Easter Homily: God's "No!" Is for an Even Greater "Yes!"

 Easter Sunday Homily: God’s “No!” Is for and Even Greater “Yes!”

 

            Isa 25.6-9; Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24; 1 Cor 15.1-11; John 20.1-18

Easter is a reminder that God’s “No!” is for an even greater “Yes!”, a yes that we are incapable of imagining, a ‘yes’ that we are incapable of constructing on our own. And so Easter is a reminder that we are called to be patient, to wait on the Lord. 

 In Holy Week we have been reminded, in our Stations of the Cross readings from the Gospel of Matthew, that Jesus prayed fervently three times for deliverance. Embodying our Psalm 118 reading, he  longed to see the steadfast love of the Lord endure through his trial, torture, and crucifixion. He turned to the Father to be his strength and his salvation. He looked for the Father’s right hand to do valiantly: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”. Luke’s account tells us that as he prayed his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22.44). 

 But God said, “No!” The stone must first be rejected by the builders (who were in a hurry to build) so that the one who reverently cried for deliverance, the one who waited on the Lord for an answer, might become the cornerstone of New Creation, where death would be swallowed up forever, where the Lord God would wipe away tears from all faces, and where He would take away the reproach of his people (Isa 26.8).

 It has been a long, hard, perplexing 13 months for all of us in a number of ways. We have heard the Lord’s “No” countless times. We have cried for deliverance, for provision, for guidance, and for relief, and it hasn’t always come in the way we had hoped for. We read a psalm of thanksgiving like Psalm 118 is, a psalm that celebrates the fact that God has answers our prayers for deliverance, a psalm that declares that God has  done valiantly with his right hand, that he has become our salvation (Psa 118.21), and we can become discouraged and confused. Why has God not answered my prayers? 

 Easter morning reminds us that sometimes God’s “no” is because he is working out an even greater  “yes”. When we pray, as Jesus did, for a deliverance that conforms not with our will but the will of God, we can wait patiently, we can wait expectantly, we can wait in hope. For God answers, but not always in the way we understand or expect. And thank God for that! Thank God that He does not give us everything that we ask for! 

 What if the Father would have delivered Jesus from his anguish that night? What if the Father would have rescued Jesus from the horror of that Friday malice? What if the Father would have vindicated Jesus before the proper time? 

 Paul tells us what would have happened; we would all still be in our sins. “Christ died for our sins,” Paul tells us (1 Cor 15.3). This, Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Cor 15, is the way in which sin was forgiven and death was defeated. But since the Father said “no” to Jesus, our sins are atoned for, and death has been defeated. 

 God’s “no” was a greater “yes” in its appointed time. But even the disciples could not understand that at first. When Peter and the other disciple peeked into the empty tomb, John tells us that “they did not understand”. It took time for them to see how this haunting, alarming turn of events, this resurrection, was in fact a greater ‘yes’ to all their pleas, to all their hopes and expectations. 

 New creation, this new world that God is bringing forth in the midst of corruption, decay, and death,  comes in unexpected ways. It comes through God saying “no” at times, so that He can say “yes” to that which we could never imagine and that which we could never build--that which we could not even know to ask for. So, during this season of Easter, let us continue to pray, to plea to God for provision, guidance, protection, reconciliation, justice, wholeness, and peace. But let us not be discouraged when we don’t get the answer we expect. Let us continue to be a people that waits patiently, expectantly on the Lord, for he has appointed his cornerstone, who has been vindicated and has  ascended to be with the Father, who has sent us his Spirit, and who has called us to join in His ongoing work of new creation. Let us continue  to plea and to pray with the caveat-- “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will (Matt 26.39).” And let the message of Easter fuel our hope, our perseverance, and our faithfulness, which is often not efficient or easy to make sense of. For on this day we celebrate the one who was told “no” so that God could say “yes” to something greater. He participated in death, and then took one breath, and put death to death; where is your sting o grave, how grave is your defeat!” Let us then on this Easter take in one deep breath, let us breath in the breath of Christ and remember that this present evil age is passing away, because the ruler of this age has been defeated, and death has been destroyed. Let us take a breath, and ready ourselves to be  patient as we wait for the Lord’s surprising deliverance and vindication in and through our lives. 

 Eucharist

 This is part of what we remember when we are commanded by the Lord to do this (the Eucharist) in remembrance of him. To remember that God’s deliverance requires patience; God’s work in this world requires us to patiently join Him, to humble ourselves under His mighty hand