The Great Vigil of Easter

March 22, 2008

The Rev. James Richardson

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Something happened. Something amazing happened. Something that sounds impossible happened.

If you don’t see it yet, or don’t get it yet, no one else did either. Not at first.

At first, it was terror and horror. Jesus is killed by the Romans, and the disciples flee for their lives.

At first there is despair, a deep awful despair. And fear. Awful fear.

On the day that later would be called “Good Friday,” there was nothing good. God seemed so silent, so distant, so far away. The one they had followed, Jesus, was gone, murdered by the Romans, and all of the possibilities seemed so utterly delusional. Hope died on the cross, it was over, and the disciples were very, very afraid.

Then, in the days that follow, it gets more confusing. Jesus begins appearing here, and then there. The disciples begin asking, maybe in hushed whispers in the shadows: What just happened? Did you see him? Who was that? Do you think it was Jesus? Could it be possible?

They don’t always recognize Jesus when he comes. He is somehow the same but somehow different. But Jesus keeps coming to them, and then they start remembering what happened when they followed Jesus.

Maybe, at first, they remember small things. A story, a parable, or some odd little saying, or a meal they shared. Then, little by little, it starts to make sense in ways they didn’t quite understand when he walked among them. Things start fitting together.

They remember puzzling things Jesus told them – like “The Father and I are one.”

When they were with him it sounded more like a riddle. “The Father and I are one.” Now something in that makes sense.

They remember the stories of the Father, the Creator God – the old stories they have heard since they were born. The old stories of the ancient Hebrews begin to make sense like they never did before.

The God of Abraham and Jacob, Sarah and Rebecca, and Moses – the God they call the Father – created them out of nothing, and promised to be faithful to them. God fed them and saved them from floods and fires and famines, and told them they would not perish but flourish.

But the people didn’t believe it, and they kept turning away from God. A few of them got it, but most people, they just didn’t get it.

Then God delivered the people out of slavery from Egypt – taking them through the Red Sea and out into the desert, leading them to the promised land. But the people got worried and anxious and cranky and they turned away from God. They said they would rather be slaves. But God sighed deeply and kept feeding them.

They didn’t get it.

So God sent prophets and angels to explain it – again.

The prophet Ezekiel used a metaphor, the Valley of the Dry bones, to show how they would be made new – the people would have resurrection.

But still they didn’t get it.

So God sent more prophets and more angels.

Have you ever noticed the first words out of the mouth of an angel? What do angels say? “Don’t be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid.” Angels always start that way. So either there is something scary about angels, or angels know something about us: We are made easily afraid.

God sent prophets and angels to tell us there really is nothing to be afraid of because God is faithful to the people. No matter how bleak or painful or awful it looks now, God will feed us, God will get us to the promised land. So do not be afraid.

The problem is when someone tells me “don’t be afraid,” the first thing I do is wonder what it is I am supposed to be afraid of.

So the angels and prophets, all these messengers of God, didn’t quite do it. So God decides to go, to be with us as one of us –  as a Jewish man with a Jewish name, Yeh-sou, or in our Germanic pronunciation, Jesus. “The Father and I are one.” God walks among us as a human being, to teach us and show us the way out of our fear.

Now maybe they would get it. Jesus heals people and teaches them and shows them the way to life and salvation.

But people still don’t get it.

So Jesus does something more. He shows them how to live without fear by walking into the jaws of fear itself. Jesus goes to the cross and dies the worst, most painful death a human being could suffer.

He dies not to pay some awful ransom to a bloodthirsty father, but he dies to shows us that suffering and death are not all there is to life. Death is not the end of the story. Jesus breaks the bonds of evil, and breaks the chains of death, to show us the way out of evil and death.

“The Father and I are one.”

After his death on the cross, Jesus begins appearing to his disciples, and then he appears to more people all over the place.

What they see and hear starts to make sense in ways it never did before.

The disciples remember the Last Supper, how he gave them bread and wine. They were very puzzled that night and asked him lots of questions. But the answers made no sense.

Now they start to see it. Jesus really is with them, no matter what, and he gives them something to eat, right here, right at this table. He shows them the way to the promised land of God’s amazing grace and salvation. And every time the disciples eat this bread and drink this wine, Jesus is with them again, changing them, giving them strength, feeding them with new life, giving them Easter.

What is true for the first disciples is true for you and true for me. All of us are fed, all of us are changed, all of us receive new life. Not just new life in the next world, but new life right here, right now. Tonight. The tomb is empty, the doors are flung open, and Easter comes to all of us.

And the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. … So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”

And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

              Alleluia! Christ is Risen.