What happened in this story?  Three women had gotten up early, bought embalming spices and scented oils to anoint the body of Jesus.  Normally this would have been done at the time of burial, but the coming of sundown and Sabbath had delayed the process.  Now three women, doing their duty, approached the tomb where the body of Jesus lay.  Whether it had occurred to them before leaving home, all of a sudden the question sprung up, "Who's going to roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb?"  And the first surprise!  The stone was already moved.  But why?  Grave robbers?  Had the Romans moved the body?  Had the stone been moved for someone to get out or perhaps for some to see in? 

The three looked in and saw a "young man" wearing a white robe.  Was he a recent seminary graduate or perhaps an angel?   The writer tells us he was sitting on right side, a sign of someone divine, of someone on a divine errand.  The young man was clearly a messenger because he spoke to them three things:  first, "Don't be afraid; second, Jesus who was crucified is not here anymore.  He has been raised; and third, "Get out of here and tell his disciples."  And the three women tore out, forgetting the first thing the "angel" had said because they were terrified!  They left the tomb, ran away in terror, and said nothing to anyone.  On the lips of the angel, Mark's Gospel offers the first piece of evidence in a case for Jesus' resurrection.  There is no "body" in the tomb.  He is gone.  The tomb is empty. 

1 Corinthians 15: 1-8 -- Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ² through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you-unless you have come to believe in vain.  ³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 

This early tradition Paul received, the good news he proclaimed to the Corinthians, was "top priority" for him.  He received it very early on, perhaps as soon as the mid-'30's, just a few years following Jesus' death.  It asserts four things about Jesus. 

First, that Christ died according to the scriptures, that in the Old Testament scripture there is material that points to his death.

Second, "that he was buried."  In other words, he was really dead-- dead and buried. 

Third, Jesus was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.  The tomb was empty and Jesus did not raise himself.  His resurrection was an act of God and Jesus was the object of that act. 

The fourth attests that he appeared to others.  Later versions of these appearances in the Gospels had Jesus becoming more and more physically present in these appearances.  The words used in the original tradition - "he appeared to" do not necessarily mean the same thing as "he was seen by."  There is room for some difference of opinion of opinion as to whether people saw Jesus' physical reality with their eyes or were just intensely aware of his spiritual presence.  Whatever their form, the resurrection appearance serve as some of the strongest biblical evidence for the reality of the resurrection.

Paul definitely believed that Jesus had risen bodily from the dead, but not with a physical or earthly body.  He called it a resurrection body because "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."  Resurrection is transformation.  The connection between an earthly body and a resurrection body is similar to that between a grain of wheat and the full flowering plant.  Paul goes on to write later in the same chapter, "What is sown in perishable, what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in weakness, [but] raised in power.  It is sown a physical body, [but] raised a spiritual body.  .This perishable body must put on imperishability and this mortal body must put on immortality." 

Jesus' resurrection is a foreshadowing, a prototype, of our own.  There is continuity of existence though in a radically different form.  The concreteness of this form is illustrated in many of the Gospels by Jesus' ability to touch and be touched, and to eat and drink.  The transformed nature of his "resurrection body," its spirituality, is illustrated by his ability to appear and disappear instantly, to pass through walls into closed rooms, and to be unrecognizable even to those who knew him well.

This morning, we have examined two of the oldest biblical traditions we have:  Paul's tradition found in 1 Corinthians 15 and that found in Mark's Gospel, almost certainly the first of the four canonical Gospels written.  These versions are far from identical.  Other traditions, from Matthew's, Mark's, and John's Gospels or from other non-canonical sources, present more developed and somewhat different versions as well.  Most of them are later renderings of this story. 

It is only natural that a story changes over time.   How do you describe an incredibly significant experience in your life?  Its telling certainly changes and deepens over time.  For example, how would those of you involved significantly in the experience of leaving our parent church Broadway  Baptist tell that story?  How does the telling change as time passes?  There is often a change of focus from what happened, the sequence of events, to what it means, an interpretation of the significance and repercussions of those events.  It is much the same with the telling of the death, and resurrection of Jesus.  We ask "What does the Bible say about it?"  Theologian and scholar Raymond Brown suggests that we have three options for what to believe about the resurrection of Jesus based on the biblical accounts. 

·                    The physical/bodily resurrection was so clear that the risen Jesus was just as tangible as he had been during his lifetime. 

·                    The resurrection was not physical or bodily, but spiritual, that his appearances represent an internal awareness of Jesus' spiritual victory. 

·                    That there was a physical/bodily resurrection in which the risen body was transformed to the eschatological sphere, no longer bound by space and time and without all the natural or physical characteristics that marked its earthly/temporal existence

Which of these is your perspective?  Do you believe in a resurrection that was more physical and tangible, more spiritual and tangible, or bodily but not Jesus' human body.  Perhaps you just don't know.  That is a matter of biblical interpretation and belief, and you get to choose how you interpret and what you believe.  Dr. Marcus Borg offers a helpful perspective on our dilemma as to what to believe and how that belief affects our faith in God, including our celebration of this Easter Sunday resurrection miracle.  He writes, "The word God refers to the sacred at the center of existence, the holy mystery that is all around us and within us."  When we describe God in terms of being immanent, we mean that God is "not somewhere else, but right here and everywhere."  God as transcendent tell us "God is not to be identified with any particular thing, not even with the sum of things."  I hope this is helpful to those who struggle with the traditional "theistic" understanding of a God who, though immense and awesome, is a particular thing; a God who, though intimate and present, is sometimes somewhere else.  The turning point for Borg came when it finally dawned on him that God "the sacred, the holy, .was 'real.'  God was no longer a concept or an article of belief, but had become an element of experience." 

This helps in our understanding of Jesus' life and his resurrection.  Jesus' experience of God was real.  The Spirit of God, to paraphrase Isaiah, really was upon him.  Jesus as earthly human being before Easter was different from the post-Easter Jesus worshiped in the Christian tradition.  Jesus before Easter, as richly steeped in the Spirit and its presence as he was could only be known, could only be experienced by a few people.  He was limited in time and space.  Borg then writes, the post-Easter "Jesus as the risen Christ could be experienced anywhere and everywhere."  The power of Jesus' resurrection is not found in the empty tomb nor in testimonies of resurrection appearances.  It is first and finally to be found in the experience of the living Christ.  Jesus can be experienced now, today, here in your life and in mine just as he was 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and Galilee. 

Jesus challenged the conventional wisdom of his culture, teaching that acquisition and achievement are not ultimate values.  He also challenged the conventional wisdom of his religious faith that orthodoxy, right belief, was the key to salvation.  Jesus knew the sacred at the center of existence.  He experienced God as a vital part of his daily life.  His was no second-hand religion.  Again, Marcus Borg teaches us that "secondhand religion is a way of being religious based on believing what one has heard from others, .of thinking that the Christian life is about believing what the Bible says or what the doctrines of the church say."  Jesus' religious was firsthand during his lifetime and this experience shaped his life. 

Christian faith is not primarily about believing, but about experiencing the sacred at the center of existence. 

Jesus invites us and has shown us the way.  The way of life, the narrow path that leads to eternal and abundant life, goes through Calvary.  It comes as a result of dying to the wisdom of the cultures and kingdoms of this world, including the cultures and wisdom of conventional religion.  Believe what you will about the nature of Jesus' resurrection.  What matters ultimately is that you come to know the sacred at the center of existence.  This holy mystery around us and within us was revealed in a particular time and place in the pre-Easter Jesus.  On the first Easter and in every moment and space since then, the post-Easter Jesus, the risen Christ, reveals truth with a capital "T" and invites each of us to move beyond belief to relationship.  Christ is risen and goes before you into Galilee and waits for you there; into the Galilee of the city and the suburb, of your community, your church, and your family.  Go and he will meet you there where the cultures and kingdoms of this world have become the culture and kingdom of our God and of the living Christ, forever and ever.  Hallelujah!