Text: Luke 24:1-12

“Seeking and Finding” Luke 24:1-12

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

Wow! An angel! Who looks a lot like my old vicarage supervisor. Funny how they turn up. Well, that’s a very good question and in the few minutes we have available, I’d like to try to answer on behalf of us who still tend to do this very thing… seek the living among the dead.

I guess the first and simplest answer is that last we checked, Jesus was very dead indeed. We were at the cross, you see, just three days ago. We saw, we heard, all that happened between noon and three, even though the light all went out and darkness covered the earth. We still could see enough, in the dark, still could hear His last cry as Jesus yielded up His Spirit to know He really died. We saw the soldier pierce Him with a spear. One thing Roman soldiers do well is kill people, and these guys were first rate at that!

Our friend Joseph of Arimathea went and claimed His body. Nicodemus helped him and they buried Jesus in Joseph’s own tomb. These are competent men (I know that seems an oxymoron to the women, but these guys can recognize a dead body when they see one!). There is no doubt that Friday evening, Jesus was dead and gone. We’re sure of that!

Didn’t he say something about that to you… warn you this was coming?

Um, well, thanks for bringing that up, Mr. Angel. I guess Jesus did say (several times) that He would be delivered into the hands of sinners, crucified, and the third day rise again. And it is the third day, so you are wondering: “why did you not believe Him?”

I was wondering something like that, yes…

And that’s a great question. Thanks for bringing that up! I infer, by your raised eyebrow, you are also thinking of the fact that people who hung around with Jesus tended not to stay dead. There was the widow’s son at Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and our good friend Lazarus. Jesus’ word and touch were enough to raise them from the dead. So three good reasons there to believe Him when He said He Himself would die and rise again.

But here’s the thing… okay; it’s hard to believe this. I have my days, I’ll be honest with you, when I do believe He is the resurrection and the life and I’d never look for Him among the dead, because I know death can’t hold Him or keep Him or His friends. But those are maybe half my days. The other half… well, it seems like an idle tale to me. I want to believe, I really do. But just a peak in the tomb to see… you know how it goes. I can’t resist. Make sure He’s not still there and it might be easier to believe the rest.

Be my guest. You’re here… take a look

But, Mr. Angel, I see by your frowny face you are not liking this answer either. But hey, even the chief Apostle, Peter, when the women told him Jesus was risen and you guys said so too, even he dismissed it as an idle tale. And first thing he did? He ran to the tomb to look for the living One among the dead. If Peter can’t break the habit, then how would you expect me to?

This isn’t really about Peter is it? Weren’t we talking about you?

Okay, okay. Another excellent point. You do ask good questions! I guess it isn’t about Peter or anyone else. It is a question for me…

Why do I seek the living among the dead? Alright, let me just say it: because death has a hold on me that I can’t break. I try, I really do. But when my grandfather died, when friends and family members die, I really felt the power of the grave. And it scares me because I know death has a grip on me and that my time is coming. No one has ever avoided it.

So I seek the living among the dead because it’s like whistling in the dark. I’m trying to conquer my fear, trying to convince myself it’s not so scary. I can go and face it. It’s why we have haunted houses, Halloween, and why we dared our friends even in grad school to take the shortcut at night through the cemetery behind the gym to get back to our quad first. Few takers on that! (and not principally because of the high mugging rate around the cemetery in New Haven). But the few who did take the dare, and walked through the cemetery alone, at night, we admired. I figure if I can cut through the graveyard, look at Jesus’ dead body myself, I can figure out how it’s all part of the circle of life or whatever, nothing to be afraid of, perfectly natural. If even Jesus has to die, then how bad can death really be?

And how is that working out for you exactly?

Well, it would have worked better if you and your friend here had been sitting outside the tomb next time, and shine your little angel lights (or whatever that is that makes you glow so bizarrely) in such a way that we can see it a ways off and prepare ourselves? That really was unfair to jump out at us from behind the stone and go “Surprise! Christ is risen!” Scared the beeejeebers out of us. I thought angels were supposed to be nice.

And I think you’re trying to evade my question!

Okay, Mr. Angel, you’re right as usual. I am evading and changing the subject now. I seek the living among the dead for a very simple reason: if I could find One, just One who was alive among the dead, who conquered death once and for all, then I wouldn’t be afraid to really live myself! Then the fear of death would not paralyze me so…

Happy now? That’s why we prowl around graveyards and bone yards, haunting the dead and desolate places of this old earth. We want to find Jesus there, want to see that He can conquer even this, that He will make even the dark and desolate and scary places of the world places of Resurrection and new Life. Because if He can do that, really, truly, then He would be the One for me.

So this is why I’m here this morning with all these other folks, Mr. Angel. You may see the face of God all the time, but we don’t okay? We struggle and strain for just a glimpse of His back as He’s exiting the tomb. We are seeking and searching with very little finding of the One we seek ever going on in most of our lives, most of the time. It is something you angel folk can’t ever seem to understand. So how about you dim the high beams a bit, so I can see, and just tell me where I can find Him okay? Because my gut tells me He is still around here, not far away, because He has this thing about bringing life out of death…

Exit

Mr. Angel? Hey, whoa, don’t go! hey, what did I say? He always was critical of my sermons when I was a vicar…

You know, I don’t think we’re going to get more from Mr. Angel. But I peaked ahead at the story and noticed this: when we quit looking for the living among the dead, the Lord Jesus just appears to us. On the road to Emmaus, in a bit of bread, a sip of wine that are His body and blood, He is made known to us, to all his Friends.

It seems like an idle tale many days, I know…

But you don’t have to believe it for it to be true. The truth of it comes to you. By these Sacrament things, the Mystery of life out of death. Come to the Table. Chew on this for a while. And the One you seek will find you too.

For Christ is risen… Amen.