An Open Invitation

Luke 24:1-12

Transcript

Of all the days, we would think that Easter Sunday would be filled with all sorts of answers from the Scriptures. Today churches are filled with people who may not have stepped into church for quite some time. And it's pastors heart's desires to give them something good, to provide them with answers to some of their questions that they might have. It is a day that should be so profound as to make the biggest skeptic become the greatest follower of Jesus. And though I could have veered from the Gospel lesson this morning to seek to accomplish all of this, to have more of an impactful sermon, I've decided to let the Gospel lesson ride and trust in it more than my own attempts to create such an inspiring message.
So you might have come here hoping for answers, hoping to hear about the why and the how of the Resurrection all spelled out what it means, what happened, what to do with it. But the Gospel lesson from Luke today doesn't really give us that. Instead of explanations, we're met with mystery. Instead of certainty, we're offered confusion. If you find yourself perplexed by this whole idea of resurrection, if you're not sure what it really means or what difference it makes, you're not alone.
The first witnesses of the resurrection didn't understand it either. In fact, they were left standing in the tomb, just like we are this morning, unsure, confused and wide eyed. But maybe that's the point. Maybe Easter doesn't begin with answers. Maybe it begins with wonder, with questions, with that open space of curiosity.
Because Luke doesn't give us the meaning of the resurrection, not right away at least. He simply invites us to investigate it, to lean in, to draw into something deeper. And that's exactly what we're going to do in this sermon today. Luke begins this resurrection scene in a surprisingly quiet way. There's no noise, there's no flashes of light, there's no earthquake.
Just a group of women arriving early in the morning to finish burying their dead friend. They bring spices, their grief, they bring expectations of death.
But what they find is nothing. No body. Just an empty tomb and two strangers in dazzling white clothes, which I'll go ahead and plug. On Wednesday, we're going to discover who these two people might be. So come back Wednesday evening and we will discover what all that is and who those guys are.
But these two men with an empty tomb, asking this question. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
That's not an expected question when you show up to A grave site. I'm not here to see the living among the dead. I'm here to pay visit to the dead. But why are you seeking the living among the dead? Now, let's be honest.
We all know the rest of the story. We've read the Gospels. We know that this is good news. But for them, it's disorienting. They didn't come to find a risen Savior.
They come to expect that he's still dead. They came to find a sealed tomb and a lifeless body, but a body nonetheless. Instead, they find the stone rolled away and the body missing. And that the message, he is risen, it just doesn't register. It's something they have never experienced before.
Luke says they were perplexed, stunned, frozen, baffled. That word, perplexed that Luke uses is when. When you are told something and you don't know how to respond to it, you're frozen. And when they go and tell the disciples they don't believe it, their words are dismissed like idle talk and nonsense. Even though Jesus had told them that he would rise, it didn't fit into their worldview.
It didn't make any sense to them. It wasn't something that they were able to understand or grasp. Why? Because resurrection wasn't something that they had ever seen before or experienced fully. To better understand their reaction, we need to understand what it is that they thought about resurrection.
They understood a concept of resurrection, but what was it? And what is so different about their experiencing resurrection that blows their minds? Thankfully, we're given a glimpse of what these people thought about resurrection. In the Gospel of John, when Lazarus has died and his sisters Martha and Mary are weeping. Jesus, hearing that Lazarus has died, he shows up after his death, and he's met with Martha.
Martha has a few words to say. She says, lord, if you had been here with me, if you had been here presently, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
See, that's key. Martha believed in resurrection, but only as something that would have happened later, at the end of time. It was a future hope, not a present reality. But Jesus enlightens them all to a better understanding of resurrection. For after she confesses this, he responds, martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. Jesus doesn't point to a day, a future day, far off in the future, to Hope for. He points to himself. Resurrection isn't just something that happens. It's someone who has come.
Resurrection isn't something that will happen later. It is something that can happen now in Jesus and be experienced presently. The women at the tomb weren't expecting that. The disciples weren't expecting that. None of them were ready for resurrection to break into the middle of history.
They were confused, dismayed, suspicious. Because what do you do when something entirely new breaks into your world? The empty tomb and this proclamation that Jesus is not dead but alive was uncharted territory. No one has experienced the resurrection that has occurred with Jesus. It's something new.
In fact, when the prophet spoke long ago that God was going to do a new thing, that new thing is resurrection. Jesus doesn't just come back. He moves forward. He passes through death into something we've never seen or experienced before. That's why they can't wrap their minds around it.
Resurrection isn't just about survival. It's about transformation. It's not about going back to the way things were. It's about moving forward into the way things ought to be. And here's the thing.
Luke doesn't give us much more detail than that. He doesn't describe Jesus showing up just yet. He doesn't let us hear his voice or see his wounds. He leaves us, like the disciples, with an open question. Why look for the living one among the dead?
What does this all mean? What's the big to do with resurrection? Why are people flooding into churches on Easter, Resurrection Sunday? What does it all mean? It seems to me that Luke is not offering us much.
But he is offering us something. An invitation. As the women are perplexed and report to the disciples what has happened. They too, not understanding or believe it to be nonsense. But Luke would not leave us like them.
You see, Luke ends this whole entire scene, though riddled with perplexion and not understanding and just nonsensical. We're given that last moment with Peter. He ends the scene with Peter, who is somehow captivated by his curiosity. Peter can't leave it alone. Luke says that he ran to the tomb.
He stoops in. He peers inside and he sees the linen clothes folded nice and neat. And then he leaves. Not with any understanding, only with wonder. He goes home marveling at what had happened.
That's where Luke leaves us. And that is what Luke is inviting us to do. To be captured by curiosity, not having it all figured out, not pretending to understand, but letting the mystery ride, letting it draw you in, letting the possibility of a Risen Christ lead you on to a journey of discovery. The tomb is empty, the linen wrappings are all folded, and the word on the street is that Jesus is alive, that he's resurrected. And that means something.
With curiosity and wonder, we should open an investigation into what all this means. What is resurrection and what does it mean for our lives today? Over the next six weeks, we will conduct an open investigation into what resurrection is. During this whole entire Easter season, we'll follow the risen Christ as he walks with his disciples, breaks bread with them, calls them by name and sends them out. In resurrection power, we'll learn what resurrection looks like in real life.
But today the Gospel lesson doesn't offer much else. We are only given an invitation to look deeper. But I can't just leave you empty handed, so I have to leave you with these thoughts. 1. It seems that you do not have to understand the resurrection to experience it.
You could be just as perplexed as these women were who discovered the empty tomb. And you could be just like the disciples who were told that Jesus had been resurrected but are not able to comprehend it and still experience resurrection. How? You'll have to come back and find out. 2.
It is declared to us that Jesus isn't dead. He is very much alive and continues to live. Today, something new has happened. And if you would like something new and different to happen in your life that will cause you to marvel, then you need to follow after this living Jesus and let him work resurrection in you, whatever it may be. Let your curiosity lead you to Jesus to discover what more there is to this life that you live for him.
3. It seems that there are two ways to respond to resurrection. We can dismiss it as nonsensical, or we can investigate it further and consider what it might mean for us today. And lastly, whatever resurrection is, or whatever it means, it is something worth telling others about. It is a reality that we should go and share with others.
You don't have to explain it, you just have to proclaim it and invite others to come and discover what it all means. And we'll be here every Sunday at 10:30. So come. Come and marvel. Come and investigate.
Come and taste and see that the Lord is good, Jesus is alive and everything is now different. Let's pray.