September 1, 2013
Preaching text: Luke 23:50-24:12
So, we have finished reading the entire gospel of Luke. We
have been looking for some key characteristics that set Luke apart:
--the focus on
food—getting it, growing it, sharing it, eating it, and the promise that there
will be enough for all;
--the stories and parables told by Jesus, painting a picture
of what the kingdom of God looks like—and we see that our world often does not
look like that;
-- the characters in Luke’s gospel from the margins, children, women, the poor,
lepers, Samaritans-- various outcasts who are raised up as examples of
faithfulness.
And we see Luke’s
Jesus interacting with all of them, Jews and Gentiles, saving the world through
every choice and action he makes through his life.
So today we hear the story of the Resurrection—a key story, but
Luke’s version has a twist: Jesus does not even appear. In fact, Jesus is
absent in a disturbing way; the only hint of him being here at all is a corpse.
Luke’s resurrection story isn’t much about Jesus at all—it’s mostly about the
reaction of some of his faithful followers to his death and his resurrection. And
these followers are the women from Galilee—once again, Luke pulls characters in
from the margin and makes them the center of attention.
The women in the story—several of them—have followed Jesus on
this dangerous journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. (This is a good reminder for
us that when we hear the word “disciples” we must think beyond those 12 men who
were chosen earlier in the book.) We
don’t know where the men are at this time, but the women watch Jesus die, watch
a member of the Jewish council take his body, watch him being laid in a tomb. When
Joseph leaves, they pick up the job and go to prepare spices for a proper
burial. When they return to the tomb
after the Sabbath, they find it empty—we knew that would happen; didn’t they?—and
the memory of what Jesus had taught them along the way from Galilee to Jerusalem
suddenly makes sense.Betrayal. Crucifixion. Rise again. That’s what he said.
And here it is. They run to tell the 11 disciples (Judas has already hanged
himself, remember) and everyone else what happened. BUT--The men think
the women’s story is nonsense, idle tales, and they don’t believe it. It
is hard to believe—people do not live again once they are dead. Peter
gets only this small role in Luke’s resurrection story: he jumps up and runs to
the tomb to check it out for himself, then returns home, wondering what had
happened. If he had listened to the women, he wouldn’t have to wonder—they
already told him!
For me this raises the question: to whom do we listen when
it comes to the gospel? Who has the authority to tell us something “true” about
God? The men didn’t believe the women—was it because they were women? There are
so many different voices talking about God these days—in every form of media:
TV, radio, internet, Twitter, Facebook. Which voices do we believe? Which
stories are idle tales? There are some we “trust” to carry this message, and
some we do not. Does it matter who the messenger is?
I do not think the disciples’ unbelief came from the
messengers being women, not here in Luke’s gospel. If they’ve been with Jesus
all along, then they do have credibility with these men. I think it’s the
message, not the messengers: They probably weren’t believed because the story
they told was just plain unbelievable. We still hear that argument against God
today—“I just can’t believe a loving God would allow all those things to
happen”, we hear—“those things” in the Bible like sacrifice &war & conniving &
betrayal ; and those things today like famine & hunger & poverty &
violence & war and conniving and betrayal. It doesn’t make sense, as the
story of the empty tomb did not make sense. Yet we are sent out by Jesus
himself to tell this unbelievable story. What are we supposed to do with that?
I guess this is where Peter comes in. The women tell what
they have seen, or not seen—why would they not?
They can hardly believe it themselves. Peter doesn’t believe them, but
something stirs in him—wonder, curiosity, restlessness. He knows, too, what
Jesus said about being raised on the third day. He has pieces of story and
memory floating around his heart and brain as the women do. By the end of the
gospel we don’t know how Peter puts it all together or what he does with
it. But we do know the women said something, and that may be what’s important. If they had
not said anything, Peter would not be curious, would not have run to the tomb, would
not be wondering what happened. In our culture, most people have bits and
pieces of the Christian story floating around their hearts and minds; it’s in
the air around us. People may not have read the whole gospel of Luke, but they
know some of the pieces of the story as it permeates our culture.
We don’t know how people will put those pieces together—how
the Spirit of God will put those pieces together in and through someone. But there do have to be some pieces there to
work with. This story is ridiculous, unbelievable from a practical
standpoint. It is “an idle tale” from the ancient world that doesn’t make much
sense in our post-modern world. But we who know the story, who have been
gripped by the story, know it doesn’t need it to be sensible—it needs to be true.
Our world needs this story to carry the very presence of Christ, the very love
of God made real in Jesus, into our time, our place, our world, our
conversations, our lives.
So it doesn’t matter who you are as you tell the story—whether
you hang out on the margins or seek the center of attention, whether you are
male or female, whether you’ve journeyed from your beginning, joined along the
way, or only figured this out later. But the story needs to be told! “Remember
Jesus”, as these dazzling men tell the women.
Remember what he did, what he said, and go tell others! You may not be
believed—it’s a risk. But you must tell, so others can be curious, can wonder, so
God will enter that wonder and put the pieces together.
You—disciple!
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