Homily for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. Theme: The Mystery of the Empty Tomb
As we just heard in the Gospel, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb. And in every age and century since then, people have been intrigued by the mystery of her find. They read and ponder the eye-witness evidence recorded in the Gospels as they seek answers to the questions that the Empty Tomb raises: What happened to the body of Jesus of Nazareth? And is it really possible that he has risen from the dead?
But for various reasons not everybody bothers to ask these questions. To some the very idea of the Resurrection seems ridiculous, and so they don’t even consider it. Others don’t ask because they don’t want to know the answer. Perhaps they have a sense that it will turn their lives upside down if it turns out to be true? And there are those who do ask, but not from the motive of truth-seeking. Instead they are set upon debunking the Easter Story and discrediting Christianity. But even they find out that no one can deny the documented historical fact of the Empty Tomb and the Missing Body. And so, since they must accept the reality of Mary Magdalen’s discovery, they try instead to refute the Resurrection itself usually by appealing to one or more of the following objections to it.
First, they propose that the Gospels were written by biased believers and thus are not real history. In other words, they say that the claim of Resurrection is not based on historically reliable documented eye-witness events. However, scholars and historians of various backgrounds, including both believers and unbelievers, disagree with that position. They point out that the Gospels meet strict scholarly criteria for authenticity and that some of the things that they say about Christ are corroborated in ancient non-Christian sources. Their academic research and expertise concludes that on the purely historical level, the Gospels reliably pass on to us what the disciples of Jesus really saw and experienced.
Second, there are those who claim that the body of Jesus was stolen and the thieves then claimed a fake Resurrection. In other words, it was all a lie; an ancient conspiracy theory. Ok, if so then we have to ask: who would have had motive to do so? The Romans? They had no reason whatsoever. At the request of the Jewish leadership, they stationed armed guards at the tomb precisely to prevent such a potential theft and lie from happening. The Jewish Leaders? They had even less reason. They considered Christ an insult and blasphemy to their religion and so, if they were the culprits, they could have produced the corpse and put an end to Christianity once and for all right at its beginning.
Well then, that leaves us with the disciples of Jesus. Could they have done it? This idea totally ignores the fact that they were cowards locked away in hiding because they were sure that they were next on the death list. Besides, they were no match for the armed Roman soldiers standing guard at the tomb. And as far as the disciples making up a lie about Resurrection goes, it’s important to realize that people usually make up such elaborate stories to elevate their status in the eyes of others and earn perks. So, what kind of perks did the story of an Empty Tomb and Resurrection bring them? Hatred, persecution, imprisonment, torture, and such martyrdoms as being crucified, beheaded and beaten to death. Yet while enduring these sufferings not one of them confessed that they were lying or even admitted to the possibility that they could have been mistaken.
Finally, there have been those who claim that the disciples were so emotionally traumatized by the Passion of Christ that they hallucinated the Risen Jesus. Individual hallucinations are indeed possible, but we have documented testimony that on one occasion about 500 saw the Risen Lord among them at the same time and in the same place. Psychologists tell us that it’s completely impossible for everyone in that crowd to have had the same hallucination. Besides, many of the eye-witnesses testified that the One whom they saw and touched, whom they ate with and spoke to, was not a ghost or a phantom, not a figment of their imagination nor a hallucination. He was flesh and bone, mysteriously transformed and awesomely glorious, but still the same Jesus whom they knew and loved.
But you know, coming to believe in the Resurrection requires much more than seeing the truth in these solid responses to such objections. This is because our intelligence can only bring us so far. It can inform us that the historical evidence is reliable, reasonable and credible but it cannot make us believe. That is something that only God can do by bestowing the supernatural gift of faith, which he does for whoever sincerely asks. But as I said earlier, there are many today who don't ]seek and ask and so they remain in the darkness. For them, Easter is nothing more than a Spring-time holiday that they perhaps observe out of custom or culture. Sadly, this void leaves them still bound in their sins and still stalked by the gloomy fear of death that haunts every human being. And as a result they expend so much time and so much energy, and in some cases even so much money, trying to escape the inescapable reality of their own mortality.
But then there are others who do seek and ask. They ponder the personal testimonies of the eye-witnesses and sense that something amazing happened even if they don’t understand how. They are open to the possibility of the supernatural which enables them to make that all-important step from logic to mystery, from doubt to faith. And as a result, they begin to experience the movements of transformative change within themselves. They find peace of heart because they have come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Crucified Savior who offers them total forgiveness for their sins, no matter what they may have been. They are filled with spiritual joy because they have come to believe in the Risen Lord who now shares with them his victory over the grave, dispelling the fear of death and offering them eternal life as their destiny. The light of Christ shines brightly on them, leading them through life and giving them real hope for the future.
So, the bottom line of Easter is this: the experiences of those who encountered the Risen Christ and which have been handed down to us through the Gospels, present to every human being an invitation to seek and to ask, an opportunity to believe or to persist in doubt, a chance to break free from the grip of death or to remain captive in its grasp. The path each person decides to take all depends upon how they choose to respond to the undeniable fact that two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb.
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