Bringing Jesus Back to Life

What a glorious time of year this is! We are surrounded by images of life unable to contain its enthusiasm. Blossoms are everywhere, and millions more are on the way. Buds on everything from roses to aspen are preparing to burst into full leaf. The warm days are melting the snow; the water is rushing down our streams and rivers. The birds are back, staking claims to mates and territories. Brown fields are turning green. The spring winds are filled with pollen. My eyes itch and my nose runs, but it is a tiny price to pay for the thrill of springtime.

Easter Sunday is always a time of celebration for us. It is a time of flowers on the altar, fresh blooms on the patio, and children gleefully hunting for eggs on our grounds.

Spring is a time of celebration in all cultures. New life demands to be celebrated and enjoyed. The old Spanish folk song sings out, “De colores se visten los campos en la primavera.” Roughly translated it says, “In springtime the fields dress themselves with colors.” The early Christian churches of the Roman Empire combined the celebration of Easter with pagan festivals celebrating spring. This week I attended our Passover Seder meal here at JUC. That ancient ritual is itself a mixing of spring celebrations with the remembrance of the deliverance of the Hebrews out of bondage into a new life of freedom.

As is appropriate for a time of celebration of life in its exuberant diversity, this season is a wild mixture of the deeply religious with frivolity. Think of all the images that race through our minds at this time of year: Easter lilies, bunnies, lambs, eggs, chicks, flower bouquets, pastel dresses, chocolate, (not to mention chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs!).

Yes, Easter is much more than simply a Christian holiday. After all, the events of the Christian Holy Week are set against the backdrop of Jesus coming to Jerusalem during the time of Passover. So Easter and Passover are linked together. And both Easter and Passover have always been linked with ancient festivals celebrating the renewal of life at springtime.

Easter has always been more than a Christian holiday.

And yet, it is also true that Easter is the Christian holiday. For millions of orthodox Christians, Easter is the foundation of their faith. For the orthodox, it is Easter that is the source of all hope. You know the story. The story is that Jesus was executed and then, on Easter, he physically returned to life. For millions upon millions of good Christians celebrating this morning, it is Jesus' triumph over death that gives them hope that they, too, will live forever in glory. For the orthodox, Easter is the single most important event in all history.

There is a temptation, especially among religious progressives, to make Easter simply a celebration of spring and just leave Jesus out of it. I believe that is a mistake. Easter is certainly about more than Jesus, but it is also a central religious event in our culture. We would do well to look at what Easter might mean for us.

The traditional Easter story is a wonderful tale. Part of me still wishes that I could believe it. Yet it has been many, many years since I believed that Jesus literally, bodily, rose from the dead. I know for a fact that the vast majority of us in here this morning do not believe in the literal, physical resurrection. I just heard a charming anecdote from a member. Driving by the church a few days ago, her daughter read the title of the sermon, “Bringing Jesus Back to Life,” on our roadside sign. “Why are we talking about that?” she asked. “I don’t believe that.”

Jesus died. I believe his body, his flesh, died and did not come back to life. The power of intolerance killed his body. The power of the religious establishment, combined with the power of an oppressive colonial government determined to maintain control, killed him. Ignorance and fear killed him.

Ah, but the power of Jesus’ message, the power of the vision of human life he taught, did not die. That vision was so strong among his followers that it could not die.

On this Easter morning, I suggest to you that our task, whether you are an orthodox Christian, a skeptical humanist, or someone allergic to religious labels—our task is to bring Jesus back to life.

You and I cannot bring Jesus’ body back to life. What we need to bring back to life, to our individual lives and to our collective life, is the essential message of Jesus. This is the best way to honor Jesus. This is what Easter ought to mean. This is what Jesus would have wanted. Clearly, Jesus’ message meant more to him than his body. Jesus lives on only if we bring his message to life. And we need to remember that Jesus’ essential message is not a “Christian” message; it is a human message.

What is this essential message of Jesus?

When we boil it all down, when we strip away all the big theological words, Jesus’ message is simplicity itself. His message is about love—about love that is passionate, deep, committed and enduring.

We bring Jesus to life when we love. We bring Jesus to life when we let love live in our hearts and when we let love guide our actions.

Jesus’ entire ministry was about this love. He taught that love can heal. He taught that when we truly feel love in our hearts all kinds of amazing things happen.

When we love we forgive. I once heard it said that forgiveness comes when we give up all hope for a better past. Forgiveness is about beginning again in love, about striving to move beyond old wounds, beyond anger, beyond retribution. When you and I forgive, we bring Jesus back to life.

When love lives in us we feel compassion. When love lives in us we literally suffer with others. That compassion moves us to do all kinds of things. When love lives in us we cannot help but strive to end the suffering of others. Compassion shows itself in thousands of ways. Compassion is calling an old friend. Compassion is sharing our resources when there is a hurricane or tsunami. Compassion is striving to create a social order that is more concerned with sharing than with greed, more concerned with justice than with profit margins. When compassion guides us, we bring Jesus back to life.

When love lives in us the old divisions we have been taught disappear. Think of how Jesus scandalized the existing order. When he was criticized for healing on the sabbath, Jesus replied that the sabbath was made for human beings, not human beings for the sabbath. In a culture where you were defined by the people you were willing to share a meal with, Jesus scandalously ate with the people at the bottom of society. He mixed with despised tax collectors and prostitutes. When love lives in us it does not matter to us if a person is gay, or black, or poor, or physically disabled, or Latino, or Muslim. When we see the humanity in every person and treat that person with respect and compassion, we bring Jesus back to life.

The wonderful thing is that when we let a deep and enduring love guide us, we don’t just bring Jesus back to life. When we feel passionately connected to life and to all people, we bring life back to our selves. This is what I think Jesus meant when he said the kingdom of God lives within each one of us.

If you and I can transcend our small individual concerns, if you and I can allow ourselves to experience the love that is all around us, if you and I can let the love that is within each one of us express itself, then our lives become something new and wonderful. When love guides us we rise above numbness, above the living death of greed, above the living death of fear and anger and hatred. When love guides us we come back to life.

This is a time when life yearns to be reborn. This is a time when all that was dead in us longs to come to life.

This Easter may you and I open our selves to life and to love. Let us learn again the timeless and deathless message of Jesus: the message that love transforms life. This Easter let us celebrate all that is wondrous in life. Let us bring Jesus back to life by bringing the power of love back into our lives. The love Jesus spoke of is alive in you and in me. May that love guide our lives. If we will but let that love guide us, our lives will be filled with joy and with a peace beyond understanding.

May this be a blessed and joyous Easter. Let us bring the message of Jesus back to our lives. Let us bring our selves back to life. May life and love flow through us today and in all the days to come.

Amen.