"Easter Promises"--April 27, 2017

"Easter Promises"--April 27, 2017

[Paul said:] "....When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’...." [Acts 13:29-33]

It's a refreshing thing--maybe even surprising--in our day to hear someone talking about actually keeping their promises.

We live in a time in which talk is cheap, commitments are shrugged off, and promises are broken without so much as a second thought.  We live in a time in which public figures walk back their official on-the-record positions or pledges, and then try to spin or dodge questions to try to make it sound like they never thought differently and never really meant what everybody thinks they meant when they made their promises. 

We used to have a word for making a big claim or promise and then having it be revealed that it was never true at all--we used to call that being a fraud.  But increasingly our lives are filled with weaker and weaker commitments, less and less investment of our selves in keeping our promises, and fewer and fewer people caring or even noticing when we sweep our past claims under the rug.  Reminds me of the old Jack Handey line from his Saturday Night Life "Deep Thoughts" where he says, "Broken promises in life don't bother me--I just think, 'Why did they believe me?'."

And yet, the writers of the New Testament see the empty tomb of Jesus as the central moment for the keeping of God's promises.  And there are a LOT of those divine promises.

Here in the book of Acts, Paul says, when Jesus was raised to life and the tomb was empty, God had "fulfilled" all of "what God had promised to our ancestors." In other words, Paul says, all of the ancient promises--and we can spend some time rehearsing what they are--are cashed in with the resurrection of Jesus. That's a really, really strong claim to make--just think about it. 

God had promised to Abraham blessing for all the nations of the earth, and had promised to David an heir would reign in justice and righteousness permanently over God's people.

God had promised vindication for the victims and mending for the brokenhearted. 

God had promised that death would be defeated and that a whole new creation would be begun, in which wolves and lambs would lie down with one another and old enemies would  be disarmed and welcomed.

But wait a second--Paul says that all of those promises are fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus? But the world still looks so...broken! But the world still looks so...unblessed! But the world still seems to be under the power of death! Jesus may be alive again, but what about the rest of the world, the rest of humanity--the friends and loved ones we have lost--who have died? What about the promises for justice and peace--when our world still looks awfully unjust and awfully un-pacified. Is Paul really saying that because Jesus is alive again, God has made good on all of those promises?

Well, you can read his words. Paul seems to be saying, and Luke the narrator of Acts does not censor him at this point, that indeed--as contrary as it seems to the evidence around us--Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of all of those other promises being fulfilled, even the ones that don't seem to directly relate to an empty tomb. 

I mean, okay, granted that one of God's promises had been the defeat of death, and you could say that Jesus' resurrection at least hinted at it--but what about the promise of a new order of justice and peace? What about blessing for all peoples? What about the lifting up of the lowly and the blessing of the poor? If you can believe it--and really, even if you can't--Paul's claim here is just that broad. 

Paul believes--and would have us believe, too--that Jesus' resurrection is what announces to us the fulfillment of all those promises. The resurrection, then, is as much about blessing for all peoples and the reign of a just and gracious Lord as it is about life beyond death. Sometimes we make the mistake of narrowing the scope of Easter--we treat the resurrection of Jesus as though it is just about the hope that I will go to heaven when I die. But for Paul, the resurrection of Jesus means that all of "what God promised to our ancestors" has now been fulfilled "by raising Jesus." 

Jesus is alive again--so the Kingdom he announced where the poor are provided for and the hungry are feed really has begun. 

Jesus is alive again--so the new order in which wolf and lamb lie together and enemies can even be loved really is taking shape among us. 

Jesus is alive again--so the whole world is in store for the blessings of God, just as God had promised to Abraham a blessing that would lead all peoples to be blessed. 

Paul says that all of those hopes have been pinned on the resurrection. That is not just a lovely, poetic thought--it is a weighty, immense claim. And, yes, as Paul says, it is good news--it is likely better news even than we expected it to be!

Lord of life, help us to take in just how wide and deep your promises are, and grant us the boldness to share the word that you keep them all and have kept them in Christ's resurrection. Give us the courage to dare to see the world as though you truly have begun making all things new in the empty tomb of Jesus.