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Fron Death to Life John M. Buchanan
John 20:1-20 Bethany Presbyterian Church

March 29, 1970

Tradition has it that when the lions burst through the gates in the Collesium
the Christians, huddled together in the presence of a “screaming crowd — in the
presence of their ow immediate death - used to burst into song: "Praise God from
whom all blessings flow: praise him all creatures here below."

In an ancient letter, written by Pliny, govenor of Bithynia, there is a section
which records a conversation between a magistrate and a Christian prisoner. The
Magistrate speaks first:

M: “I will banish thee."

P: "Thou canst not, for the world is my Father's house."

"I will slay thee."

"Thou canst not for my life is hid with Christ in God."

"I will take away thy treasures."

"Thou canst not, for my treasure is in heaven."

"I will drive thee away from man, and thou shalt have no friend left."
"Thou canst not, for I have a friend from whom no man can separate me."

[P. 228, G. A. Buttrick, God, Pain and Evil]

Page 71 of the new Book of Common Worship is entitled, in bold face type,
‘Witness to the Resurrection", and then beneath, in smaller type, "Pumeral Service”.
The opening words of the service are: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who
believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never dic.” That is to say, at the moment of greatest grief, when
people of other cultures are tearing their clothes, smearing themselves with
ashes, hiring mourners to scream and wail, or themselves leaping into the burning
funeral pyre, Christians are in worship hearing the most optimistic, hopeful words
ever uttered. “I am the resurrection and the life."

What, we might ask if we were casual observers, is going on here? Something
very strange. These poople are acting entirely differently Peon what our natural

inclinations would have us do. These people must know some kind of secret, a

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secret that makes all the difference in the world. These people are free from
the fear and dispair which clutch the whole human race. These people are at peace,
and obviously have something which few men have,

The behavior of all three ~ the Christians in the Collesium, the Christian
prisoner, the Christians in a funeral service - is the result of the truth which
we proclaim and celebrate this day: the incredible claim that God's dead son is
alive and present in the world,

The story begins very dismally. Jesus Christ was dead, wrapped in linen
clothes, in the tomb, with a large stone in the opening. His twelve friends had
become eleven. One of them had already taken his own life. They were hiding
somewhere in the Passover city, together behind a locked door, perhaps sharing
their grief, but more than likely planning to leave the eity as quickly and
inconspicuously as possible.

Mary - and isn't it typical that a woman put her heart before her head, taking
the terrible risks of being seen and identified as one of his followers »~ Mary
went to the garden of Joseph of Arimathea where he was buried, to mourn, to
think, to weep, perhaps to annoint the body with preservative oil,

The striking thing about the first part of the Easter story is that none of
them expected anything to happen. The faith of the disciples was obviously shattered.
All was lost. The one they thought was Lord, was now a dead martyr. And when he
appeared to Mary, it was so totally unreal that she failed to recognize him. Later
when he confronted the disciples they were ineredulous ; they didn't want to believe,
particularly Thomas who insisted on proof.

Every year, as I go through the Gospel accounts, I am impressed with that,
They didn't expect it to happen any more than we would. There is a simplicity,
almost a naivetc, about the accounts that refutes any suggestion that it was the
imaginary creation of some very deluded people. They didn't expect it: They
didn't want to belicve it. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ burst in on them in
total surprise.

Well, something happened to those frightened, desperate people. Something

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happened to transform them into courageous ambassadors; fearless .heralds of the
Good News. They burst from that room with a shout and went out into that city,
and from there the whole world, with the message that God's Son who was dead, is
alive. Their faith, which was shattered into a thousand picces by his cruol
death, was restored and renewed and decpened. Now they knew what before was only
an inclination. Now they knew that he was Lord and Christ and King. Now they
knew that nothing would ever separate them from his love.

The transforming cvent, the Resurrection was central to everything thoy said
and did. The carliest Apostolic preaching, as it is recorded in the Acts of tho
Apostles, is Resurrection proclaimation; not ethical teaching; not the smooth
presentation of a new way of life based on the moral example of a dead martyr,
but rough, unsophisticated proclaimation. A headline - not an editorial; Good
News, not good advice. God's dead Son is alive! It was so important to them that
they shifted the day of worship from the Sabbath to the first day of the week, the
day of Resurrection. They greeted cach other with the simple phrase, "Christ is
Risen." Whenever thoy gathered for worship, for communion, it was to celebrate
that central event - that truth that meant everything to them — their Lord was
alive and present with them. |

Well, a funny thing has happened to the Resurrection. The central Christian
claim as set forth in the New Testament has become quite peripheral. The trans-
forming ovent has become a doctrinal position, one out of many, locked safely
into the second paragraph of a creed nobody takes very seriously.

The Resurrection isn't "in" today and hasn't been for most of this century.
The related themes of cternal life, heaven, immortality are also in disrepute,
mentioned mostly by those who don't go to church. Thie is so for two major
reasons. First the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not logical. As an histor-
ical event it cannot be documented. The N.B.C. cameras were not on the scene to
record the stone rolling away. Not only did no one see it happen, but those who
first proclaimed were terribly casual about the details. There are four Gospel

accounts and cach ono is different. None of the early writers seemed interested

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in the kind of reasoning that fascinates us; like how did he unwrap the cloths?
Now, these were not irrational, ignorant men. They just didn't think in the same
way we do.

We have been conditioned to think logically. And it's a good thing, except
that somewhere along the line we become convinced that the sole standard of
truth is logic. If it can't be understood, it can't be true. If it can't be
proved, it didn't happen. Thus our religion becomes a very rational exercise;

a way of life, an ethical system. We focus on the Sermon on the Mount and are
careful to avoid all those perplexing, New Testament stories that assault our
logic. That's the first reagon why the Resurrection is no longer central:
given our particular presuppositions, it just doesn't make sense.

The second reason is that the Resurrection and the related theme of eternal
life and immortality have been put to bad use in the past. Karl Marx said that
"religion is the opiate of the masses," and in fact, he was right, when the
doctrine of eternal life serves to anesthetize people from the ills of society.
That's exactly how the Resurrection was used in slave religion in our own
country. The white man's church was an important link in the rotten chain of
racism, and it served very well to distract people from their oppression by
promising them pic-in~tho-sky when they die. So today, the Resurrection is
used to distract the churches' attention from the world of human need and
suffering.

The natural reaction to that kind of thing is to move in the opposite
direction. Gct out into the world and die for humanity. Don't even mention
the Resurrection: ‘the great promise of the Gospel: become a pious social
wolfare agency. And cither way it gets pretty depressing after a while. It's
a little like a cartoon I saw once depicting two prisoners in a cell. The cell
is actually a dumgcon, 20 feet deep, no windows, no doors. The prisoners are
chained to the wall with shackels around their ankles, wrists, and throats.

One turns to the othor and says, "Now, here's my place."

Wo need nothing so much as to recover our roots: to return to that New

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Testament secret, that we live in a new kind of world, 2 world in which the
Resurrection has taken place. We need nothing so much as the new perspective
the Resurrection produces: that we live in an open system where the power of
God is ultimate: that the promise of the Gospel is still good: that hope is
valid.

Let's think about that briefly. A world in which Resurrection is a reality
is a world radically different. From oll indications the world we live in is
dominated by cvil and death. Nen dic in Viet Nam, Isracl and Egypt, children
starve in Iligerin ond Indio, children die in hospitals in Lafayette, and on
the highways while riding in cars. Ivil seems to rule with a power nothing con
touch. Personally, our greatest fear, our elemental dread, is of our own
eventual death.

John Donne said it well:

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls"

It tolls for thee.' }

Well, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the promise of Almighty God that
death is not tho last word. Wot death but life. Becouse Christ is risen, wo
shall live. That good word needs hearing by every man who loves life. Neville
Clark, a British theologian said it for better than I could hope to:

“She unfinished tasks we have tried to do, the dreams and hopes and
aspirations cfter which we have striven, the relationships we have vainly sought
to perfect and complete, the experiences that have lifted us up and laid ue low,
moulded us and made us — all those will not be lost or left behind, but will
be the notes by which we render harmony to the music of the City of God."
[Interpreting the Resurrection, p. 114]

But there is more. Karl Barth once said: "Not only shall we dic ono
day. Death is much greater and much more dangerous than that. It is the
great 'no', the shadow that hangs over our human life and accompanies all its
movements". [P. 147, Deliverance to the Captives] The Now Testament sces donth

“as 2 power, 2 demonic forco which exists in oll men, in their institutions,

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their relationships, their dreams and hopes. ind the New Testament has the
audacity to proclaim that this death - this powerful death principle is now
dead. That because of Jesus Christ we have moved -from death to life: that God
has built into the very structure of the universe the victory of life over death,
good over evil. In Jesus Christ, God has svid his "Yes" to life.

The trouble with most Taster sermons, and the trouble with this one, is
that there is too much to say on one occasion. Easter sermons try to do too
much, and for that I apologize. And yet it is a very natural problem. For
today we celcbrate and observe that central truth, that event which we recall
every “First day of the week." I find myself very much in agreement with an
editorial which suggested that the Good News of Easter ought to be sung, shouted
i tekianddl rather than discussed. We are here to celebrate what has happened:
to rejoice, to be happy and glad in grand style. And I pray that this will be
our experiencca.

There is one final word, however, and for it I would return again to the
disciples. Recall again that they didn't expect it; they were reluctant and
hesitant and stammcering - as if something like this was simply too good to be
true. Recnll again that their experience with the Risen Christ was preceeded
by three long, hard years of obedient discipleship: that Jesus Christ did not
appear to a group of strangers but to those who had followed him.

I think there is a sound but difficult lesson in that. The glory of the
Resurrection burst into the midst of men who had witnessed the crucifixion,
men who had given their lives, men who were disallusioned by the apparent defeat
of their Lord, and the negation of their faith. I think you and I have to go
that route too. I think it is absurd to expect the Resurrection to mean much
apart from committed discipleship. I think it is folly to expect Easter to
mean anything othor than bunnics and eggs and new hats apart from the cuntin-
uing life of discipleship. Loosely translated that means that this building
will be open noxt Sunday morning too: that the promise and hope of the Gospel

become realities in the lives of people whe follow Jesus Christ tomorrow and

oe pets Life. Prom dispair to Hopes that. is the nytt of the ( .
| Rat tate tte of Taster. lot us begin today. Let us. sing ity rejoice
_ in it, celebrate it. Let us go from here into a new world that hae been mado

_-Fadically er ee ‘Ana ‘Cbian es us dice’ nee day = security and sare - -e

~*~

‘We are sate: Christ is Risen.

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rs oy om Se Gay seo Hoot our Won fat Mots appoint
task. We are grateful for your love, for each other, for world in viioh

we may live with the Good News of the Resurrection. We are hunbly gretetnhy
0 God, that our Lord - once dead - is ceca ) : ANN