Gospel Reading (Take 2): Luke 24:1-12
For Sunday, March 31, 2013—Easter Sunday
Luke’s Jesus said more than he would rise on the third day rise again. Jesus said he came to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Why didn’t he follow through on that promise too?
Indeed!
“Christ is risen,” which is short hand for the world has been redeemed, death has been overcome, all that Jesus told us would happen through out the story, has happened. All the questions have been answered. Jesus, our savior wins. 
The events of Easter, the proclamation of, “He is risen!” are filtered, of course through nearly two millennia of interpretive history. When we respond, “Christ is risen indeed,” there is an age-old assuredness in our communal affirmation. It is very nearly a fist pump. We may not know a lot, but the one thing we do know is that Christ has risen, indeed. Though it may be muttered into the shoes of most of those in attendance, but I think the sentiment is the same.
Any More Questions?
However, the event of the empty tomb in Luke’s text is in and of itself ambiguous, it is not self-interpreting. An empty tomb does not intrinsically mean, the world has been redeemed, death has been overcome and all the questions have been answered.
Redemption was certainly not obvious to the women who first discover that Jesus is not there. They are, at first, perplexed. Then two dazzling men show up to help to interpret the absence for them. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? Remember what he told you, the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Some Interpretation, Please…
The woman now understood what the empty tomb meant, that Jesus was alive. They went back and told the disciples, but the meaning of the empty tomb was not only uncertain to them, but the interpretation provided by the women was unbelievable to them.
Certainly, in our tradition, to proclaim the resurrection, is more than proclaiming the absence of the body of Jesus. Our orthodoxy tells us that it is the proclamation of the redemption of the world. But it certainly does not answer all the questions all the narrative threads that Luke has woven through his gospel.
Luke’s Jesus said more than the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Jesus also said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent men to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The Hardest Question
We proclaim, “He is risen!” on Sunday, but don’t we have to we have to ask ourselves, why didn’t he follow through on that promise too?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
