Easter Sunday 20th April – Easter Day – Pastor Adrian Kitson

20-04-2025, Easter Sunday, Isaiah 65:17-25, Luke 24:1-12, pastor adrian kitson

Luke 24:1-12, Isaiah 65:17-25,

Luke 24:1-12 (And Isaiah 65:17-25)

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷“The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”’ ⁸Then they remembered his words.

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

It is often hard to believe what you are being told.

Like when the weather man told us it might actually rain today! That was hard to believe.

Or like when your Mum told you that if you keep on avoiding doing the dishes and let them build up and build up it will create a bigger mess that will take you twice as long to clean up. “Yeah. No worries, Mum. See ya…”.

Or when your friend tells you that he is going to get fit enough to run a marathon when you know his current eating habit as general lack of interest in any exercise!

It is hard to believe what you are told sometimes.

As we hear Luke telling us of his ‘orderly account’ from eye witness accounts (Luke 1:1-4) it seems people around Jesus seemed hard pressed to believe what he had said about this rising from death business.

For a long while before this terrible day they had all just either witnessed or heard about, Jesus has told them of what the women now came in saying.

‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee…

Jesus had told them of this day directly.

‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Luke 9:22.

In that famous parable about lost sons it is there:

²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:24)

³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”’ (Luke 15:32)

He hints at it again;

“If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”’ (Luke 16:31).

Even as recently as two days ago Jesus had hinted that death would not be his end;

¹⁵And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfilment in the kingdom of God.’ (Luke 22:15)

But it hard to believe what you are told.

Same for these first Christians…

Luke wants us to know that no-one really got what had happened.

Do we ‘get’ it today?

It is not surprising for the people around Jesus.

This notion or resurrection from the dead was fairly vague. There were people in Israel who did not even believe there was a resurrection from the dead. The party of the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection from death (Matthew 22:23-28).

But even those who did believe there would be a resurrection believed it to be right at the end of all time, after all of Israel’s suffering, not now in time in the midst of our suffering.

The Resurrection was then a large scale, once off event at the end of time in which everyone who remained faithful for the Lord, from Abraham down to the latest Jewish rebels who had been killed for their faith (Martyrs) would be given new bodies/new life with the Lord.

Jesus’ close friend, Martha, when talking with Jesus before that resurrection of her brother, Lazarus shows this belief.

²³Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’

²⁴Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’

Resurrection? Everyone knows it is right att end in the distant future somewhere – bit not now Jesus….

If we are talking ‘now’ things, the closest thing to being ‘resurrected’ would be that someone embodies the spirit of a previous great person – like John the Baptist being understood as embodying the same fiery prophet spirit of Elijah.

But not resurrection of a real human body from death in the middle of life…

No, those faithful women fulfilling their love and loyalty to their Teacher did not bring all those spices and oils to that tomb ‘just in case’ Jesus was still dead.

They are like every human person. We see that coffin and we see that earth and we all know that they are not coming back. It is final.

But then the messengers ask those women;

‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee…

Luke is very clear and very honest. The first women and the eleven and many others just found it hard to hear and believe what Jesus said…

NT Wright makes the point that if Luke was making all this up a generation after the event (as some believe) not only would he not have women there being the first to bear witness to this resurrection because, women were not a credible witness in a court of law, he would also surely have the eleven believing what they been told straight away, and so, being perfect models of faith to lead the new Christian community into God’s future.

Thank the Lord for Luke’s honesty! That is not how it was.

The eleven instead dismiss the women reporting what they had seen and heard from those two dazzling messengers. These words are just silly, crazy talk formed from grief and lack of sleep.

Sadly, sounds like how a lot of people wight off the gift of resurrection!

In the most critical moment the world has ever seen, when worlds collide and this old world is re-born with hope and life, all we have is human surprise, astonishment, lack of listening, fear, confusion and lack of belief in what Jesus promised was here!

Anything more in you today?

Can you hear Resurrection? Can you remember what Jesus said about his gift for you? Can you sense the shift in your old pains and sorrows and moments of despair and damage?

Do you remain unsurprised, un-dazzled, maybe a little indifferent, even today? It is easy as long-term disciples to be like this.

You may be more comfortable carrying your usual confusions, knowing your usual fears.

But maybe you are Peter, curious enough to get up and run to that tomb and see something to help him remember.

Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

He moved from dismissing to wondering. Would you do that today?

And that is as far as God gets in this first moment of resurrection creation.

Grasping what your resurrection to life is seems to take a while. It is a slow build, even for God.

Of course, pretty soon a couple of these close friends of Jesus are going to get their socks blown off as they do more than remember some things he said.

They will meet this guy on the road and share a meal with him and as opens up the entire sweep of the Scriptures to show them what resurrection is – a totally new creation of God breaking into the middle of this tired and dying one, they feel their heart burn like it never has before (Luke 24: 13-35).

Within a week the eleven and others will really start to truly ‘get’ the whole thing when this same Jesus appears in the flesh again. God breathes a peace into their bodies as he had when the world was created (Genesis 1).

They are reset. They are now resurrected human beings. Resurrection changed them for ever.

We are resurrected people. He has changed us.

Our Vintage Festival display is saying that “Sometimes the music speaks when the word can’t”.

Maybe a song will help us remember who Jesus has raised us to be and fill us with that peace and life this holy day?

Try this song for size. This is what the Lord is doing in you today;

¹⁷‘See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.

¹⁹I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

²¹They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit,

²³They will not labour in vain,
    nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
    they and their descendants with them.²⁴Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.
says the Lord.