May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Christ is risen
He is risen indeed, Alleluia
But is he really? People don’t just rise from the dead, It’s impossible, yet this impossible truth is at the very heart of our faith, without it everything else falls apart.
C S Lewis wrote that if Christianity is false it is of no importance but if it is true it is of infinite importance.
So, can it be true?
Let’s take a look at some evidence. Our gospel reading this morning features our very own patron saint, Mary Magdalen apostle to the apostles and the first witness to the resurrection.
Hang on, this is the first century Roman Empire. A woman cannot be a reliable witness, that’s what the law says, her evidence wouldn’t be acceptable in court.
If you want to convince people what you are saying is true, why do all four gospel writers have an unreliable woman as their first witness? You wouldn’t write it like that, except, just maybe you would, because it’s the impossible truth.
Lets have a look at the rest of the apostles. On that first Easter day they are all hiding behind locked doors, too scared to go out, clearly believing Jesus is dead.
Yet as we hear in the next few weeks, something changes for them. In forty days time at Pentecost they will be on the streets preaching the risen Christ, even at the risk of torture and death, and many of them will face torture and death for their belief in the risen Christ. What a massive, impossible change in attitude, unless the impossible is true.
When Mary Magdalen first arrives at the tomb, she notices that the tomb was open. Archaeological evidence suggests that a typical tomb would have had a slope down to the entrance with a grove down which the stone disc to seal the entrance could easily be moved.
It would be a lot more difficult to move the stone disc up the slope away from the entrance. We are also told that the linen wrappings from the body were still inside the tomb.
Now some people have suggested that the body was moved by other people, but why would you go to all that effort to move the stone, then unwrap the dead and messy body before moving it?
And if someone had moved the body, why did no one find it and bring it out as evidence to stop this crazy new belief spreading? Or maybe the impossible is true and the tomb was empty because Jesus rose and a risen body doesn't need the grave clothes, so he left then behind.
I have one final piece of evidence for the impossible truth. In first century Judah there were quite a few itinerant preachers, going around claiming to perform miracles, even possibly claiming to be the messiah.
Some may even have been crucified if the Romans thought they were a threat to the state. Yet 2000 years later, only one is not only remembered, but known around the world, why? Because of the impossible truth that he died and unlike the others rose again.
So we can believe in an impossible truth, but why is it needed in the first place?
The first Easter marked a crisis for the world. A crisis is a pivot point, where things could go one way or another, think about how we talk about the crisis point of an illness. The moment where the patient turns onto the path to recovery or not.
A crisis is an event not a process, the decisive moment when something could go either way. Easter marks a decisive moment for the world.
Either the devil will win, and we are all doomed or humanity will be redeemed, the mistakes of the garden of Eden will be reversed and we will be saved.
The Whole future of humanity is at stake.
Like a seed that has to be buried before it can bring forth new life, Christ has been buried but risen to new life. Because Christ is raised to new life, we can all be raised to new life.
If Christ isn’t God and doesn’t rise again we are all doomed. Through the cross and resurrection the world can be transformed, pushed onto a new life giving path and we can be transformed as well.
Easter can be a chance to renew our faith, to bring fresh hope to ourselves and the world. As Liverpool football fans sing, we can walk on with hope in our heart.
The famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, once commented, that when you have eliminated all other options whatever remains however impossible must be true. The impossible is true, we have hope, the world is renewed,
Christ Is risen!
He is risen indeed, Alleluia.
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