Where in the World Is Jesus?

Where in the World Is Jesus?

An Easter sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer - April 21, 2019

Luke 24:13-35 GNT; Reading from Borg & Crossan, The Last Week

I will let you in on a little secret: The Easter Sunday sermon is not an easy sermon to prepare.  In fact, the Easter Sunday sermon may be the most challenging sermon of the entire year.  For, you see, the Easter sermon deals with a topic in the realm of the mystical, the mysterious, an other-worldly reality that is beyond the experience of anyone on this side of the grave.  And when we try to piece together into one uniform picture all the Easter and post-Easter stories found in the four gospels, we realize that the gospel writers themselves struggled with adequate explanations.  In some ways the gospel writers didn’t arrive at a consensus and totally agree as to what the resurrection of Jesus meant for them and the other early Christians.

And so, the temptations of the minister who faces the challenge of preparing and presenting an Easter sermon are many.  For instance, as ministers we are sometimes tempted to feel like we have to give a defense of the doctrine of the resurrection; to substantiate the truth of the resurrection in the face of science or the laws of nature or opposition.  As Jim Friedrich point outs in a recent article in Christian Century magazine, “preachers are tempted to mount a defense of the resurrection within what is plausible to the modern mind.”¹ 

Or, we may be tempted to try to analyze the idea of the resurrection; to look at various ways that one who was said to have died could possibly show himself to be alive again.

Or, we might be tempted to compare the resurrection of Jesus to what happens in the world of nature.  In other words, we might use illustrations from the natural world and how things that die or give the appearance of death, when planted in the ground or when warmed by the growing warmth of the spring sun, come to life again.  This is probably a more attractive option, and I must confess that in the past this is a resurrection path that I likely have gone down myself. 

Here is a story to illustrate.  Decades ago, when I first started preaching, I clipped a little article from a popular preaching periodical of that day that told of a vase that was discovered by an archeologist that had been tightly sealed and placed in the tomb of an Egyptian mummy.  Inside the vase were discovered a few pea seeds - old, wrinkled, and hard as stone.  The pea seeds were planted and carefully watched, and after thirty days they sprang back to life, having lain in a dark, dusty, ancient tomb for almost three thousand years.  The writer held up the story as an illustration of how the mortal human body that is placed in the grave can live again.  Well, that is a nice story and a tempting way talk about Easter and Jesus’ resurrection, but in the end such an approach and analogy may not be the best way to think about Jesus’ resurrection either. 

We find that what was important for those close to Jesus was not really defending or analyzing or explaining what the resurrection meant.  What was important for the followers of Jesus was the way they felt they experienced the living Jesus: in their worship, when breaking bread in his memory, and in the context of their daily lives.  So an appropriate approach to talking about Easter and the resurrection emphasizes experiencing. 

Well, such is why the Emmaus Road Easter story is so important to the body of Easter narratives that the early church passed on to us.  And, by the way, of all the Easter and post-Easter stories, the Emmaus Road story is probably my favorite.  Whether the Emmaus Road story is 100% factual or historical is beside the point.  The truth and meaning of the Emmaus Road story lie deeper and are far more important.

Rather than try to explain how a body that had been beaten, wounded, pierced, and disfigured could miraculously be restored, the early followers of Jesus chose to give testimony of how they experienced the spirit of the living Jesus as they talked about him, met for worship and prayer, discussed the scriptures, and especially when they broke the bread and shared the cup in his memory as they had done during the Last Supper the night before his death.  When the followers of Jesus did these things, they could still hear his voice and see his face, and it was as if they could feel Jesus’ invisible presence in their very midst. 

Some of the gospel stories and sayings of Jesus were written through post-Easter eyes, you know.  In other words, as the four gospel writers sought to record events of Jesus’ life and things he said, their feelings and beliefs about Easter colored what they wrote.  One such passage that comes to mind is when Matthew has Jesus say to the disciples, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).  Such was the experience the early Christians had after Jesus’ death and Easter Sunday whenever they gathered together in his name.

As Christian theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan point out, Jesus “continues to be experienced after his death, though in a radically new way.  He is no longer a figure of flesh and blood, confined to time and space . . . He is a figure of the present, not simply the past.”²  And herein lies the key to embracing the real good news of Easter.

And as Jim Friedrich adds, “The central question of Easter is not ‘What happened to Jesus way back then?’ but rather ‘Where is Jesus now-for us?’ . . . .  Easter isn’t something we remember.  It’s something we live and breathe.”

So, to bring this home and to address the sermon title, Where in the World Is Jesus?, if the resurrection and Easter are more about experiencing than trying to explain 2000-year-old past history, where in the world is Jesus today?  Well, here are some possibilities for consideration:

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus is present in the reading of the Christian gospels that results in a hardened criminal experiencing personal transformation and deciding to turn his life around and commences to do something positive with his life.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus is present in a congregation that celebrates Holy Communion and when, in a spirit of unity, everyone joins hands to sing together the Lord’s Prayer.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus is present in the hearts of those church members who travel to Honduras or Nicaragua on a medical mission trip, sharing Christian love and service.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus is present in relationships where forgiveness is offered and received and reconciliation occurs.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus may be seen whenever we extend, or perhaps undeservedly receive, Christ-like love that covers a multitude of faults and wrongdoings.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus is present in the actions of those who give of themselves sacrificially for the well being and betterment of others.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus can be seen in the lives and actions of those who minster to the sick, aging, poor, downtrodden, mentally ill, and less fortunate.

Perhaps the spirit of Jesus may be experienced as we walk the troubled road of life and are given strength and courage to face and overcome challenges in a way we never imagined possible.

Observing Easter, not as a historical event of the past but rather as a living experience of the present, may go against everything we have previously thought and practiced.  But doing so can take Easter out of dark, murky, uncertain preconceptions and doctrines of the past, and bring it into the light of day and our daily lives in the present.

To reiterate: in the end, Easter and the resurrection of Jesus are not about explaining, defending, analyzing, rationalizing, or comparing.  Rather, the heart and the soul of the Easter stories and Easter good news are about experiencing.  May it be so with us.  Amen.

¹Jim Friedrich, “Don’t explain it,” Christian Century, April 10, 2019, pp. 10-11.

²Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week, New York: Harper San Francisco, 2006, pp. 204, 205.