The Living One
Luke 24:1-12[1]
Sometimes I wonder
whether what we do and say here still makes a difference in people’s lives.
After all, the focus of our faith is on events that happened a long time ago in
a far away place. I think it’s easy to just set it all aside because it doesn’t
seem like something that happened so long ago and so far away could have much
to do with “real life” in the 21st century. Or we may view faith as
something that relates to our “eternal destiny,” which for many of us feels
like a future so remote that we don’t really give it much thought. So on a day
like today I may not be the only one wondering whether anything we hear or do
makes a real difference in our lives right here and right now.
Of course, many of us
do look to Jesus as an example for our lives. We find meaning in his teachings
about how to live and how to love. But that doesn’t distinguish Jesus from any
of the other great teachers throughout the ages. And the hard truth of this
world is that from a certain point of view you could say it hasn’t really made
much of a difference. There are plenty of people in this world who are caught
in vicious circles of poverty, violence, injustice, and despair. Right now, millions
of human beings are at the mercy of those who put their faith in “might makes
right.” In the face of all that, “love your enemies” can feel pretty empty.
But I believe that our
Gospel lesson for today points us in a different direction—toward a hope that
never dies, a hope for new life that makes a difference right here and right
now. The story of the women discovering that Jesus’ tomb was empty doesn’t
necessarily in and of itself prove anything. But there is more to it than just
the empty tomb. Whatever you may think about “angelic messengers,” what they
told the women was confirmed in their encounters with Jesus. And the gist of their
message is couched in the question, “Why do you seek the Living One among the
dead?” The point of that question is to make it clear that the one they thought
was lying dead in a cemetery is actually “the Living One.”
Now, to fully
appreciate this, we need to look at the background of that phrase in the Bible.
God is “the Living One” throughout the Bible. He is the one who gives life to
all creation, including those of us who are living and breathing here today. In
contrast to the idols made of wood and stone and precious metals, the “Living”
God is the one who is able to make a difference in people’s lives here and now.
I’ll admit that doesn’t always happen the way we expect, but the God who is
“the Living One” shows up in our lives in surprising ways. I don’t know about
you, but in my experience, those surprises have come at just the right time.
So when the angels in
the empty tomb call Jesus “the Living One,” the idea is more than just a dead
man who has come back to life. Rather, the idea is that Jesus again shares the
life of God. And the first Christians became convinced that this was true not
primarily because of the empty tomb or the angels’ message, but because they
encountered Jesus as “the Living One” personally. Those encounters made a great
deal of difference for them. Instead of a tragedy that stole all their hope
from them, the cross was transformed into good news for us all. The cross shows
us not the heartbreaking end of a failed religious leader, but rather the suffering
love of the God-who-is-with-us and the God-who-is-for-us. And nothing, not even
death, can prevent God’s love from claiming us all.
But more than that,
encountering the risen Lord Jesus as “the Living One” points us to the power of
God to bring new life from death. It’s the promise that the goal toward which
God has been working and continues to work is a whole new creation. As our
affirmation of faith for today puts it, it is the promise of “a new world … in
which God is really honored as God, human beings are truly loving, and God will
… make all things right on earth.” That may sound too good to be true, but it’s
a theme that runs through to the very end of the Bible. At the end of the book
of Revelation, God declares “now I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
And what makes all
this more than just “pie in the sky” wishful thinking is that God raised Jesus
from the dead. In Jesus, “the Living One,” God’s new creation breaks into our
lives here and now. It changes our world by promising that all the pain and
suffering will be turned into good and all the death and destruction will be
changed into new life. Just the assurance that Jesus “the Living One” is
constantly with us encourages us in the challenges we face. But more than that,
as “the Living One,” Jesus points us to the final hope of sharing the life of
God’s new creation with him in the end.
Without Jesus “the
Living One” and the hope we have in him, life in this world can seem empty.
When all you can see is the vicious circles of poverty, violence, injustice,
and despair, there’s not much left to give life meaning. But the fact that
Jesus overcame death to become “the Living One” points us to the promise that
nothing, not even death itself, can separate us from the hope we have through
him. The new life that raised him from the dead spreads from him to everyone
who encounters him. And as we encounter the “Living One,” we each take our
place and do our part in spreading that new life throughout all creation until
finally God makes a whole new world!
[1] ©
2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 4/17/2022 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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