Being Made New

Luke 24:1-12

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

The messengers of God may be dazzling, but they don’t seem to have much tact. The women come to the tomb carrying spices, after weeping their way through the Sabbath, faces tear stained and eyes puffy, with the intention of seeing their friend and teacher one final time. Deathwork, preparing bodies for burial, is women’s work in their time and place and they intend to do it well, granting Jesus the dignity of a proper burial after the indignity and humiliation of the cross. They witnessed the abuse he suffered at the hands of others; they now offer the work of their own hands, a tenderness and care altogether different from the events of Good Friday. But the messengers have no time for their good intentions or their tears. The work they came to do must be set aside; there is more important work to be done.

He is not here, but has risen.

We know this to be good news, the Gospel itself. He is risen, a phrase sung and chanted and shouted every hour of this day around the world, a word of hope and comfort for the Church. But for the women it is just an incredibly strange thing to say. He is not here, this they know, and they are troubled and perplexed by the fact. But through the fog of their grief and exhaustion, these strangers are apparently speaking nonsense. Until…

“Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Remember what he told you, the messengers say. Remember what he promised.

Then they remembered his words. The empty tomb perplexed them, the dazzling messengers frightened them, but the memory of Jesus’s voice breaks through their sorrow and confusion and brings clarity in an instant. They remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told this to the eleven and to all the rest.

Even when the world is dark, and confusing, even when terror takes hold and death appears to have won, the words remain true. He is not here but has risen. To the other disciples, these words seemed an idle tale, unbelievable. They do not remember his words, do not remember the promises of Jesus. But these words are true nonetheless. He keeps his promises. The women remember, and it is in remembering that their faith is founded and restored. It is in remembering their faith that our own faith finds a foothold when all other foundations crumble.

There are many who would say that it is all an idle tale. That we have progressed beyond the need for such childish stories, that the Bible is just another collection of myths and legends, fairy tales from a different time. There are those who say the resurrection is merely symbolic, or a lie perpetuated by the disciples to cover a failed revolution, and that we are clinging to fantasy. When people say these things about us, we are in good company. The first witnesses of the resurrection were not believed by most of the people they told, not at first. But they kept telling the story of what they had seen, what they knew to be true. And that truth changed everything.

There is a prayer in the prayerbook that I love, it is said at ordinations and on Good Friday. O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made. If ever a dazzling messenger asked me to remember, to remember what God has promised me, the words that Jesus said, I think it would sound a little like that. Things which were cast down are being raised up. Things which had grown old are being made new. All things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made. He is not here, he who was cast down. He is risen, and with him all of us are being raised up. We must no longer look for the living among the dead, for things which had grown old are being made new. All things are being brought to their perfection, just as he said. Praise be to God, Alleluia, Alleluia.