Like your landlord becoming your lodger, like Beethoven queuing for a ticket to his own concert, like a school principal being given homework, like Rembrandt painting by numbers, like the ultimate Undercover Boss God lived among us.  Like a farm animal going to the slaughter house, God went silently, passively, to his violent death.  Like women who had lost their purpose for living they made their way to a tomb to put spices on a corpse.  Like men who saw no point in going on they sat around aimlessly in an attic.  Like people whose dreams and hopes had been crucified and buried they skulked around trying to make sense of it all.  Like close friends of a man whose life had been senselessly snatched away at a young age they were shocked, confused, remorseful, in denial.

Like scheming political campaign managers the authorities assessed the fallout and pondered a job well done - a trouble-maker out of the way, civil unrest at bay, an unstable extremist disposed of.  Like fickle children swearing endless friendship one moment and breathing eternal hate the next the ordinary citizens got on with their lives, moving on from another false dawn and wishing they hadn’t been so gullible a week earlier.  Like a man who had performed the most treacherous and unspeakable act of betrayal in a world full of broken promises and disloyalty, a wretch wished he had never been born and tied a noose round his neck.  Like a goal-kicker who had just scored a last-second filled-goal to win the Superbowl the forces of darkness celebrated with uncontrollable glee.  They had killed the Son of God.  The light snuffed out, peace defeated, death victorious, evil triumphant.

That’s how it was as awful Friday drifted into desolate Saturday and on into the dawn of another pointless day.  But God had other plans.  Turns out the occupant of that tomb was only borrowing it for the weekend.

Death is a pretty big business.  And where there’s money to be made there’s always someone who is prepared to push the bounds of taste.  So it is that if you go to the website Vidstone.com you’ll read about that company’s product, the Serenity Panel.  It is, as the website says, “groundbreaking.  Utilizing specially patent-pending technology, this solar-powered panel provides families with the option of viewing a custom-created multimedia tribute at a loved one’s place of rest. This 7” LCD Panel attaches to most upright or slanted gravesite monuments, including gravestones, mausoleums and columbariums. At the mere touch of a button, a 5 to 8 minute video plays on the screen, recounting the most precious and poignant memories of a loved one.  While nothing can ever replace the loss of a life, Vidstone’s technology has made memorialization more authentic.  An extraordinary loved one should be remembered in an extraordinary way. Through a vivid palette of sounds, images, and colors, Vidstone’s Serenity Panel honors the lives of those who have passed before us in a way that can be appreciated for generations to come.”

Mmm.  I’m not so sure.  You don’t expect to have a multimedia presentation when you visit a graveside.  Something else you don’t expect is the corpse you placed in a grave on Friday to be walking around the cemetery on Sunday.  And yet, the experience of the women at the tomb, the bedrock of our faith, the foundation on which Christianity is built, the confession of countless Christians throughout the generations, the spark that gets us out of bed in the morning and gives us a reason to begin each day, the timeless truth that has transformed the cosmos and will determine the consummation of all things is “Christ is risen!”  (Did I hear a liturgical response there?)

But, the Easter faith is not just a nice belief that remains in our heads.  It makes a difference in our lives too.  It means something.  In fact, it means several things, including these:

1          In our Easter celebrations we are celebrating Christ’s victory over death. The power of the grave has been proven to be weaker than the power of God.  Death was not the end for Jesus and it’s not the end for those who have followed him.  As we have followed him on earth, so we shall follow him through death and into a life of indescribable beauty and joy.  Paul writes, “Jesus has been raised from the dead – the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  In other words, it’s like growing fruit and vegetables.  One day the first fruits appear and then the rest of the crop follows over time.  Christ is the first fruits of those who have died – you and I, the Christians who have lived since then, are part of the crop that will one day follow him through death into glory.  Paul also asks the question, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  And the answer to his questions is ’nowhere’.  Death no longer has any victory.  The grave no longer has any sting.  That sting has been drawn.  In his resurrection Jesus has drawn the sting.  Of course we still grieve the deaths of our loved ones.  We miss them and rightly so.  But deep down we know that the real sting of death has been drawn - Jesus has overcome the grave and so we can live in the light of our deaths and those of our friends and family with a confidence.  What has happened to Jesus will happen to us.  He is the first fruits, and where he has gone we will follow some day.  We too will pass through death and in into a glorious resurrection, the like of which we cannot even imagine.

I came across the bizarre story of Brian Kelly, who in July 1994, lay in a hospital bed in Detroit, dying from complications from surgery on his intestines. Knowing he would soon die, Kelly told his family what he wanted done with his remains. His request was unusual, but his family granted it.  Two days after his death  Mary McCavit, Kelly’s boss at Independence Professional Fireworks in Osseo, rolled up Brian’s ashes in a twelve-inch round fireworks shell.  And on Friday, August 12th, at a convention of fireworks technicians near Pittsburgh, they shot it into the sky. It trailed two silvery comet tails as it ascended into the night, and then it exploded into a burst of red and green stars.  Brian Kelly had gone out with a bang.  Of course, we’re not going to go quite the same way, but our departure, whenever that is for each of us, will be spectacular because of where we’re going – to a place that makes fireworks look very puny.  We will be welcomed into glory by the one who has gone before us.

2          This morning we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin.  We are forgiven because of the death of Jesus, and his resurrection is God’s stamp of approval.  How do you know God has forgiven you?  Because Christ’s tomb is empty.  When God raised him from death he said, in effect, it was enough.  ‘My son's sacrifice did it.  It worked.  There’s no need to make sacrifices to me so that I will forgive you, there’s no need to live in fear that I will wipe you out.  There’s no need to try to impress me with your holiness.  The cross worked.  It was sufficient to free and forgive the very worst that human beings could do.  So we are forgiven and restored to fellowship with God.’

In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph.  Here's what he wrote: The Body of B. Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms.  But the work shall not be wholly lost: for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new & more perfect edition, corrected and amended by the author.
 
3    We celebrate Christ’s presence in our lives. The last words of the post-resurrection Jesus as recorded by Matthew assure us of this presence: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”.  Since that first Easter Day there has been a principle governing the world.  The principle of resurrection.  What is the resurrection principle?  God can bring to life again that which has died.  People who have died spiritually can, spiritually, live again.  Dead hopes, faded dreams, lives bereft of beauty, souls crushed by sin or suffering can be resurrected. 

And friends we have the resurrection principle governing our lives.  By faith we have died with Christ and by faith we are risen with him too.  Can a mind destroyed by materialism or selfishness or vanity or resentment come to life again? Yes. Can emotions destroyed by betrayal or rage or exploitation or addiction come to life again?  Yes.  How?  By resurrection in Christ.

God is in the resurrection business.  He breathed life into the dead Jesus, and he breathes life into all that are willing.  Wherever there is death, there is God, waiting to be invited to breathe his life into the corpse.  Dead dreams, hopes and relationships for example.  Here’s a person who started life with great dreams of what he was going to do with his life, how he was going to make a difference, change the world in some way.  And now those dreams have been suffocated to death by the circumstances of life - the promotion that was given to someone else, the spouse who fell out of love, the active mind or body that succumbed to sickness or injury.  The realization that his best days are behind him, that he’s gone as far as he is going to, and it’s just downhill from here.  And then there’s another person whose dreams did come true, only to discover that they were actually nightmares - the money that has strangled her joy, the possessions that cause her anxiety, the promotion that has kept her at the office too long and drained her energy too much, the success that has made her insecure and fearful that what goes up eventually comes down.  The relationships that are good, but only temporary because of the demands on her time and energy.  Oscar Wilde said ‘God chooses to punish us by giving us what we pray for’.  Not great theology, but you get his point, and it’s a sound one.  Sometimes we feel cursed because our dreams have not come true.  Sometimes we feel cursed because they have.

Death is all around us, and in us too.  But these dry bones can live.  Easter morning assures us that the God who raised Jesus to life can breathe life into even our lives.   Our dreams can live again.  And maybe those that have died can be reborn in some other way, that God knows is better for you.  And maybe that relationship can be revived and once again be a source of joy.  And maybe the faith that that person once had can be resurrected.  Maybe one chapter of life has come to an end, but God has a new and exciting chapter opening up, and he can fill us with new life and hope for that phase of life.

It’s resurrection day.  Do you need a resurrection?  There’s no better time than now.  So, friends, let’s rejoice in the risen Lord, and let’s bring to him those things in our lives that have died and ask him to raise them to new life.  The resurrection is not just for believing, it is for living.  So today let us celebrate.  Let us rejoice in Christ‘s resurrected life which he shares with us.  Let’s enter afresh into the joy that comes from living in the resurrection principle.  Let us move on with the risen Lord to lives that are complete in him.