From Rejected to Resurrected - A Sermon for Easter Sunday 2025
GOSPEL: Luke 24:1-12
The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 24th chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.
Evidently expecting to find Jesus’ corpse, some of the women among his followers go to the tomb with embalming spices. After a perplexing encounter with the empty tomb and angelic visitors, the women become the first to proclaim the amazing news of resurrection.
1 On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
This is what the women say to the disciples
and no one believes the women.
Peter was intrigued enough to run to the tomb
to see for himself,
But no one believed the women.
Why? Is it simply because they are women
and were considered second class?
It’s hard to say…
Resurrection is so hard to believe,
that maybe it wouldn’t have mattered
who was sharing the story.
Just ask Thomas, called the doubter.
There is strong evidence that
the women were not believed
simply because they are women.
The clue is in the Greek word
that we have translated as “Idle Tale” Lyros.
Lyros is a sexist word that means silly talk,
nonsense, garbage, crud.
Its usage in the ancient Greek language
is for the kind of stories
that are only assigned to women.
The women’s story is written off as Lyros: an “Idle tale” -
It might be the story of the resurrection
that the men reject,
but it is also the women who experience rejection.
The men couldn’t believe the testimony of the women.
Eventually, they believed,
and we will hear some of these stories
in the coming weeks.
Rejection is a major theme in Luke’s Easter story.
Jesus’ rejection.
Peter’s rejection or denial,
Judas’ betrayal or rejection of Jesus.
The women are rejected.
We know that in the safety of this sanctuary
we can boldly declare
“Christ is Risen!” Christ is risen, indeed!
In this place we find our belonging
with Jesus and the saints,
here we practice faith, we do belief
that we become who God made us to be.
This place is the practice facility
where we hone our skills of discipleship
for the big game of life
that awaits outside these walls.
But can we proclaim the resurrection
outside these walls
in the game of life
without the fear of rejection?
If you walk down the street tomorrow saying
“I’ve seen Jesus, Jesus is alive”
I’m sure you’ll experience rejection.
You might get a hearty “the Lord is risen indeed”
from the odd Christian,
but odds are all you will receive are odd looks,
and rejection.
It doesn’t have to be out in the neighbourhood,
you know that sharing this Good News
even in your own living rooms,
or friend’s homes
may be met with rejection.
And when you share your faith,
when you talk about Jesus and Jesus is rejected,
it also feels like they are rejecting you.
When we face rejection:
be it for our faith,
in our work,
from people we love,
that pain is real and lingers;
we all have our own way of reacting to rejection.
When I am rejected,
I want to hide and grumble about it.
Some people choose to fight fire with fire when rejected.
Some feel sadness, anger, confusion.
Sometimes when we are rejected,
we simply want to hit the “reset” button
and start over.
Anyone remember the classic
Nintendo Entertainment System?
I do.
My childhood revolved around
playing sports,
and playing Nintendo and Sega Genesis video games.
For me, it didn’t get much better than
Super Mario Brothers or the old sports video games.
I’d spend hours with my brother
or my friends playing these games.
Maybe you can relate:
Sometimes, we’d be playing a game,
and find ourselves in trouble,
so we’d “oops” hit the reset button,
and the game would just start over from the top.
All our troubles gone - a clean slate.
I’ve heard it said that when Jesus rose from the grave,
much like the story of Noah and the flood,
it was God hitting the reset button.
Well, not quite.
When you hit the reset button,
everything that has happened earlier in the game
just doesn’t matter anymore.
It is gone.
I remember playing Super Mario Brothers 3
one day with a friend.
We made it to world 8 - the final world.
I don't remember what level we were on exactly,
but we were so close to winning the game,
we had never made it so far.
It took a long time to get there,
we had poured our hearts and souls into that game.
And something happened,
we flinched
and somehow accidentally hit the reset button.
We screamed.
We couldn’t believe it.
All our hard work, gone.
All we had accomplished, gone.
It was devastating to think about
how we might ever get back to that place in the game.
The reset button erases all the mistakes and pain,
and it erases all the success and growth.
This isn’t how it works with our God.
That’s not what happened with the story of Noah,
and that is definitely not what happened
with the story of Jesus.
The reset button means the whole experience
up to that point doesn’t matter.
But our experiences do matter.
The Jesus who rose from the grave
is the same Jesus who was crucified on the cross.
As we will hear in weeks to come,
the scars on his hands and side were still there.
We proclaim Christ,
and him crucified.
The Jesus who rose from the grave
is the same Jesus who called
for social, political,
and economic justice and equity.
The Jesus who rose from the grave
is the same Jesus who tossed the tables in the temple
and called out the religious elite on their
hypocrisy.
The Jesus who rose from the grave
is the same Jesus who ate and drank
with sinners and outcasts,
calling them friends.
Christ’s Resurrection does not mean
that the rest of his life and his suffering don’t matter -
the opposite is true:
the resurrection is God’s stamp of approval on Jesus.
Resurrection says that the kind of healing
that God brings about through the resurrection
acknowledges the pain of the past,
and does not make light of it.
The healing found in Jesus
honours the pain of rejection.
When you feel rejected,
remember that Christ is with you.
Remember that God knows how to deal with rejection.
Humanity rejected God,
in the most terrible and humiliating way:
we put God on a cross.
Death could not hold God down,
for our God is greater than even death.
Only our God can take the greatest rejection
and turn it into life for all people.
This resurrected life is yours!
In this life is healing and wholeness
amid all the rejection that you have faced in your life.
That rejection matters,
God does not simply gloss over it
and it does not simply go away like a reset button. Resurrection means that Jesus walks forward with you
so that you don’t need a reset button.
I think of the women in the gospel story.
As they walked to the tomb with the spices
they had prepared,
I wonder if they wanted a reset button.
They didn’t get one -
they received something greater.
They witnessed the resurrection.
The empty tomb itself is not evidence of the resurrection.
The empty tomb is evidence that the tomb is empty
and the body is not there.
The evidence is in the witness.
The evidence is the experience of the risen Christ.
These messengers dressed in dazzling clothes
remind the women that
the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
be crucified,
and three days later rise again.
These messengers reminded them
that death is not the end for Jesus.
These messengers reminded the women
just how important they are.
The women were in Christ’s inner circle.
They didn’t hear the words of Jesus in Galilee
second hand - they were there.
Jesus didn’t tell this to just anyone.
Although these women were rejected by the men,
Resurrection means that in the kingdom of God,
women are not mere story tellers.
Unlike their social status at the time,
women are trusted by Jesus,
part of the inner circle.
Women are the first witnesses of the resurrection,
they are first to receive the greeting
from the messengers of God,
these women are far more than idle chit-chatters -
the women are given the privilege of being
the first to share the Good News.
The women were not told to go and tell,
they just did it.
The women are not mere errand runners for the disciples -
the women ARE disciples.
And eventually the word spread,
and the people did believe their witness.
Today, we are all witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.
We have heard the story again today
told by those who witnessed it
so that we might remember that this is no mere idle tale.
Resurrection is real,
resurrection is ours to experience today,
resurrection is ours to share.
Resurrection today means that
your own rejection does not get the last word.
Resurrection means we can strive for justice, equity and peace
knowing that God blesses this journey.
Resurrection today means that
all people have a place in the kingdom of God,
wether you’re in the inner circle
or seemingly only capable of idle chit-chat.
Resurrection today means you don’t need
a reset button in your life
because Christ is with you.
Most of all, resurrection today means that
we can live in confidence
that our death does not get the last word.
You belong to Christ,
and by Christ’s resurrection,
you too have the hope and promise
that you too shall rise.
Death has been conquered for you!
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Alleluia.
