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FROM PASTOR LYNN

The greatest event ever . . . occurred without an audience. Those who follow Jesus Christ would argue that His resurrection is the watershed moment in history because it is nothing less than the defeat of death. But no one witnessed what happened, and the story of the first Easter begins with three heart-broken women carrying spices to finish what had not been possible on "Good Friday" - the proper anointing of a crucified body that had been hastily buried before the beginning of the Sabbath. Their discovery that the tomb was empty initially caused only greater grief and confusion, as they supposed the body had been moved or stolen.

The nearly incomprehensible discovery by these women and Jesus' disciples that the one whom they had seen crucified and buried was alive was so much more than a personal resolution of grief or reunion with one thought dead. What had happened was a moment of new creation that would forever change the human situation.

Too often we forget that hope comes when humanly it seems all is lost, perhaps in the midst of sorrow or pain, despair or futility. Whatever these difficult circumstances may be, they are real, and cannot be denied or explained away.

Hope is not wishful thinking, but a discovery that our lives are not defined by the failures or problems or pain we face. Resurrection didn't erase the cross, the suffering, or reality of Jesus' death.  But it had overcome what humanly could not have been changed - although the grieving women walking to the tomb, or the larger group of disciples, at first did not know anything had changed. In some cases, they didn't even recognize Jesus when they first encountered him as risen from the dead.

The lesson seems pretty contemporary! We live without hope because we think we can't be forgiven or that a problem that can't be fixed equals a closed door on the future. We fail to see that God is not boxed in by our failures, or by the unfairness or even brutality we sometimes encounter in the world.

For Jesus' disciples, resurrection was not a concept but an experience of his presence. One of the powerful Easter stories tells about Jesus joining two of his disciples walking to a village called Emmaus. They do not recognize him. In fact, they tell him their lives have been devastated by the crucifixion of one called Jesus, whom they had hoped was God's Messiah. So Jesus begins explaining the Hebrew scriptures as they walk, showing how from beginning to end the scriptures reveal that the Messiah must first suffer before "entering his glory."

When these two disciples reach Emmaus with the unrecognized Jesus in their company, they insist that he stay in their home, since it is now late in the evening. When they sit down to eat, Jesus took the bread, and as he blessed, broke, and gave the bread to them, "their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him" (Luke 24:31).

Sometimes we think faith would be easier if we "had been there" to see with our own eyes, to touch the wounds the nails had left on Jesus' hands. But here are two disciples who walked several hours with Jesus without recognizing him. It was only through the teaching of the scriptures and the experience of worship (the breaking of bread) that their "eyes were opened."

Sometimes there is a "Damascus Road" experience where, like the Apostle Paul, there is a direct and dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ that literally turns our lives around. But for most of us, Christ comes to us not in blinding light on the Damascus Road, but as the unrecognized companion on the Emmaus Road. He loves us so much that he joins us at the very places where our problems and pain may be greatest. Something happens in our hearts as he walks with us, and it is through understanding the Bible and in the experience of worship that we come to know the Risen Lord.

We'll never quite know exactly what happened on the Emmaus Road, but I suspect the Holy Spirit moved Luke to include it in his gospel not to explain the past, but as a roadmap for our own discovery of Christ today.  We shouldn't be living like we're dead when Christ is alive, but we need scripture and worship to open our eyes and hearts before we can experience his resurrection!

Reading or listening to the scriptures, gathering for worship, inviting others are so much more important than we normally realize. Whether in the pulpit or pew, we are challenged to encounter truth, to meet Christ, to experience transformation, to wake up to a hope that energizes life.

Something that is encouraging me personally to take this much more seriously is the "You've Got the Time" project our church started this week of listening to the whole New Testament over the next 40 days.  In fact, I'm not sure I'd suggest anyone listen to the whole New Testament in sizeable chunks (28 minutes each day) if you're not ready to wrestle seriously with the Bible on its own terms. There is a strangeness and toughness, and often a troubling or jarring impact to hearing "everything" that's actually in the Bible. That's a discussion for another day, but if you've picked up one of these audio recordings from the church and are following the listening schedule, you'll know what I mean.

- Pastor Lynn