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Some days are born
ugly. So says John Steinbeck in his little novel Sweet Thursday. "Some days are born ugly. No one knows
what causes this, but on such a day people resist getting out of bed and set their heels against the day.
When they are finally forced out by hunger or job, they find the day is just as lousy as they knew it
would be. On such a day it is impossible to make a good cup of coffee, shoestrings break, cups leap from
the shelf by themselves and shatter on the floor, children ordinarily honest tell lies.... This is the
day the cat chooses to have kittens and housebroken dogs wet on the parlor rug."
Ugly was the way the day was born for that construction worker several years ago. "When I arrived
at the building site early this morning, I found that during the night heavy winds had dislodged a number
of the tiles from the roof," he later explained to his boss, who had come to visit him in the hospital.
"So I rigged up a pulley on the beam at the top of the building, and with a rope and the pulley, I hoisted
two barrels full of tiles up to the roof. First I pulled up one barrel and put the tiles on the roof.
Then I went back down, lowered the barrel, and filled it with tiles a second time. Then I hoisted it up
to the roof again, and I climbed back up to the roof myself.
"When I finished repairing the roof, there were a lot of tiles left over. So I put all the extra
tiles in the barrel, went down to the ground again, and untied the rope. Unfortunately, the barrel of
tiles was now heavier than I was, and before I realized what was happening, the barrel started down,
jerking me off the ground.
"Unfortunately, I decided to hang on, and half way up I met the barrel coming down at great speed,
which gave me a severe blow on the shoulder. Bouncing off the barrel, I continued on to the top, where I
banged my head against the beam and got my fingers jammed in the pulley.
"When the barrel hit the ground, its bottom burst and spilled out all the tiles. Unfortunately, I
was now heavier than the barrel, and I started down again at high speed.
"Halfway down, I met the barrel coming up, which hit me in the leg and cut my shin. When I landed
on the ground, I landed on the tiles, receiving several cuts from the sharp edges.
"At this point, I must have lost my presence of mind, because, unfortunately, I let go of the
rope. The barrel then came back down again, giving me another blow on the head. And that's why I'm in
the hospital today."
That Friday was a day born like that, a day born ugly, only more so. That Friday long ago. It
begins in early morning, long before light, when Judas is betraying Jesus to the authorities. It is still
early and dark when the high priests are plotting a way to seize Jesus and put him to death and when the
soldiers are taking him to Pilate. It is still early, still dark, when Peter, fearful for his own life,
is denying he has ever laid eyes on Jesus before, still dark when Pilate is washing his hands.
Even later that day, even in the middle of the day, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour,
darkness covered the land. The priests and pharisees are calling the shots,, the Roman soldiers are
strutting around with their spears, and the forces that oppress the poor and leave people in despair are
in control.
Jesus is on the Cross. Mary is crying her eyes out, because Jesus is dead, gone. Satan's dancing
a little jig. All the institutions are at his command, and all the governments and high priests are doing
his bidding, and Satan's sitting on top of the world that Ugly Friday, the ugliest day ever born.
Judas, in despair and knowing the part he has played in the ugliness, has already hanged himself.
Peter is in a corner weeping because of his treachery and fear. All the other disciples, too, having done
nothing to stop the ugliness, are running for cover, like sheep without a shepherd. Because there was no
hope now, no hope in the world. Even Jesus had cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
But some days are born beautiful. Easter Day is born that way. It's Sunday, the Sunday after
that Friday. "This is the day the Lord has acted," as the psalmist promised, a day to rejoice and be
glad.
This day, too, begins early, in darkness. The disciples are still locked up in a room in hiding,
terrified that what happened to Jesus on Friday could still happen to them. But at sunrise, Mary
Magdalene and some other women, stricken with grief and feeling abandoned, go to the tomb. They go
without so much as a mustard seed of hope. They go to surrender their hope, to anoint the body of their
friend we killed on Friday. Death has marked the end of their friend, just as death has marked the end of
all the others. Love and hope have been voted down by the powers of darkness.
But when they arrive at the tomb, they find it empty. And they are startled when a young man
greets them at the tomb with a question and with stunning news: "You are looking for Jesus? Don't be
alarmed. He's not here. He has risen. Go and tell the disciples, and Peter, that he is going ahead of
you to Galilee, to his home and yours, and there you will see him, just as he told you."
"Go and tell the disciples, and Peter, that I want to see them again." This is truly stunning
news! This, in fact, is the greatest miracle of Easter: "Go and tell the disciples, and Peter -- and
Judas too, if you can find him -- that I want to see them again."
"How is that possible?" asks John Claypool. After all that Judas and Peter and the other
disciples did to Jesus on Friday, how is it possible that when Jesus is raised to life on Sunday, Jesus
would say, "Go and tell the disciples, and Peter, that I want to see them again"?
How is that possible? On Friday, Judas had used a sign of friendship to point Jesus out to the
authorities. On Friday, Peter, in order to save his own skin, had denied he had ever laid eyes on his
best friend. On Friday, the others had scattered in fear, abandoning every principle they had promised to
live by and leaving Jesus alone at the mercy of the mob, who, in a kangaroo court, condemned him for a
crime he didn't commit, then spat on him and mocked and humiliated him, and then executed him in one of
the most hideous ways possible.
How is it possible that Jesus, after all of that happened on that ugliest of days, would ever want
to have anything at all to do with people who would behave like that?
Father Claypool says he can't imagine it, in human terms. He says that one time when he was
thinking about the truth of Easter, he presumed to fantasize himself in God's place. In his fantasy, he
imagined that there was a new family in town that was having difficulties fitting into the neighborhood.
They weren't educated people, which was part of their problem in that sophisticated part of town. They
were a rough, suspicious, uncouth bunch.
But, in his fantasy, Claypool and his son hoped to do what they could to help the family feel at
home in the neighborhood. So one day his son said, "Dad, I think I know a way we can help the neighbors,
but let me go see them instead of you, because I'm closer to their age, and perhaps I can relate to them."
So, in his fantasy, Claypool sent his son off to the neighbors' house.
But when he got there things didn't go well. The neighbors, suspicious of this young man on his
mission of good will, began to taunt and mistreat him. And then, Claypool says, in his imagination, he
watches as the neighbors overpower his son, and grab him, and hold his hands behind his back, and then
stab his son to death and take his body out and throw it in a ditch.
And Claypool says that as he stood, in his imagination, over the dead body of his son, he realized
that if he had the power to bring his own son back to life, never in a million years would he have the
kind of love and mercy that would lead him to send his son back to those who had mistreated him in such a
horrible way.
But that's precisely what happened on Easter Day, because that was the day on which God acted.
And that's what makes Easter Day a Day Born Beautiful. The miracle of Easter is not only that God
restored his Son to life. That in itself is indeed a great miracle, but that's not what makes the miracle
of Easter so great. Raising Jesus to new bodily life is not, after all, any greater a miracle than
Creation itself, no greater a miracle than the fact that we are here to begin with. It's not so hard to
believe that God, whose Word had power in the beginning to create life and everything that is out of
nothing at all, also has the power to bring to bodily life again that which has already lived and has
died. And s
Such creative and recreative power is, literally, wonderful, awesome. But what is more wonderful
still, more awesome yet, is the fact that on the Sunday after that ugly Friday, there was Jesus back with
his friends, sending the women to tell the disciples, and Peter, that he still cared for them, that he
loved them and wanted to see them again. More wonderful still is the fact that later that same day Jesus
is there in that room with the disciples, where they were still locked in fear. And then there he is
again with them on the road to Emmaus, and later by the seashore. More wonderful still is the fact that
Jesus seeks them out again and again to share with them what he had shared so many times before, the good
news of God, showing them his hands and his feet, showing them with his presence as well as his words, the
wonderful news: that God is not only a God of power, but a God of such great love and mercy that he never
abandons you, never gives up on you, no matter that you have given up on him.
What wonderful news for Peter! What wonderful news for Peter, whose eyes were still stinging from
the bitter tears he been shedding ever since that moment when his eyes had met the eyes of Jesus when the
cock had crowed that third time. What wonderful news for all the other disciples, whose cowardice had led
them to run away in fear. What wonderful news it would have been for Judas, if only he hadn't despaired,
if only he had been able to live through Ugly Friday and Dark Saturday into that Day Born
Beautiful.
By some grace, by the grace of God -- I don't know how it works -- Peter and the other
disciples were there on Easter Day to live and hope again. On Sunday the Lord acted, and Peter and the
disciples experienced the most wonderful miracle of Easter -- that their Lord and friend, whom they had
given up on and abandoned, had not given up on them, and he was going ahead of them to Galilee, to his
home and theirs. He wanted to see them again, no matter all that had happened on Ugly Friday.
No matter. Regardless of Friday. What wonderful news for us! What wonderful news, that the love
and mercy of God are so great that even after what we did to his Son on Friday, God still cares for us.
And Jesus wants to see us, even us, to share with us on this Day Born Beautiful what he has shared so many
times before, the Good News of God -- that God is a God of such great love and mercy that he never
abandons us, never gives up on us, no matter that we have given up on him.
"Easter," as A. B. Simpson has said, "is the New Year's Day of the soul." Easter is the ultimate
intrusion of God into places we deem to be God-forsaken, the ultimate intrusion of God even into the
darkness of our lives and the world.
Easter begins today as it always begins, in darkness. This is where the news of the risen Christ
is always heard, in darkness. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb this morning to
anoint the body of the one who had loved her. And earlier this week, a woman checked in at work, and was
told that she was being let go. Earlier this week, someone else heard the news, "I never loved you."
Earlier this week, someone's daughter disappeared. Earlier this week, someone's hope was crucified. And
the darkness is overwhelming.
But just as Mary arrives at the tomb, just when her grief deepens to match the heavy darkness of
that early morning, just then a new day is born with the question and the news: "Mary, don't be alarmed.
What are you expecting? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Love has rolled away the stone. The
one you seek is not here. He was lost, but has been found; he was dead, but is alive. He loves you,
Mary, and he wants to see you again. Go and tell the others, and Peter, that he has gone on to Galilee,
to your home and his, where you will see him, just as he told you."
What wonderful news for us, the news of this Day Born Beautiful! Love has gone on to Galilee, to
your home and mine, where we will see him, just as he told us. Easter is not about eggs and bonnets and
bunnies. Easter is not even about church. Eggs and bonnets and bunnies appear with Jesus at church today
because Easter is about more hope than we can handle.
In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen |