He is going ahead of
you to Galilee . There you will see him. This
is the key to our Easter morning promise. The women did not hear that Jesus was
raised to sit at the right hand of God on some throne in some far away heaven. What
they heard was much more radical. He is going ahead of you to Galilee .
There you will see him.
Where is Galilee ? Galilee is
where these disciples came from. It was their home. It was the place where they
had families and jobs and ordinary routines. It was not Jerusalem
— the Holy City ,
the center of power — but Galilee , the place
of everyday life. Go back to your ordinary, every day lives. Go back to where
your jobs and your families are. That's where Jesus will meet you. That's where
you'll find him and be empowered by him. Go back and continue this story. This
is not the end; God's business is not finished. This is the beginning. This is
where your work begins. This is where your life begins.
This
is the message of Easter to us. Don't stand at a tomb, paying homage to a dead
teacher. Don't set your sights on simply putting ointment on wounds already
dealt. Go back to the place where you live your life and meeting the Living Saviour
there. Go to meet the God who chooses to walk among us with a power greater
than all the powers that can ravage us and ruin us and lead us to despair. Go
to meet the Christ who cannot be stopped by the world's intolerance or fear or
violence or greed. Go to Galilee , go home, to
the place where God has planted you and find Christ there, continuing to rise
above the wrecks of human injustice, day after day.
Christ
is alive and friends, that means that we can also live. We don't need to just
exist in a dog-eat-dog world; we don't need to just get by. We can live;
because when we have the courage to go to Galilee
and meet the Living Lord, then we are given the power to live a life that will
not be stopped by meaninglessness or loneliness or hatred or injustice or
disease or poverty or anything else in all creation.
The
Easter promise is that the same Jesus who could not be held back by torture, by
death, by stones rolled in front of tombs, is the Jesus who is alive today and
here today and available today to live in you, to rescue you and heal you and
empower you and set you free from any tomb you've ever known.
BUT who will roll away the stone for us?
Perhaps this is our question as
well on this Easter morning. We, too, have come to pay homage to a great
teacher, a charismatic leader, a good man. We come to give honour to Jesus, but
we also come with questions on our lips.Who will roll away the stone for us?
Who will roll away the stone of sorrow from the dark tomb of our losses? Who?
Who will roll away the stone of bitterness from the dark tomb of our failures? Who?
Who will roll away the stone of cynicism from the dark tomb of our jaded vision of the world? Who?
Who will roll away the stone of indifference from the dark tomb of the world's suffering? Who?
Who will roll away the stone of grief from the dark tomb of our broken hearts and broken relationships? Who?
God has already done it. Alleluia!
