EASTER SUNDAY: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

When we buy a product we want to make sure that we can count on it and trust it to work the way it is supposed to work. When you go and buy a car you are looking for reliability, a car that you know will carry you and your family safely for years to come. The car company tries to earn your trust by giving you a warranty. The warranty tells you how long and to what extent you can trust them and their product. But the problem with these warranties is they eventually run out. You can trust them but only for a period of time. Our relationship with others is the same way. When looking for a husband or wife we look for someone who is trustworthy, someone we can trust, someone we know is going to be faithful to us over the course of a lifetime. I believe that it is in the heart of every person and is every person’s deepest longing to be able to completely trust someone — someone who won’t lie to us, someone who won’t let us down. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then we cannot trust him with our lives and we certainly cannot trust him with our eternity.  But fortunately for us, Jesus did rise from the dead. Easter does exist, it’s real not fake, it’s true, not a lie! We can trust Him with our lives and live in Him and for Him.

 

 Albert L. Roper was a prominent Virginia attorney, a graduate of the University of Virginia and its law school, who eventually became mayor of the city of Norfolk. He once began a thorough legal investigation into the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ, asking himself the question: “Can any intelligent person accept the Resurrection story?” After examining the evidence at length, he came away asking a different question: “Can any intelligent person deny the weight of this evidence?” — Even those who traveled for three years with Jesus experienced disbelief over His Resurrection, but Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs. We don’t base our Faith on legends, myths, or fairy tales. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is well-documented, and many critics have been silenced (and even converted) when they’ve carefully investigated the evidence.

The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith, for it proves that Jesus is God.  Undoubtedly Easter is the most important day in the Church’s year and unquestionably the most important event in human history. That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain.  The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful should leave their churches immediately. It comes down finally to this: if Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives. There is no third option.

All the basic doctrines of Christianity are founded on the truth of the Resurrection.  Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection. The open tomb is our door to eternal life. Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he die” (Jn 11:25-26).  Christ will raise us up on the last day, but it is also true, in a sense, that we have already risen with Christ.  By virtue of the Holy Spirit, our Christian life is already a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ (CCC #1002, #1003).

How does Christ’s resurrection bring this change in the world? Well we can draw an analogy between the effects of Christ’s resurrection and what happens when a stone is dropped into a lake. Just as a stone dropped into a lake causes ripples to radiate across the lake, so also Christ’s resurrection causes divine power to radiate across creation into all times and places.

These are some of the reasons why we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. (1) Jesus himself testified to his Resurrection from the dead (Mk 8:31; Mat 17:22; Lk 9:22). During the ministry Jesus did frequently inform His disciples about His death and resurrection. In fact Jesus made the comparison between His resurrection and the life of Jonah in the belly of the fish (Matt 12:40).

 (2) The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday (Lk 24:3). Although the guards claimed (Mat 28:13) that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was impossible for the terrified disciples to steal the body of Jesus from a tomb guarded by a 16-member team of armed Roman soldiers. (3) The initial disbelief of Jesus’ own disciples in his Resurrection, in spite of his repeated apparitions.  This serves as a strong proof of his Resurrection. It explains why the apostles started preaching the resurrected Christ only after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (4) The Jews and the Romans could not disprove Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. (5).The apostles and early Christians would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’ Resurrection. (6) The Apostle Paul’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians into a zealous apostle, preaching the Good News of Jesus throughout much of the Gentile world, supports the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (Gal 1:11-17, Acts 9:1; 26:15-18). (7) The sheer existence of a thriving, Empire-conquering early Christian Church, bravely facing three centuries of persecution, (Unlike Islam which grew only on the edge of sword), supports the truth of the Resurrection claim.  So there are undefeatable proofs for the resurrection of Jesus. But he appeared only to those who believed in him, nor did he take up the challenge of the enemies to come down from the cross. Nor did he appear to those who tortured him, imprisoned him or executed him. Jesus didn’t immediately start appearing to the disciples, although eventually, he appeared to over five hundred of them.

 

We spent Lent praying at the foot of the Cross; now, like Mary Magdalene, we can pray at his empty tomb. He will reveal himself, just as he did to Mary, in his time, but we have to believe in him, even when we don’t understand fully.

 

Jesus appeared to his followers and, in each case, they had the opportunity to “touch and believe.” We may not be able to see him in flesh and blood, but we can see his sacramental body in the Eucharist, just like the disciples of Emmaus did. If this Easter makes any difference in my life, how am I going to share that story to others to make a difference in their lives. Let’s think about it a few moments.