Advent Lutheran Church

"Making Sense of Easter (Fifth Sunday of Easter)"

            Yesterday afternoon, about 5:45 p.m., Pastor Roger and I were driving home.  There were all the marks of a lovely Spring day present:  blue sky, warm breeze, puffy white clouds.  I thought how very strange it would be if at just that moment the earth shook and the graves were thrown open in the first stage of the end of the world.  It just wouldn’t make sense.  Then, I thought about Jesus’ followers.  They have finally found the promised Messiah and gotten a glimpse of hope in their despairing existence, and then Jesus dies.  It just didn’t make sense.  Sometimes, it takes all of the seven Sundays of Easter to get a little understanding of how Easter makes sense in our lives – in fact, it might even take a lifetime to figure that out - but no matter how difficult is the task of trying to figure out the Easter event, our text today sets the stage with a timeless message of comfort, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.”

            How do we make sense of Easter, of a God made flesh who came to live as one of us?  How do we make sense of the stories we’ve been given from the Bible during this Easter season when we get sort of “plunked” into the gospel of John at different places and times?  A few weeks ago was the Resurrection, and then we heard a few stories about what happened after that.  But today we are back in the middle.  So let’s get a bit of perspective.  Let me remind you of the story and take you back some 2000 years.  Relax and let me bring you back into the story:

            Jesus has just finished teaching, talking about sheepfolds and gates, when he is told that his best friend Lazarus has taken ill.  Although there is no particular reason for Jesus not to go right away, he waits three days to travel, and by the time he arrives in Bethany, Lazarus is dead.

So Jesus calls him out of the tomb – raises him from the dead – and with that one huge sign, starts the ball rolling down hill towards his own ending.  He withdraws to a place called Ephraim, and stays there, apart and quiet for a time.  Folks are buzzing back in Bethany.  Will Jesus come to Jerusalem for the festival?  Will he keep the Passover publicly?  Will he dare to show his face right under the noses of the authorities?

            Six days before Passover, Jesus returns to Lazarus’ house in Bethany.  While there, Mary and Martha and his inner circle gather for a dinner party while the crowds gather outside the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of Jesus, the miracle man, or Lazarus, who used to be dead and is now alive.  The whispers in the streets grow louder, and the curiosity bursts into celebration when Jesus begins the journey into town.  People line the streets all the way from Bethany to Jerusalem, shouting “Hosanna!” and waving palms as Jesus enters the city through the Golden Gate in the wall around the town.  No matter the threat, Jesus has come, and goes right to the Temple to teach.  It is there, where in the midst of the city teeming with visitors, some Greeks seek to see him.  But Jesus doesn’t seem to care that his words have made it out beyond Judea into the Gentile world.  Instead he speaks, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it does not bear fruit.”  Jesus himself seems to be trying to make sense of it.

            And then, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…”

Jesus and his friends gather around a table to share their last meal together.  But before the food is served, Jesus gets up from the table, ties a towel around his waist and begins to wash the disciples’ feet.  He goes to each one, speaking softly with everyone as he lovingly washes their feet.  And then, Judas leaves.  The air is thick with meaning – some known and some unknown -  and the scene is almost too intimate for us to watch.  Jesus begins by affectionately calling them, “Little children,” and saying that he will only be with them for a little longer. And, he tells them that where he is going this time, they cannot come.

            There is confusion at the table.  Why would he not take them along?  What is happening?  This does not make sense!  “Love one another.  Just as I have loved you… love one another.  By this everyone will now that you are my friends…”  Peter breaks the silence of their response:  “Lord, where are you going and why can’t I follow you?”  Heartbreaking.

            Some of the most intimate times of our human life are played out in just such gatherings of family and friends.  As Jesus continues to try to share with them, “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places,” we might picture images of a wedding.  It was the custom in Jesus’ day for the bridegroom to come to the bride for the betrothal, and then to return to his father’s house to prepare the place where he and his bride will dwell after the marriage.                                

            Or perhaps you’ve heard those words at a funeral, as they are often used to bring comfort to the grieving and as a reminder of the promise that Jesus will come and take us all to be with God in heaven. It is just another time that we take advantage of the family gathering, of friends surrounding and supporting each other, often around a table for meals.

            Today we might have Graduations on our mind or in our plans – or even the blessing of the Sacrament of Baptism - but all of these events are moments when everything superfluous stops - and our closest loved ones, family and friends - gather to tell stories, to share memories and to reflect on who we are and where we are, making sense of our lives in relation to others.

            This is Jesus Time – “after supper, on the night in which he was betrayed,” Jesus shared his most important reflections; he gave them farewell gifts of the sacramental promise to be with them every time they broke the bread and shared the cup.  And, he gave them a new way to live together, as loving, sharing, Christ-like community.  This would be their new life and new work.

            Do you remember the last thing a loved one said to you when you saw them the last time? “You know the way to the place I am going…”  Thomas (who we know much better later in the story when he wants proof that Jesus is alive) echoes Peter:  “Where are you going?  We do not know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”  Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas… 

He’s been saying, “Follow Me” since he first called you three years ago!  Plus he’s been clear:

I AM the Good Shepherd (to the Pharisees;)     I AM the Resurrection and the Life (to Martha;) I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life; (and finally, he will share,) I AM with you always, even to the end of the age.

            One of the quotes I love from the conference Pastor Roger and I just attended was from Professor Karoline Lewis.  She said, “Just when you think you understand Jesus in John, he keeps talking…” And isn’t that what happens in today’s reading?  Just when it starts to make sense, Jesus keeps on talking!  “Have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me?”           How long will it take for us to get it, that Jesus doesn’t just “show us the way,” Jesus IS the way!  I am the Way – Follow Me – Believe in God, Believe also in me – in my Father’s house are many places of abiding.  This is a tabernacling God, NOT a God who lives in a box on a hill in a city far away that we have to go visit, but a God who lives with us, a God who stays with us, a God-with-us Emmanuel God.  This is our God who pleads, “Love one another, so people will know that you are mine, and that you do not belong elsewhere – to culture, or to Caesar, or to the darkness.  For if you don’t show up as the Light of the World, the world will surely notice the darkness.

            And what do you think Peter remembered?  Well, our second lesson today was written by Peter, some time after these final days with Jesus.  He made sense of the whole experience in these words from I Peter 2: 

            Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious

            in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,

            to be a holy priesthood… you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

            God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him

            who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people,

            but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now

            you have received mercy.

How do we make sense of Easter, and Jesus’ life among us?  By remembering that “God can’t stand being without us for one second.” (Karoline Lewis)  Can you imagine what it feels like to be connected to God - not so much because you want to be near God - but because God

wants to be near you…   Amen.