Easter Sunday 2016c
Trinity Lutheran Church
(NALC), East Flat Rock, North Carolina
Luke 24:1-11
A man was driving along the highway when all of a
sudden the Easter Bunny hopped across the road and jumped right in front
of his car. He couldn’t help it and he hit the rabbit: eggs and candy went
flying everywhere.
He pulled over and felt terrible. A woman driving by stopped to asked what was wrong. The man said, "I accidentally killed the Easter Bunny!” The woman told him not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to the trunk of her car, pulled out a spray can, walked over to the Bunny and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the furry little carcass.
Miraculously: the Easter Bunny came to back life! It jumped up, picked up the eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned, waved, hopped another 50 yards and waved again!!!!
The man was astonished. He said, "What in the
world was in that spray can?" The woman turned the can around so that the
man could read the label. It said: "Hair spray. Restores life to
dead hair. Adds permanent wave."He pulled over and felt terrible. A woman driving by stopped to asked what was wrong. The man said, "I accidentally killed the Easter Bunny!” The woman told him not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to the trunk of her car, pulled out a spray can, walked over to the Bunny and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the furry little carcass.
Miraculously: the Easter Bunny came to back life! It jumped up, picked up the eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned, waved, hopped another 50 yards and waved again!!!!
So, what does this story about the Easter bunny have
to do with what we celebrate this morning? Well aside from a rodent being the
symbol for the holiest day of the year, it reminds us of the reality of life…
and death. Reality check: there really
is no magic spray that can restore life to dead things. That’s just the way it is: once you’re dead,
you’re dead. It’s always been that way.
Temporary life and permanent death are the hallmark of our existence. Or… are they?
Because the accounts of eyewitnesses some 2000 years ago seem to
introduce a new reality, a reality that changes everything.
As Mary Magdalene and the others walked to the tomb
that early morning, tears probably rolled down their cheeks. Three days before they had experienced the
mother of all reality checks. For years
they had followed Jesus, watching him heal the sick, watching him feed the
hungry, even watching him raise people from the dead. And they’d heard Jesus
speak of a new kingdom, of life beyond the limits of this life.
But on that first morning of the week at early dawn,
that dream was dead. They’d seen his
body… watched it lowered to the ground with their own eyes. And now as they
walked to his tomb to anoint his body for a proper burial, the reality check of
inescapable death and separation held them in despair. They would never see him again… never hear
his voice… never again feel his hand tenderly rest on their shoulder. They shared the grief that had held humankind
captive since the dawn of time.
But our God is the God of the New
Reality. When we are most lost, His
reality sets us free.
As they came to the garden, the
massive stone that had covered the opening to the tomb was rolled away, and
when they stooped down to peer inside… there was no body! And the women were shocked, stunned, who
could have done something so mean as to steal the body of Jesus?
But suddenly two angels were there…
dressed in clothes that glowed, revealing them as messengers of the Lord Most
High. And those angels asked those women
a question: a question that changed everything!
“Why do you seek the living among the
dead?”
It was angels, remember, who
proclaimed the birth of the Messiah in the skies over Bethlehem one night, and
it was angels now who proclaimed a new reality in that cemetery.
No longer would the soft tears of the
graveside mark a barrier between life and death that could never be broken. No
longer would we live and die in a cycle of futility. Jesus had shattered the grasp of the grave. “Why
do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, he has risen!”
Those were the words that changed everything…
EVERYthing. God’s new reality had come.
Some years ago Leadership
magazine had a story about a young boy named Philip. Philip was a special child; Down’s syndrome
they called it then. He attended a
Sunday School class for 8 and 9 year olds, and on Easter Sunday his teacher
brought a basket of pantyhose containers to the class; the kind that look like
plastic eggs. And she handed out an
empty egg to each of the kids and gave them an assignment: they had 10 minutes to go out in the yard
around the church and find something to put in their egg that symbolized new-life
in Jesus’ resurrection. Back in the
classroom they’d all gather around and look at the symbols that everyone had
collected.
When they got back in the room the eggs were opened
one at a time, and all the kids ‘ooohed
and aaahed’ over a cocoon and a flower and all the things they’d found. Then the teacher opened an egg that was
empty. The kids all began yelling that
someone hadn’t done it right. Little
Philip spoke up and said, “That’s my egg; I did so do it right! It’s empty – just like Jesus’ tomb was empty.” Silence fell, then all of the kids agreed
that Philip did it right after all.
Later that year, Philip fell asleep and didn’t wake
up. At the funeral, the mourners watched
as a line of 8 and 9 year old Sunday School children went forward to the
coffin… each one gently placing inside a large plastic pantyhose egg… every one
of them empty.
They understood the new reality, you see. They understood the angel’s words that
morning so long ago. “Why
do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, he has risen!”
Over the years we’ve developed lots of symbols for
this day. Colored eggs, pretty flowers, and (of all things) a rabbit! But even that silly rabbit can point us to
God’s new reality that came to us at Easter.
Some years ago someone wrote a book. It was called “Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned From the Easter Bunny”
and, despite its silly title – it actually had some wisdom in its pages. Wisdom like
“Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” “Everyone needs a friend who is all
ears.” “Keep your paws off of other
people’s jelly beans.” “Some body parts
are just meant to be floppy.” And, oh
yeah, “Sometimes things are not as they seem.”
And that is what we celebrate this morning. Things
are not as they seem… not as they used to be.
Because the old reality was to stand at a graveside and see an
impenetrable wall. But now we live in a
new reality, and the wall has become a door.
“Why
do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, he has risen!”
And because Christ rose, we who live and die in
faith will awaken from our sleep of death and live forever with him.
For He is risen!
(He is risen, indeed!). And THAT…
changes everything. AMEN
Pastor Mike 2016
Permission is granted to reproduce this work in whole or
in part if the glory for its content is given to the Lord
Soli Deo Gloria
