“He Won’t Stay Put… And Neither Will You”

In our household, we have this ongoing little debate. Well, it’s been going on, off and on, between Bon and me for, oh… about 25 years. It has to do with losing things. See, I maintain that if you just get in the habit of putting things down in the same place every time, you just can’t loose stuff. It’s impossible. It will stay where you put it. Take keys for example: if you always put them in the same spot on your dresser when you come home, they will never be lost. Put your purse always on the desk in the front hall and it will always be waiting for you.

Bon seems to find that a bit… uh, regimented for her taste. She likes to be a little more spontaneous, care-free. I think, deep down, she kind of likes searching for stuff now and then. Makes life exciting. I think, in her heart of hearts, she believes there is really no such thing as “lost”. There are just things that fall immediately to hand and things you get the privilege of searching for—and those can be the most fun things of all.

Now I like to win our little debates. So does she. We’ve both stood our ground on this one down through the years. And I’m certainly not above using the Bible in these sorts of situations if there’s any way it can bolster my case, even if the exegesis is a bit… questionable (like that verse in Acts that sounds to me like it exempts pastors from doing housework). But here, and oh, it pains me to admit this (it really does) here, in our Gospel for Easter Sunday, I shuddered last Thursday to realize that Jesus just might be on Bon’s side on this one. Maybe there is no such thing as “lost” after all. Maybe there are some things in life that no matter how careful you are about putting them away, just won’t stay put. And maybe those things, that call for a bit of searching, really are the best, the most vital things of all.

See, here’s the thing I noticed in our Gospel: the body of Jesus was surely a most precious treasure for His disciples. They were very careful about getting it down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus went and got permission to take Jesus’ body and bury it in Joseph’s own very expensive tomb. The women took careful note of where the body was laid, and took spices early Sunday morning to anoint Him, either because the men, in their haste, hadn’t had time to finish the burial anointing, or else because (and this seems more likely to me) the women figured that the men, being men, would not have gotten this exactly right.

Either way, the disciples took great care with the body of Jesus. They laid it in a tomb and made sure they knew where to find it when the Sabbath rest was over. But when they got to the tomb, the body was gone. The stone was rolled away and angels were there showing them Jesus hadn’t… stayed put.

At this point, if it was me, I would have started my speech about how if you put something away in a secure place and are careful about marking the spot, you simply cannot lose it. A dead body will always stay put. Count on it. So where was the carelessness? Own up to it!

But the angels demolish my theory here. They say Jesus is risen from the dead; that death could not hold this One. Turns out the body of Jesus is one of those things that simply will not stay put. He is in constant motion. Nothing can hold Him or keep Him down. You can even set a guard around His tomb and He will still get loose. The body of Jesus is one of those things that calls for some hunting, some searching, some chasing after. And that’s what makes it fun.

Now death is usually a pretty secure thing. Dead things stay put in our experience. You put them down and they stay there. That’s the guarantee that comes with death. For all its drawbacks, it has that kind of stability going for it and we count on that more than we realize.

But Jesus has gone and messed all that up. Now even death has lost its stay-put-ness. Now there’s nothing that we can keep nailed down where we want it. Thanks to Jesus, a good bit of my life is going to involve searching for things from here on out, for the greatest things at least, whether I find that convenient or not.

And much as it pains me to admit it, I have to concede that my dear wife would seem to be right on this one, that there really is no such thing as “lost”. Jesus has proved that. He’s shaken everything loose this morning, put everything in motion, sent us all on a great search, where we just may find that the hidden and seeking things, do turn out to be the best things of all. And that now, thanks to Jesus, there really is no such thing as “lost” anymore. So my attempts to nail things down just won’t work.

But that’s good news, isn’t it? Oh, it means our lives might be a bit more here and there, and up-in-the-air than I personally would always like them to be, since there’s no more guarantee of things staying where I put them, where I’d like to keep them, but wow—no doubt that the Life that dawns this morning sure looks a good bit more lively and exciting than that old regimented and button-downed affair we knew before Jesus went and turned everything on its ear.

I was one of those lost things. So were you. Misplaced. Missing. Mistaken. That was you; that was me. Death had us nailed down, stuck in place. And what fun was that?

But Jesus has come and changed all that. By His dying, He destroyed death. Messed it up good, He did! By swallowing the Son of God in the tomb, death bit off more than it could chew. And now death itself has been broken, because sin has been forgiven by Jesus’ blood. So there are no more lost things. Not really. There are things that Christ has found and things He’s still tracking down…

But there are no things that will stay put anymore. Jesus has set everything in motion today. Come to think of it, Jesus was always that way, always on the move wasn’t He? Born on the run in Bethlehem, constantly moving through Judea and Galilee, here on the mountain, there on the plain, walking across the water...

So it is no surprise the grave could not hold Him. Jesus has too much to do, too much life to live and give to all. He won’t stay put… and neither will you. Death can hold you no more than it can hold Him. Because He’s ruined death, broken it. There are no lost things anymore, only things Jesus has found and things He is still finding…

Because what the angels said is true still you know—Jesus is Risen and He’s gone on ahead of you. On down the road you will meet Him. He won’t stay put. Neither will you. There are places to go, things to see. There is a big banquet bash He’s throwing for all His friends. The joy of it never ends. It starts here at His Table. There’s a place for you. Meet Him here, catch Him now while you can, because He won’t stay put… and neither will you—because you are Body of Christ too, through Word and Sacrament, by faith alone, so you’re never lost, but the Peace that surpasses understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.