The Surprise Ending
John 20:1-18
Have you ever seen a sequel to a movie that is better than the original? Sometimes they come close - but not often are they better.Some of you have seen Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". Well, we are here today, to celebrate, the sequel that actually blows the doors off the first movie. Jesus died a horrible, bloody, tortuous death, but the really neat twist in the story line is the ending. Jesus died, but he didn't stay dead.
Life won out over death.
Jesus has gone before us all to prepare a place, and he has sent his Spirit to empower us to live today in the promise of the Kingdom.
Praise the Lord!
Jesus is risen! His is alive. We are indeed fortunate to have a God who has reached out to us, and has blessed us with his Spirit. But that of course, is going on in the story.
Today we remember the Risen Christ, that Jesus Rose from the dead. He has overcome death and sin and is reaching out to each of us. We all are called, with all of ourselves to rejoice and sing halleluiahs to the King of King's who suffered death upon a cross, but rose again, and ascended to the Father.
But of course we are not called to just leave it there. Jesus death and resurrection calls us to, and shows us, a new way to live. A way that is satisfying. The way that we were meant to go before time began.
Did you notice what Jesus said right at the end of the passage that we read.
After Mary goes to the garden and she goes to find Peter and the other disciple.
After they have gone in and then took off out of there.
Even after she saw the angels and they told her that Jesus was alive, and Mary sees Jesus and thinks he is a gardener. And after she recognizes him when he calls her by name.
Jesus says something that signals a fundamental change in the way humankind will relate to God. It sounds simple.
Jesus says: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.
From that moment forth, we are invited into relationship with God, God will be Daddy, God will be available without priests, without temples, without any intermediaries. I stand here as a priest and deacon; I am not trying to say that I'm out of a job, but I am saying that the fundamental way we relate to God, is changed. It is not only my job, it is YOUR job, to get to know Jesus, to hear him, and to follow him. We do this through living in the context of Jesus' story, in prayer and in study, in the worship of God, and in the context of a community of his followers.
And we do this by saying like the good thief said on his cross beside Jesus, to Jesus very simply, "remember me". Jesus says come unto me, all you who are heavy laden…and he means it! Come to God with all your burdens and you will be refreshed!
Because of the fact of sin in the world, this was not possible without Jesus, but because of Easter, because of the fact of his death and resurrection we can, as it says in one of our Eucharistic prayers, stand in God's presence and serve him.
When we think back over our lives, we say: amazing that God would want us, and would want us to serve him…BUT it is TRUE!
Jesus died, and has risen, and things will never be the same again.
Things are truly different. Jesus is calling us into a new life, a life that reflects the now and coming Kingdom.
How often do we want to cling, and turn away from the journey? To stay quietly in a safe corner when God is calling us into an exciting adventure with Jesus. Into a life that will be hard, and confusing, difficult and frustrating, but also the life that each of us is most fulfilled by, and made for.
Jesus calls us this Easter morning…to Come and to Go. To come to him, to give him our burdens and to rest in his arms. And then to go into all of the world, all of our lives, to live, truly live in the way that we were made for.
Let us come to, and follow our risen Lord.
Amen
©2004 Steve E. Timpson
(613) 272-2360
P.O. Box 69
2764 Highway 15, Portland, Ontario
stimpson@ontario.anglican.ca