Three Dimensional Resurrection
Matt 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-11; John 20:1-16
Three stories about One resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
For some, the three perspectives are confusing-
Was there one women or two or three at the tomb?
Were there men in dazzling clothes or angels who greeted the
women at the tomb with the story of the resurrection?
Did the disciples respond to the women’s testimony
with amazement, or disbelief or action?
For others it is encouraging to know how much these stories
Agree with each other even though they were written by
different authors at different time from different perspectives,
they were inspired by One Spirit and testimony to one Christ.
Each tells the story of the empty tomb,
Each tells the story of women who went to the tomb early,
Each tells the story of witnessing at the tomb,
And how difficult it was for people to believe the Gospel
That the women shared with other believers.
There is a truth that runs through each of these stories
And it is the truth of the resurrection of Christ.
For me, the power and common purpose of these different accounts
Of the one resurrection of Jesus Christ is to give us
A Three dimensional perspective on the resurrection.
It is not a flat two dimensional picture that looks the same
From every angle but rather it has texture, depth and substance.
For example the resurrection speaks to us when we feel God is absent
As the body of Christ was absent from the empty tomb and
Yet the beloved disciple “saw and believed.”
But the story is equally poignant when we encounter the Risen Christ
In our daily lives. We might mistake him for the gardener but
When he speaks our name “Mary” we know it is “The Teacher”.
The three different sources help us to see three dimensionally.
Of course three dimensional movies are the rage right now.
It seems that every movie we see today has a 3-D option.
And the way three dimensional movies work is that they
Trick the eye and the mind into thinking there are
At least two different angles to every shot.
They shoot the movie from a 45 degree and 135 degree angle.
Each eye sees a different angle to give the illusion of 3-D.
And yet in today’s scripture we have not just 2 perspectives
But we have three perspective (and we could have four)
and within the stories themselves we also have
a variety of perspectives on the story so that
we are not just tricking our eye and mind
into thinking three dimensionally
but we are helping believers to know the multiple dimensions
of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is real and personal,
Inclusive and yet beyond even our wildest imagination.
You see the story of Jesus resurrection is not a story that seems
To reach out to us and take place right in front of our eyes.
But it is the story of God who came down into this world
That God created to actually touch us, talk with us, live in us.
It is not the story that takes place in virtual reality but rather
As story that takes us into hyper-reality. And by that I mean-
A reality that recognizes the paradoxes of life, the purpose
and problems of life and the presence of God
Who is willing to be present in all that reality.
So I call the three versions of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
A three dimension understanding of the resurrection.
And unlike the 3-D movies we see with special glasses
This is not an illusion, or a trick.
It is the continuation of the incarnation story where God came down,
Not longer was God simply spoken of by the prophets but now
God spoke to us directly as Jesus said to the crowd in Luke
“Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
No longer did God exercise God’s sovereign control from afar
But God walked with us in Jesus and ate with us
And entered into our lives as he did with Cleopas
And his companion on the road to Emmaus:
“Their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”
No longer did God promise healing from heaven above,
But God entered into our pain in Jesus on the cross,
healed us with his spittle as he healed the blind man,
Allowed us with Thomas to touch his wounds,
Even as he touched and healed our woundedness.
“Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe”
No longer does God simply promise us life after death,
But Jesus cries with us as he did in the death of Lazarus
and dies with us on the cross at Calvary so that
we might be raised with Christ to life eternal.
So the real question we must ask on this Easter morning
As we consider the three dimensional resurrection of Jesus
Is who will we be in this story…
Will we be the disciples who thought that this was just an idle tale
And did not believe?
Will we be Peter who went home amazed at what happened?
Will we be the beloved disciple, John, who looked into the tomb
Saw the empty tomb…and believed.
Will we be the women in Matthew who took hold of Jesus’ feet
And worshipped him?
Or will we be Mary who went to the other disciples and told them,
“I have seen the Lord”?
The beauty of this three dimensional understanding
of the Resurrection is that the depth and dynamic experience
of the resurrection does not illicit just one response-
there are as many responses to the Resurrected Christ
as there are disciples- the “Bible tells us so.”
There are days in which we hear God call upon our lives
As personally as Mary heard Jesus call her name.
There are other days when we leap into mission
with the boldness of Peter only to go home
amazed but exhausted and spent
Still other days when we experience what other people
Might consider to be the absence of God in life
As John experienced the empty tomb and
We remember something he told us
And we believe.
But if we believe a three dimension resurrection
As God who enters into the reality of our lives,
And opens us up to a reality beyond the bounds of our vision
Then we know, that God will use us to proclaim God’s kingdom.
And that is the mystery, the wonder and meaning of Easter. Amen
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