Easter 2024 - Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

Easter Homily

March 31, 2024

Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

            In a little over a week, much of America will be fascinated by the solar eclipse that will cross our country. Some people are even going to travel to different states to get a better view. Despite the fact that the sun rises every day – a little blessing that we so often take for granted – we are more fascinated by the darkness than by the light.

            Isn’t that always the case? How many of us slow down so we can get a better view of a car wreck? As much as we say we don’t, let’s be honest, most of us enjoy reading the bad news. Why does a scandal or a crime make headlines, but the thousands of people who volunteer at soup kitchens and homeless shelters never get recognized? How many of us watched, perhaps over and over again, the video of the bridge that recently collapsed in my hometown of Baltimore – a bridge that I have driven over multiple times? Even when I’m preaching, when I speak about Jesus and what He did for us, people’s eyes glaze over and they yawn, but as soon as I mention the devil, people sit up and cry out, “Tell us more!”

            Because of original sin – that fundamental brokenness in our human nature – we are more drawn to darkness than to light; more drawn to sin than to goodness; more drawn to death than to life. And so it is that the three women return to the tomb. Despite the fact that Jesus predicted three times in the Gospel that He would rise from the dead, they could not believe it, because they believed the fundamental lie of human history – the lie that death wins in the end.

            But when they meet the angels, according to Luke’s Gospel, they ask the women a very pointed question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why do you seek the living among the dead? Do you really believe that life will triumph, or do you think that the death will have the last word? Do you believe that the wicked who have disobeyed the commands of the Lord will win, or will God bring about the victory of justice? Will sin conquer, or will righteousness? As Christians, we must believe that God wins in the end.

            In a few minutes, we will make a six-fold declaration of our Baptismal promises. The first three promises are renunciations – we declare that we will no longer follow Satan, his works, or his empty show. Then the final three promises are declarations of our belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the early Church, the people used to turn to the West to renounce Satan – turning to the darkness, where the sun sets, to declare that darkness will have no power over our lives. They would then turn to the East, to the place of the sun’s rising, to declare their allegiance to the Lord in Whom they have believed. They turned from the darkness to the light in a very physical manner to demonstrate what must go on in our soul.

            So have you really turned from darkness to light? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why have we pursued our careers, or success on the sports field, or entertainment, or social media, or pleasure as if these would bring us life? Christ offers us a better way to live – a way that stands in opposition to the tomb of the world. A tomb is dark, it’s a dead-end (no pun intended) and it is a place where death seems victorious. The women are told to leave the tomb immediately, because Christ their Life has arisen and is no longer there. You, too, are to leave the tombs of this world – those dead-end pleasures and riches and popularity of this world, which promise us happiness but leave us empty – to follow the Risen One Who walks in the light.

            In the mid-1800s a young British man named Francis Thompson was studying medicine with every hope of becoming a rich and famous doctor. He became ill, however, and to treat his illness he was prescribed opium – and he quickly became hooked. His addiction became so severe that he dropped out of school, became homeless, and lived on the banks of the Thames River, selling matches for a living. But during this time of deep desolation, he became acutely aware of being pursued…by God. In the depths of his personal tomb, he sensed a call to live in the light – that God hadn’t given up on him, but that in some mysterious way, all of this was part of God’s plan for his life. He scribbled down his reflection of God’s great pursuit of his soul on a dirty scrap of paper, and sent it to the editors of a very popular magazine. The editors, devout Christians themselves, published the poem – which led to a remarkable writing career, and the rescue of this young man from the darkness of the tomb.

            This poem is entitled “The Hound of Heaven”, and it describes a man running away from someone. The man runs as fast as he can, trying not to think about his pursuer. He tries to distract himself with tears and with laughter; he tries to hide in out-of-the-way places, he tried to disguise himself as a rich man, as a socialite, as a pleasure-lover…yet he is continually pursued. We discover that the pursuer is God, Who will not give up on the man, and sees through the disguises and is faster than his flight. Toward the end of the poem, God speaks and says, “All things have left thee, for thou hast left Me” – everywhere he had sought happiness left him empty because he was running from the God Who is his joy. In the end, the man gives up, and God calls to him mercifully, “Ah My son, the blindest and weakest…I am He Who thou hast seekest!”

            Have you sought life amidst the tombs? It is time to arise from the empty vanities of this world and live for Christ alone. Wake, O sleeper, and arise, for Christ Who is Risen will give you light and life.