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Scroll down for the Luke commentary
two stories from the resurrection tradition - This gospel
lesson can be read in conversation with 1 Corinthians 15:45: "he was raised . . . and
he appeared." What Paul teaches as the paradosis or tradition that early Christian
interpreters handed on, is given narrative form in John 20 with two intriguing
resurrection stories. These narratives provide us with different angles on what it means
to meet the risen Christ.
structure - Notice the sandwiching style that the Fourth Evangelist
uses in telling these two stories: he begins the first story (20:1-2), then inserts the
second story into the narrative (20:3-10) before returning to carry the first story to
its conclusion (20:11-18). The glue that holds the two narratives together is the
report of the empty tomb-that is the question the reader should be asking: where is Jesus?
race to the tomb - interpreters are fascinated by this detail-foot
race to the tomb. Does Peters second place suggest that the other disciple was
younger than he? Was Peter meant to represent Jewish Christianity while the other disciple
represented Gentile Christianity? Are we seeing a competition between Petrine and
Johannine Christianity? [1]
Name the chain of events that helped to meet the risen Christ?
With which character do you most identify? Peter? The other disciple? Mary Magdalene?
What fresh possibilities has Jesus death on the cross, its revelation of
Gods love, his resurrection and ascension opened for you?
For a
homily on this passage, please refer to this weeks homily on DPS, entitled,
"Why Are You Weeping?"
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[1] The Interpreters Bible IX
OVERVIEW
- While all of the evangelists attest to the resurrection of Jesus, the empty tomb looms
large in the writings of the gospels; yet each tells the story of the empty tomb from
perspectives unique to their gospels. In the abbreviated version that is Marks, the
women run out of the empty tomb telling "no one nothing;" in Matthew the women
have a personal visit from Jesus enroute from tomb to disciples; John zooms in on one of
the women-Mary Magdalene-who goes to the tomb alone who later reports to the disciples
what she has witnessed. But in Luke we make a smooth transition from Jesus burial in
23 right to the women who carry spices they have prepared for the corpse. Two men "in
dazzling clothes" meet them with a rhetorical question and answer that proclaims the
resurrection.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PASSION - In the midst of tending to the necessary chores,
especially the things that need to be done in the hard times, the women were met by the
unexpected experience of Gods grace. Sometimes faith means going on and tending to
the necessary chores. Prepare the spices, go to the tomb, tell the others, even when they
think it an idle tale. Be faithful in the tasks that are ours and do the necessary tasks,
for in them we, too, may be bearers of the good news of the day: "he is not here, but
has risen!" [1]
CS LEWIS - Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to
live forever . . . If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a
civilization, which may last for a thousand ears, is more important than an individual.
But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but
incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a
civilsation, compared with his, is only a moment. [1]
"Why do you look for the living among the
dead?" the angel asks the women. In what ways do we continue to look for the living
Lord among the dead? Where would the living Lord be found if not in the tomb? (Among the
first witnesses, Jesus showed up among the grieving, fear-filled disciples, in a Samaritan
village, and inside the household of a Gentile Samaritan.)
You might
consider wrapping a sermon around the phrase, "Remember how he told you . . ."
Death has a way in our own thinking when we lay a loved one in the grave of severing the
connections between us and the past. However, choosing to remember Gods faithful
presence in the past gives us resources for dealing with the present. The iridescent
messengers in this lesson appeal to the women to remember "Galilee." "God
vindicated Jesus-remember Galilee. Remember what Jesus had done and what he had taught.
Remember the meals in Jesus fellowship, his healings and his parables, the bent
woman and the ten lepers. Would you understand the meaning of the empty tomb? Remember
Galilee.
Another possibility would be to explore the implications of the connections
paragraph-looking for Jesus in the wrong places. Take the religious leaders who now felt
that they had brushed Jesus aside as a gadfly; they could now return to religion as
usual-services, debates, alms-giving, synagogue worship. No longer would they have to mess
with the stinky outsiders that this prophet championed. Yet the resurrection suggests that
Jesus just wont stay put. And take the women who had prepared spices to anoint his
corpse and had gone to the tomb early to finish the burial. "Why do you look for the
living among the dead?" That is, "why are you looking in a cemetery for
Jesus?" In what ways do we continue to look in the wrong places? How can we find him
among the living? Suggest several concrete or congregational ways as your closing.
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[1] The New Interpreters Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995),
[2] Patricia Klein, ed., A Year With C.S. Lewis (San Francisco: Harper Row, 2003), page
207.
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