Tuesday Lectionary Leanings - Resurrection Edition

"Christ is alive," I said to myself. "Alive!" and then I paused: "Alive!" and then I paused again "Alive!" Can that really be true? Living as really as I myself am? I got up and walked about repeating, "Christ is living! Christ is living!" At first it seemed strange and hardly true, but at last it came upon me as a burst of sudden glory; "Yes, Christ is alive." It was a new discovery. I thought that all along I had believed it; but not until that moment did I feel sure about it.

-Jan G. Linn How to Be an Open-minded Christian Without Losing Your Faith

The divine nature of Jesus has been much on my mind lately. I usually tend, as a preacher, to lean toward the humanity of Jesus, perhaps because, as Dorothy Sayers says in her book Letters to a Diminished Church, the alternative is so "disquieting." She goes on to say,

"And on the third day he rose again." What are we to make of this? One thing is certain: if he were God and nothing else, his immortality means nothing to us; if he were man and no more, his death is no more important than yours or mine. But if he really was both God and man, then when the man Jesus died, God died too; and when the God Jesus rose from the dead, man rose too, because they were one and the same person.

Jesus is God, come to us as both wholly human and holy divine. How will we share this incredible, this awesome, this just plain good news?

In your preaching, you might be looking for a fresh perspective. In that case, you might be interested in this poem, from the perspective of Jesus himself at the moment of resurrection (by William B Jones from the book Before the Amen: Creative Resources for Worship).

wondering what next after this

he woke to cave's pierced-darkness

edged by light stone sought to block,

but could not this bright morning

loosing the wrappings death held close,

falling to floor he reaches his hand

un-bent, un-bleeding, into cool air

and, risking life, begins breathing

Or, maybe you choose to focus more on the reactions of the other characters

in the story - the women, the disciples, the guards - and whatever translation you use,

there is certainly some juicy stuff there.

What direction will your proclaiming go this week? Stop by the Monday Musings to share favorite Holy Week moments, and/or let us know in the comments how your looking ahead to Sunday is going.

Texts for this week are here. Painting of Eugene Bernard's "Peter and John Running to the Tomb" found here. Painting of Jesus appearing to Mary after his resurrection (artist unknown) found here.