A Bishop with a badly defective memory was having a garden party one day with all his clergy. “My dear fellow,” he said to one vicar, “how lovely to see you here today; and how is your dear wife?” The vicar was a bit surprised by this question. “She’s dead, Bishop. Don’t you remember, you wrote me a very helpful letter at the time?” “I am so sorry,” said the Bishop, “Do please forgive me.” And then he moved on. Later that afternoon, the Bishop came across the same clergyman. “Hello there,” he said. “So good to have you with us; and how is your dear wife?” “Still dead, Bishop, still dead!”
Of course, when we die it’s overwhelmingly likely that we stay that way for the foreseeable future! That’s not a particularly cheerful start to a sermon is it? So let’s spend a moment thinking about some entertaining headstones.
Here’s the epitaph for Ezekiel Aikle in East Dalhouse Cemetery in Nova Scotia: “Here lies Ezekiel Aikle. Age 102. Only the good die young.”
Emily White was an inexperienced driver from Berkshire. Her headstone reads: “Here lies the body of Emily White. She signalled left, and then turned right.”
Jonathan Blake, buried in Uniontown, Pennsylvania is a variation on the same theme. “Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake - stepped on the gas instead of the brake.”
Sir John Strange was a barrister and his body lies in a chapel in London. “Here lies an honest lawyer. And that is Strange.”
John Dryden commissioned the following epitaph for his wife in 1700. “Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she’s at rest, and so am I.”
Or what about this one? “Here lies an atheist six feet below - all dressed up and no place to go.”
What would you put on Jesus’ grave do you think?
“Can’t keep a good man down”? “Here today, gone tomorrow”? Or maybe just “Tomb for sale. As new, one careful owner”?
Announcing the Resurrection
I said just now that, when we die, we usually get to stay that way for some time. And that is why what the apostle Peter says in our first reading today is so unusual. It’s about what happens if you don’t stay that way longer than a few days.
To give you the context; Peter (an Orthodox Jew) is invited to the house of a man named Cornelius (who is a gentile from Rome). This is, in itself something of a marvel. In fact, it took 5 miracles to set the meeting up (a heavenly vision, an angelic visitation, a trance, the audible voice of God and an impossible coincidence) but we’ve no time to go into that now.
When Peter gets to Cornelius’ house he basically says five things.
a) It doesn’t matter where you come from or who you are; God loves you and wants to touch your life (v34-35).
b) I have seen personally how good Jesus really is; saying wonderful truths, healing the sick, driving out evil spirits and doing good (v36-39).
c) Tragically, he was put to death as a common criminal (v39b).
d) But he rose from the dead and there were many witnesses of that event (v40). In fact, piecing together all the different appearances in the Bible we know that Jesus was seen after his death and burial, alive-and-well, by over 500 people. That is a substantial number of eye witnesses.
e) Those who have experienced seeing him alive have a responsibility to tell others in turn (v41-43).
We’re going to concentrate just on the end part of this speech today. Starting at v40 where Peter says, “God raised [Jesus] from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.” Peter is breaking news. I saw it. It really happened. I’m not making this up.
I want to share with you three simple reasons why I think it is.
1) Peter’s Change of Direction
Firstly, consider this. Peter was a fisherman who had a small business on the Sea of Galilee. He lived in a village on the northern shore of that lake called Capernaum and, as far as we can tell, he never left the area. He had no need to. There was no other fishing zone for miles and there was a large population around the Sea of Galilee that support a thriving market for his fish. Furthermore, he was a settled married man and his extended family was in that area too – so everything points to a pretty settled lifestyle. But in our reading today we find Peter in Caesarea (that’s miles away on the Mediterranean coast). Elsewhere in the Acts of the Apostles we find him in Jerusalem, in Antioch and eventually he travelled to Rome - 1,500 miles away.
Why would a settled, comfortable, small-time merchant in a provincial backwater end up travelling to the ends of the then known world? His life completely switched course. How do you account for that? The resurrection of Jesus changed the direction of his life.
2) Peter’s Unimpressed Initial Response
Secondly, think about our Gospel reading. How would you describe Peter’s behaviour there? I think it is remarkable how unimpressed he was by the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty.
The women went first, they didn’t understand what had happened, so they went back and told the men.
Verse 11 says, “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
Typical men; they didn’t take the women seriously. They probably shook their heads patronisingly and thought, “Typical women, I bet they went to the wrong graveyard and met some weirdo who said to them “Hey listen, get me a beer.” And they probably misheard it as, “He is risen; he is not here.” So they went hysterical and ran back here spouting their nonsense.
So Peter rolls his eyes and goes off to see for himself - I think it’s so he can come back later and condescendingly tell the ladies where they went wrong.
Verse 12; “Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”
There he is, scratching his head and frowning as he looks around. “I could swear that’s where the body was laid on Friday. Hang about, maybe it was in the next row of tombs? No, no, it was definitely here. Why is stone rolled away then? Maybe the cemetery staff have put the body somewhere else… But why would the burial shroud still be in the tomb then?”
Back to my question; how would you describe Peter’s behaviour there? Frankly, I think he was underwhelmed.
Actually, how many of us are underwhelmed? It’s possible to come to church on Easter day, say “hi” to the people we know, sit through the service, sing the songs, then return to our homes unmoved and unchanged. Could it be that some of us don’t really get it either?
It seems that Peter just didn’t compute that Jesus might no longer be dead. To be honest, if the Gospel said, “Peter ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and instantly believed, telling everyone that Jesus was raised from the dead” it would look a bit fishy wouldn’t it? It would just be a bit too easy. They say that if you want something to be true enough you can delude yourself that it is. But Peter didn’t get it at all until he actually met Jesus alive a day later.
No one expected it at all or understood it at first. The whole narrative rings true.
3) Witnesses
Thirdly, I want to go back to the Acts reading again. Verse 41 says; “Jesus was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen - by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Twice in this speech by Peter he uses the word “witnesses” and twice he uses the word “testify…” which is what Spencer and Joseph have been doing already this morning. They are witnesses who testify to the power of the resurrection that still changes lives in the real world today. Their lives have been touched by grace – and it has left an impression.
Did you know that every touch, every movement you make leaves some kind of identifying mark? Fingerprinting is well known, but forensic investigators can also trace foot (or shoe) prints on carpets, tool marks and tyre imprints. They can be incredibly accurate. Even clean, dry shoes can be detected because they create electrostatic charges from which you can build up a visual image. Wire cutters, screwdrivers and crowbars that are used to force entry all leave microscopic marks that investigators can trace and identify. Tyre marks work the same way. Forensic teams can identify the brand of tyre, wear and tear on the tread and even alignment problems just by studying tyre tracks. In forensic science there is a rule that, simply stated, says, “Every touch leaves an impression.”
When a life is touched by the risen Christ, it always leaves its mark.
I met a man called Dennis Balcombe the other week. He is a church leader in Hong Kong and he often travels into mainland China to visit outlawed churches where there is a spiritual revival unprecedented in human history. Christians now number around 100 million in China - and they are more numerous than members of the Communist Party. Now, this man Dennis Balcombe had heard rumours of great signs and wonders accompanying the preaching of the Gospel there including resurrections from the dead, so he was eager to make enquiries about it. “Is what I have heard really happening?” he asked. Everyone said, “Yes, it’s true” and one man came forward saying, “I was one of those who was raised.” Others present confirmed his testimony saying they were mourners at his funeral when it happened. He had been certified dead the previous day. Many were converted... Every touch of grace leaves an impression.
That man will die again one day. Those who are miraculously healed will grow old and will one day die. But Jesus was raised and lives for evermore - saving the desperate, transforming lives, healing the sick and mending broken hearts.
That’s why the first Easter Sunday is the day that changed human history. It’s changed Joseph’s and Spencer’s human destiny. It’s changing families, communities, cities and nations. Jesus is alive!
Ending
Let me end with a story I heard recently about a Muslim man who became a Christian and some of his friends asked him why.
He answered: “Well, it is like this: suppose you are going down a road and suddenly the road forks in two directions. You don’t know which way to go. If you meet two men at the fork – one dead and one alive – which one would you ask to show you the way?”
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th April 2010
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