Spectator or Believer?
John shares a story from Matthew 28:1-10 in his Gospel about two women who come to pay their last respects to Jesus. What a surprise they found at the tomb: an angel who gave them three profound gifts: an encouraging word (“Do not be afraid”), a critical truth (“he has been raised, as he said”) and a closing instruction (“Go quickly and tell his disciples” (John 20:5b-7a).
From Fear to Faith
The women became in essence, the first apostles, the first evangelists, and they took off lickety-split to head back to where the disciples are hiding out, as it says later in the chapter, “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). And notice: They left with both fear and joy. Have you ever had that combination? Where it’s just so much more than you could ever imagine—can it really be true?
When you’re taken out of your comfort zone, there’s a lot of fear involved. It’s bigger than your capacity to control, and yet it is the answer to the cry of your heart. And just as they turned to tell the disciples, “He is here,” Jesus appeared.
What could be more remarkable than that? And he was not just some ghost. They literally came to him and, it says, “took hold of his feet”—the feet that already bore the scars of where the nails went through the feet into the cross.
From Death to Life
In the one or two seconds it took for them to see Jesus, the world shifted ever so slightly on its axis. History moved from B.C. to A.D. At the beginning of this passage, these women were in deep despair, in the agonizing presence of unconquerable death. But a second after they see him, they experience the deepest possible human elation in the presence of the central figure of human history: the risen Lord.
When they turned to him at that moment, human history took a turn—to hope, and the conquest of meaninglessness. If all you have is death, in the end, all you can do is consign yourself to the inevitable, to a power far greater than you that cares nothing for you. And that specter hangs over humanity like a cloud and yields statements like “Life is meaningless. First you’re born, then you die.”
It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that conquers meaninglessness by planting humanity within the realm of eternity, of the carrying out of an eternal purpose. And the glory is that we get to be a part of it. We’re not spectators to eternity. We’re not spectators to purpose, divine will carrying out what divine will wants to do. It’s much more intimate, more personal than that. It’s Jesus coming to these two women and allowing them, in an act of intimacy and awe, to literally fall at his feet and to touch them.
From Casual to Essential
What do you do with this? It was Fred Borsch who said, “I have a Jesus came back from the dead, and there’s really nothing else to say.” Can you affirm this? What will you do?
You see, it’s possible to be a spectator, to be a tourist in the carnival of the divine. And you can watch and look and notice and say, “Oooh, how do you think it went? Oh, it was a pretty good service today. What do you want for lunch?” and in essence move on with your life.
But this gospel story does not allow that kind of response. If that’s all you got, you’re not paying attention. Because we are talking about the one who conquered the unconquerable. The gospel story asks you either to lay down your life or to put the stone of the tomb over your very heart and say, “Not in here. I want to call my own shots, thank you very much.”
But do you not understand that should you do that, you are literally shaking your fist in the face of deity? If death is not the final judge, then Jesus is. What will you do with that?
From Lost to Found
So I would both plead with you and invite you to come into such a place of yieldedness that you might know this joy, this elation, the hunger met inside of you, for eternal purpose and great life. It’s not for the casual. It’s not even for the faint of heart, because it takes courage to walk like this. But even if all you can do is say, “Lord, I confess to you that I’m one selfish you-know-what, and I’m often faint of heart, because I’d rather blend in than stick out. Would you have someone like me?”
Jesus says, “Come on. I’ll make you a new person.” And he does: “I once was lost, but now I’m found. / Was blind but now I see.”
So today, don’t be a spectator. Not before this Jesus. As you come to him into that place of great intimacy, a great transfer happens: your weakness for his strength, your sin for his forgiveness, your self-centeredness for his servanthood. Your self-centeredness gets broken. And what gets poured into you is the servant power of Jesus himself.
That’s what he gives us. That’s what happened to these two women and to the disciples. Come, let this be a time, not just to watch but to know real joy. Come to him who does not reject you, and allow him to take the stones away and pour within you that amazing resurrection power.
How could you say no to something like that?
Are you ready to go from spectator to believer? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.
(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017, in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando.)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.