Death is Not the Last Word

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

On Good Friday, we remembered Jesus’ death.  Death usually has a period after it.  Death.  Period.  But on this Easter morning, we celebrate that Jesus’ tomb was empty.  Jesus’ claimed victory over death.  Jesus’ death had a comma after it, not a period.  One story, the story of Jesus’ life, ends.  And another story, the story of Jesus life beyond death, begins.  That first Easter morning, so many years ago, God’s love-light shined more powerful than death’s darkness.  Since the beginning of humanity, death had always been the last word.  But Easter changes all that.  Glorious Easter changes everything forever.  From that morning until now, and forevermore, death is no longer the last word.

Will you join your hearts in prayer with me?  “God of life, we praise you and thank you for this glorious Easter day.  God of life, we thank you for your unconditional love that knows no bounds, not even the old boundary of death.  God of life, we thank you that Jesus showed us that death is not the last word.  Thank you for our life that reaches beyond death.  Amen.”

Death appeared to be the final word with Jesus.  Mary Magdalene and John and the beloved disciple all returned to the tomb early on Easter morning, expecting death to be the final word, but finding something very different.  These three all saw the same thing—an empty tomb—but notice how the story tells us they all experienced something very different.

Mary arrived first, and saw the stone had been removed.  She was so distraught she didn’t go in, but instead ran back to tell Peter and the beloved disciple.  Peter and the beloved disciple then ran to the tomb.  The beloved disciple reached the tomb first, and bent down, looking in but not going in.  Then Peter arrived and finally stepped onto the tomb, seeing the discarded linen shroud.  Finally, the beloved disciple stepped in, saw the shroud, and believed, even though the very next verse says he did not understand all that was happening.

The next part of the story haunts me.  It says Peter and the beloved disciple returned home, but Mary stood outside the tomb weeping.  Finally, Mary bent over and looked into the tomb, and saw two angels, who asked her why she was weeping.  Why do you think Mary was weeping?  Have you ever lost a loved one to death?  Did you weep?  Of course.  Death had its last word, and now even the body was gone.  Mary was grieving over Jesus’ horrible death, and now, with the body gone, she was grieving over the way the world had always been, that death was the final word.  Mary assumed thieves had stolen the dead body.  Then, she backed out of the tomb, and bumped into someone else, who also asks her again, why was she weeping.  Face to face with Jesus, Mary still does not “see” or understand.

That is, until Jesus calls Mary by name.  Jesus had said earlier in John that the sheep would recognize his voice, and Mary does.  Mary calls Jesus “Teacher,” and reaches out to grasp him in a hug.  Imagine Mary’s huge relief—here is Jesus right before her—alive.  Death did not have the last word.  Death did not have the last word!

But Jesus tells Mary she cannot hold him, and Jesus sends Mary back to Peter and the beloved disciple to testify to them, “I have seen the Lord!”

What can we learn from these three different reactions to the empty tomb that first Easter morning?  The beloved disciple who does not understand, and yet believes.  Mary, who sees and can’t get beyond her grief until Jesus speaks with her.  And then Peter, who sees yet does not understand, perhaps still consumed with grief that he had abandoned and denied his friend Jesus just a few nights before.

We each deal with death in many different ways.  Most cultures and societies view death as the sad and difficult end to physical human life.  Humanity’s fear of death has motivated some of the world’s largest monuments.  The Chinese buried entire armies to protect the dead spirits, the Egyptians built huge pyramids to protect the mummies and precious goods they buried with their dead.  Humanity has expended enormous energy on avoiding or denying the permanence of death.  Physical death appears to be final, but every culture and civilization has rituals to declare spiritual existence beyond death.  Avoidance of the permanence of death is a major motivator for much of human belief, desire and fear.

When I was growing up in Albuquerque, NM, my grandparents lived on a small farm just a short walk from the Rio Grande River.  In the back, Grandpa had a small barn, a chicken coup and a work shed.  Grandma had an amazing garden, which she started as a victory garden during the War and replanted every year.  One summer afternoon when I was about 5, I remember grandpa yelling and shouting to get out of the house, that the barn and chicken coup were on fire.  The fire raged through the small barn and chicken coup, and I saw grandpa risk his life to open the coup so the chickens could escape the devouring flames.  The barn, garden and outbuildings were a total loss, but the house was miraculously saved.

Later that day, after the firemen had left, grandpa and I walked through the still smoldering barnyard surveying the charred ruins. There, I saw something that stopped me short.  In the middle of the barnyard, flattened against the burnt ground, was a blackened and completely scorched dead hen, her wings spread and flattened against the ground.  As I approached reverently, I stopped for a moment.  What was that noise I heard?  I raised one of the hen’s burnt wings [pause], and out popped several chicks, cheeping.  The mother hen could have easily escaped the fire, but she sacrificed her own life, refusing to fly away, choosing to remain and save her chicks with her own body.  [pause].  Love does that sometimes.  Sometimes love sacrifices everything to save others.

Our Christian story has new ideas about death.  We say the tomb was empty.   Our Christian story declares that death does not have the final say.  Our Christian faith says death is NOT the final word.  

But if death is not the final word, what is?  Even after that first Easter, we will all still die.  What is the last word, if death is not?

Again, perhaps our three characters in our Gospel story can provide a clue about death.  Some of us might be like the beloved disciple.  The beloved disciple believed Jesus was God’s beloved.  Even though he did not fully understand, he believed.  The beloved disciple, often used as the model for faithful Christians, believed that Jesus was a spark of divinity on earth, that Jesus and God were of the same mind, that Jesus’ teaching and living  love and compassion and caring for one another showed the way for all of humanity to live out the spark of divinity in all of us.  The beloved disciple was a Christ-follower—even though he did not fully understand, he chose Jesus.  For those of us like this, mystery is the final word.  The beloved disciple would look at the burnt hen in the barnyard and immediately understand the sacrifice and love that he saw.  He believed in Jesus immediately.  Some of us believe this way.

Peter is a bit more complicated.  He struggled with his belief.  At times he would confess total belief, and at other times he would deny he even knew Jesus to save his own hide.  I think many of us are like Peter.  We want to believe, but there are just times when it is inconvenient or just too hard.  For those of us like this, the final word is doubt.  Peter would see the burnt hen in the barnyard and wonder why the hen didn’t flee and save itself, or why the hen didn’t pick up a chick and run away, or ask so many other questions.  Peter wanted to believe, but was confronted with so many real practical issues.  Why this?  Why not that?  Some of us believe this way.

And then, there is Mary Magdalene.  Her heart was in the right place.  She loved Jesus, but had to learn to love what Jesus taught and how he lived.  She grieved deeply at Jesus’ loss.  She finally came to understand and believe when she heard Jesus speak to her.  For those of us like this, we need to experience for ourselves to believe.  Mary would see the burnt hen in the barnyard and not stop crying over the horrible tragedy because she was so sure she already knew the end of the story.  But finally, she stopped long enough to listen, and she saw Jesus.  Some of us believe this way.

There is no right way or wrong way to believe this story.  The tomb was empty.  Some believe one way, some believe other ways.  But the story continues!  Jesus had such a dramatic and deep impact on those around him that they were profoundly affected in every way even after Jesus died.  The people around Jesus kept remembering his radically different teachings, and kept remembering the way he spoke truth to power, even when it meant that he must die.  The people around Jesus kept experiencing Jesus again and again.  Jesus remained with them beyond death, and changed their lives.  And two thousand years later beyond death, Jesus is still changing our lives.  Death is not the last word, my friends.  The last word is how Jesus lived.  The last word is how Jesus forgave his tormentors.  The last word is life beyond the horizon of death with God. 

This is the Easter message.  The last word is not death.  The last word is God’s love.  Alleluia!   Christ is risen!  And Amen.