This Sunday - Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 - we will once again hear the story of Jesus being raised from the dead. What a glorious story! And what a troubling story, perhaps.
So let me get this straight. Some guy, Jesus, executed by the Roman Empire in the first century on trumped up charges . . . (I get that part. Same old, same old.) . . . is buried in a cave with a big rock rolled over the opening, but then isn't there anymore a couple days later. Is that what you're saying? And soldiers were guarding the cave? And there were angels there who said Jesus was alive? And everybody was scared and freaked out and everything? (Okay. I get that part, too.) But the first part . . . you're serious, right? You believe this? Why? I mean the story isn't exactly intuitive or anything.
I hope nobody ever feels bad questioning the story of Jesus' resurrection. It's not intuitive! It seems fanciful, out there, impossible, a lot like other fairy tales - and there's no proof. More than that, it's really, really clear that the friends, family and disciples of Jesus had the same kinds of questions you and I do. Yet, they came to believe.
So what does it take? In the absence of personal observation, video footage or a trusted friend's eye witness account . . . (And let's be honest. We question all of those things all the time!) . . . what does it take for you to believe something as crazy sounding as the resurrection of Jesus?
I don't have a ready answer for that, but this Easter Sunday let's talk about what it took for those closest to Jesus in time and space to believe. Listening to their stories might teach us something about our stories.
Pr. Dave Brauer-Rieke
