…chiefly are we bound to praise you for the
glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord: ...who by his death
has destroyed death and by his rising to life again has won for us ever-lasting
life.
These words, coming from the Proper Preface we will use in today’s
Eucharistic liturgy, hint that this day is a day of incredible power. Like Ford says in its commercial for its F150
pickup – This changes everything!
Don’t believe it? Let’s take stock
of the mood permeating the first Easter morning. Jesus’ followers are done. A few women come to the tomb to cover his
corpse with burial anointments and perfumes.
Two other disciples leave
Jerusalem and head out of town on a road to Emmaus – a destination still
unknown by modern scholars. In a very
real sense they are going nowhere – aimless and dispirited. The rest of the disciples are hiding in a room
with doors locked and shades drawn. They
are fearful, and with good reason. The
authorities might come for them next. They
might be tried and executed just as Jesus was.
It is a bleak picture, completely devoid of direction and hope. There is nothing here – nothing at all – to
suggest in just fifty days these very same people will be transformed into a
dynamic, courageous group of witnesses who would carry the Good News of Jesus
to every known corner of their world.
There is nothing here to suggest the willingness with which they will
endure hardship, persecution, beatings, imprisonment, and even death itself in
order to proclaim the truth of what they have experienced. Their movement, which begins as a small sect
with a few dozen adherents, grows in little over 300 years against all odds and
adversities to become the official religion of the Roman Empire; supplanting
centuries-old paganism, myths, and superstitions.
I don’t know what you think about this day.
You may be a devout believer in the Resurrection or you may be
dyed-in-the-wool skeptic. No matter
where you fall, we all must acknowledge Easter liberated a tremendous power in
the world.
Power is simply defined as the ability to get things
done. Whereas authority is the right to do something, power is the ability to do it.
A bank robber has power, but not authority. A teacher has authority, but may not have
power. A police officer has both.
Back in 1959, social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven published
a study on power in which they enumerated five different ways it can be
manifested:
Referent power is the ability to cultivate the respect and
admiration of others so that they wish to be like you and follow you. Thinking of the events unfolding over the
course of Holy Week, you will note Jesus had referent power, while Pilate and
Herod did not.
Legitimate power, also known as positional power, is
derived from a person’s given responsibilities and duties. The temple officials lacked the legitimate
power to crucify Jesus. They had to
convince Pilate to order it, because this power was seated in his position
alone.
Expert power comes from one’s skills, abilities, and
expertise. Imagine you are on a plane
sitting next to a pilot and a plumber. Each
has a useful skill set you may not possess.
If the jet’s captain becomes incapacitated you know which of the two
will immediately receive power to take over.
The guards who flogged Jesus had expert power. They knew their craft and they were good at
it.
Reward power depends on the ability of a person to confer
something of value to others. Parents try
to wield reward power even as we sit here this morning. How many of you have said to your children,
“If you sit quietly through the service, after church we’ll go get some ice
cream”? Judas had reward power. He was able to tell the Temple authorities
where they could arrest Jesus without making a public scene. The Temple officials also had this
power. They paid Judas handsomely for
his information.
And finally there is coercive
power. It uses threats and
punishments to achieve desired results.
This was Pilate’s main source of power.
On Good Friday we
read this from the Gospel of John:
Pilate said to Jesus,
“Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you
not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power
over me unless it had been given you from above.”
When Pilate is unsuccessful in using his power to coerce he follows through
on his threat.
This morning I want to draw your attention to two types of power. One is as old as civilization itself. It is the power to destroy. Anyone can wield it: terrorists in Brussels,
an abusive spouse and parent, a mean-spirited parishioner, a rude person in the
checkout line, a Roman despot suppressing religious and human freedom. The power to destroy is available to each of
us. All that differs is the scope and
scale of the damage we can do.
Easter unleashes a new power. It is
a power not named or described in French and Raven’s 1959 study. It is Easter power – the power to give life
and hope and courage and purpose; the power to transform a person’s life. It is a power far greater than all other
powers in the world. It is the power of
resurrection and it fuelled the passion of the first Apostles. It is a power which can and does liberate the
human heart.
No power, no circumstance can overcome it.
A little over 250 years ago, a man named George was in as bad of
straights as you can imagine. Once an
accomplished musician and composer who was favored by royalty, his health had
failed. A few years earlier a stroke
left his right side crippled with paralysis.
He was impoverished and had to sleep on the cold, bare wooden floor of
his unheated apartment. Creditors had
seized all his belongings and were threatening to have him sent to debtor’s
prison. He was 56 years old – my age. I cannot imagine a darker, more hopeless place
in life to be. But there was a power
working in George – the power of Easter – and it so enflamed his heart he sat
down to compose. Christians around the
world today will sing what George Frederick Handel brought to life in spite of
the circumstances I described… The Hallelujah Chorus. Ask yourself how a person in such a
downtrodden place could create something filled so profoundly with hope and
praise.
In our own time we have seen this power manifested through the likes of
Corrie ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, through Martin Luther King and Oscar
Romero, through Joni Eareckson and Lisa Beamer.
Each has made an incredible witness to the Christian faith and life in
spite of obstacles and challenges that would cripple most and cause their
spirits to crumble. Paul confessed to
the Christians in Philippi, “I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection.” Jesus told his followers,
“I have come that you may have life.” It
is this life-giving power we seek and celebrate today.
Maybe you doubt the Resurrection.
Maybe it all sounds to fantastical, too far-fetched, too much like a
superstitious tale concocted in an age of superstition for you to take it literally. But if you have any intellectual curiosity
and any intellectual integrity, the story of the Resurrection demands you make
some kind of assessment of the power it unleashed. Can you really chalk up the changed lives of
every single disciple to something as simple as the power of positive
thinking? How do you make sense of the
incredible witness of Christians down through the ages and in our own time;
people who have endured against incredible odds with undiminished joy and faith
and hope? Either they are delusional or they
are buoyed by some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, or they are caught up in the
power of Easter that changes everything… a power available to you and to me if
we embrace it, received it, and cherish it.
…chiefly are we bound to praise you for the
glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord: who by his death has
destroyed death and, and by his rising to life again has won for us
ever-lasting life.
