What Easter Looks Like Now
Two weeks ago, we read the Easter story. Now, we’re back in the middle of Jesus’ earthly ministry. “Pastor,” you might ask, “what’s going on here?” I’m so glad you asked!
Matthew wrote this gospel story about fifty years after the first Easter. The people who heard and read this story knew how it ended. They were reading the story after Easter just like we are. The first audience listened for the echoes of Easter. That’s the way to read the gospel stories. That’s especially true in today’s reading.
Jesus has returned from Gentile territory to his home base in Jewish Capernaum. He barely gets out of the boat when a crowd meets him on the shore. Suddenly the crowd splits in two. A group of people are carrying a makeshift stretcher. They carried their friend – a paralyzed man.
After some theological debate, Jesus gets down to business. “Get up!” he tells the paralyzed man. “Take your bed and go home!” Because we’re reading an English translation, we might miss something important. When Jesus says, “Get up!” he’s using a resurrection word. We’re getting a little echo of Easter here.
This is what Easter looks like for some people. Is there something that keeps you pinned to your bed? Is there something that paralyzes you? Is there something that leaves you flat on your back – feeling useless and as good as dead? Then I’ve got a story for you!
The risen Jesus releases us from bondage. The risen Jesus raises us up from our beds. The risen Jesus sends us home, but also sends us changed.
That’s how resurrection works in our lives now.
Jesus continues his walk from the seashore to his house in Capernaum. Capernaum was a busy commercial and fishing center. It was near the border between two Roman districts. Whenever people carried grain or pottery or fish across the border, the Romans collected a toll. A man named Matthew worked as a toll collector. He was sitting in his tax shack, just doing his job.
Jesus saw Matthew. He stopped for a minute. Then Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me!” Matthew got up and followed Jesus.
Did you notice an important phrase? Matthew “got up.” Again, we English readers might miss this. The word for “got up” is exactly the word for “resurrection.” We’re getting a bigger echo of Easter here.
Matthew didn’t just get off his tax collector behind. “And rising up,” our text says, “he followed [Jesus].”
It’s just one out of one thousand seventy-one verses in Matthew’s gospel. We could slip right past it. But let’s not.
Matthew was a toll-collector. He probably wasn’t rich. These toll-collectors usually did this work because they couldn’t find any other work. They didn’t make much money for themselves. Matthew was probably just scraping by. He might even have slept in the toll booth because he had no home of his own.
I want you to imagine Matthew like this. Here’s a guy in a dead-end job with no future. He’s one mistake from being homeless. Apparently, he has no family to support him. Or they may have disowned him for some reason. He’s stuck in a job that makes him hated, despised, and reviled in the community. Matthew is stuck in that toll booth with no way out.
Jesus walks by and sees him. Jesus sees him. How many people never gave Matthew a second look, never made eye contact, never even acknowledged his existence? How many people threw their coins at him in disgust? How many spat on him as a worthless traitor?
But not Jesus. Jesus sees him. Jesus believes in him. Jesus calls Matthew to a new life. We’re getting a little echo of Easter here.
This is what Easter looks like for some people. Are you stuck in a place that feels like death? Do the systems and structures of society lock you out of real life? Has the world decided that you aren’t worth the title of “human being”? Are you invisible at best and disgusting at worst? Then I’ve got a story for you!
The risen Jesus sees us as we are. The risen Jesus believes we are more than we are. The risen Jesus calls us into a new life – a life of purpose and hope, a life of loving and serving. That new life is a preview of the life that will not end.
That’s how resurrection works in our lives now.
Matthew’s story doesn’t end with him. Jesus gets to the house in Capernaum. Mark’s gospel tells us that this is Matthew’s house. Matthew throws a dinner party for all his colleagues, friends, and neighbors. And Jesus is the guest of honor!
Resurrection is contagious. It spreads from one life to another. And it raises questions.
Some of the local Pharisees had such questions. “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” We don’t need to hear criticism in this question. Let’s choose to hear curiosity. Let’s be gracious to these Pharisees. After all, what Jesus is doing is really new. It’s not wrong, when something new happens. It’s not wrong to wonder what’s happening.
Jesus is pushing the Pharisees out of their comfort zone. So, he starts with a familiar proverb: “The ones who are healthy have no need of a physician, but rather those who are in bad shape certainly do.” Jesus focuses on those who need help and healing. He invites the Pharisees to study the Hebrew scriptures. They will find the same message there.
Then we get another echo of Easter. “For I did not come to call the righteous ones,” Jesus says, “but rather sinners.”
Jesus calls the paralyzed man to get up off his bed. Jesus releases him from the power of sin that has kept him there. Jesus calls Matthew to leave the toll booth and embrace a new life. That call sloshes over into the lives of those who know and love Matthew. Jesus calls you and me in our baptism to be beloved children of God and partners in God’s work in the world.
That’s how resurrection works in our lives now.
Easter changes everything. That’s why our reading talks about patches and wineskins. The power of Easter invades the middle of our lives. It’s not a happy ending to an otherwise difficult story.
Easter life is the new garment we call baptism. Easter life is the new wine, given and shed for us so that we might live for God. All that newness is going to push us beyond our comfort zones. All that newness requires new clothes and new containers. All that newness will bring new people to our tables.
That’s how resurrection works in our lives now.
What meaning do I take from our reading today? I’m so glad you asked!
How does Jesus call us today? Jesus calls us to move from church questions to God questions. Too often, we wonder what it will take to keep the doors of the church open. That’s the wrong question. The right question is, “What is God up to among us today?” And more important, what is God up to in the life of those who aren’t part of our congregation?
Jesus called the paralyzed man to get up and walk. Jesus called Matthew to leave the toll booth and follow him. Jesus called the Pharisees to focus on compassion more than tradition. Those calls take us beyond ourselves and into the lives of those who need Jesus, the great physician.
I’m happy to say that Mamrelund Lutheran Church is a place where reaching beyond the walls of the church is both possible and welcome.
What is the new life to which Jesus calls us today? Jesus calls us to life which is really new. This means that congregations need to be experimental cultures. We need to try new things and see how they work. We need to stop penalizing good tries that didn’t work. We need to reward innovation and adaptation and creativity.
I’m happy to say that Mamrelund Lutheran Church is a place where new things are both possible and welcome.
What is the new life to which Jesus calls us today? Jesus calls us to church as partnership rather than performance. The days when church is what happened up front are over. The real action is in the pews. If you’ve come to watch someone else do church for you, you will be disappointed. You – we – are the church together.
I’m happy to say that Mamrelund Lutheran Church is a place hungry for that kind of partnership between platform and pew.
Get up and walk into the new Jesus life! That’s what resurrection looks like today. Are you willing to answer the call?
The Acedic Lutheran 