DIVINE INTERVENTION
A meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “He is not here, but has risen.” (Luke 24:5)
First
Second
The story begins with the women who had come with Joseph of Arimathea, who we’re told was “a good and righteous man.” He had gone to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, took it down from the cross, wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb “where no one had ever been laid.” The women had gone with him, saw the tomb and how the body was laid. Since it was the Sabbath they returned from the tomb, prepared spices and ointments and then rested.
The story continues with it being early dawn on the first day of the week and the women return to the tomb, undoubtedly to rub down the body of Jesus, since by then it would have begun to stink. You will remember that in John’s account of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead Martha complained to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” (John 11:39) What’s interesting, however, is how Luke begins the chapter, “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.”
That’s Luke’s way of signaling that God’s about to intervene; he uses the word “but.” Things aren’t going to be the way the women expected them to be. “They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.” I have a big picture in my office from Sister Corita that just says “IF.” More people ask about what that means and I usually tell them that’s the story of life. We are always waiting for the “ifs” to occur in our lives. What if we win the lottery? What if things were different? What if we could have this or that or do this or that? What if I hadn’t gotten cancer? From our side of life we are always waiting for the “ifs” to occur.
However, according to Luke, from God’s side of life God is always countering our “ifs” with God’s but. I’m sure the women had gone to the tomb thinking what if Jesus hadn’t been crucified. After all, they had had high hopes for his earthly ministry, what with all the healing he could have done. He may have brought more and more people into God’s kingdom if he had had more time on earth. And yet, even as they enter the tomb prepared to wipe Jesus’ dead body with the spices they’d prepared, Luke tells us, “but when they went in, they did not find the body.”
The next thing we hear is, “while they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.” Again, God’s but is at work. The men ask them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
It’s as though God had reached into the grave and started
a whole new order of things. That’s why God’s agents ask the women why do they
look for the living among the dead?
That’s the old order. Our friend
God’s agents rehearse for the women that everything’s going just as Jesus had taught them it would go, how he would be handed over to sinners, be crucified and on the third day would rise again. When God counters our “if” with God’s but it’s not as though it were new news. God has been faithful through the ages. We are taught time and again to trust God. God is absolutely consistent in what God does. God has shown time and again God’s love, God’s care for the creation, the extent to which God will go to give us new life. The problem is, we have the same problem as the women. We have a tendency to cling to what we know rather than look to what God may have in store for us. It’s terribly frightening to give up our way of doing things. So we keep obsessing on “the what ifs.” What if I can’t lose the weight I want? What if my son doesn’t get into the school he wants? We keep going back to the tomb wanting to wipe spices on that which is dead rather than looking to the new God may have in store for us.
Finally the truth dawns on the women and they go to tell the disciples what’s happened. True to form Luke sets us up for another lesson in human behavior. The apostles think the words seem to be an idle tale and they don’t believe them, “but Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stopping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.” And so begins a journey of faith that all of us are going to make at some time or another.
Notice how Luke crafts his concluding message. Peter’s amazed at what had happened, but no where does Luke hint that Peter believed in the resurrection because the tomb was empty. True, God had reached into the tomb and changed the course of history, but it wouldn’t be until Jesus appeared to the disciples that they would finally believe that Jesus was eternally alive. That’s what I think has happened to our friend Nancy. I think she’s come to terms with her disease and whatever God has in mind for her is going to be fine. That’s what I think has to happen to each one of us. At some point in our lives we have got to allow God’s but to make a difference in how we live. We have got to meet the risen Christ personally, whether it’s in the upper rooms where we gather or along our own road to Emmaus. Peter did it, Thomas did it, and Paul did it. They all testify to that over-arching theme of personal encounter without which we just continue to mope around the empty tomb, or as God’s agents say, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
And this encounter with the living Christ will not be just a one time occurrence. It may happen many times during the course of our lifetime. Most noticeably it will happen when the “what ifs” in our life threaten to get the better of us. God most often uses those occasions to counter with a “but” that just seems to put things in perspective.
Rainer Maria Rilke perhaps catches this most clearly when he writes: “We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors, they are our terrors. Has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if only we arrange our lives according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then it will seem to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something that wants help from us.” “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” He has risen indeed!
Thanks be to God,
Amen