Easter
April 4, 1999
The baby finally learned to crawl. And now he seems almost ready to walk. He clings to the leg of the chair and slowly lifts himself up, and hesitantly takes a few wobbly steps. And then he falls down, letting out a cry of pain and frustration. His mother wants to run and comfort him. Dad says, “Wait, let’s see if he’ll try again.” Sure enough, after a few moments of feeling sorry for himself, the child pulls himself up and takes a few tentative steps. This process of falling down and picking oneself up is essential to our development. But I’m not telling you anything new. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all done it. It’s part of what turns an infant into a child.
The Greek word for that process is Anastasis. The English translation of the Greek is – Resurrection. Resurrection from the Greek, Anastasis, is the process of getting up once you have fallen down,
A great number of people come to church on Easter with the expectation that they are going to hear a message about a dead corpse coming to life; about the resuscitation of a crucified Lord. And therefore, a lot of people put aside their natural skepticism, shut down their curiosity, and simply come to enjoy the music and festivities
Today, I would ask you not to be concerned about your skepticism, because the resurrection of Jesus is only a part of the story, and doesn’t seem to be what the writers of the Gospels concentrated upon.
Have you ever sat down and thought about the Resurrection accounts? Nothing is said about what happened initially to Jesus after he was laid in the tomb. We have no knowledge of what took place after Jesus died. Nothing is mentioned about the body of Jesus. The story we have about Easter is how some people picked themselves up after being knocked flat three days before. The writers of the Gospels tell us about the women, Peter, John, and the disciples finding strength, hope, and new life. Finding, to use the word originally as set down by the Gospel writers, the gift of Anastasis. And this Anastasis is the very secret of what it means to be a new person in Christ.
My favorite illustration is a classic that I’ve used before. It comes from the writings of Nickos Koszantakis. He tells of a medieval peasant who goes up to a monk and asks, “What is the secret of the Holy Fathers who live up there behind the walls of the monastery?” The monk with great wisdom and humility says, “We fall down and get up. We fall down and get up. The getting up is God’s gift to us all.”
The monk was right. Resurrection is not complicated. You don’t have to be a theologian or a biblical scholar to have it happen. Resurrection is the gift of getting up after we have fallen. I do not understand it. I cannot make it happen. I cannot control it, but I have seen it taking place in my life, as well as heard about it occurring to the friends of Jesus. It’s a gift that can change the very direction of our lives.
Let me be clear. I am not saying that every problem that knocks us out can be overcome. But I would declare that Easter is the reminder that, because of God’s endearing love, we are given a gift. And the gift is that we are enabled to pick ourselves up and change the direction of our lives.
There is a wonderful passage in a Tennessee Williams play that goes, “0 you weak, beautiful people, who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you with love, and let you land once again.”
That’s a summary of the “Good News” today. That’s really what Easter is about. Anastasis, the gift where God takes hold of us when we faII, or fail, or flop, and assures us it’s not a permanent condition. For God has taken hold of us with love, and we can stand once again. And that message is sometimes beyond our wildest imagination.
Easter is that miraculous gift. It happened to the disciples. It can happen to you. And for that, we gather this morning to give thanks.
Amen