OPENING THE GOSPELS: Easter Sunday

 EASTER SUNDAY

Click on the links for an introduction to the series, and the techniques of reading with your head, heart and hands.

Luke 24.1-12  (Acts 10.34-43 or Isaiah 65.17-end, or 1 Cor 15.19-26, Alternative Gospel John 20.1-18) 

24But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

HEAD QUESTIONS

WHO?

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee: Jesus’ female disciples, of whom there were a significant number, are crucial to the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. The Gospel writers are all careful to make sure we know that the same group of women (though the names vary from Gospel to Gospel) witnessed Jesus’ burial and then found the tomb empty. The continuity is important, to counter any suggestion that the disciples went to the wrong tomb. They bear witness to the resurrection, telling the other disciples about it, but the other disciples, except Peter, write it off as an “idle tale”. This story is deeply counter-cultural. At this time women’s testimony was not considered to be reliable, and the fact that the other disciples disregarded them wouldn’t have surprised anyone. But Luke is clearly pointing out that they are wrong to do so. It’s a sign of how radical this new movement was that Luke, like the other Gospel writers, puts the women centre stage. It also underlines that the Resurrection wasn’t made up by the Gospel writers – if they were going to make it up, they wouldn’t have done so with women as witnesses. The women are identified by Luke as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, along with other unnamed women.

Two men in dazzling clothes: Luke doesn’t identify these ‘men’ as angels; he leaves it to us to join the dots. The ‘dazzling clothes’ might remind us of the story of the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ clothes became ‘dazzling white’, and of the stories of his birth, when ‘the glory of the Lord shone’ around the shepherds who were the first to hear that Jesus had been born. The light of God, say the stories, is no ordinary light; it is light that is above and beyond human understanding.

The eleven: Luke specifies that only eleven of Jesus’ inner circle were present after the crucifixion - the twelfth was Judas, who had taken his own life after he betrayed Jesus. “…and all the rest” reminds us that there were more disciples than just this select group. The number twelve was intended to mirror the twelve tribes which made up the kingdom of Israel. In Jesus a new Kingdom was coming about. 

Peter: Peter is often singled out in the Gospel stories, sometimes for his ‘have-a-go’ courage, but also for the times he got it spectacularly wrong. The last time he had appeared in the story before this was when he denied even knowing Jesus when Jesus was arrested and tried. We have to wonder what was going through his head as he ran towards the tomb. Peter became a prominent leader in the early church, so the people Luke and the other Gospel writers were writing for would have known of him, or maybe even known him, as the elder statesman of their community. The stories which cast him in a less than flattering light are probably included to encourage that early Christian community. That is especially true of the stories which can only have come from him, like that of his denial. If the great Peter had all these ups and downs, and yet was used by God, so can we all be.

WHERE?

The Tomb: Ancient tradition, dating from just a couple of centuries after the crucifixion, placed Jesus tomb on the location of what is now the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Some Victorian Christians suggested, on rather shaky grounds, that it was located in what is now called “The Garden Tomb” a little further away. Having visited both, I am very unconvinced by their arguments! What matters, though, is that the women who were there knew exactly where the tomb was, because they had seen Jesus buried in it. Rock cut tombs were common in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. A large stone would be made to run in a groove across the tomb, sealing it after the burial.  According to the Gospels this tomb had been cut for Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent leader who gave it to the disciples to bury Jesus in as a sign of his belated support.

The place where the disciples were: We don’t know where Jesus’ disciples were staying, but it seems that they had a base in Jerusalem, where they had gathered together and were lying low after the trauma of the crucifixion. It may have been the home of one of Jesus’ supporters. The reference in vs 12 to Peter going “home”, is a rather unhelpful translation. The Greek word simply says that he “went back”, presumably to this shared lodging. 

WHEN?

“On the first day of the week,”: The first day of the week was Sunday, the day following the Sabbath, which was Saturday. 

“at early dawn”: All the Gospels say that the women came to the tomb as soon as they could after the Sabbath, when no work could be done. By implication, the resurrection happened while it was still dark (as John’s Gospel states). Jesus is not the light that shines after the darkness, or the light at the end of the tunnel, but the light that shines in the darkness and is with us in the tunnel! 

“On the third day”: Ancient cultures, including Judaism, counted days beginning with the day on which the count started. Friday, when Jesus died and was buried, was therefore the first day, Saturday was the second day, and Sunday was the third day. In the hot climate of the Middle East, there could be no doubt, by the third day after a death, that the person really was dead, and some thought that the soul of a dead person lingered until this point.

WHAT?

The Resurrection is a baffling story. We know that dead people don’t rise. And yet the early Christians insisted that Jesus had died, been buried, and was raised to a new sort of life by God. Many of them went to their deaths because of it. Luke, like all the other Gospel writers, doesn’t make any attempt to explain the Resurrection, but he is in no doubt that it is the central, transforming, feature of Christian faith. The details he gives us underline that the women knew where the tomb was and that Jesus really was dead – after forty lashes, a brutal crucifixion and a lance thrust into his side, followed by three days without water and food sealed in a tomb, there is no way Jesus could have just come around as if from a faint, and then shouldered aside the huge stone. If the authorities had removed the body, they had only to say so and produce it to stop the wild rumours of Resurrection circulating. If the disciples had removed the body, they would not have gone to their deaths insisting Jesus had been raised, because they would have known it wasn’t true. They had nothing to gain – there was no power or wealth on offer in the early Church - and everything to lose by it. Like Peter, we are left “amazed”, with no way of getting our heads around this story. What would we have seen if we had been there? We can’t know. But those who were there clearly felt sure that whatever had happened changed everything for them – the death of Jesus was not the end, but a new beginning, not just for him, but for them too. 

HEART QUESTIONS

• What do you feel as you read this passage?

• What do you think the disciples were feeling before, during and after they heard the news of the Resurrection?

• What difference, if any, does the Resurrection make to you?

HANDS QUESTIONS

• What do you feel prompted to do in response to this Gospel story?

 

OPENING THE GOSPELS: Palm Sunday

PALM SUNDAY

Click on the links for an introduction to the series, and the techniques of reading with your head, heart and hands.

Luke 19.28-40 (Isaiah 50.4-9a or Philippians2.5-11, Luke 22.14-23)

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’ 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ 34They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying,

‘Blessed is the king

   who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven,

   and glory in the highest heaven!’

39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ 40He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

HEAD QUESTIONS

WHO?

Jesus: What does this passage tell us about Jesus? What image do we get of him from this?

Two disciples: The disciples aren’t named, but are probably part of Jesus’ inner circle.

A colt: Jesus is deliberately acting out a prophecy associated with the Messiah from the Old Testament book of Zechariah (9.9), which talks about the new leader God will send coming to Jerusalem “humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey”. Matthew’s version (Mt 21.2) has Jesus riding – rather improbably – on both a donkey and a colt at the same time!  Whose colt does Jesus borrow? Does the owner know it was going to be borrowed? Who is the owner? Did they get it back afterwards? Luke doesn’t tell us the answers to these questions because they aren’t relevant to his story, and we have to be careful not to get distracted by them – they are our questions, not Luke’s! The colt is important – see below - but the details of how it comes to be made available aren’t.  

The questioners: The questioners who ask the disciples why they are taking the colt (as you might expect someone to) are a way for Luke to underline the symbolic importance of this action. The disciples’ answer seems to satisfy them. 

“The whole multitude of disciples”: Matthew, Mark and John describe very large crowds acclaiming Jesus when he rides into Jerusalem, by implication people who just happen to be there – ordinary men, women and children. Luke, in contrast, says they were Jesus’ disciples, probably a larger group than the 12 closest disciples, but people who already supported Jesus and knew something about his teaching and wanted others to know who he was.

Pharisees: We aren’t told why the Pharisees want to shut up the disciples. It might just be that they disagreed about Jesus being the Messiah, but they are also likely to be aware of the potential for their Roman overlords to crack down on the whole population if it looked as if unrest was brewing. It wasn’t uncommon for people to claim to be the Messiah, and it usually ended badly for them, and those who were caught up in the backlash.

WHERE?

The Mount of Olives: The approach to Jerusalem from the east led down the steep slopes of the Mount of Olives into a deep valley and then up the other side of the hill on which the city stands. Ancient prophecies of the Messiah’s coming said that he would come from the east – the place of the rising sun. No one could have missed the significance of Jesus coming in this way. It is still a wonderful viewpoint, preserved in many tourist photos, of the old city. It still has many olive trees growing on its steep sides. 

WHEN?

“After Jesus had said this”: Jesus has just been telling a very pointed parable – Luke’s version of the parable of the Talents – about a nobleman who went away “to get royal power for himself”, leaving ten pounds for his slaves to invest. When he comes back, two of the slaves have put his money to work for him and made a profit, but one, who was afraid of losing it, has wrapped it in a cloth, where it was safe, but did nothing. His pound is taken away and given to the others, and those who did not want him to be king are slaughtered. Whatever we think of its brutality (and we should remember that parables are stories to engage our imagination, not descriptions of how God acts!), it carries an uncomfortable and pointed message. A time is coming when the decisions people have made about who to support will lead to real world consequences. What have they done with the treasures of faith they have been given? Will they recognise “the king who comes in the name of the Lord” or not?

WHAT?

As I have said above, Jesus is very deliberately acting out a prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures (Zechariah 9.9), written many centuries earlier during another time of national crisis – occupation and oppression was the norm rather than the exception in Israel’s story. The Jewish people were longing for God to send them a leader to defeat their enemies. Zechariah’s prophecy said that this leader would come “humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey”. It’s an image that was as strange in Zechariah’s time as it was in Luke’s, and as it is in ours.  Jesus deliberately acts out the prophecy, and those around him – rejoicing disciples and wary Pharisees – know exactly what he is saying, that he is God’s promised Messiah. It is a deeply subversive political gesture. At almost the same moment Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor would have been coming into the other side of the city, at the head of a grand procession with heavily armed, mounted troops, from his base on the coast for the feast of the Passover, a time of heightened nationalistic tension, to discourage any thoughts of rebellion. The contrast between the two processions would have been stark, but which leader would God bless and use – the carpenter on the colt, or the Roman military leader on his war horse? 

HEART QUESTIONS

• What do you feel as you read this passage?

• If you could step into this story, as part of the crowds around Jesus, where would you be and what would you do?

• Have you been part of any large demonstrations? If so, how did it feel? If not, why is this something you have chosen not to do? How do you show your support  for causes you think are important? 

• Do you think the Pharisees have a point? Is it fair for Jesus and his disciples to risk causing the wrath of Rome to fall on the whole nation?

HANDS QUESTIONS

• What do you feel prompted to do in response to this Gospel story?

READINGS FOR HOLY WEEK

Why not read Luke’s account of Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion through this week. You can find it in Luke 22 and 23. You know the “Head, heart, hands” drill now, so feel free to use it as you read!