Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?
The Resurrection of the Lord; April 8, 2007
Luke 24:1-12
The two men – traditionally understood to have been angels – asked the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” It must have been a rhetorical question, since the angels do not give them a chance to answer. From our perch looking back from deep into history, we can take it as a question deserving a response. Why seek the living among the dead?
The angels assumed they sought the living among the dead because they did not believe that he was alive. After all, Christ had told them this would happen, but you can imagine they did not believe it, or they would not have been carrying the spices and ointments to tend to the dead. When they told their story to the Apostles, Christ’s own key men did not believe them.
If you do not believe in the Resurrection of Christ, you have chosen a respectable and responsible position. As a believer, I think you are wrong, but at least you have chosen a position. Whether one believes in the Resurrection of Christ is something each of us must settle for ourselves; in other sermons I have argued for belief, yet this morning I simply wish to raise the conflict into the light for a moment. By the nature of it, there can be no proof either way: that he is raised, or that he is not raised, not by our modern scientific standards of proof. An ossuary that has bones in it and that is labeled with the name “Jesus” – a fairly common name in first-century Palestine – is no proof that he is not raised. And the Shroud of Turin is not proof that he is. You and I must each weigh the body of evidence and decide if we believe.
The irresponsible position is to claim to believe and then act as if it does not matter. I call that “practical atheism:” to claim to believe something, but then not to follow through. Once the women did come to believe that Christ was raised from the dead, they lived that belief every day, in their priorities, the way they treated people, the things they stood for. Once the Apostles came to believe it, their futures were shaped by a new reality. If we seek the living among the dead because we do not believe Christ is alive, that is one thing; but if we claim we believe and do not live for him, then we are ridiculous.
As Luke tells the story, he seems to think the women were seeking the living among the dead because they did not “get it.” They had heard Jesus tell that he would be raised, and they believed him, but they did not understand that he meant, “Now,” not in some remote future. “Oh, I get it now; when you said you would be raised from the dead, you didn’t mean on the Last Day when God destroys evil and makes everything all right; you meant this morning!”
Numerous times throughout the Gospels the writers tell us that something happened, but the disciples didn’t understand it until after Christ’s Resurrection. They write that Jesus talked about something, but it did not make sense to them at the time. When you read the Bible and see those words, it is easy to scoff and say, “Why didn’t they get it? I understand it, so why didn’t they?”
But think about it. Do you and I ever really see the hand of God in our lives except in retrospect? Maybe you do; perhaps you are more attuned to the work of God than I am. But I wonder: do you, one afternoon, say, “If my old friend calls this evening and asks me the important question about how my life is going, then I will know that God is at work in my life”? More likely you will go along with your day, and the phone call comes, and a few days later when you see how that call set you on a better direction, then you will say, “Now I get it! God was speaking to me.”
Of course the women did not get it; of course they were seeking the living among the dead. No matter how many times we are told, “This is how God works,” we really only see it when we look back on it.
I suggest to you one more reason for seeking the living among the dead: because God raises the dead. I mean this literally and metaphorically. Where else will you look for a risen Savior except in a graveyard? Sure, he’s not going to stay there, but if you believe God raises the dead then you will look for him there. I often think we should celebrate Easter services in graveyards. If we believe that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, then the cemetery is the perfect place to look for him.
Here is what I mean when I say metaphorically that God raises the dead. You and I are accustomed to look for good things to happen in the best neighborhoods, among the well-to-do, for blessings to be with the successful. Those who have won in the game of life, those who have the most toys, those who wield power: they are the ones God has blessed. You won’t find them in the cemeteries of life’s hopes; you find them in board rooms and country clubs. But God raises the dead; God goes to those who shiver in the world’s graveyards and in the losers’ circles of our existence and offers new life.
Now, don’t let me get away with stereotypes here. Those in board rooms and country clubs may have dealt with their own types of dying and themselves been raised from the dead. Let us not lose the point: God is not so concerned with those who have always won, with those who have never fallen, but with those who have fallen and need to be lifted up again.
So the word this morning is for you, if things do not always work out as you hope. Those who believe in Christ and the power of his Resurrection do not live for a life without darkness, for days without nights, for endless success; we live for the chance to arise on a new morning and start again. Why seek the living among the dead? Because that is where God is, raising the dead.
We praise you, we acclaim you, we adore you, living God, for your power over death, for the new life of Christ, and for the hope we have in his Resurrection. Alleluia!
Robert A. Keefer
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Clarinda, Iowa