APRIL 20TH, 2019: EASTER VIGIL Genesis 22:1-18 Exodus 14:15-15:1 Isaiah 55:1-11 Luke 24:1-12 (Ideally all nine readings should be proclaimed tonight. But because of space limitations, I can only comment on four.) If we’re determined to prove the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection from the four gospel accounts of the discovery of the empty tomb, we have an impossible task. There are so many contradictions within those four narratives that, taken together, no one can be certain about what exactly happened at the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. Each of tonight’s nine readings wasn’t chosen for what it could prove, but for what it could help us understand about the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. There are probably as many implications of that event as there are people who believe it took place. In many ways, we’re free to look at it from any perspective we choose. Early Christian communities frequently turned to tonight’s Genesis and Exodus narratives of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and the Chosen People crossing the sea as ways to understand the resurrection’s significance. Just as Yahweh delivered Isaac from death at the last second, so God also delivered Jesus of Nazareth. And just as the enslaved Israelites went from death to a new life at the Red Sea, so Jesus went from death to a new life by his dying and rising. In each situation, people expected death, but found life. Yet as Deutero-Isaiah reminds us, one thing is consistent as they face their deaths: God’s word. No biblical author emphasizes that word more than this unnamed prophet. Preaching during Israel’s 6th century BCE Babylonian Exile, Yahweh’s word is the prophet’s only recourse. Few people believe him when he speaks about Yahweh freeing them and returning to the Promised Land. Such good news can only be a figment of his imagination. But over and over again he insists in the name of Yahweh, “My word shall not return to me void.” Once God’s word is spoken, it happens. Its effect is just as certain as the effect of the rain and snow. One of our problems in experiencing that effect is that we simply don’t notice it. Dealing with God is completely different from dealing with human beings. Deutero-Isaiah refers to this in his well-known passage describing the contrast between Yahweh’s immanence and Yahweh’s transcendence. “Seek Yahweh while he may be found, call him while his is near . . .. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways . . .. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” In the same instant, God is as close to us as the air we breathe and as distant as the furthest galaxy. No wonder our sacred authors only tell their readers about Jesus’ empty tomb and never attempt to describe his resurrection. That unique event is part of his transcendence. As Rudolf Bultmann observed, “How does one describe the ‘other side’ for people on ‘this side?’” The evangelists can only talk about the effects, and those differ person to person. Luke, for instance, zeroes in on the necessity of the death that precedes the resurrection. In tonight’s pericope, the angels tell the women, “The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified . . ..” It’s not a matter of choice. It’s the way God set things up. Some in Luke’s community were looking for loopholes to attain life, akin to the ways we learned in grade school – such as wearing a special medal around our necks or receiving communion on specific days of the month. Luke’s angels assure us there are no shortcuts to dying with Jesus. Though there are a million ways to die, die we must.
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