Luke 24:1-12

William F. Schnell

Easter – April 4, 2010

Mark Twain once made an observation about his father. He said, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." Of course that is not a commentary upon the old man, but upon the son. When we are young, our parents’ advice often seems like utter nonsense to us. Only when we grow up and gain some experience do we realize that they knew what they were talking about. And by then we usually have children of our own who are rolling their eyes as if their idiotic parents are just too much to bear.

Unfortunately this tendency to write things off as nonsense just because they do not make sense to us follows us into adulthood. For a long, long time people assumed the world was flat. Why? Well, duh, look at it. But there were contrary voices like Pythagoras in the 6^th century BC who noted that other heavenly bodies were round, such as the sun and the moon. Three hundred years later Aristotle made the observation that the shadow of the earth upon the moon during an eclipse was curved. But hey, what did they know? As late as the 1990’s a Flat Earth Society based in California considered the notion of a round earth as utter nonsense, but I believe that it is now defunct.

You see, some things that used to not make sense to us can come to make sense to us. Mark Twain can come to make sense of his old man. Earthlings can come to make sense of a round planet. I suppose I could come to make sense of my wife. The title of our message for this Easter morning is "The Sense in Nonsense." Sometimes it behooves us to search for the sense in what is nonsense to us. Opera used to be utter nonsense to me until I attended a little gathering that included some opera singing that moved me, especially after a little explanatory introduction. If I study an opera beforehand, I usually get a lot out of listening to it.

Shakespeare still makes absolutely no sense to me. But I figure there must be something to the guy and his work because so many people testify to his brilliance, originality and timeless appeal. I figure that if I took a course in Shakespeare—if I really tried to make sense of his work—I would probably become a Shakespeare snob. I would probably quote him so much you would want to throw up. I might start insisting that you call me William.

For a lot of people the Bible makes no sense. Its wild stories make no sense. Its teachings make no sense. And yet the testimony of billions of people down through the ages is that the Bible preserves timeless spiritual truths which like air or water or food are absolutely necessary for life--both here and hereafter. I would say that alone is reason enough to search for the sense in nonsense. Maybe what appears, on the face of it, to be utter nonsense begins to make sense upon closer inspection.

In our text for today some women are taking burial spices to Jesus tomb for purposes of embalming his body. They are expecting to find a dead body in a tomb. But that is not what they find. They don’t find any body at all, and the scriptures say they were wondering about this (Verse 4). "Hmmm, what could this mean?" More on wondering in just a moment. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with 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; he has risen!"

"Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’" Then they remembered his words (Verses 4-8). Actually Luke records three separate occasions when Jesus predicted his death, twice mentioning his resurrection which would follow. But that was just nonsense, and so nobody paid any attention to it—nobody remembered it until these dazzling gentlemen brought it to remembrance.

There being no embalming to do, the women head back to the eleven remaining disciples and some other equally grieving followers of Jesus to share with them the good news. But, the scriptures continue, they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense (Verse 11). Now if the disciples and the diehard followers of Jesus think the notion of a resurrection from the grave seems like nonsense, then it is safe to assume that some folks probably wonder about it today—especially the idea of it happening in our day.

On Mothers’ Day 2003 Deanna Laney, a devout church member, killed her two sons (aged 8 and 6) by stoning. She also permanently disabled a third son (aged 14 months) the same way. She was subsequently acquitted by reason of insanity. CNN reports that she told psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick: "I feel like that I obeyed God and I believe there will be good out of this. I feel like he will reveal his power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again." If that seems insane to us, we should be able to understand how the women’s words seemed to the disciples like nonsense.

Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened (Verse 12). There’s that word, "wondering," again. If Jesus’ foremost disciple is wondering about what happened, and if the devout women who went to the tomb are wondering about what happened, I suspect some of us may be wondering about what happened as well.

I hope we are wondering about it because that means two things. First, it means we are not going to accept something merely because somebody tells us we should. Anybody can tell us anything. A Christian pastor named Jim Jones told his flock to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the jungles of Guyana—and they did. Too bad somebody didn’t do a little more wondering about Jim Jones before it was too late. Second, the continuing engagement of wondering means that we are not going to discount a several thousand year faith tradition because it doesn’t all make sense to us all at once. Wondering means that we are holding out the possibility that there may be sense in the nonsense after all.

If the Bible makes sense to us completely, and we have God all figured out, then God is not a very big God. He is only as big as a human’s cognitive ability. And as marvelous as human cognition is, it definitely has its limits. It may think it is obvious that the world is flat—for a time. Human cognition also changes. The old man seems a lot smarter today than he did seven years ago. What we know today may seem like foolishness tomorrow. And what may seem like foolishness today may seem like the height of wisdom tomorrow.

Paul is quoted at the top of our bulletins saying, For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom… (I Corinthians 1:25). Or, to paraphrase it, "the nonsense of God is wiser than man’s wisdom." If God’s Word seems like foolishness or nonsense to us then that means one of two things. Either God is a bunch of foolish nonsense or we, like a young, rebellious and conceited Mark Twain, just don’t get the old man—yet. But maybe, with a little time and maturation, we will gradually come to find some sense in what was previously nonsense.

I cannot explain the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and neither can anyone else—and believe me, I have heard many try. Every explanation is problematic and arguable. There are simply limits to what the human mind can comprehend. But there are certain things we can know through experience that we cannot explain. We know we exist, but we do not know how we exist or why, or from where we came or to where we are heading.

The resurrecting power of God made known to us in Jesus Christ is something we can experience here and now, even if we cannot explain it. The women expected to find a dead body and the disciples thought the resurrection was nonsense. But all that changed when they experienced the resurrecting power of God in Jesus Christ. Through that experience they came to know and believe and to testify. And that is how it must be for you and me. We have to personally know the resurrected Christ.

Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). We get to know Christ and the power of his resurrection by sharing in his sufferings. As Jesus himself put it immediately after one of those previously mentioned predictions of his death and resurrection: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23).

Taking up a cross means paying a price for our faith—paying a price to do the right, true and good thing. You know how much trouble you can get into when taking a stand for what is right and true and good. You can get crucified for that kind of business. That is why Jesus says that we must deny ourselves to follow him. Following Jesus involves personal sacrifice, it involves persecution for righteousness’ sake and it involves cross-bearing.

Why would anyone want to follow Jesus if it is going to diminish and destroy the good life we all seek for ourselves? But the supreme irony is that cross-bearing does not ultimately diminish or destroy life—it resurrects and glorifies life. Don’t take it from me, experience it for yourself. The next time you are called to take a stand for what is good and true and right, take a stand. Take a stand even though you must pay a price and make a personal sacrifice and bear a cross.

Go ahead and put God’s Word to the test. If God does not liberate your life, resurrect your life and glorify your life then you will know that the biblical witness is a bunch of nonsense. But if you do experience God’s resurrecting power, you are going to be among the women and disciples and followers of Jesus who say, "Now I get it! Now I have made sense of what had been nonsense. And having experienced God’s resurrecting power here; you will have no doubts about hereafter. You may not be able to explain it to somebody else’s satisfaction, but you will know it and believe in it and add your voice to that great cloud of witnesses who testify down through the ages: "You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart."