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THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD

What Can Be Done?

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8

When a loved one dies, there is a great deal to do – and there is also nothing to do.

            I have seen this time and again with families who are bereaved.  Last month I saw it in my own family – my wife’s family – at the death of my father-in-law.  I am only an in-law, not one of Bob Lee’s six children.  Still, the four days and five days I spent in New York were almost completely filled with things to be done, from the night I arrived to the morning I left.  There was a wake to prepare for.  There was a funeral service to be planned.  There was music to be practiced.  There were travel arrangements to be made to and from the cemetery.  After the funeral there was the hymn festival to be planned.  All week there were phone calls.  There were visitors who stopped by.  There were relatives who were arriving.  And there always seemed to be a need for more food and drink to be ordered.

I only had a small part in this work.  Mostly I just helped out where I could and stayed out of the way where I couldn’t.  Perhaps my most important work prior to the funeral was helping to create time so Sylvia could work on her funeral sermon.

            The work has not stopped, of course.  The work continues on, as the house on Lakeside Drive is cleaned out and put on the market.  That will mean that more memories and griefs come to light.  It will mean that a generation has passed.  It will mean that my father-in-law is dead and there is nothing to be done.

            When a loved one dies, there is a great deal to do – and there is nothing to do.  Because what can be done in the face of death, after all?

            What can be done in the face of the death of Jesus?  It is so great a loss!  There were so many hopes; there were so many dreams; there was so much love with Jesus.  Here was the presence and power of God!  But now that is all gone.  It is over.  And nothing can be done.

            Still, the women do what they can.  After the death of Jesus, the disciples are nowhere to be seen.  The women buy spices so that they can anoint Jesus’ body.  They can’t do much, but they do this.  It is a last act of care for one they loved so much.

            So, on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath is over, just as the sun is coming up, they go to the tomb.  Even with this simple act of care, there is a problem – the stone!  A stone – a huge stone – stands in their way.  A stone blocks their path.  How will they gain access to Jesus?  How will they be able to do this one last thing for him?  He has already been shut away.  Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb? 

But when the women reach the tomb, they get a surprise.  The stone has already been moved!  When they go inside and look around, they find not Jesus, but a young man.  The young man says, “You’re looking for Jesus?  You just missed him.  He is no longer dead but has been raised and is going ahead of you to Galilee .  Run and tell Peter and the disciples that that is where they can see him.”

            The women – to our surprise – run as fast as they can away from that place and they say nothing to anyone.  That is where Mark ends his story of Jesus.  But Paul continues it for us.

            Paul reminds the Corinthians that he has delivered to them what is of supreme importance – that Christ died, exactly as the scriptures promise, and that he was buried as a confirmation of his death; that Christ was raised, again exactly as the scriptures promise, and that, as a confirmation of his resurrection, he appeared to Peter and the closest disciples, to more than 500 brothers and sisters at once, to James and those who are commissioned, and, at long last, to Paul himself.

            It was a complete surprise, because up to that point, Paul had been persecuting the followers of Jesus.  He had done nothing to lead him or anyone else to believe that the risen Jesus would appear to him.  So, since then, Paul has worked harder than anyone else.  Nevertheless, Paul confesses that it is not really his doing, but it is God’s own grace doing in and through him.

            When Jesus is resurrected, then, there is nothing to do – and there is a great deal to be done!

            So it is with the disciples.  They are off the Galilee .  So it is with Paul.  He begins his mission of preaching to the Gentiles.  What about us?  What are we to do now that Jesus has been raised?

            Lillian Daniel, the senior pastor at First Congregational Church in Glen Ellyn , Illinois , tells a story of what happened to her several Palm Sundays ago.  She was getting ready for her favorite Sunday, followed by her favorite week of the year.  Since she was so busy, her husband, Louis, offered to take their son, Calvin, to the doctor for an infection and then to pick up the prescription before coming home.

            Some time later, Lou called to say that Cal was being admitted to the hospital because he had been diagnosed with diabetes.  At first, she couldn’t believe it.  She blamed her husband.  “Lou has gone and messed everything up,” she thought.  “Now they’re taking Cal to the hospital.  I should have gone myself.  Then we wouldn’t have this trouble.”

            When she got to the hospital, she was still having a hard time accepting this news.  She told the doctor, “Just let us go home.  We’ll be fine if we can just get our son out of here.”  But, Cal , it turns out, has type 1 diabetes.  Type 1 is a more serious type of diabetes.  Unlike type 2, the effects cannot be treated and even reversed with diet and exercise.  Type 1 can only be treated with insulin, a drug on which Calvin would be dependent for the rest of his life.

            So, the doctors refused to discharge Calvin until his parents were properly prepared – which included giving shots.  Lou handled this adeptly, but Lillian botched it.  In fact, her attempt was so painful for her son that he refused to allow her to try it again. 

            By the time Saturday night came, doctors would not discharge Calvin, but they did give him permission to go to church the next morning.  Lou stayed at the hospital.  She went home to get ready for Sunday.

            Lillian was discouraged, distraught and despairing.  She barely slept that night.  She didn’t know how she was going to face her congregation in the state she was in.  She hardly felt like celebrating at all.  And she had also scheduled the reception of new members.  This was going to be quite a welcome for them!

            When she got to the church, the first person she came across was one of those new members, a young man (like the women met in the tomb), a young man who worked in the medical field. 

            “How are you this morning?” he greeted her.

            Before she knew what she was doing, she began telling him.  “You know what?  I’m not doing too great.  My son is in the hospital diagnosed with diabetes.  I can’t understand it.  No one has ever had it in my family – except for my uncle who died from it in his 30s leaving behind a wife and a little daughter.  They say he never took care of himself, but how do you make someone take care of himself?  So, how am I doing?  To be honest, I’m a little shaky.”

            She felt embarrassed to show such weakness.  She was ready to go hide in her office.  But he looked at her and said, “Juvenile diabetes?  Type 1 or type 2?” 

            “Type 1.”

            “Well,” he replied, “I have type 1 diabetes, too.  That’s why I got into medicine.  I’m passionate about helping people live healthy lives with this condition.”

            She was surprised.  This young man was a picture of health.  He had talked about kayaking and mountain climbing.  He had traveled the world.  Suddenly the dark cloud over her son seemed to lighten.  The door that was locked shut was no ajar.  The stone was being rolled away from the tomb.

            “I think that’s why I’m joining the church today,” he said.  “I’m going to be a friend to your son and I’m going to help you deal with this, too.”

            Maybe this young man was an angel announcing good news.  Perhaps he was a disciple continuing Jesus’ good work – serving rather than being served.  Whoever he was, on that Sunday morning, he brought hope to this distraught pastor and her son.

            When Jesus is resurrected, there is nothing to do, because it is completely beyond our power, beyond our deserving, and beyond our expectation.  It is God’s promise and God’s power and God’s grace that does it.

            And when Jesus is resurrected, there is a great deal to do.  There is good news to be announced and good works to be done and good hope to be offered.  Yet it is not we who do it.  It is God’s power and God’s grace working in us and through us!  For God has raised Jesus from the dead so that nothing – not even death – might separate us from the love and life of God. 

            For the Lord is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!