Easter Sunday April 20, 2019
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Who is Jesus? Who is this man that causes us to gather this night/morning? It is precisely that question that we’ve tried to answer over the past three days during what we call the Paschal Triduum. Holy Thursday revealed Jesus the servant who offers worship to God and washes the feet of his disciples, whether they are loyal, cowardly, or even corrupt. Good Friday displayed Christ the sufferer who takes his service so far that he heals those who arrest him, and prays for those who kill him, showing humanity how good can always defeat evil.
This night/day, however, is the moment that not only answers our question, but makes it worth asking in the first place. Had this night/day not happened, no one would care about an obscure Jewish preacher put to death for claiming to be a king. But tonight/today did happen. Jesus the servant and the sufferer was placed in a tomb, but he did not stay there. The tomb still stands empty – a sign to the world that Jesus is also a savior. 12 men spent their entire lives proclaiming it despite the suffering it caused them and not one of them ever said a word to the contrary. It’s as reliable a historical fact as anything else we know.
That’s the answer to the question. Jesus is the savior. But what does that even mean? What are we saved from? Well, the answer to that spans thousands of years – what we call salvation history. [And we’ve just taken a tour of that entire history in tonight’s readings]. We are saved from sin. By his death and resurrection, Jesus opens the way to forgiveness of our sins. Sin puts us in debt because we destroyed a precious gift from God. Human beings needed to pay that back, but only God had the resources to pay it. So, Jesus Christ, both God and Man, paid the debt as a man who also has the power of God.
Yet, is being forgiven of past sins enough? Just accept the savior Jesus and it’s done? That’s not how human beings work! When we’ve spent so much time and energy giving in to sin, we tend to go back to it. We are creatures of habit and sin is a particularly addicting habit!
Besides, what is the value of forgiveness if evil always has the option to kill us for not coming back to a life of sin? Evil killed Jesus for that very reason. But he rose from the dead. If we follow Jesus, we too will escape evil not by being more powerful, but by relying on the God who transforms death into eternal life.
Yet, Jesus does not stop with merely rising from the dead. Even after his victory over death, he stays for forty days more – the reason we have a whole season of Easter. He teaches, reminds, and makes promises. To whom? To his apostles and disciples. Jesus the savior does not merely cancel your sins and disappear. He does not merely rise from the dead and disappear. He establishes a community that you will need if you are going to be saved.
That’s why we have Peter. Peter reveals Jesus both in his success and, especially, in his failures. It is Peter who tries to reject Jesus as a servant, which lets Jesus prove his point by insisting. Peter fights back to stop Jesus being arrested, to stop Jesus from suffering, and cuts off an ear, proving that Jesus had the option to avoid the arrest… and giving him the chance to even heal the ones who take him away.
John the Apostle stayed with Jesus. Nine Apostles merely fled in fear, but two of them actually betrayed Jesus: Judas and Peter. Yet again, Jesus uses this failure to show us just how grand a savior he is. After his resurrection, he provides Peter the chance for a threefold affirmation of love to cancel out the threefold denial. He also commands Peter to feed and tend his sheep – to lead others to the same salvation he received.
Thanks be to God for Peter’s weakness! Time and again, God uses this weakness to show us his strength. Of course, it’s not all bad. Peter was also the first to realize Jesus is the Messiah. Peter alone is told by Jesus tells to “strengthen his brothers.” Peter goes from refusing to be washed to being eager for the washing. And he is the first one to actually enter the empty tomb, though others saw it first.
Yes, Jesus Christ is the servant, the sufferer, and the savior, but none of us would really understand that well if it weren’t for Peter. And Jesus kept Peter around for our benefit, he is here in the Pope and the Church. Through them Christ has left us the sacraments, especially the Eucharist which lets us enter into these saving mysteries here and now.
And throughout history, the Pope along with the Church has repeatedly played the same role as Peter and the Apostles in the Gospel – Christ succeeds through their failure. Cowardice, confusion, and corruption is always there. Just as the faith of the Apostles survived the corrupt betrayal of Judas, the confused denial of Peter, and the cowardice of the rest, so the Faith of the Catholic Church survives today.
Yes, the Church is the Body of Christ; in that sense she is incorruptible; she will never lose the truth entrusted to her. But, she is also filled with men and women like the Apostles, like Peter, whose weaknesses threaten our faith. We need the Church to give us the sacraments, to hand on the truth, but we also need the counter-example of failure within the Church to show us just how persistent Jesus the savior really is. To give failures like me hope.
Do not be disheartened at your own failures, do not be discouraged if you see the sinfulness, sacrileges, and foolishness of members of the Church. For 2000 years before Jesus, it was the job of the Israelites to reveal God to the world. They lied, cheated, murdered, got enslaved to sin, committed idolatry, and generally failed to be holy. But God still worked through them. His Son became incarnate from their bloodline.
And now, for 2000 years the new chosen people, the Catholic Church has revealed God to the world. With corrupt and incompetent popes, bishops, and priests, with a whole variety of sinners who’ve committed all the same crimes as ancient Israel. What other institution could survive so long under so much mismanagement? Yet God is with the Catholic Church in a way unlike anything else. The Truth is preserved, sinners find mercy, and saints are raised up, often from among the worst of those sinners. Indeed, God continues to use our strengths and weaknesses in the Church to reveal his Son, Jesus Christ.
So, who is Jesus? A servant. A sufferer. My savior. Your savior. Just look at what he did with Peter, with the Church throughout history, and with me. He can save you too. He will. Just stay with us. Despite our failings… because of our failings, stay with the Church because if Jesus Christ can do good with us, there’s no telling what he can do with you. I’ve seen who Jesus is in my life and, by his grace, I pray that I can see who he is in yours too.