For more than 1,400 years, a Cathedral dedicated to St Paul has stood at the highest point in the City of London. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognizable sights of this great city with so many historic sites.
St. Paul’s was designed by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London destroyed an earlier cathedral that stood on the same site.
Before work could begin on the new cathedral, the remains of the old cathedral had to be cleared away. Once the site had been cleared and the necessary measurements taken, Wren asked a workman to bring a stone to mark the center of the new building. By pure chance, the workman handed Wren part of a gravestone from the old cathedral. On the stone was the inscription RESURGAM, which means, “I shall rise again.” (1)
Sir Christopher Wren was so moved that the words “I shall rise again” should appear on that stone strictly by chance, that he had the word RESURGAM engraved on the exterior of the new cathedral, where it can be seen today above the great south door.
“I shall rise again.” Jesus tried to tell his disciples that several times before his death on Calvary’s cross. You would think they would have been prepared on the first Easter morning to welcome him back from the grave. Clearly, they were not.
Forgotten, at least momentarily, was his promise that on the third day he would rise again. St. Paul would later write in his letter to the Corinthians that Christ has conquered the final enemy—the enemy of death, but it is clear such was not the expectation of his friends and disciples on that first Easter morning. Their hearts were heavy with grief.
I was reading recently about a member of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, William Seward. On Easter morning, 1865, William Seward lay in his bed, horribly wounded, shattered from having been in a horrible carriage accident. He had not been told of Abraham Lincoln’s death. Lincoln, you may remember had been shot on Good Friday, two days before and died the next day.
As he lay in his bed Seward asked to be able to see the trees just blooming. With the curtains drawn, he looked out and roved his eyes—and then he saw a flagstaff at the War Department, and a flag flying at half-mast. He stared at it for a moment and then murmured, “The President is dead!” He knew it because if Lincoln had been alive he would have been the first to personally call on him. He hadn’t been there and hadn’t even sent to inquire of Seward’s condition. That could mean only that he was dead. And there was the flag flying at half-mast!
Seward said no more, but great tears suddenly rushed from his eyes. (2)
The disciples of Jesus were stricken with the same kind of grief. They had forgotten Jesus’ promise that, on the third day, he would come back to them. All they knew was that their Lord was dead—and with him all their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. They were overwhelmed with their sense of loss. But that, of course, is not the end of the story. If it were, you and I would not be here today.
According to Luke’s account of the resurrection, a group of women made their way to the tomb early that Sunday morning to prepare Christ’s body with spices. There they found the stone rolled away from the grave and two men in dazzling apparel who said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise?” And they remembered Jesus’ words, and they returned to tell the eleven disciples and the rest of Jesus’ followers, “He is alive! He is alive! He has conquered death as he said.”
You may know the story of a gentleman who stood one day looking into a store window. Standing next to him and also looking in was a little boy. It was Easter time, and in keeping with the season the shopkeeper had arranged a setting of the crucifixion.
After a while the boy turned to the man. “Those are Roman soldiers,” he explained.
The man said nothing but kept studying the window.
“And there’s Jesus,” the boy continued.
Still no response.
“They killed him,” the boy said.
By this time the man, having satisfied his curiosity, started to walk away. Then he heard a patter of young feet behind him and felt a tug on his sleeve. It was the boy.
“Mister,” he said, “I forgot to tell you the most important part. He’s alive again!” (3)
That, of course, is the most important part. He is alive. Christ has defeated the final enemy—death.
But what does Easter mean in our lives—we who are Christ’s followers today? Doesn’t it mean, first of all, that we no longer have to fear death either? If Christ has overcome the grave, doesn’t that mean that death no longer has dominion over us as well? We are kind of strange in our attitude toward death, aren’t we?
Dr. Joe Harding tells about a funeral home in Florida that once advertised that they could guarantee to get you to heaven.
“They advertised a dramatic innovation in burial services. For about $4,000 they would cremate your body, put it into a small rocket, and fire it into orbit! It was guaranteed to circle the earth for 2,300 years!
“Isn’t that wonderful? Think about having your ashes in orbit for 2,300 years. Part of the pitch is that you are guaranteed to get up there. The problem, of course, is that heaven isn’t up there and that happiness isn’t up there at all.
“Perhaps, one of the selling points . . . would be that on a clear night people could come out, look up at the heavens and watch you go by. I am sure that someone will even put identifying blinking lights on the satellites so that people can say, `There goes George! There is Mary! There is Bill! They are all up there with their friends.’ Of course, it is ridiculous.”
It is ridiculous. Still, it is very difficult for most of us to face the thought of dying. In the cartoon, “Family Circus” the family is evidently returning from a funeral.
The mother says to the children in the back seat: “Well, yes . . . we’ll see Grandad someday when we go to heaven.”
With that the smallest child in the family says, “Could I just wait in the car?”
Out of the mouths of babes sometimes come words of wisdom. We were created for life, not death. No one who is healthy of mind, soul and body looks forward to dying. And of course, that is the point. We were created for life not death. God did not bring us into being for this world only. Christ showed us that death is no longer our enemy. Death has been conquered. Because Christ lives, we, too, shall live. We no longer need to fear death.
But Easter also says to us that we no longer need to fear life. Common sense says to us that there are things in life worse than dying.
In Greek mythology, Aurora, goddess of the dawn, fell in love with Tithonus, a mortal youth. Zeus offered her the gift of anything she wished for her mortal lover. Aurora chose immortality. He would live with her forever. But she forgot to ask that he would remain young forever. So he just grew older and older and could not die. The gift she prayed for became a curse. What use is life if we lose our dignity as human beings? There are things in this world more precious to us than our lives.
Archibald Rutledge once told how as a boy he was cured forever of caging wild things. Not content with hearing mockingbirds sing from cedars, he determined to cage a young one, and thus have a young musician all his own.
On the second day in the cage, however, the young bird’s mother flew to him with food in her bill. This attention pleased Rutledge for surely the mother knew how to feed her child better than he did. The following morning, however, his pathetic little captive was dead. When he recounted this experience to Arthur Wayne, the renowned ornithologist, Wayne said, “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes take it poison berries. She thinks it better for one she loves to die rather than to live in captivity.”
There are many things in life worse than death. What does Easter have to say to us as we face life—life with its heartaches and disappointments, its hurts and frustrations?
It says, first of all, that God is involved in His world. The God of the empty tomb is also the God of the Exodus. The Deists were wrong. God is not off somewhere far removed from the human condition. The God of the Bible is intimately involved with His creation. The greatest heresy in the Christian faith today is the notion that Christianity is only about dying. For the Christian dying is a momentary inconvenience. But it does not interrupt a relationship with God through Jesus Christ that was begun long before.
The saddest Christian in the world is the one who believes that faith is simply buying a ticket to some far-off heaven. Such faith leads to a joy-less legalism. Christian faith is an ultimate love affair with life. That is why it is entirely appropriate that Easter should come during the springtime. That is why we celebrate this day with brightly colored eggs.
Traditionally this has been a day for wearing new brightly colored clothing as well. That is not a custom that grew out of our affluence, as you might suppose. Some of you might remember when the only new dress or new suit you got was at Easter time. That did not grow out of a desire to show off. Early Christians, who were not affluent at all, wanted to symbolize the fact that Easter was about new life, new hope, new joy so they attired themselves accordingly. God is involved in our world. Christ is alive in the hearts of those who love him. What joy that brings!
God is involved in the world. This leads us to a second thought. Easter is about victory. This is no day for doom and despair. Christ has defeated the final enemy. We share in that victory. Easter is the celebration of that victory. Easter belongs to the church. The world may have taken over Christmas, but Easter is still a uniquely Christian celebration.
For 2,000 years the church has proclaimed Christus Victus, Christ is Victor. In the Middle Ages the people would gather at twelve o’clock on Easter to celebrate a midnight mass. The beautiful words of the Gospel were read in the quaint churchyard. Then followed the joyous hymn, “Christ is Risen,” and the clamoring of bells. The priest, holding high a lighted candle, would bid all, “Come and receive light,” and would pass the flame to the multitude of candles held to receive it.
With these flickering torches in their hands, the throng turned eagerly to the House of God. The doors to the church were closed and locked. Loudly they knocked, their voices raised in solemn chant: “Lift the gates, O ye rulers of ours, and ye eternal gates be lifted, for there will enter Christ, the King of Glory!”
A voice from within demanded: “Who is the King of Glory?”
And the answer broke forth exultantly: “He is the Lord, strong and powerful! He is the Lord mighty in war!” (4)
Easter is a celebration of victory—for Christ is still victor today. Bishop Desmond Tutu, speaking at the Horace Bushnell Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut said, “It is Christ that will win for ever and ever. Amen.”
Easter tells us that God is involved in our world. Easter tells us that we can live a victorious life in Christ Jesus. But Easter also tells us that more than anything else people matter.
Why is it important to believe in the resurrection of the dead? Certainly, it is not so that we can believe in God. Creation provides more than enough proof of His existence. Many people believe in God who do not believe in Easter. God’s power and His omnipotence are not at stake. What is at stake is whether your life or mine has any ultimate significance. Do we live only for a season, then cease to exist forever? Or are we so significant in God’s eyes that even death cannot separate us from His love?
Do not say that Christianity can exist independently from Easter. Christianity is not simply a set of values, a moral code, a style of living, a grand philosophy. Christian faith is Easter faith. It is the conviction that people matter so much to God that he gave his own son in our behalf; that he allowed him to be crucified on the cross for our sins and on the third day raised him from the grave as sign and symbol that our lives are of eternal significance. God is involved. Christ is victorious. But even more importantly, we really do matter to God.
That is why we are gathered here this day. That is why the empty tomb is central to our faith. Bruce A. Demarest summed it up in a beautiful way in his book, Who Is Jesus? He writes, “Throughout the centuries men have tried to honor their heroes by erecting lavish monuments: the massive pyramids of Egypt, built as resting places for the Egyptian pharaohs; the glistening Taj Mahal, the tomb of an Indian emperor and his favorite wife; Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square, the place where the body of the Marxist leader is preserved by some mysterious process; the burial vault at Mt. Vernon, the site of President Washington’s interred body.
In its stark simplicity Jesus’ grave can’t compare with these costly crypts. But the tomb of Jesus excels in the most important respect. It lies empty! He is not there!” (5)
He is not there. He is alive. He is victorious, and because he lives, we, too, can live victorious lives as well.
1. Dr. William P. Barker, Tarbell’s Teacher’s Guide, Sept. 1999-Aug. 2000 (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Church Ministries Curriculum, 1999).
2. James I. Fehl, ed., Standard Lessons Commentary 1982-83 (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Co.).
3. W. Glyn Evans, ed., Christ Is Victor (Valley Forge: Judson Press).
4. A.C. Edgerton, More Speeches and Stories for Every Occasion (New York: Noble and Noble).
5. Bruce A. Demarest, Who Is Jesus? (Wheaton: Victor Books).