"The Easter Revolution"

A tomb doesn't seem like a very likely place to start a revolution. Yet, as God raised Jesus from the dead, that is precisely what was started. It was not the revolution that people expected. Even today we have many misconceptions about just what Jesus' revolution was about. In His time, Jesus followers were certain that the revolution was about freedom from Roman oppression. Yet, it was the Romans who enabled the Temple priests to bring about his death. Physically the Romans were able to treat Jesus in any way they desired. Christianity did not conquer Rome. Yet, over the next two hundred years, Jesus' revolution consumed Rome from the inside. They were changed from an empire that crucified Christ to the empire that built great churches and sent our missionaries in order to glorify Jesus.
Two thousand years later, the Easter Revolution is still going on. Though Christians have come into positions of power and prestige, the revolution is still not about power. The disciples, and many of us today, still want to see the power of God invoked to change things quickly and dramatically. Yet, it was not so with the Roman Empire, nor will it be the way with anything else. Even before Jesus was born, God spoke through the Prophet Zechariah, telling us how the revolution would proceed. "This is the word of the LORD: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts,"
(NRS Zechariah 4:6). God does not work by strength, even our strength. The reason for this is evident when you consider God's purpose. The mission that God entrusted to Jesus, and through Jesus to us, is the reconciliation of all of creation. In this way all of creation will be restored that we might once again live our lives in the presence of God. God's purpose can only be accomplished if individuals choose to love and follow God of their own free will. Even today it is the power of the Holy Spirit working directly in the hearts of individuals that is bringing about the change. Even as it was true for the Roman Empire, it will be true for the rest of the world. God's Kingdom will be won one heart at a time. The Easter Revolution is alive and well. It will continue to prosper as long as willing individuals love God with whole heart, mind, body and soul and commit themselves to the work of the Kingdom.

So if we are not granted freedom from difficulties of oppression, if God has chosen to only work through love, what is our gain for committing our hearts, our time and our money to the Church? It is a question that has been answered by every martyr who has ever made a stand for God. Saint Paul speaks clearly for all of them. It is God's loving presence surrounding them and sustaining them through Jesus Christ that is even worth their lives. He describes the true power of the Easter Revolution in these words from Romans: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(NRS Romans 8:35)
Too often we look at the Easter story and feel that it is something from
the distant past. We settle for a complacent religion when God is calling
to be willing participants in a revolution that is changing the world we
live in at its very root. As we celebrate Easter Sunday this year, remember
that we are celebrating the anniversary of the beginning of the
Easter Revolution. A revolution we are all called to enlist which is the whole
purpose for the existence of Resurrection Lutheran Church.

Pastor Jim