The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 15:43-16:8

“Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified. He has

risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His Disciples and Peter that

He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.”

These are the words of the angel at the scene of the tomb of Jesus. “Do not be amazed”. But let us think about that for a moment. The angel is telling these women not to be amazed although the event that has just taken place is completely utterly amazing by every possible definition of the word.

You know that often people who might mean well but who know very little about religion will tell you that truth is relative and that all major religions are basically the same etc etc, so on and so forth. I beg to differ. You see there is only one major religion in the world that claims that its leader was crucified like a common criminal. In most cases you see religions that look at their leaders in a triumphalistic way, but with a crucified Lord where is the triumph? Yet amazingly with Christianity we see another feature not found in the other major religious groups. The impossible, unfathomable claim that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

I submit that no other religion has the guts to make such a claim because no one could even imagine such an event. Who in their right mind would believe it? Even in the case of celebrities such as Elvis we see that people always imagine that he is alive…the difference is that some are convinced that he never actually died. But that is hardly the case with Jesus of Nazareth. His crucifixion was a public event seen by many. His disciples went into hiding for fear of the Jewish authorities. They felt that they would be the next ones to be crucified for following Jesus.

So we as the hearers of this gospel are forced into this situation where the angel is telling the women not to be amazed while it is quite apparent that what has in fact taken place is epic, cosmic and yes, amazing. But here is the reason why the Angel tells them not to be amazed……The Lord Jesus not only told them all that He would do it, but since He is God, His ability to do it is simply not amazing. The angel understands this because he understands the true nature of the Son of God. Life is a simple thing to the source and giver, to the Creator of life.

When our thinking is forced to change in such a crucial way that is called a paradigm shift. With the true revelation of the identity of Jesus, there is a new paradigm, a new set of rules…..a new reality. 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” All things become new in the light of Jesus Christ, in the light of His suffering, His death and His defeat of death.

The resurrection is not simply an afterthought in our lives. It is not simply something that happened 2000 years ago to Jesus in a far away land. The resurrection is ours…..it is our hope and reason for a life of joy. It is a reminder that even when things in our life are looking bad, maybe terrible, nothing really scares us because Our Lord is greater than these things. If anything does scare us it should be that we don’t have enough faith and that we don’t take enough care for our souls to protect ourselves from falling into sin, for this we should each be terrified. But we shouldn’t worry about the things of this world and the threats of this life because Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered the worst that the world could throw at Him while saying “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

The one who has overcome the world has overcome not only the little difficulties of life, He has overcome the worst things that we can even imagine. Injustice, cursing, reviling, slander, imprisonment, suffering, torture and finally death. If He is my Lord and Master and if He has endured and defeated all of this, and if He has permitted me to draw near to Him and to partake of His life, then shouldn’t I see the whole world and all of my life and all of my struggles and sufferings differently?

St. Barsanuphius of Optina writes, “You need not be despondent. Let those be despondent who do not believe in God. For them sorrow is burdensome, of course, because besides earthly enjoyment they have nothing. But believers must not be despondent, for through sorrows they receive the right of sonship, without which is impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The resurrection is indeed the amazing event that proves to us that the rules have changed. It proves to us that Jesus has overcome death and subjected it under His feet. This tells us that because He is on our side, we can and will overcome whatever is thrown at us. But we won’t so this by our own power and strength, we are powerless without Him. But through Him, we become “a new creation.”

It is true that until we begin to understand the identity of Jesus Christ as the only Son of God we are amazed by the story of the resurrection. But after we understand His identity, the story is much less amazing because it is a story about life and life is the signature of God. Yet we are still amazed because He has allowed each of us the opportunity to enter into His unending life.

May we see His signature all over our own lives.

(based on homily preached April 29, 2012)

Source: Sermons