Easter Sunday 2019 "Jesus Has Redeemed the World"
Easter Sunday/ “Jesus Has Redeemed the World”
“We adore you oh Christ and we praise you.” “Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” If we have ever attended stations of the cross, we recognize this prayer. Have we every thought about the all-embracing nature of that prayer? We do not say that Jesus redeemed humanity, but we say that he redeemed the world.
We come together today to celebrate the most important event in the history of the world. Perhaps we could say we come together to commemorate the most important event in the history of the universe. For Christians, this is a true statement.
What is does resurrection mean. We might hear someone explain that resurrection is about Jesus coming back to life after he died. Further, they might say that we are going to share in this new life as well. When we die it is not the end, but death leads to new life.
We might get a sense that this is about continuing life the way that we always have. Right now, there is ongoing discussion about the possibility of medical science enabling people to live for hundreds of years. With gene manipulation, the ability to grow new body parts, as well as a host of other scientific breakthroughs some believe that eternal life might be achieved. But is the continuation of earthly life as we know it what resurrection is all about?
No, it is not. The Gospel stories take great pains to show us that the resurrected Jesus was not the same as he was before. His most intimate friends did not recognize him. He could walk through walls. He was not restricted by time and space. Jesus ate with his disciples as he had in the past, but his body was not like it was before. We say it was glorified. What all these details tell us is that Jesus’ new life was not like his old life. His resurrected self was profoundly different.
How was his body different than before? His basic make-up was not the same. His molecules, we might say, were rearranged. His physical make-up had changed. Jesus was reanimated in an altered way. What does that say about the world? We pray over and over to Jesus saying, “You have redeemed the world.”
We live in a world that is dying. We have a lot of concern about global warming. We worry about nuclear holocaust. We know there are so many ways we can destroy our planet. Will the end today or tomorrow? But the fact is if humans don’t destroy the world the world will die on its own.
The sun has just so much energy. The universe has only so much. The energy is slowly being used up. When it is dissipated the world will come to an end. After that, then what? Again, we remember, “Jesus came to redeem the world.” The world is not just a playpen for human beings. The world is not just a stage that all of us act on for a while. No, the earth was around long before we came here. God created it. God made it the beautiful place it is. We could say that the universe is made in God’s image.
Not only does that mean that the world is a sacred place. And it’s not just that we have an obligation to take care of the world. But what it means is that the earth is loved by God. Just like we believe that human life can be resurrected, that it will never end. We also believe the world itself will never end. When the final bit of energy is expended in the universe somehow the cosmos will come back to life again. Such are the effects of the resurrection.
Christian theologians speak of the Omega point. The point at which all things will come to divine unification. Jesus was the physical proof of this theory. His resurrection was the beginning of the process. Easter is about all that. We will never die. The world will never die. The universe will only spiral into another type of divine existence. All things came from God. All history leads back to God. The earth is not dying, but it is being drawn back to the creator. This is what Easter is all about. For that reason, the whole of creation sings Hallelujah today for “Because by the Holy Cross and the Resurrection Jesus has redeemed the world.