Are you familiar with the phrase “Fake News”? For those of you who just woke up from a soap opera style comma or were recently rescued from a deserted island with your friend Wilson, I will define it for you. “Fake News” is a sensational story that misleads and misdirects a person from the truth to influence them for your own personal advantage. These days it seems like almost everyone is being accused of spreading “Fake News”. From the impact of the Coronavirus to the extent of the war in Ukraine, to the reason Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, it is difficult for the average person to know what is and isn’t “Fake News”.
Most people attribute the phrase “Fake News” to former president Donald Trump who often accused the mainstream media of reporting “Fake News”. But did you know the first documented uses of the term occurred in the 1890s? During the 1890s, rival newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events as they competed for the reader’s attention. These icons of ink learned that exaggerated news with shocking headline got attention and sold more papers, prompting the sale of more advertising and the lining of their own pockets. The problem with everything I just told you about Pulitzer and Hearst is… I read it on the internet[1], so it might be “Fake News”.
The problem is anyone can say anything and if they say it with enough confidence and conviction, they are able to persuade people that what they are saying is true. Anyone can say anything, even me. Today I say to you with absolute confidence and conviction that on the third day after the crucified Christ was buried in a tomb, He rose from the dead victorious over sin, death, and the devil. Further I say to you with absolute confidence and conviction that those who believe in His resurrection from the dead share in His victory and are free from the shackles of sin, the sting of death, and the torments of the devil. With absolute confidence and conviction, I say to you, “Christ is Risen!” “He is Risen Indeed!” But, how do you know that everything I just said to you is not “Fake News”? Now, you might say that you trust me, and I am glad that you do, but “because we trust you pastor” is not a good enough answer. It shouldn’t be good enough for you and it most certainly is not going to be good enough for the people who are more interested in a chocolate bunny then a resurrected Savior.
Today it is my goal that you leave this service full of absolute confidence and conviction that the victory of Easter is not “Fake News”. To do that, I invite you to take a closer look at our gospel lesson from Luke 24:1-12. There a pair of heavenly angels command a group of women, “Remember His Words!”.
Three days prior, a group of women stood at the foot of the cross and watched with horror as their Messiah bowed His head and gave up His breath. Joseph and Nicodemus, members of the Jewish Council, who had hoped that Jesus was the promised Messiah, asked Pilate permission to remove the dead body from the cross and bury it in a nearby tomb cut into the rock. Having been assured by the centurion that Jesus was in fact dead, Pilate consented. The women watched as Joseph and Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus in the tomb and sealed the entrance with a large stone. The women then went home to prepare perfumes and spices that were used to anoint the dead. However, since the next day was the Sabbath, and according to Jewish law no work could be done, the anointing would have to wait three days.
Meanwhile, the chief priests and Pharisees, concerned about the potential for “Fake New” went to Pilate, “63 Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day… “65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”[2]
Now we are ready to read the first three verses of our gospel lesson where saint Luke tells us, “1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” When the women arrived at the tomb, they did not find the Roman guard that Pilate had stationed outside the tomb, they did not find the stone that sealed the tomb in its place, and most shocking of all they did not find the dead body of Jesus laying where Joseph and Nicodemus had laid it. Saint Luke tells us that the absence of Jesus’ body filled the women with “4… wonder”, but, if you don’t mind, I would like to tighten that translation up a bit. The Greek word for “wonder” that Luke uses here is no mere curiosity, these women were downright distraught. They were distraught because, in the words of Mary Magdalene, “They have taken my Lord away,” … “and I don’t know where they have put him.”[3] It was not unreasonable for the women to assume someone had snatched the body of Jesus away. They had seen how shamefully Jesus had been treated when He was alive, there was no reason to expect He would be treated any better in death. Further, they had seen how He had been brutally beaten. Even with the best medical treatment it wasn’t likely that He would walk away after nails had pierced His hands and feet and a spear had pierced His side. Finally, He was dead. No one before or since has every raised themselves from the dead.
We can’t blame the women for “wondering” at the sight of the empty tomb, especially when we do a little “wondering” of our own. Still today there are several theories out there as to why Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter morning. One theory is that the resurrection was a hoax perpetrated by the disciples of Jesus. This theory suggests that the disciples stole Jesus body and fraudulently claimed He had risen from the dead. There are at least three problems with this theory. First, there is the presence of the Roman guard stationed outside the tomb. Second, the chief priests and Pharisees had to bribe the guards to say Jesus was abducted. Third, this theory depends on the willingness of all the disciples to be martyred, in gruesome fashion, for a fraud. Another theory is that the empty tomb was an elaborate hallucination. It is not uncommon for a person suffering a loss to be overcome with grief, maybe even self-medicate to manage the pain. Under such circumstances it is not unreasonable to think a person might see something that they want to see. The big problem with the hallucination theory is that hallucinations only exist in the mind of an individual. Hallucinations are not a shared experience. Yet, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared not only to individual people but to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus[4], the disciples as a group[5] and to “more than 500 brothers at the same time.”[6] Plus hallucinations of Jesus don’t explain an empty tomb. Perhaps my favorite theory is the one that suggests the empty tomb is a result of Jesus being an alien from outer space. I kid you not there are people out there who actually believe this is a possible explanation for the empty tomb. Never mind that extraterrestrial life is a mathematical improbability, but if Jesus were an alien He didn’t act like a typical Roswell, New Mexico alien. Roswell aliens typically arrive on a ship; they are not born in a barn. When they visit, aliens don’t stay very long, definitely not 33 years like Jesus did. Finally, aliens like to abduct people, Jesus liked to heal them.
Now, I seriously doubt anyone here believes such theories. Your presence here on Easter Sunday suggests that you don’t. But maybe you have your own theories? Maybe you have your own suspicions? Maybe you sort of hope Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is true but aren’t really sure. How do you know that my previously stated explanation of the empty tomb (namely that Jesus rose victoriously from the dead) is any more reliable than the Jesus was an alien theory? How do you know the resurrection is not “Fake News”?
Let’s go back to those distraught women standing outside the empty tomb. Saint Luke tells us two angels appeared and asked the women, “5… Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” I find it fascinating that the angels do not refute the women’s abduction theory like I just refuted the hoax, hallucination, and Et theories. The angels don’t point to forensic evidence to convince the women. They don’t even point to the recently resurrected Jesus. In fact, I don’t know if you noticed this, but Jesus doesn’t make a personal appearance in our Easter gospel lesson at all. Now, as I have previously mentioned Jesus makes an abundance of appearances moments after our gospel lesson concludes, but in Luke 24:1-12 the angels don’t point to Jesus to convince the women of the resurrection, they point to “His Words”.
“Remember His Words!”, the angels command the women. Remember The Words of the preincarnate Christ recorded in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The Son’s heel will be struck – The Son will be buried, but the serpent’s head will be crushed – The Son will rise victorious. Remember His Words recorded in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Jesus was pierced, He was crushed, He was punished so that our sins could be paid for, so that we could have peace, so that we would be healed. ‘Remember the words He spoke to you’, the angels commanded the women. With their own ears they had heard Him speak to them about the one and only Son that was given because God so loved the world[7]. They had heard Him talk to them about a temple that would be destroyed[8]. They had heard Him say that He was going to Jerusalem where He would be handed over to the Gentiles who would “mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.”[9] Before it happened, the women had heard Jesus speak to them about His death. And, AND, they also had heard Him speak to them about His resurrection. On at least three separate occasions He had told them that He would “rise on the third day”[10]. He had promised them that because He lived, they would live. He had assured them that He was the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live even though they die.[11] If the women wanted to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, why the tomb was empty on Easter morning all they had to do was “Remember His Words”.
That is all you must do. If you want to know whether or not the resurrection is “Fake News” all you have to do is Remember His Words. We cannot go to the empty tomb and collect forensic evidence, no one knows where it is. We cannot interview eyewitnesses, the last of them died nearly 2,000 years ago. After His ascension into heaven our resurrected Savior doesn’t seem to be making many personal appearances. But we have His Words. Bound in a book, preserved by the Spirit, we have His Words. By remembering what He said and comparing it with what He did you can speak with absolute confidence and conviction that on the third day after the crucified Christ was buried in a tomb, He rose from the dead victorious over sin, death, and the devil. Further you can say with absolute confidence and conviction that because you believe in His resurrection from the dead you share in His victory and are free from the shackles of sin, the sting of death, and the torments of the devil. When you remember His Words, you can say with absolute confidence and conviction, “Christ is Risen!” “He is Risen Indeed!” Amen.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/crucible/journalism.html#:~:text=Led%20by%20newspaper%20owners%20William,became%20known%20as%20yellow%20journalism. /. https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/brief-history
[2] Matthew 27:63-66
[3] John 20:13
[4] Luke 24:13-35
[5] Luke 24:36-49
[6] 1 Corinthians 15:6
[7] John 3:16
[8] John 2:19
[9] Luke 18:32
[10] Luke 9:22, Luke13:32, Luke 18:33
[11] John 11:25-26