Sermon for Easter Day 2004
Father Kevin Moroney
My Sermons this Holy Week have all been generated by the movie "The Passion of the Christ", so I feel duty bound to go for a clean sweep and draw on it again for my Easter Sermon.
You may wonder how that is possible bearing in mind that the movie is about the last twelve hours of Jesus' life, but there is a final scene after the brutalised body of Jesus is taken down lifeless from the Cross.
The scene takes only about 30 seconds or so. When the light fades from Golgotha there is a loud noise, the light comes back, and after two hours of watching Jesus being beaten almost beyond recognition; now he is healed, no whip marks, no swollen eyes.
You realise that it is Easter morning and the noise was the stone rolling away. As the risen Christ emerges from the tomb you can see through the hole in his hand and are reminded that the risen Jesus retained the nail and spear marks from His crucifixion.
Then the light fades and the theatre lights come up.
Now it took me a lot longer to describe that moment than it did to watch it, but it is worth a full description because it gives us an imaginative glimpse into what we as Christians believe was the fulcrum of human history - the moment death was defeated; the moment before Mary arrived at the tomb, before the disciples were told, before the world began to be changed.
What struck me about the scene was that, while we know from John's Gospel that the risen Jesus retained the five wounds, at the Resurrection hundreds of wounds had healed totally. It struck me not so much that he still had wounds, but that only five were left.
Three thoughts come to me out of that short scene:
First - it reminds us of how God works in the world; How would you describe the patterns of your life? Two steps forward and one back? Going round in circles?
Well God's pattern is one of death and resurrection. During the course of our lives we all go through similar examples of this. I know my surgery last autumn and the return of strength I am now beginning to feel is a little death and resurrection experience, and I am sure you all have your own examples.
Second - just as Jesus was healed of most but not all of his wounds do it works with us. When we are restored after a time of trial we leave most of it behind, but is it not true that we bring some of it with us as well? A few of the wounds remain with us and if we are wise they serve as reminders of what we have learned through the suffering.
Third and most important - that short scene conveys to us that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ life always has the final word.THat is not always easy to hold on to when we are going through a difficult time. God's intention for us is eternal life. This is whispered to us through every small experience of death and resurrection we have and screamed loudly to us through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we learn to live more deeply and happily as we learn this truth: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life"