We are Witnesses [Easter Sunday B]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
John 20:1-18
We are Witnesses
We are witnesses. This is our story to tell. It is at once an old, old story that happened
long ago and yet it is still happening– still unfolding in the lives of those
who have come to believe in the Risen Christ.
When St. Peter stood before the
gentiles, he did not explain the mechanics of bodily reanimation; he did
explicate his doctrine of Jesus' ascension in the context of a three-tiered
universe. He told his story. He said, “We are witnesses.”
When Mary Magdalene left the empty
tomb, after experiencing the Risen Christ, she did not present a paper on the
changed appearance of a resurrected corpus.
She did not race to meet the disciples with a collection of theories or
a bulleted list of historical proofs of the resurrection. She told her story. She simply witnessed: I have seen the
Lord.
Eugene Peterson writes, “It is
critical that we get inside this and make it our own, critical that we realize
not just that the resurrection happened but that it happens. Too often we make the resurrection a matter of
apologetics and melt the resurrection accounts down to an ingot of doctrine.”[1] But resurrection is not a problem we
solve. Resurrection is not a theory in
search of a proof. Resurrection is not
just an event that happened 2000 years ago.
Resurrection is a reality we experience; it is still happening. We are witnesses.
The first believers were not
convinced by the physical evidence; there was none – the tomb was empty, Jesus
was gone. They were not convinced by a
History Channel special on the first Easter.
They were not convinced by the latest acclaimed theological
treatise. They believed in resurrection
because they experienced the Risen Christ in their lives. And because they experienced the Risen Christ
in their lives, they told the story.
They shared their experience.
They spread the same Good News we are here to celebrate today. They became the witnesses.
They saw Jesus die on a Roman
cross. And yet, he was alive. And he kept showing up – when they were
together, when they sat down to share a meal.
When the bread was broken, he was there.
When they remembered him, he was there – with them and in them and all
around them. “Christ's resurrection was
not an event in isolation from those who shared his love. His human relationships continued in his
resurrection, revealing a love stronger than death.”[2] Jesus was alive. They were the witnesses.
They found Jesus outside the
tomb. They found Jesus in their locked
room. They found Jesus with them on the
street. They found Jesus eating with
them on the beach. They found Jesus on
Pentecost. And Jesus found them when
they were lost.
And so they shared their
stories. They wrote them down in
Gospels. They carried their Good News
everywhere they went. They were the
witnesses.
And the witness did not die with
that first generation. Generation after
generation of Christians continued to experience the Risen Christ. In the Apostles' teaching and in their
fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in their prayers: when they
gathered in Jesus' name, he was there.
He was alive and he was making them alive too.
The Easter event is on-going. Signs of the resurrection continue to pop up
in our lives. We continue to meet Jesus
– often in ways impossible to explain, and yet undeniably real. Christians still gather in churches all over
the world to testify to the life-changing power and grace of the Risen
Christ. And we shout, Alleluia! And we proclaim, “The Lord is Risen
indeed!” Christ has marked us; we are
his forever. We are witnesses.
I am a witness.
Jesus found me at the baptismal
waters. And he marked me as his
own. Forever.
And he spoke to me through
grandparents and parents, who, even in their most difficult times – through
pain and poverty and struggle – never let me forget that Jesus loves me, never
let me forget that Jesus is with me – in my life and in my heart.
And Jesus saw me through the
loneliest days of my teenage years. I
felt his presence in my most anxious nights.
When no one else was around, Jesus was there.
I see him in my wife. In the sacrifices she made to bring new life
into the world, in the sacrifices she makes to love and care for our family.
I experience the Living Christ in
the Bread and in the Wine. At the altar
Jesus saves me over and over again. He
prepares for me a feast for which I could never pay. He feeds me with his most precious Body and
Blood so that I can dwell in him and he in me.
I see him in the waters of
Baptism. When I dip my hand into those
dangerous waters, I feel his power. When
I pour them over the head of a new Christian, I feel his love. I meet there the One who died and rose
again. And I remember that in those
waters I was baptized into his death, but also into resurrection.
I find Risen Christ at the
grave. And because he is even there, I
can shout Alleluias through my grief.
And I can walk with the dead in hope.
Because resurrection is still happening.
Because Easter shows me that life triumphs over death.
And I see Jesus in you: my sisters
and my brothers in Christ. I see the
ways in which the Risen Christ is making you alive, is changing your
lives. I see him in how you love and
serve each other. I see Jesus in our
moments of peace and in reconciliation.
The Risen Christ is in our midst.
Jesus is alive. I am a witness.
And I am not alone. This story does not belong to me. It is our story. And “it is critical that we get inside this
and make it our own, critical that we realize not just that the resurrection
happened but that it happens.”
The world is not looking for
another argument. The world is not
looking for another doctrinal statement.
The world is looking for Jesus.
And we have seen him. Jesus is
alive. We are witnesses.
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