Easter
By Pastor Steve Yamaguchi
Luke 24:1-12
Christ is risen! This changes everything. Jesus died. Jesus was buried. And now Jesus is risen and walking and eating with people! Everything is different now. The resurrection changes everything.
Jesus appears to the disciples in a resurrected body, not a dazzling ethereal figure as Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus’ friends at the event known as “The Transfiguration” in Luke chapter 9. This Easter, Jesus is a non-dazzling Jesus whom these disciples in Luke 24 didn’t notice as special. He looked like any other traveler on the road. He could talk and laugh and eat and hang out with people. He could touch his friends again. This resurrected Jesus was down to earth and accessible.
But he was different. He could move around in ways that baffle us. He spoke with authority and glory, with no worry about who heard whatever he said. He spoke with a boldness; he no longer warned his friends not to talk about him for fear of disturbing the authorities. This Easter, Jesus is liberated from fear and caution. He is free.
The resurrection life Jesus prepared for us is not disembodied. It is not an eternity of floating as angels in a strange, ethereal world. Jesus makes all things new. Jesus redeems creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth–new, but recognizable–recognizable but perfected. We will live “down to earth” lives, and we will be free.
The Bible uses vivid images and language to describe the life to come, and the reality that someday comes will be so much more glorious than we can describe. All we know for sure is that it will be good, it will be just, it will be glorious, and we will enjoy life in God’s presence forever. Until then, our job in this present world is to share God’s love and glorious hope. And so Easter launches us into our mission, to live into the prayer Jesus taught us: “May your just rule come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Jesus is risen! And everything is different now. The New has come. You, I, and Tokyo Union Church will never be the same. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can live and walk and run and dance in the light. Like those first disciples on the road to Emmaus–let our hearts burn within us. What an adventure awaits us!