In our gospel reading for Easter Sunday, some of the faithful women who had watched Jesus die, went out to the tomb of their dead Messiah with their spices, to perform one last act of loving service for him. And these women came back to the apostles with an incredible story - a story SO incredible, that the apostles simply could not believe it. Jesus, whom they had seen taken down from the cross, broken and lifeless, has been raised from the dead, and is now alive again. In one of the greatest plot twists in human history, this key chapter in the story of God and his people, finishes with the promised happy ending...
You open the book, and you see the words, “Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a king...” You know when you read an opening line like this, you know exactly what kind of story you have in your hands. You know that some virtuous characters will lead some harrowing adventures, encounter some serious adversity, and confront some evil-doers. And you know that the main character of the story will eventually resolve all the situations and then everyone will live happily ever after. You would feel CHEATED, if the main character was UNABLE to resolve the situation, or if the virtuous characters were killed meaninglessly, or if the people ended up living out their lives in total misery. You know how this kind of story is supposed to go, because you have heard, and seen, and experienced this story many times before. It is called the classical comedy – not because it is funny, but as opposite to the classical tragedy, where the flaws of the main character PREVENT him from winning the day.
The apostles in today's gospel reading thought that they had experienced the end of the Jesus story, and that it was a classical tragedy. The noble hero figure, Jesus, took on forces that were too strong for him, the religious elite and the mighty Roman empire, and despite some initial success in gathering people to his cause, his tragic flaw of passivity got him killed in the end. If only Jesus HAD commanded his disciples to strike Judas and his mob with the sword in the garden of Gethsemane. If only Jesus HAD stood up for himself at his trial. If only Jesus HAD miraculously come down from the cross as the religious leaders taunted him. But Jesus was silent when he should have spoken, and passive when he should have taken action, and now his tragic story was over.
And then, some women, who were considered unreliable witnesses in that culture for some reason, they brought back from the tomb a totally DIFFERENT ending to the story. “Jesus is not here, but has risen.” Jesus is alive, again. And that ending did not fit with the tragic ending running in the apostles' heads - how COULD they take an idle tale like that seriously?
How can our WORLD take the story of Jesus' resurrection seriously - it doesn't fit with the tragic ending running in their heads, either. Their story says that sure, life can have a few good times in it, but in the end, life is meaningless. We all have a tragic flaw – we are all doomed to die – we are all limited to what science says we can see, hear, touch, and taste. Any good qualities we have are just a genetic accident, our purpose in life is simply to produce and procreate and consume, and our legacies are nothing but the fading memories in the brains of our children and grandchildren, if we decide to have children. In this story of tragedy, an idle tale like resurrection just doesn't fit. And besides, we as Christians, who are spreading this story of Jesus' resurrection, are rapidly becoming considered some of the most unreliable witnesses in our culture. No wonder our world can't take the story of Jesus' resurrection seriously.