Easter Sunday A; 04.05.26; G. Miles Smith+ "Thinking Impossibly"
John 20:1-18
If you were here for any of the telling of the passion story of Jesus since last Sunday…Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday…then…mercy me…you know that it can be hard to listen to. It is long and painful.
I understand why there are churches…and Christians…who just want to skip it…and have Palm Sunday on one Sunday with palm branches and hallelujahs…and then Easter on the next Sunday with lilies and hallelujahs…with only a passing reference to everything in between. Because the “everything in between” is the all too familiar…and tortuous ways of the world…which so easily corrupt and destroy what is good. Where “bad things happening to good people” and “good people doing bad things”…is just normal and to be expected.
So, yes, we want a moment of relief from that world…and some of the extravagances of Easter celebrations…and even, if necessary, dressing up in a bunny costume and hiding chicken eggs. The candy doesn’t hurt either. :) We need a break from…the heavy normal…and expected ways of the world.
But Easter is not actually about relief. It is not about turning away from the weight of the world. And it is not wishful thinking. Although Easter can end up being any or all of that. Because it is hard trying to live with…a world that crucified Jesus…and is crucifying itself and innumerable other people this and every moment.
But today, God is not offering a moment of relief from the usual. God is offering us the manifestly unusual. Easter is nothing less than the resurrection of the dead, the forgiveness of sins, and the life of the world to come (The Nicene Creed).
And so, Easter invites us…to think…impossibly.
The earliest witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection…were not naive…they knew that what they experienced was…impossible. And yet they testified to it…lived by it…and risked their lives for it. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead…taught them…to begin to think…impossibly…and not only as the world teaches us to think.
The disciples of Jesus did not think…a kind of “willy-nilly impossible”…where any wild idea goes. They were not naïve about the continuing sufferings and evils of life…the inescapability of death…and the endless wars and rumors of wars. But they had experienced firsthand…something far greater than all these sufferings and evils. They began to think impossibly…with Jesus…in a way they could not have imagined before.
You know…Jesus had said a lot of things earlier…before his death…that must have sounded really lofty and nice. And, based on what we know of the disciples…I think it is fair to imagine that when they heard these things from Jesus…they probably thought…that they knew better than that. All those things that Jesus often said… could not possibly be true…like when Jesus had taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor—and the poor in spirit… Blessed are those who mourn… Blessed are the meek… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… Blessed are the merciful… Blessed are the pure in heart… Blessed are the peacemakers… Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness… Rejoice and be glad… (Matthew 5; Luke 6)
Everybody knows that none of this in the Beatitudes…is the way that the world naturally works. But the resurrection of Jesus…taught his disciples…to think impossibly…with Jesus.
After impossibly meeting Jesus…resurrected from the dead…and thinking back over the things that Jesus had said which made no sense then…the disciples ventured…to live impossibly…like Jesus…and his resurrection from the dead.
And since then, a whole lot of people have also been struck by the impossible in Jesus…and tried to think it…and even live it. So much so…that we can read the Beatitudes of Jesus now…and not recoil like the disciples first did…but somehow have a sense that…they are in fact deeply true.
A power of God’s blessing has been set loose in the world…despite everything the world takes away. Jesus does not give to us according to the world…but according to his Father…and our Father…God.
The joy of Easter…is the joy of the impossible…actually being possible.
Happy Easter!
