The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Canon Durrell Watkins at
the Sunshine Cathedral on
Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008.
Happy Easter! It’s the day of new beginnings. You know, my great-aunt
Gladys witnessed a new beginning once. Her husband, Arthur, had gambled away
their savings. He was trying to keep that fact hidden from her, hoping to
replace the losses before Aunt Gladys found out. But one day after supper,
Uncle Arthur suddenly fell ill. For the sake of delicacy, I won’t share the
details, but I will just say that he was so sick he not only retired to his
bed but he needed a bucket by the bed… a bucket that he was putting to use
every few seconds.
Uncle Arthur got really scared and so he called my great-aunt into the
bedroom and he said, “Gladys, darling, I don’t think I’m going to make it. If
I’m about to leave this world I want to go with a clean conscience. I have to
confess something… I gambled away our life savings; I’m so sorry.”
My great-aunt just stroked his brow and said, “Honey, I know you gambled
away all our money, that’s why I poisoned your dinner.” Uncle Arthur
miraculously survived and he never gambled again. Second chances. New
beginnings. That’s what Easter is all about.
Easter is the ultimate second chance.
Last week, we heard the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem. He’s a wise
teacher. He’s a healer. He’s a prophet. In his presence, people experience the
power of God somehow. People in hopeless situations are having their hope
renewed. The buzz is growing and people are starting to suspect that he may be
the deliverer they have been waiting for. Maybe he’ll raise an army and
confront the Roman Empire and declare freedom for the Jewish homeland.
And so as he enters the holy city, his fans are greeting him, and the
commotion they are causing attracts others to come see what all the fuss is
about. They are shouting “Hosanna” which means, “Save us”. And they are
quoting a line from the psalms, “blessed is the one who comes in God’s name!”
Of course, drawing large crowds and being called a king was just the kind
of publicity that could cause a lot of trouble for Jesus. To make matters
worse, Jesus goes straight to the Temple and causes a scene.
The Temple had moneychangers, or money exchangers we could say. Travelers
could exchange their foreign currency for local coinage that could then be
used to buy the sacrificial animals.
But Jesus seems to think that the moneychangers are cheating people.
Perhaps they weren’t exchanging the money for free. Maybe they were charging
to exchange the money and then charging again for the animals they were
selling… that kind of double-dipping apparently infuriated Jesus. So, he
throws a tantrum and overturns the tables and calls the moneychangers thieves.
The Temple priests were part of the Roman power structure, so to cause a
scene in the Temple is basically the same as vandalizing a government
building… it’s a major offense.
So, this Jesus who is called Messiah and who can attract crowds and heal
the sick and have people call out to him to save them from Rome, who is so
bold as to walk into Herod’s Temple and disturb the peace and damage the
property… he’s now attracted the notice of some powerful people, people who
quickly become his enemies. And they immediately conspire against him.
A few days later it’s Good Friday. Jesus is betrayed, arrested, tried,
condemned, and executed.
But that’s not the end of the story! Some women show up at the tomb
thinking that was the end only to discover a new beginning.
What they experienced was Resurrection. They didn’t see Jesus being
resurrected. They didn’t witness whatever happened to Jesus… they just
discovered an empty tomb and a reminder that life is full of possibilities.
Resurrection wasn’t a quantifiable event that they observed, it was a
qualitative experience that they had. They discovered that Golgotha is no
match for God.
I don’t believe that Resurrection is about a moment in history. I don’t
believe that it’s about what happened to one person, one time. That story had
already been told. Julius Caesar was said to have risen from his funeral pyre
to new life among the stars. Hercules sacrificed himself and was resurrected
to live eternally among the stars. Osiris is torn to pieces but Isis gathers
the pieces back together and Osiris is resurrected to new life. The hero who
dies a sacrificial death and who is raised to new life is an old story, older
than the Jesus story; but those stories about the hero. Jesus’ story is
something more.
Golgotha isn’t necessarily part of God’s plan, but if it should happen, God
has a plan so that Golgotha doesn’t get the last word. You’ll never hear me
say that God desired or required Jesus’ death on the cross…but I do believe
that God shared in Jesus’ suffering on the cross, and that Resurrection is
God’s response to it. When you’re hurting, that’s not God’s will, but God is
with you in the difficult moment, and is responding to your pain with
Resurrection power and grace.
The story of Jesus’ resurrection isn’t about just him escaping death… its
inclusive of the community. The women at the tomb experience it. Later the
brothers will experience it. As they go forward to Galilee and beyond, they
will continue to experience it and to share it.
In life, Jesus’ power was in what he gave to others; and beyond the cross,
his power remains in what he gives to others. By experiencing resurrection,
the church was empowered to embrace hope and life and courage and healing and
to go forward. That is good news for us still…
The disappointments and difficulties happen, but they can’t define us nor
must they be the end of our story. Golgotha is real and it is horrible and it
is not the last chapter.
Osiris is raised and it’s good for Osiris. Hercules is raised and it’s good
for Hercules. Caesar is raised and it’s good for Caesar. But JESUS IS RAISED
AND IT’S GOOD FOR US. His resurrection is our own. He lives in us, with us,
for us, creating a symbiosis that gives hope and power to us all. By
experiencing Jesus beyond the grave, his friends experienced more of God in
their own lives, and that’s the point. Jesus isn’t one more hero who cheated
death… the storybooks are full of those. Jesus is the friend who says in life
and beyond, “I’m with you and together, we can do anything.”
Jesus didn’t save the people from imperialism by confronting Rome with
guerrilla warfare. He saved them, and us, from the degrading and demoralizing
effects of oppression by proving in the lives of his friends and followers
that dignity won’t stay dead! And that is a gift that he gives us today… Jesus
affirms our dignity and reminds us that dignity won’t stay dead. With that, we
can face today and tomorrow and every obstacle in life. Dignity won’t stay
dead — not Jesus’, not ours.
Whatever difficulty we’ve faced, whatever disappointment we’ve endured, our
hope and our dignity and our joy can be resurrected in this holy instant.
Dignity won’t stay dead. In life and beyond life, Jesus affirms our dignity
and that is what can flourish no matter what else is going on in our world.
Jesus’ resurrection is ours, and it’s ours today. We can claim it and live in
its power starting right now. This is the Good News. Amen.