I greet you with an ancient Easter greeting. Christ has risen. He has truly risen. My friends, one of the fears of this beautiful and elaborate liturgy of Easter vigil is the fear that the sermon will be long. And so I want to dissuade you of that fear. It will not be long because the liturgy speaks for itself. But I do want to say a few words as a way of a homily on this very special celebration: the resurrection of Jesus. What happened and what does it mean?
I was surprised when I read a number of theologians who said that most Christians do not understand the resurrection of Jesus. It puzzled me because I thought, well, surely that’s the one thing we understand. Without the resurrection, we have nothing. But as they continued to explain, they said it’s not that they don’t understand it; it’s that they don’t understand it completely. They only understand half of it. And if you want proof for that, go to any funeral liturgy. Listen to the sermon of a preacher and notice whether in that sermon you hear anything about the resurrection of the body. Often we hear lots about how the person doesn’t suffer anymore because he or she is with God in heaven, and that is certainly what we believe. But if that is all we believe, then we really do not understand the resurrection.
Because the resurrection was not just an escape tactic that Jesus used to leave this world behind and to go and live in heaven. And the resurrection is not just a free ticket that Jesus offers us in saying once you die, I have something better for you prepared on the other side. No, the resurrection speaks of a new creation. In other words, Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples in the flesh. There were things that were different about Jesus; his appearance and qualities were a little different. But the gospels are very clear that Jesus was still in his human body. And that’s why as Christians in our creeds, we say we believe in the resurrection of the body.
Where I think we get things wrong is when we think that Christianity is a little bit like those movies where you’re trapped in a space and someone finds a way out, like Escape from Alcatraz or The Shawshank Redemption. Often I think the mistake we make is we think that Christianity is like those movies and that Jesus is the one who simply shows us a way to leave this world behind so that we can go somewhere else. But the book of Revelation and the teachings of Jesus are very clear: it’s not about us leaving the world so that we can be in heaven. Christianity and the whole message of God is about bringing heaven to earth. That’s what the incarnation and creation are about. When Jesus says the kingdom of God is among you, that’s what he means.
So what is resurrection really all about? It teaches us that through death we will rise again—but not just physical death at the end of our lives. Whenever we speak of baptism, we speak of dying to self. Our life as Christians is supposed to be rooted in the message of the resurrection, which means God’s recreation of our world and the recreation of me already here and now. I don’t just go through my motions here on Earth until I can escape into a new reality. No, a new reality is supposed to come already here and now through baptism and an act of faith in Jesus.
That’s why everything we do in this world matters. When Jesus rose from the dead, he conquered death forever, but he also showed us that where he went, we are to follow. The risen body of Jesus is the beginning of new creation—God’s reordering of that which he has given to us. In other words, God does not reject his creation; he still loves it. Through the resurrection of Jesus, God begins a recovery process. We, as followers of Jesus who have died to ourselves through baptism, are now supposed to embody the message of the resurrection: new life.
As a Christian, I’m supposed to live a new life filled with hope, optimism, and the presence of God. I don’t have to wait for heaven after my physical death in order to live the message of the resurrection. The whole point of being a follower of Jesus is to begin heaven on earth here and now. And so today, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection. We are invited to see that we don’t have to wait to live the gift of Easter. We can already invite Christ to begin that reordering within us by feeding the poor, by proclaiming hope to the hopeless, and by being the very presence of God’s message where it’s most needed. Christ has risen. He has truly risen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.