ grave was empty that day, which means that we’re not idle tales, because God is not an idle tale. The first witnesses that day were emphatic that Jesus was not in that tomb. His clothes were there. The tomb itself was still there, but he wasn’t. Even regardless of the empty tomb, the early witnesses had experiences with Jesus after his death. They saw him all over the place, actually. Matthew says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saw him right after they left the tomb. Luke says that two of the disciples saw Jesus as they walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They didn’t even know it was him, but they were just certain after they ate with him. The rest of the disciples saw him back in Jerusalem. He even ate with them. (Evidently the resurrected Jesus liked to eat. He was not a ghost.) According to John, he appeared to Mary Magdalene, then the rest of his disciples, and then specifically to “doubting Thomas.” Thomas even put his hands in Jesus’ nail-scared hands and side. Sometime after that, according to John, he appeared to the disciples as they were fishing one day. Paul swore up and down that Jesus appeared to him as he was walking to Damascus where he had planned, of all things, to persecute Christians.
I’m not trying to give you scientific proof that Jesus was resurrected. Resurrection is beyond science. It’s clear, though, that early Christians believed with all they had that Jesus beat death. And it wasn’t just the empty tomb, but it was these other appearances that continued to give substance to their lives. Otherwise, the whole thing was an idle story, a nice story maybe, but a finished story. The offensive part of Easter is not somebody saying that it’s just an idle tale. The offensive part of Easter is that it’s more than just an idle tale. It’s truth. It matters very much. In fact, it’s pretty much everything for us.
We are the idle tales. We labor for that which does not last. And even if we are good at it, whatever it is, it all goes away. Maybe it is a little bit of a stretch I suppose to compare Teddy Roosevelt to Snow White, or you and me to Snow White. But consider this: Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency was just over one hundred years ago. Do you think people will know about him in another hundred years? We don’t know all that much about him now. What about a thousand? What about a million? The earth is 5 million years old. Time, as the old hymn says, really does, like an ever rolling stream, bare us all away. We lie forgotten as a dream lies at the break of day. Who do we think we’re kidding? We are flowers of the field, according to Psalm 103, who flourish for a while and may set rivers on fire with all our success, and degrees and titles, we swell our bank accounts up and may can put up a few winning seasons on our football team, maybe even a super bowl or two. Maybe Charlotte will finally become a great and global city. President Obama was here Friday, literally. That’s big time. But, says the Psalmist, a little wind passes over us and we are gone and our place knows us no more.
But then there’s this story of Jesus, which is not over. If it is over, then Jesus is indeed an idle tale, and so are we. “If Christ has not been raised,” Paul wrote, “then our faith has been in vain, and we are of all people to be pitied the most.” But we have these witnesses who swear up and down that Jesus’ tomb was empty that day and that Jesus appeared to them. This story of Jesus’ Resurrection has been passed down to every generation since then, and now we hear it one more time. Is it foolishness? Is it an idle tale? I believe it to be the power of salvation, because the risen Jesus still shows up and always will show up to give us hope and meaning. Jesus is not nonsense and neither, therefore, are we, and neither, therefore, are they. Maybe, as Price Reynolds once said, “History really is the will of a just God who knows us.” Death does threaten to bare us all away like an ever-rolling stream and make nonsense out of all of us. But do not be afraid. God in Christ has beat death. We are not non-sense. God is not non-sense. The Resurrection is not non-sense. It’s salvation!
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
