Rev. Richard Smith
Eastertide: Recognizing The Impact Of The Resurrection
| Luke 24:4-6 While the women were wondering about the stone rolled away, two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them…’Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’ |
For those who followed Jesus, it seemed like once again evil had defeated good; hate had defeated love; the powerful had defeated the lowly. For all those watching the events of Holy
Week it seemed that nothing had changed in this world. Evil still reigned; power still reigned; Rome still reigned.
There are times people in our world feel this way as well. There is a cultural phenomenon in our time known as “modern pessimism.” Essentially, it’s a mindset many have as they read the newspaper headlines, as they listen to the news, as they watch world events; the mindset that nothing seems to be going right for that which is good and just. Constantly folks hear about global wars; about starving children; about the brutality of dictators; about the genocide of innocent men, women, and children in all sorts of hot spots; the increasing global economic challenges; the growing gap between rich and poor. It seems as if there is no reasonable mood but pessimism.
But then God speaks! God raises Jesus from the grave! It is God’s way of saying evil does not have the last word; I do. Evil will not reign supreme in history; love and goodness will; the tyrants and dictators will not call the shots; I will.
This truth is evidenced by what happened to the Roman Empire and what happened to the Christian Church, the followers of Jesus Christ. Many of you know that for many decades after the death of Jesus, Christians were persecuted. It became systematic under the Roman Emperor Nero in 64 A.D., resumed under the Roman Emperor Domitian in 90 A.D., and continued for decades to come. The Roman historian Tacitus described what happened to Christians under Nero in these words:
Emperor Nero punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were generally hated for their [strange beliefs and behaviors]. In their deaths there were made the subjects of sport. While the crowd watched and cheered, they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and killed then by hungry dogs; others were nailed to crosses; some were set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve the evening lights for Nero’s garden.
On the surface it doesn’t seem like God has overcome evil, does it? Here we are some thirty to sixty years after the death of Jesus and his followers are being brutally and cruelly persecuted.
But let’s fast forward some. Long after the fall of the Roman Empire between the 5th and 15th centuries, the Church of Jesus Christ thrived. By the 15th century when Rome had finally fallen, Christianity was thriving in Europe, Asia, Africa, and even in Russia. Rome fell; the Church founded by Jesus grew and blossomed and changed the world.
Easter doesn’t promise us that God will act on our timeline. Easter doesn’t promise us that God will bring justice and goodness when we want it. But Easter does tell us that goodness will come; that justice will someday reign; that evil will be defeated; that love will overcome hate.
