easter sermon

Why did Jesus rise from the dead? But then no one is sure that he actually did rise from the dead. When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome went to the tomb with spices to anoint the body , the stone in front of it had been rolled away and the tomb was empty - except for a young man dressed in white. We assume he was an angel - but it doesn’t say so. He tells the women that Jesus has been raised. They were to tell the Apostle Peter that Jesus had gone to Galilee ahead of them. In one version of Mark’s Gospel that is it. It finishes by saying that Jesus sent out through them the imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.
There has always been debate about this ending of the story of Jesus. Was he taken down alive? Was it all a plot and that someone else died in his place? One question asked was any of it true? Was any of the story of Jesus true. It is quite amazing that no evidence exists for the life of Jesus. There is a single sentence in the history written by Josephus some years later but by that time the story had already taken hold.
It seems so strange that a generation would go by before anyone began to write the story down. They say that it was an oral tradition, passing from one person to another before any of it was committed to writing.
That is not unique but compare the oral tradition of Buddhism which came into existence at least five hundred years earlier. The teachings of the Buddha were passed on in the form of ballads, with constant repetition of phrases and with choruses. They were easier to learn and they remained accurate for longer. And every so many years there would be a great gathering of the monks and teachers when all the teachings would be recited. Then they would note where there were differences caused by mistakes or changes and they would make decisions about which was the most accurate and which had gone wrong - and bring everyone back to the original. Nothing like that in Christianity.
There is to be yet another programme on television looking for evidence for the life of Jesus. You can be sure they won't find any. They can only point out what might have been and what could have been - but nothing with certainty. Seeking the historical Jesus has been going on for years.
But supposing something was found. His slipper or his crown of thorns. Would that change anything today? Probably the church would soon be saying that people were being cured of all manner of diseases who touched these relics. That they had miraculous powers.
Supposing they found categorical proof that Jesus never did exist. That it was all just a story that was going round and was based on some other character who lived long before. Would that make such a difference? Would everyone stop coming to Church. Would everyone stop believing? I doubt it. I prefer to call it the legend of Jesus rather than the history of Jesus.
Legends are stories about times and peoples that may or may not have existed long long ago, in far away places - but they are stories that never die - because they have in them truths that are eternal. They have moral teachings and spiritual teachings. They are stories about heroes who have to battle against all odds but who win in the end because they are good and they never give up. And good will always triumph over wrong. Truth and Justice will always triumph of over evil and the wickedness of the world. In every legend there is a hero - a role model we all aspire to but cannot emulate because the hero is too strong.
The heroes of my time have been Jason of the Argonauts and Achilles, James Bond and Indiana Jones - and Yul Brynner in the magnificent seven - but that too is an old old legend from Japan.
My heroes were action heroes - most were.
In the days when Israel was occupied by the Romans and before that by the Syrians and before that by the Persians, people were looking for a hero to save them and set them free. A few hundred years before they did have a hero , Johannes Maccabeus - the Hammer - who threw out all the occupying armies and extended the borders of Israel as they had never been before - but that was a long time ago. People wanted a warrior. They believed that the warrior king would be supported by the heavenly warrior St Michael and the armies of Heaven and Israell would restore the country and make it great.
In the middle of all that - or perhaps from long before that came the story of Jesus - the hero based on humility, the hero based on peace and not conflict. He was an anti hero - exactly what people didn’t want - but there was something very different about this hero. He was humble, came from nowhere and had no wealthy backers but he was never a hero of passive resistance; he was never the leader of a silent protest or a hunger strike.
His power lay in his words and the words were backed up with healing and miracles. His words had power to challenge the mind sets of the day. His words challenged the old teachings and challenged the religion the people practiced. Religions do not like to be challenged. They tend to react with violence.
That has not changed. Both Christianity and Islam react violently to challenge. They react violently when they are mocked. Religions are dangerous beasts when they are disturbed or annoyed.
Great crowds gathered around him but then they melted away back to where they came from. Without the support of the crowds he was never going to be a threat to the establishment. Tyrants know that when they lose control of the crowds their days are numbered. We have seen that happening all over the Middle East recently. We see in Libya that the crowd is not strong enough.
So Jesus the hero of words, the hero of miracles and the hero of healing lost out because the crowds had gone. The story of his entry into Jerusalem is the story of a bubble bursting.
So they put him to death and that should have been the end.
But heroes always win in the end. This hero overcame death itself. Even though the body was put in a cave and a massive stone used to seal it shut, the stone was moved and the body disappeared. There was only the young man in white clothing to say that he was not dead - he had gone to Galilee.
And so the story was not dead. If you believed in what he taught then you accepted that the body had gone and Jesus the man had become a spirit form of God that people did not recognise. Those who did not believe the story looked for a body - and so did many people who did believe. It is a hard story to believe - but then it is only a story - a legend about a teacher who was a holy man - and was taken up into heaven to be with God.
We make such a lot about this day. This day that is called Easter Sunday, named after a Pagan Goddess who celebrated the rebirth of spring and the renewal of life. We make a lot of it because we say it is the day that Jesus was not dead after all but had survived and gone ahead to Galilee.
We use this day to say that we should believe that life triumphs over death in the end, that God does not forsake us after all - especially when we think it is all over for us. We use this day to celebrate the renewal of all life in the spring time when the flowers are blooming again and the tress are dressed in green again. And we use this day to say that like the spring and like the story, we too can triumph over the adversities and setbacks of our lives; we can be knocked down by life but we have the power within us to rise up and live again.
Like the hero, we can hold on to a God of Love who does not forsake us - even when we think we have been forsaken.
And how do we find the strength to conquer the pitfalls of life? And how do we find the power to conquer the pitfalls and bear traps in our own minds and character? Well, we read the stories about the hero of peace - and when we read them deeply they are all stories of conquest; conquest of weakness, conquest of prejudice, conquest of fear, conquest of doubt. If we read them well and learn, we too become heroes and find life has indeed become new.

amen