Head and Heart: What Happened to Easter?

photo by RC isidro / flickr

Let me ask you a question. Whatever happened to Easter? Well, you’d probably say we had to take the lilies out—all the bloom had shriveled up or fell off. We have put those Resurrection hymns aside. You have consigned that cool dress you got at Target and wore Easter Sunday back in the closet. Too fancy for everyday. You wondered if you’d ever wear that pink tie with the bunnies all over it again. Hideous. Really—but after all it was Easter. And once in a while as you’re cutting the grass—you find a colored Easter egg somebody couldn’t find during the Easter egg hunt. Once upon a time when I was a little boy at the stores in cages would be the cutest little chicks you’ve ever seen. Colored pink and green and blue—probably terrible for the chickens. Anyway—we’d get one and bring it home and feed it and the colors would fade and guess what. That little chicken began to grow and grow and my Mother would say: “We’ve got to get rid of that chicken. Maybe even have him for Sunday dinner.” What happened to Easter? Well—it’s gone for another year and we all have to get back to abnormal.

That’s what happened to the disciples in every account after Easter. It was over and I guess they thought they had go go back to the way they were before.

Mark’s last chapter has nine verses. Some of the disciples went to the Tomb and it was empty. And an angel told them he had risen and would meet them soon on the road. And what happened? Mark writes: “ …they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.” What kind of an after-Easter story is that? Just leaves us hanging. The door to the tomb was open and empty and they were scared for their lives.

Luke isn’t any better. After the crucifixion and Easter morning and the angel that came with the good, good news two of the disciples walked along the road to Emmaus. And Luke says two of the disciples just walked along the dusty road—depressed. And Luke wrote,“We had hoped that he was the one to come and redeem Israel.” Is there are sadder word anywhere in the Bible or in our lives? “We had hoped…” Who here has not said it.

Matthew’s after Easter story has the same flavor. Standing at the Open Tomb that Easter morning the angel said to them: “Do not be afraid…” But the tomb was empty and guess what? They were scared to death.

In the last gospel, John said it was after Easter and even after what the angels had spoken and the women had told the disciples about the angels—they gathered in an upper room and locked the doors tight. They were scared out of their wits. And just a few paragraphs later Simon Peter tired of fiddling his thumbs said: “Well—I’m just going fishing.” And the others said: “Well, guess we’ll go too.” and those fisherman—professionals—fished all night and caught nothing. Nothing. What kind of an Easter story was that? No rushing out to tell the world. No Hallelujah Chorus. That’s the way I’d write it. That’s not what happened. Every gospel said it like Luke did: “We had hoped…he was the one…”Easter seemed to be over.

We've all been there, haven’t we. In June or August or even December—Easter seemed a long way off, didn’t it. Why we took our Easter lilies and planted them and guess what, they just shriveled and died. You got a bad lab report. Or you take your 16 year old daughter in for a check-up and the Doctor told you she had the same cancer gene as her grandmother who had died—and she would have to have a mastectomy. Or like my neighbor the other day I stopped and knocked on his door—his wife had just died two weeks ago. He opened the door and said: “We were married for 68 years…I just don’t know if I can make it.” You turn on the TV and chaos all over. It is a mess. This country and the world. “We had hoped.” Whatever happened to Easter? Good question.

photo by Dimitris Kamaras / flickr

Every gospel says the same thing in their own way. But that's not the end of there story. In the footnotes in Mark 16 do you know what Mark wrote? Not only did Mary Magdalene and all the others not believe this Easter business was real. And then let your fingers move on down. And the 11 disciples were sat Table—eating and guess what? Jesus appeared to them. And Easter came.

And on that Emmaus road in Luke when those two slouched along—and kept saying: “We had hoped…we had hoped…” And a stranger walked with them and when they got to their destination they asked the stranger to have supper with them. And as they broke bread their eyes were opened and the stranger was Jesus and it turned them inside out. Later they would write: “Did not our hearts burn within us as we walked and talked with him along the way.” And Easter came.

In Matthew’s last chapter he writes those disciples were afraid. Scared Rome might nail them to some cross. And Jesus came, stretching out his nail-scarred hands and said: “I will be with you always.” And tears running down their faces their fears were gone and they knew Easter was not over after all.

Later when John wrote he ended his gospel saying that when they had fished all night..,.these good fisherman and caught nothing. Nothing. And somebody on the seashore yelled: Have you tried the other side of the boat?” And they did—and they could hardly drag in their nets. Fish everywhere! And they looked back at the seashore and saw it was Jesus who had yelled and he was cooking fish for all of them. And after breakfast Jesus whispered to Peter—do you love me. “Yes, Lord…” he muttered. And Jesus said: “Feed my sheep.” And Easter came and Peter would later criss-cross the world with one message: “He is alive…”

One history book has said that every single one of the disciples save one were crucified because they wouldn’t shut up about this Jesus. They kept kept saying over and over: “He’s alive.”

Now what does all this mean for you here in Westminster and me was I drive back to Clemson? We’ve got Easter to hang on to. Before he died he told them something they only remembered later. “I will not be here in the flesh…but I will send my comforter to be with you forever.” And he ended that encounter stretching out his nail-scarred hands and whispering to one and all: “Peace…My peace I give you.”

The book says over and over that Easter isn’t over for any of us. I know like the disciples we get afraid from what the bad report said or rattling around an old house and he or she isn’t there anymore. Or your only child keeps you up at night. “I used think, “ somebody said, “when she was young…it would all pass…But she grew up and her life is such a mess now. If I had known what I know now—I would not have had any children.” And she loves that girl with all her heart. Maybe you worry about the chaos in Washington and Sri Lanka and California and everywhere…and it seems like it’s crazy time everywhere.

photo by KOMUnews /flickr

And what? We are three weeks after Easter. And we come here to hear not just about fear and hard times and fishing all night somewhere some time and catching nothing. We’ve all been there. It just didn’t work out. But we can't stop there! The stories every gospel gives us says he came back. And fear did not have the last word. No. They remembered something he told them before his death,. They said to each other: “Remember what he said. ˆI will be we with you always.” Not for just a day…and not for just a year, but always. And they remembered that he said he would send his spirit to be with them comforting…and helping…and giving them hope when hope seemed like a dream. And Thomas, the doubter told the others: “What I hope I never forget is that he showed the scars from the nails in his hands and feet and whispered: ‘Peace…,my Peace I give to you.’”

Frederick Buechner told about the bombing of England during the Second World War. Bombs rained down on England 57 days in 1940 and 1941. 43,000 English citizens lost their lives. One million people were left homeless. Finally it was over. And the next Spring the strangest thing happened. In many of those bombed-out craters flowers , zillions of flowers covered those ugly gashed holes. Botanists said bulbs and seeds that had been buried for hundreds of years came to the surface. The nitrates from the bombs provided fertilizer for those seeds and bulbs. Flowers…flower everywhere. All this happened after. After. Flowers after all that pain and suffering.

And folks this is the gospel. Easter isn’t over by a long shot. His spirit moves among us all. And we are promised peace despite what has happened or will happen and we can all hang on to that old tom-tom of a promise: “I will be with you…I will be with you always.” For you see like them I Hope we all see that Easter is not really over—ever.

Thanks be to God.