We Know What Happened

Sermon preached Sunday, April 4, 2021, Resurrection of Our Lord, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

A pastor I worked with in California was a professor of religion before she was ordained. In a recent conversation, she brought up a relatively obscure religious tradition: Zoroastrianism. It’s been around for thousands of years and survives into today, although there isn’t a terribly large number of adherents. Most modern-day believers in Zoroastrianism are in the Middle East or India.

You might be asking yourself, “Why is Pastor Becca talking about this random religion on Easter?” I promise, there’s a point. The thing is, Zoroastrians believe that there are two competing forces in the world: a force of life and a force of death. This duality gets expressed in other ways, too, like good versus evil or light versus dark. It’s not so different than what other religions believe and teach, but there’s one aspect of this duality that I found especially interesting.

Zoroastrians don’t claim to know what will win. In other words, the battle between life and death continues on and it’s full of suspense. This is not the action story or classic tale where the good guy always wins, the plans of the wicked are foiled and a happy ending is a given. No, for these believers the struggle is real and could go either way. Life or death could win. It’s a 50/50 bet. Every day could be lived with the anxiety of not knowing.

All too often, we live this way, like we’re not sure what will happen, like we’re not sure if life or death, good or evil will become triumphant. I fall into this trap from time to time, don’t you? We watch the news worriedly, like the death, violence, cruelty and greed reported on is all there is. We wring our hands about the state of public Christianity as if our witness isn’t most powerful when it is lived out in our everyday lives. We stress about whether or not we are good enough at our jobs, or for our family, or for God and have trouble remembering that we are already good—so much more than “good enough.” We see this battle in so many aspects of our lives: life versus death. Good versus evil. We live in anxious anticipation of what might win.

But today we hear the end of the story: God wins. Life wins.

Death tried incredibly hard. Death and the forces of sin were out in full force. God came to live among a broken humanity and we couldn’t handle how loving and full of grace and welcome this God was. Sin worked overtime in us to put this God we rejected to death…and sin thought it had won. Death thought it had won.

But we know what happened. At early dawn, a group of women came to the tomb expecting to find the body of the teacher, Lord, and friend. We know what happened: the tomb was empty and the women remembered all that Jesus had said about dying and rising again. We know what happened: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the other women became the first evangelists, the first ones to proclaim the good news that Jesus the Christ had risen from the dead. We know what happened: most of the disciples did not believe them, but Peter did and ran to the tomb to see it all for himself.

We know what happened: the story of Christ’s resurrection from the dead spread and the message of God’s love for all of humanity made its way to every corner of the world. We know what happened: Paul wrote to the early Christian’s in Corinth about it.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. ²¹For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; ²²for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:20-26)

This what has happened. We know the end of the story.

None of this is to say that there will never be any suffering or pain or even death. Ultimately, though, we know that these forces have been destroyed. Ultimately, we know they have been defeated.

This knowledge is best expressed through a story I heard from another pastor colleague. He was at a nursing home on Friday, leading a Good Friday service in the chapel there for its residents. Just before the service began, a woman called him over to her chair. She told him that she lived in an assisted living facility nearby, but was having some health problems that put her temporarily in the nursing home. Then she told him she was scared. “I’m scared to death,” she said, “Just scared to death.” He asked her what she was scared of and she didn’t mince words, so I’ll edit a bit for more tender ears: “This sickness. It’s a bear. It’s a freakin’ bear. But even if it gets me, God wins.” Even if it gets me…God wins. She knew the end of the story.

And even this year, when the world feels upside down and so many of the things we’ve taken for granted gone from our lives, this fact is still true.

We know the end of the story. We proclaim it here every Sunday. In thanksgiving for our baptism, we proclaim that God has provided life-giving water. The readings remind us of all the ways God has already acted in human history. In the Nicene Creed, we end by stating, “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. In communion, we are welcomed to a table with bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, that sustains us in this life and keeps us in God’s grace. We leave, ready to share the good news of God’s victory to all who will listen.

We know the end of the story. Allelluia! Christ is Risen. Amen.