Easter Makes A Difference In Our Lives
Commentary
All of the texts for this Easter’s celebration of the resurrection direct us to consider the resurrection’s reality and impact. This will lead to sermons focusing primarily on Sanctification.
Acts 10:34-43
The first lesson (Acts 10:34-43), which may also serve as the second lesson, reports on Peter’s confession of the gospel justifying his efforts to convert the Gentile Cornelius in Caesarea. The message of this lesson is a good example of Luke’s concern to highlight the universal outreach of Paul’s mission (1:8).
We certainly do not live in a society like Luke aimed to achieve in the Church. For all our talk about multiculturalism, we are as clannish as the Jewish people of biblical times. A Pew Research Center survey taken just before the presidential elections found that 54% of white Americans find immigration problematic and 45% of all Americans share this thinking.
Another dynamic today relates to Americans’ view of God. A Baylor University study conducted nearly a decade ago found that almost a quarter of Americans (24%) believe in a distant god removed from daily life. Over half of these Americans never participate in a religious institution. Our view of God may be contributing to the growing secularism in America.
To these social dynamics, Peter’s testimony to why it was correct to seek to convert a Gentile (Cornelius) is most relevant. He links this action to the good news that Christ has risen and appeared to the faithful (v. 40). It is advisable then for preachers to remind Christians that the resurrection is for all, that it breaks down all the barriers. Easter is a significant antidote for the nativism and suspicions about immigrants that currently plagues not just America but also Europe as well. An Easter sermon on this lesson can be an opportunity to celebrate how the resurrection brings us all together, overcomes all the ethnic barriers that divide.
As for the sense that God is not active in our lives, the resurrection offers a response to this sense of his distance. Peter’s testimony that the risen Lord became visible to the disciples as they ate and drank with him (v. 41) is suggestive of how Christ comes to us today in the Lord’s Supper. For Americans who find God distant, the Easter message of the church is that the risen Lord is everywhere in our lives, and that in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper his presence to us is especially made plain. In his presence, it is even more likely that, like eating a meal together, all the barriers in our lives will fall away.
Colossians 3:1-4
The second lesson from Colossians (3:1-4) is part of a discussion of the Christian life. The epistle is a circular letter which, like Philippians, was written by Paul from prison (4:3,10, 18) late in his career or by a follower of Paul who had a hand in assembling the collection of his epistles. These conclusions follow from the fact that the epistle includes vocabulary and stylistic characteristics different from the clearly authentic Pauline corpus. The letter addresses Christians in a town in Asia Minor near Ephesus, to a church which though not likely founded by Paul was basically in line with his teachings, except for the espousal of Gnostic-like ascetic teachings (2:21, 23), ritual practices rooted in Jewish traditions (2:16), and philosophical speculation (2:8, 20). And of course Gnosticism, a focus on spirituality which is elite and just the property of the enlightened (those who say they have their own “spirituality”), not common property of a religious institution like the church, is very much in the air of Western popular culture today.
In a 2015 Gallup poll, 52% of Americans still think that the church could answer most of today’s problems. In a poll a year later, 27% were found to have little confidence in the church. In line with this opinion, an earlier 2008 survey conducted by LifeWay Research of adults who don’t attend church, not even on holidays, found that 72 percent thought the church “is full of hypocrites,” but that 78 percent would “be willing to listen” to someone who wanted to share their beliefs about Christianity. At the same time, 72 percent of respondents also said they believe God exists.
The second lesson describes how those raised with Christ, how the resurrection, gets us looking at life in new ways. No longer focused on the things of the earth, we seek the things that are above, the things of God (v. 2). Reference is clearly made to the Christ whose resurrection we celebrate today (v. 4).
A church animated by Easter in this way would not be a hypocritical church, not trapped in the worldly ways that this chapter subsequently describes (vv. 5-9). Such a church, responding to the skepticism of many, would be positioned to impact American society in a way that the majority of Americans still think or hope the church can make. This is a lesson for sermons on the difference Easter can make in American society and in our lives.
John 20:1-18
The gospel lesson from John (20:1-18) is of course the final and least ancient gospel account, since the fourth gospel was not written until the end of the first century. This book was probably based on the synoptic accounts. Although identification of the author with John the Son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is ancient, dating back to Irenaeus in the second century (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 414), it may well have been a disciple of John who wrote it. The first post-biblical church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, claimed that John had perceived the external facts made plain in the gospel and had been inspired by friends and by the sprit to compose a spiritual gospel (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 261). The gospel was probably written for a Jewish community in conflict with the synagogue, one in which Christians had been expelled from Jewish society. Its aim was to encourage its readers to believe that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God (20:13).
Unlike the resurrection accounts of Matthew and the other synoptic gospels, the Johannine account of the first Easter actually reports Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene at the tomb (though only after Peter and the other disciples had first beheld the empty tomb). This seems to be in line with the Johannine preoccupation with the divine, exalted Christ.
Preachers might focus not just on how this version of the resurrection emphasizes Christ’s exaltation, that his divine power is most clearly manifest on Easter, but also to note how the lives of Mary Magdalene and the disciples were changed by the first Easter. Change does not come easy -- especially when life is going wrong. (Encourage participants to reflect on areas of their lives that are not going in the right direction and need change.)
Harvard business professor Rosabeth Kanter and motivational psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorsen have noted that people do not like change (even those who voted for Donald Trump). And yet it is most comforting to note that when we engage in new undertakings, neurobiologists have found that the brain dynamics of both spiritual experience and seeking new activities are similar and equally pleasurable (Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman, Why We Believe What We Believe, especially p. 187). We can then proceed in a sermon on this lesson to note how the good news of the resurrection and the faith that results predisposes our brains to be more open to change in our lives, for faith distances us away from the animal instincts in our brains that often trap us in unhealthy ways, gives us opportunities to forge new brain connections which make change possible. Mary Magdalene and the disciples are witnesses that Easter is a fresh start.
Matthew 28:1-10
Regarding the alternative gospel (Matthew 28:1-10), it is good to be reminded that it was probably written (perhaps in Antioch, since there is an ancient reference to it in the writings of Antioch’s Bishop Ignatius) for an audience of Jewish Christians no longer in full communion with Judaism. We see this both in the harsh polemic with Pharisees found in the book (18:21--23:39) and also in the efforts made by the author to establish Jesus’ Jewish identity (1:2-17). In contrast to the Johannine version of the first Easter, Jesus does not first appear to his disciples, but only to women (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) on the way to tell the disciples, after they had believed accounts of his resurrection by an angel (vv. 8-10).
The lesson of this version of the first Easter seems to be that Christ’s resurrection is only known in faith. That is an important insight in view of the fact that according to a 2016 Rasmussen report more than two in ten Americans do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. An earlier poll showed that of those who never or rarely attend church, over 50% do not believe in the resurrection. Believing the phenomenal story that a dead man came to life does not come easy. This can be a sermon to try to make sense of this miracle, a word which could especially resonate with the Christmas/Easter-only worshipers present among the flock on this festival. One way to go might be to consider what is a valid scientific claim.
The problem many have with the resurrection is that we have never seen one. But we have never seen a lot of scientific realities. A famed book on the philosophy of science by Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, helps explain why. It seems that science proceeds not so much by proving the existence of new realities as by the discovery of new theories. Science then proceeds to test the implications of these hypotheses, and eventually those which seem best to account for the data become accepted scientific suppositions. Such theories are accepted as true on a kind of faith. And then these accepted theories have their implications further tested, but meanwhile stand as scientific truths until data is found to invalidate them. But in order undertake such testing, the scientific community must accept the reality of the theory. No one has seen the atom, after all.
Help the congregation see that Jesus’ resurrection functions this way in the church. We may not have seen it, but it explains a lot of realities, like God’s ability to overcome death, the survival and thriving of Christianity despite the disgraceful death of its leader, and the reality that hope often overcomes despair. And so the resurrection of Jesus may properly be deemed true for those in faith as long as no data emerges which demonstrates that Jesus did not in fact rise. Invite the congregation to live with this claim the way we do with theories of gravity and evolution.
Sermons for this Sunday can help the faithful appreciate the reality of the resurrection. And once this is certain in the hearts of the faithful, the glorious resurrection cannot but make an impact on how we live.
Acts 10:34-43
The first lesson (Acts 10:34-43), which may also serve as the second lesson, reports on Peter’s confession of the gospel justifying his efforts to convert the Gentile Cornelius in Caesarea. The message of this lesson is a good example of Luke’s concern to highlight the universal outreach of Paul’s mission (1:8).
We certainly do not live in a society like Luke aimed to achieve in the Church. For all our talk about multiculturalism, we are as clannish as the Jewish people of biblical times. A Pew Research Center survey taken just before the presidential elections found that 54% of white Americans find immigration problematic and 45% of all Americans share this thinking.
Another dynamic today relates to Americans’ view of God. A Baylor University study conducted nearly a decade ago found that almost a quarter of Americans (24%) believe in a distant god removed from daily life. Over half of these Americans never participate in a religious institution. Our view of God may be contributing to the growing secularism in America.
To these social dynamics, Peter’s testimony to why it was correct to seek to convert a Gentile (Cornelius) is most relevant. He links this action to the good news that Christ has risen and appeared to the faithful (v. 40). It is advisable then for preachers to remind Christians that the resurrection is for all, that it breaks down all the barriers. Easter is a significant antidote for the nativism and suspicions about immigrants that currently plagues not just America but also Europe as well. An Easter sermon on this lesson can be an opportunity to celebrate how the resurrection brings us all together, overcomes all the ethnic barriers that divide.
As for the sense that God is not active in our lives, the resurrection offers a response to this sense of his distance. Peter’s testimony that the risen Lord became visible to the disciples as they ate and drank with him (v. 41) is suggestive of how Christ comes to us today in the Lord’s Supper. For Americans who find God distant, the Easter message of the church is that the risen Lord is everywhere in our lives, and that in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper his presence to us is especially made plain. In his presence, it is even more likely that, like eating a meal together, all the barriers in our lives will fall away.
Colossians 3:1-4
The second lesson from Colossians (3:1-4) is part of a discussion of the Christian life. The epistle is a circular letter which, like Philippians, was written by Paul from prison (4:3,10, 18) late in his career or by a follower of Paul who had a hand in assembling the collection of his epistles. These conclusions follow from the fact that the epistle includes vocabulary and stylistic characteristics different from the clearly authentic Pauline corpus. The letter addresses Christians in a town in Asia Minor near Ephesus, to a church which though not likely founded by Paul was basically in line with his teachings, except for the espousal of Gnostic-like ascetic teachings (2:21, 23), ritual practices rooted in Jewish traditions (2:16), and philosophical speculation (2:8, 20). And of course Gnosticism, a focus on spirituality which is elite and just the property of the enlightened (those who say they have their own “spirituality”), not common property of a religious institution like the church, is very much in the air of Western popular culture today.
In a 2015 Gallup poll, 52% of Americans still think that the church could answer most of today’s problems. In a poll a year later, 27% were found to have little confidence in the church. In line with this opinion, an earlier 2008 survey conducted by LifeWay Research of adults who don’t attend church, not even on holidays, found that 72 percent thought the church “is full of hypocrites,” but that 78 percent would “be willing to listen” to someone who wanted to share their beliefs about Christianity. At the same time, 72 percent of respondents also said they believe God exists.
The second lesson describes how those raised with Christ, how the resurrection, gets us looking at life in new ways. No longer focused on the things of the earth, we seek the things that are above, the things of God (v. 2). Reference is clearly made to the Christ whose resurrection we celebrate today (v. 4).
A church animated by Easter in this way would not be a hypocritical church, not trapped in the worldly ways that this chapter subsequently describes (vv. 5-9). Such a church, responding to the skepticism of many, would be positioned to impact American society in a way that the majority of Americans still think or hope the church can make. This is a lesson for sermons on the difference Easter can make in American society and in our lives.
John 20:1-18
The gospel lesson from John (20:1-18) is of course the final and least ancient gospel account, since the fourth gospel was not written until the end of the first century. This book was probably based on the synoptic accounts. Although identification of the author with John the Son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is ancient, dating back to Irenaeus in the second century (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 414), it may well have been a disciple of John who wrote it. The first post-biblical church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, claimed that John had perceived the external facts made plain in the gospel and had been inspired by friends and by the sprit to compose a spiritual gospel (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 261). The gospel was probably written for a Jewish community in conflict with the synagogue, one in which Christians had been expelled from Jewish society. Its aim was to encourage its readers to believe that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God (20:13).
Unlike the resurrection accounts of Matthew and the other synoptic gospels, the Johannine account of the first Easter actually reports Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene at the tomb (though only after Peter and the other disciples had first beheld the empty tomb). This seems to be in line with the Johannine preoccupation with the divine, exalted Christ.
Preachers might focus not just on how this version of the resurrection emphasizes Christ’s exaltation, that his divine power is most clearly manifest on Easter, but also to note how the lives of Mary Magdalene and the disciples were changed by the first Easter. Change does not come easy -- especially when life is going wrong. (Encourage participants to reflect on areas of their lives that are not going in the right direction and need change.)
Harvard business professor Rosabeth Kanter and motivational psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorsen have noted that people do not like change (even those who voted for Donald Trump). And yet it is most comforting to note that when we engage in new undertakings, neurobiologists have found that the brain dynamics of both spiritual experience and seeking new activities are similar and equally pleasurable (Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman, Why We Believe What We Believe, especially p. 187). We can then proceed in a sermon on this lesson to note how the good news of the resurrection and the faith that results predisposes our brains to be more open to change in our lives, for faith distances us away from the animal instincts in our brains that often trap us in unhealthy ways, gives us opportunities to forge new brain connections which make change possible. Mary Magdalene and the disciples are witnesses that Easter is a fresh start.
Matthew 28:1-10
Regarding the alternative gospel (Matthew 28:1-10), it is good to be reminded that it was probably written (perhaps in Antioch, since there is an ancient reference to it in the writings of Antioch’s Bishop Ignatius) for an audience of Jewish Christians no longer in full communion with Judaism. We see this both in the harsh polemic with Pharisees found in the book (18:21--23:39) and also in the efforts made by the author to establish Jesus’ Jewish identity (1:2-17). In contrast to the Johannine version of the first Easter, Jesus does not first appear to his disciples, but only to women (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) on the way to tell the disciples, after they had believed accounts of his resurrection by an angel (vv. 8-10).
The lesson of this version of the first Easter seems to be that Christ’s resurrection is only known in faith. That is an important insight in view of the fact that according to a 2016 Rasmussen report more than two in ten Americans do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. An earlier poll showed that of those who never or rarely attend church, over 50% do not believe in the resurrection. Believing the phenomenal story that a dead man came to life does not come easy. This can be a sermon to try to make sense of this miracle, a word which could especially resonate with the Christmas/Easter-only worshipers present among the flock on this festival. One way to go might be to consider what is a valid scientific claim.
The problem many have with the resurrection is that we have never seen one. But we have never seen a lot of scientific realities. A famed book on the philosophy of science by Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, helps explain why. It seems that science proceeds not so much by proving the existence of new realities as by the discovery of new theories. Science then proceeds to test the implications of these hypotheses, and eventually those which seem best to account for the data become accepted scientific suppositions. Such theories are accepted as true on a kind of faith. And then these accepted theories have their implications further tested, but meanwhile stand as scientific truths until data is found to invalidate them. But in order undertake such testing, the scientific community must accept the reality of the theory. No one has seen the atom, after all.
Help the congregation see that Jesus’ resurrection functions this way in the church. We may not have seen it, but it explains a lot of realities, like God’s ability to overcome death, the survival and thriving of Christianity despite the disgraceful death of its leader, and the reality that hope often overcomes despair. And so the resurrection of Jesus may properly be deemed true for those in faith as long as no data emerges which demonstrates that Jesus did not in fact rise. Invite the congregation to live with this claim the way we do with theories of gravity and evolution.
Sermons for this Sunday can help the faithful appreciate the reality of the resurrection. And once this is certain in the hearts of the faithful, the glorious resurrection cannot but make an impact on how we live.
