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Easter Sunrise

Luke 24:1-12

April 20, 2003

The Resurrection of Jesus

Luke 24

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body.^{£ 4}While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women^£ were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men^£ said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.^{£ 6}Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.^£

A  butterfly was flying through a pristine forest glade.  As it soared overhead, two caterpillars were stuck fast to the base of a tree.  One said to the other, "You'll never get me up in one of those things."

Yet for every caterpillar the time comes when he must undergo that very special process of "getting up in one of those things," that is, becoming a butterfly.  That caterpillar will instinctively begin to form a chrysalis around himself. The chrysalis hardens and stops moving.  For the outside observer, it would seem that the caterpillar was dead.

But one spring morning things begin to happen again for that caterpillar.  The life inside the chrysalis begins to writhe and squirm, the top cracks open, and a beautifully-formed butterfly emerges. For hours it will stand stretching and drying its wings, moving them slowly up and down, up and down. And then, before you know it, the butterfly glides up and aloft, effortlessly riding the currents of the air, touching down on flower after gorgeous flower, as if to show off its vivid colors to the bright blossoms. .

Somehow, the miracle of the butterfly is always fascinating for us. Perhaps because the butterfly is a living parable of the promise of resurrection.

On Easter morning the disciples saw Jesus' graveclothes lying in the tomb, in a limp, useless pile. Only the body that should have been wrapped in those clothes was gone, much like an empty chrysalis deserted by a butterfly who has left to soar free. "He is risen as He said he would," an angel told the incredulous disciples. Later that day he appeared to the disciples, and then, over the course of the next few weeks, to as many as five hundred people. Even "Doubting Thomas" didn't doubt for long that Jesus was really risen from the dead.

Why do Christians gather on Easter morning? To show off their fine clothes or give a ritual tip of the hat to religion? No! Rather we gather to celebrate Jesus' victory over death itself.  He is our Lord and our Savior, His victory is our victory.  In celebrating His resurrection we celebrate our own assurance of ultimate triumph over death.[1]