On Friday, I joined with a dozen or so other religious leaders for a Good Friday worship service, which was held this year at the Mennonite Church in Normal.
At that service, I mentioned that we are living in a hard season. I said we’re living in a time when the poor are being shown little mercy. The “stranger” who we are commanded to welcome is being denied refuge. The weak and vulnerable are being given neither help nor compassion.
That’s how things are today, and that’s how things were in the first century—even more so. The Roman Empire was an empire of great prosperity, but only those at the top of the social hierarchy—the rich and powerful—benefitted from that prosperity. Everyone else, though they worked hard to make that prosperity possible, struggled just to survive.
So “life in all its fullness” was not something most people were able to enjoy. It was a fearful, anxious time of toil and tribulation.
But a few courageous dreamers dared to imagine a better world; a world more in line with God’s intentions. A world where everyone was free to enjoy the fruits of their own labor, and live in love and harmony.
But the reordering of society they imagined was a threat to Rome. It was dangerous to be a dreamer. Most of the dreamers didn’t last long before they were imprisoned or crucified.
Jesus stood out among these dreamers. There was something about him and his vision that was so compelling. Many saw the world he envisioned as the hope they had been longing for.
Jesus called this world that he envisioned “the kingdom of God.” It was, in many ways, the exact opposite of the world under Roman rule.
In the kingdom of God, good news was proclaimed to the poor. Those imprisoned were set free. Strangers found welcome. Those who were oppressed found comfort. The hungry had all the food they needed. The lonely found companionship and friendship. The sick were healed, and the broken were made whole.
In the kingdom of God, every person would be able to live life in all its fullness. They’d live lives of wholeness and abundance.
Jesus went around, proclaiming this kingdom; and he worked to make it a present reality, wherever he went. He healed the sick. He welcomed and embraced outcasts. He treated everyone with love and respect. He especially treated well those who were the recipients of others’ hate and vitriol. He dined with people no one else wanted to dine with: sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes.
Through his actions, the kingdom of God really became a present reality. It was a kingdom for everyone, an inclusive, welcoming kingdom that embraced the entire spectrum of human diversity.
Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of God was rooted in the Torah and the prophets. Which means that the religious leaders of his time should have been right there with him, proclaiming God’s kingdom with him, and working with him to make it a present reality.
But many of the highest ranking religious leaders were under the influence of power and wealth. The Bible describes their longing for power and wealth as demonic; they were possessed by their desire for power and wealth. And it led them to side with the oppressive Roman government, instead of with the people.
Jesus condemned these leaders for their hypocrisy. These leaders are the only ones he ever routinely condemned, because they turned religion into a weapon against the poor and the vulnerable. He said to them: “Woe to you, hypocrites! You make your offering, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice! mercy! and faith!” [Matthew 23:23]
Because Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, these religious leaders turned against Jesus. They worked with government officials to spread rumors about Jesus. They said Jesus was aligned with the devil. They said Jesus was an enemy of the empire. They called him a traitor.
Eventually, because of these rumors and reports, Jesus was arrested and brought to trial. The Roman government, responsible for passing a just judgment, instead condemned this innocent man, and sentenced him to die a traitor’s death.
And thus, on Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. Another dreamer put to death by Rome.
Did the dream of a new world die with him?
Did the hopes for a new kingdom, a kingdom of God, vanish when Jesus took his last breath on the cross?
That’s what those who followed him thought. That day, they didn’t just lose their friend, their companion, their teacher; they lost the hope they had been holding on to; the hope that “life in all its fullness” could be theirs. They lost the hope that they and their children and their children’s children would finally be able to live lives of wholeness and abundance.
Their grief was overwhelming. They had pinned everything on Jesus: their hopes, their dreams, their love and friendship; their very lives. There could be no worse tragedy than this.
After his crucixion, a group of women felt obligated, out of love and loyalty, to perform the traditional rituals to honor Jesus’ body, and they prepared to do so, just as soon as the Sabbath was over…
Scripture: Luke 24: 1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
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! Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 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.
“To those who were not there, these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
When I was younger, I used to think: How could they not believe? Those silly disciples…
But now, I realize: sometimes it’s very hard to believe. And sometimes, it’s very hard to hold on to hope.
When the world seems bent on death, when compassion is in short supply, when the leaders of the world are still favoring the wealthy and the powerful over the poor and the vulnerable…
It’s hard to believe, and to hold on to hope.
When the world Jesus envisioned still seems so far away—when strangers are sent away rather than being welcomed, when the hungry have what little they have taken from them, when the sick are denied care, when innocent people are being imprisoned, when rights are being taken away from people because of their gender identity, when history is being erased, when racism remains a threat (a growing threat, at that), and when efforts to include people, and work for justice, are ridiculed…
It’s hard to hold on to hope.
When “life in all its fullness” seems to be slipping away, giving way to a life of limited freedom, limited opportunity, with greater anxiety and fear about the future…
It’s hard to hold on to hope.
When the dreams of a better world have all but died, it’s hard to hold on to hope.
So I understand why those disciples found it hard to believe. They had seen Jesus die! They had seen all their hopes die, too! It was all gone! A new and better day wasn’t coming. Life in all its fullness was just a dream, an unfulfilled dream.
That’s what they believed.
But when Peter heard the excited proclamation made by the women, something reawakened in him. The women’s words were not spoken quietly and gently. The women spoke boldly, with conviction. The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen!
So Peter went to the tomb. He had to see for himself. He “ran” to the tomb, the scripture says. What was he looking for? Was he looking for hope? Was he looking for a reason to believe?
When he got there, he saw things just as the women described them. Thank God these women did not keep silent; otherwise Peter never would have come!
The tomb was empty, except for the linen cloths. Peter didn’t quite understand what he was seeing, but he was amazed.
And in that amazement, Peter took a step back up the staircase of faith, and began believing once again; believing that the dream, the vision, the hope of a kingdom of God, might just still be a very real possibility.
Over the coming days, Jesus would reveal himself to all of his closest followers. They would see with their own eyes—and in some cases, touch him with their own hands—and know that he really, truly, was alive, that life had conquered death, which means that the kingdom of God, the kingdom where life is lived in all its fullness, was more than a dream. It was real.
It is real.
We may live in a world bent on death, a world that denies life—especially life in all its fullness—but the kingdom proclaimed by Christ is not dead.
And in that kingdom, God is working to bring life out of death, to bring people into a life of abundance, a life of fullness, a life of wholeness.
God is working through the ministry of First Christian Church, and other communities of faith here in BloNo and around the world, to make life in all its fullness a reality for all the people of the world.
We’re feeding the hungry. We’re healing the sick. We’re fighting for justice. Just as Jesus did.
And we won’t stop, and we won’t give up, because we believe in the resurrection, we believe what those women said about the empty tomb, and we believe in the kingdom of God, and we know who holds the future.
I hope you have a wonderful Easter. I hope and pray that you experience life in all its fullness, today and everyday.
The God who created you wants only the best for you. Our God is a God of compassion, mercy, and grace. There is no condemnation for those who seek God’s kingdom. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be made whole through him.
You are loved by God. And nothing will separate you from God’s love. Not even death can separate you from God’s love. Because God is stronger than death. God conquered death, and God’s love will be with you forever.
So don’t think that anything you’ve ever done could stop God from loving you. Are you stronger than death? Not even death can stop God’s love, so certainly, nothing you do or have done could ever stop God from loving you.
The world may try to make you forget this. The world may try to convince you that death has won, that hate has won, that fear has won. The world may try to convince you that there is no hope for tomorrow.
But Christ’s resurrection assures us that that is not the case. Love will prevail. And we are blessed with life in all its fullness, now, and forever.
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