Resurrection as surprise
Think dorsum to the last time that someone surprised you. What does surprise do to you? Some people love surprises; others like surprises equally long equally they know exactly what the surprise volition be! Our common experience is that surprise is highly disorienting; nosotros don't know where to turn or what to do adjacent. Even pleasant surprises, when unexpected, tin can throw us out of step.
I think we tin can see the hallmarks of surprise all over the different gospel accounts of the resurrection—they haven't even bothered to tie in all the details to give u.s. a narrative where everything neatly fits together. Each of the gospels offers their ain perspective on this surprise. In Mark'due south gospel, the women run from the tomb and don't tell anyone (in which case, how does Mark have a story to tell?!). Even being retold many years later, the gospel accounts still capture the sense of surprise Not simply was their the surprise at the resurrection, simply this sense of surprise keeps unfolding. Not only is this Jesus the Messiah for the Jewish people—it turns out he is saviour for the whole world. The commencement generation of disciples are constantly defenseless out past the surprise of the new affair that God is doing. Peter in the house of Cornelius, Paul on the Damascus Road—hardly an expected encounter—and Paul himself conveying this good news across the whole known globe.
It is all such an unexpected surprise. So does Easter Sun catch you by surprise? Equally winter is followed past spring, so for us Good Friday is followed past Holy Sabbatum and Easter Sunday. I don't suppose anyone woke up this morning and cried out 'Easter Sunday—I wasn't expecting that!' As the season'southward roll on, the church calendar helps united states of america in many means, simply I wonder if in this regard it doesn't serve united states of america well. You probably expected Easter Sunday, expected an Easter egg, expected to come to church and possibly even expected to hear this reading.
Nevertheless the message of Easter is non (apologies Mr Cameron!) nearly taking responsibility, and hard-working families, and doing your duty. It has goose egg to do with that! Easter is about the unexpected matter that God does—that he surprises u.s.a. with his grace. No-one was expecting this. No-one was expecting one person to exist raised from the expressionless, now. Of course, faithful Jews were looking for the resurrection of the dead—simply this was going to come at the finish of the historic period, when (as Isaiah prophesied) the heavens and the earth were going to be wrapped upwards like a worn-out garment, and there would be a new heaven and a new earth—and the dead would exist raised, and all would be judged. That is what they were expected—only this, Jesus' resurrection, defenseless them completely by surprise.
It caught the women by surprise. John here focusses on Mary Magdalene, but nosotros know she went to the tomb with the other women—no-one would have gone to the tomb with the spices to prepare the trunk on their own, in the night. They needed to roll away the stone, to unwrap, embalm and rewrap the torso. This was a team task. These were women who had travelled with Jesus, many of whom (Luke tells us) had provided for him and his ministry from their own ways. These were the women who had not deserted Jesus—the ones who, when the men fled, remained continuing at the cross. These were the ones who had witnessed the final brutalities of his death. When they came to the tomb they expected to find death and indignity—to observe a broken trunk, not even given the dignity of proper preparation for burying.
Merely the unexpected surprise was life in place of death. 'He is non here—he is risen!' He is no longer the broken, bloodied mangled and undignified body that you were expecting—he is alive! That was God's unexpected surprise.
It caught Peter and John past surprise. Peter and John, called to the tomb by Mary—what were they expecting? Peter and John—the showtime to be chosen by Jesus, to hear that word 'Come, follow me!', the first to leave their nets to follow him, he first for whom their hearts began to beat faster at the hope that the longed-for kingdom of God was at terminal at mitt in the ministry of Jesus. They were the showtime to become 'fishers of men', the ones who, in this stop-times judgement, were going to grab up God's people and sort the good from the bad. Peter, the impulsive ane, who always blurted out what others were thinking but dared not say out loud. John, the honey, the one who leaned confronting Jesus at the repast to inquire almost his betrayal. They came to the tomb—expecting what? Expecting all their disappointment to be confirmed, for the final seal to be put on their despair. Perhaps for Peter, to be confronted with the result of his own failure and betrayal. That's what they expected.
Just the unexpected surprise was hope—non yet certainty, as John comments 'We had non yet understood the Scriptures we had not understood that this was foretold,' we had not understood Jesus even though he told u.s. at least 3 times that the Son of Man would be handed over—and however on the tertiary day would be raised again…equally Paul adds 'according to the Scriptures…' And nonetheless, they saw hope—they saw the clothes lying there. They saw that the strips that had been wound around Jesus' trunk were yet in place, where his body had been—and that the caput cloth that had been wrapped around his head was still in the place that his head had been. This body had non been stolen! Information technology had been raised from decease—there was hope; in that location was an answer to their disappointment and their despair.
And and so nosotros come to the story of Mary—the climax of this episode. Now there is lots of speculation well-nigh who Mary was, and what she had done, and her relationship with Jesus—all of it unfounded. This is in fact the longest account of her in the gospels. But she had known Jesus' healing and deliverance; she had known his presence; she had known his touch on her life. Three times she laments his absence. She runs back to Peter and John and says 'He has gone—I don't know where they accept taken him.' To the angel she says the aforementioned thing, and even to Jesus, earlier she recognises him, she expresses her agony at his absence.
She longs for his presence—and that is the unexpected surprise. Jesus, there, nowadays, in forepart of her. 'Don't hold on to me—because I am going to be present with you, by the Spirit, in a way you lot do not yet sympathize.
This is what they expected at the tomb: death, disappointment and agony. And nonetheless God'southward unexpected surprise—his 'Boo!' to the beginning disciples—was life, hope and presence.
And why did they proceed telling this story—why tell information technology again and again—why, when this outset generation were reaching the stop of their lives, did John and the others write this downwards? Because it is not only their story—it is our story too. Into our experiences of death, God brings unexpected life. Into our experiences of thwarting and failure, God brings unexpected hope. Into our desperation in the face of loneliness, God brings his unexpected presence.
He did and then—and he wants to do it again today. Christ is risen—he is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
I preached this sermon on Easter Sunday morning, in a shorter version at our nine am service, and in an adapted version (with illustrations involving gherkins, pickled onions and beetroot!) in our x.30 all-age service. Yous can listen to both on the St Nic'due south Sermon page.
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