April 12, 2020 Easter Matthew 28:1-10

I recently watch the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  It was the version that was broadcast on TV a number of years ago and features Donny Osmond as Joseph.  As I was watching it I noticed something about the way the narrator, played by Maria Friedman, was interjected into several of the scenes.  The role of the narrator of most stories is to tell the story, helping to move the story along, and give interpretation to the audience.  Usually the narrator of a story stands off to the side; removed and outside the action.

But as I said, in this version of Joseph the narrator was interjected into any number of the scenes.  She playfully interacted with the rest of the characters; while still not being a character herself.  I was an interpretive move by the producers and it added a dimension to a musical many people know very well.

I think a lot of people envision God as being a sort of narrator of the story of the universe.  And they picture God as not the narrator sort who stands outside the action and simply watches it, but as someone more like Maria Friedman as narrator in Joseph.  God can interject himself into the world and engage the characters; all the while still directing the story.  Prayer to such a being is then asking for the narrators help to guide and understand the storyline.

Perhaps there is some bit of truth to that understanding of God, but I think it misses it on the whole.

In the birth, growth, ministry, and ultimately death of Jesus of Nazareth God has not come into the story of the universe as a narrator.  God has come into the universe fully as one of the characters.  God wants to be a part of history’s story.

That is one of the things that makes Christianity stand out so significantly from other religions in the world.  That God is not aloof and distant as a judge.  Life then is a test to see if we are worthy of God’s promises.  Nor is God occasionally interactive with people giving hints, clues, and revelations to be followed.  Life then is more like a quest to holiness.

No, God so wants to be with the world that God becomes a fully human character in the story.  That is a great statement of love.

Imagine your job is ditch digging.  And in the sloppy springtime you head out every morning with your pick and shovel and step into the sloppy ditch at the spot where you left off yesterday and begin to toil away in the mud and muck.  Then one of your friends comes along and sees you in the ditch and says, “Good job!  Keep it up!”  Or maybe your spouse travels by and looks down at you and gives an appreciative, “I love you.”

Fine words!  But wouldn’t a more impressive statement of love be if someone got down in the ditch with you, picked up a pick and shovel, and began to dig beside you in the muck and slop?  Yes indeed.  That would be showing that your work is valuable.  That would be showing that your work has dignity.  At the end of the project the ditch wouldn’t just be your work but yours and everyone’s who helped dig.

And so in Jesus God does not just say, “I love you,” but lives it.  God wants to be with us.  God wants to be with us not as a divine narrator who enters the story to give an extra special message.  God does not enter the story to perform miracles or display supernatural power; although the Bible records Jesus as being able to do such things.  But no, God enters the story as a character, a person.  A person who is prone to sickness and disease; a person who knows how to work; a person subject to the ruling authorities of the world; and a person subject to death.

God did not spare himself the unpleasant and painful parts of human life.  God so wants to be a part of the story that God fully embraces humanity – all the way to a humiliating and painful death.  As it has been said in many ways, Jesus enters into the realm of death just as powerless as any other human being.

Today is Easter.  So what does that mean for today?  In the resurrection does God return to the narrator role and say, “Well, that was fun.  Now back to my eternal existence.  I’m glad I had that experience.  It was a good learning opportunity for me.”?

No!
            And does God say, “If you’re good enough in life maybe I’ll resurrect you too and we can spend eternity together”?

No!

In the resurrection God invites us to see our story continuing.  And I use the word “our” deliberately.

Being alive is part of my story and your story and everyone’s story, and being part of the universe’s story, which is God’s story.  Dying is being part of my story and your story and everyone’s story, and God’s story.  And in resurrection my story and your story and God’s story all continue together collectively.

It can be helpful to think of God as out there, apart from us, above us, more powerful than us.  And then appeal to such a God for help when we need it.  Indeed God can be that.  But perhaps as we consider the resurrection we do better to understand what the Bible actually says about it.

The English language does an abysmal job of conveying Matthew’s original Greek.  The NRSV translation that we use in worship usually does a pretty good job in the tricky parts of translation.  But in the verses we read today it gets the Greek just plain wrong twice in the core of the story.  In 28:5 we hear the angel who has come do the tomb and rolled back the stone say to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” 

No.  Wrong.  Bad translation.  English doesn’t have the sophistication of Greek, especially the range of verb tenses.  We have only past, present, and future.  The other tenses, like perfect and imperfect, we stumble to create.  But they play a key role here.

It would be a far more accurate attempt at the Greek if that verse were translated, “I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.”  Not, “was crucified” as our translations say.  “Has been” better conveys Greek’s perfect tense.  It is a past event but the ongoing reality.  Then the translators make the second mistake when the continue, “He is not here; for he has been raised.”  Wrong again.  It is the simple past tense in Greek.  It would be better to translate it, “Was raised.”

Has been crucified – was raised is correct.  Was crucified - has been raised is wrong.  So what?  You ask. 

Here’s what:  God is part of the story of history, not as narrator but as a fully human participant.  Jesus’ crucifixion was not a temporary episode in the career of the Son of God - a past event now nullified, transcended, or exchanged at the resurrection for heavenly glory.  Even as the risen one, Jesus still bears the mark of his self-giving on the cross.  It is his PERMANENT character.

We need Easter.  Otherwise Jesus is just a sad story about a good guy who was some collateral damage of the political machine of his day.  But God’s call on our lives is not based on the empty tomb but the cross.

God does not intend to give up the human role in resurrection.  A couple verses later the women meet the resurrected Jesus first hand.  They take hold of his feet as they worship him.  Jesus is no ghost.  He has not left human existence behind.  He will bodily ascend at the end of the story.  While our scientific thinking is stretched beyond its limits as to how that could possibly work, God wants us to recognize that the real flesh and blood physical reality of our lives remains his even in resurrection.

In other words, God is not done being a character in our story.  God is not taking on a narrator role, removed, aloof.  No, God is an active participant living the story with us.

Let Easter remind you of the full adventure God wants to live with you.  Even if days are boring as we can’t go places.  Even if days are scary and filled with pain, God wants to be fully in your story.