Jesus Rises from Death - For Real

Have you all noticed something lately?

I watch a lot of movies and tv - whenever I can - and I have noticed a trend in the past thirty-five years since my dad showed me how to turn the TV on. (For which I am grateful.)

I have noticed that we have gone from an era of science fiction to an era of fantasy.

Thirty-five years ago - you could watch all sorts of sci-fi shows featuring robots, flying saucers, ray guns and utopian images of society perfected by technology and human progress.

But nowadays - the big shows are all about mythological contexts, replete with medieval imagery, wizards, magicians and broomsticks.

When I was a boy - you had Robby the Robot, Hal 9000 and Commander Spock.

Now, you've got Dr. Manhattan (the demigod superheroe), Gandolph or Harry Potter.

It's an interesting cultural shift.

Indeed, in much of the 19th&20th centuries, Western thinkers tended to be very much rationalistic, scientific and futuristic. Some were optimistic, and others pessimistic, but the normative ideology was that human destiny was tied up with dreams of human self-progress.

In recent times, we are seeing a great deal more interest in mystery, magic and myth. We are seeing a shift from science fiction based on the premise of human self-progress to fantasy based on the premise of a universe of eery unknowns, and clouded by forces beyond our control.

For many in the past generation, the rise of technology to incredible heights has not been joined by a rise in hope for human progress based on technology.

I know some still dream of a future where robots and machines feed everyone and suffering and illness are wiped out - but we an also imagine a dark future where those same robots and machines do quite the opposite.

Even though in my pocket I have a tiny computer from which I can call my children, surf the internet, and listen to music -- I could also use that same tiny pocket computer to launch an attack on anyone anywhere -- if I were a villain, terrorist or other ne'er do well.

Yes, we have come to see that technology and the myth of human progress are not likely to save us - and so many of us have shifted in culture to things mystical, things mysterious, things magical.

For, we hope, maybe there will we find a savior.

But, though I too am a disciple of mystery, there are also dangers here.

For in an escape to mystery and myth there is also the threat of finding ourselves lost in a fantasyworld which does not exist either, and which is but the figment of our own imaginations, and thus cannot save us - however entertaining it may be for a while.

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I bring all this up to say quite simply that the death of Jesus on the Cross is not a myth, or the product of human fantasy, but is rather the historical event in which the myth of human self-progress is shattered.

Yes, what happened on that Good Friday when Jesus died, was that the myth of human self-progress also died. You see, when the world's greatest political, technological and military power kills someone like Jesus without a moment's regret (not to mention the thousands of others they routinely killed) it may be said that even at their civilized best, the human being is racked with sin and evil.

And this has not changed.

Moreover, I say all this about myths of progress or fantasy, to also point out that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not a fiction, myth or legend either.

No, Jesus' resurrection is the historical event in which the power of man-made mythology is also overturned, because unlike the stories of Zeus, Mithras or Gandolph ... this actually happened in the course of people's lives.

The Gospel is not the Gospel because it's a good idea, a good story, or because it was told by imaginative good apostles.

No the Gospel is the Gospel - if it's any good news at all - because Jesus who though really and completely dead, did really and completely get back up.

And people saw him.

Indeed, if you look at the core of what the apostles said, what Paul said, what the Gospel writers said, what they all said was, "Jesus was dead and buried, then on the third day some women saw the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty, and then, they saw Him, and then so did the rest."

As all four Gospels say (and you know they sometimes disagree on points) Mary Magdalene, a single woman who had once herself been involved in witchcraft, and thus not a particularly strong choice for a witness if you were gonna make this stuff up, went down to that tomb, and saw it was empty, and then saw Jesus - risen.

Yes, Jesus died, and by the power of God he got back up.

And folks experienced this in time and space - in Jerusalem, in Galilee, at dinner and at breakfast.

Now, we live in a world where some will say this scientifically cannot have happened, and others will say "it's a good story, even if it didn't really happen."

But what we are saying is -- and what I am saying for sure -- is that it did happen.

It happened; and because it did, we no longer need to be disillusioned by the utter lack of human self-progress or the delusion of fantasy-land ideologies.

We can rest assured that God is real, does love us, has forgiven us, and will make things right. And this process has already begun.

I need this hope - don't you?

I am so grateful to have it. For, this hope has given me my life.

I'll tell you the first time it gave me my life.

My uncle died on Good Friday almost thirty years ago.

He put on his good suit, drove his new car half-way across Key Bridge in Washington, D.C., and he jumped.

When my father took care of his body, and my grandmother weapt so much, despair was all they had to make of it.

Neither my dad nor my grandmother believed what Mary Magdalene saw in those days.

But when my mom woke me up in the middle of the night early on that Holy Saturday to pray for Perry who had just been found -- even as a boy -- I knew who to pray to. I knew he would understand. I knew he would show compassion, and mercy and love. And I knew that because of what Jesus had done, my uncle Perry, broken as he was, would find himself in the arms of a loving savior -- and not before an angry God, or an gaping hole of nothingness.

I knew that because I had been led to trust the witness of Mary Magdalene and all those who likewise saw and bore witness with her, from then til now.

And because I knew, I have always been so glad, so deeply grateful, for this gift, this gift of hope, that can only come from God.

For God is not the product of industry or imagination.

No, God is love, and that love has been poured out for real in the course of human events.

That love became flesh, and that love knew death and defeated it.

For us.

Christ is risen!

Amen.