Is Easter nonsense?

Today marked the end of another Easter season. Churches everywhere sang their songs, presented their pageants, put on their plays and coordinated their choirs. On this day, more than any other, the message of Christ's death and life is shared around the world. And for many people, this Easter Sunday marked the beginning of a new journey as they realized the personal power that Christ's death and resurrection has for them. What an exciting time to celebrate!!

As I was reading through Luke's account of that first resurrection day, I was struck by a phrase I'd never noticed before:

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. (Luke 24:1-11, emphasis mine)

I, too, sang in an Easter choir today and I joyed in the power of the resurrection as I sang of the hope and promise that God has given me. Easter Sunday is really the day that makes the difference of eternity. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, he'd really be just another dead man. That's it. But his sacrificial death and then his defeat of death mean that we can be truly and forever reconciled with the God that loves us so much He made a way to pay for the sin that separates us from Him.

But how many people sit in churches and to them it just sounds like nonsense? The proof isn't convincing. The words they hear don't seem to fit the facts as they know them. The lives they see around them in that church may or may not fit the expectations they have of people of faith. And they leave thinking it's just nonsense. Maybe the family member or neighbor that came with you left that way. Maybe you're the one that walked out unconvinced.

But that doesn't mean the end of the story.

Let's face it - even the disciples thought it didn't make sense. When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women came running back with a story of angels and an empty tomb, the disciples - those who had hear Jesus in person explain and predict his death and resurrection - didn't believe it. I doubt those women changed their mind. They had experienced it. The disciples hadn't. Luke even tells us Peter went and checked it out but he didn't go away convinced. He went away wondering what had happened. And who can blame him? It's a pretty mind-blowing reality to have to grasp. It had never happened before in history and has never happened since.

Here's the exciting part though - by the end of the chapter, they believed.

Why?

Because they met Jesus. They saw him, talked with him, spent time with him. They could no longer deny the experience of others because they'd come face to face with the risen Jesus for themselves. And they, too, became so convinced that that "nonsense" was reality that many of them later gave their own lives to share that truth with others.

My prayer today is that anyone that left an Easter service today, unable to believe because it didn't make sense to them, will still meet Jesus. That anyone that didn't go because it was nonsense will still meet Jesus. Come face to face with the message of the cross and be able to see it's promise for them. Because when you truly meet Jesus, "nonsense" makes perfect sense. The things we don't understand take on a whole new significance as he speaks to our hearts and shows us what we've been missing. It is the moment when we, too, can respond to the power of the risen Lord in confidence and trust.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!