Sermon for April 20, 2025 Easter Day: The Power of Idle Tales based upon Luke 24:1-12

Hochhalter, Cara B.. Easter Morning, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59270 [retrieved April 24, 2025]. Original source: Cara B. Hochhalter.

​Luke 24:1-12 The Resurrection of Jesus

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. 

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’
 
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 

​But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

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     Garbage. Hooey. Nonsense. Hogwash. Gibberish. Malarkey. That’s what the first people to hear testimony of the Resurrection thought: Baloney. Those women are telling an idle tale. I am not totally surprised that the men disciples wouldn’t believe women disciples about what they saw. I have been a woman for a long time now and am fully aware of how our testimonies even about our own bodies are often dismissed. Did you know that it can take seven and half years to get diagnosed with endometriosis? That’s from the moment a person tells their doctor about what has likely been chronic pain since they were a teenager to the time when they finally are diagnosed appropriately. Cisgender women can share the truth, with evidence! And, it can take a long time for people to listen to them.

     I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call, as Katherine Shaner does in her commentary, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women who went to Jesus’ tomb the first preachers in our tradition. The core work of the Christian preacher is to speak of Resurrection, and that is what these women did! They went to their friends and told them about the tomb that no longer held Christ and the two men in dazzling white, and they reminded them that Jesus said that the Son of Man would rise again on the third day. The eleven men, their friends, called their words “an idle tale,” which is apparently a polite translation of the original Greek, which calls their story garbage. As Craig Coester says in his commentary, the disciples knew that the dead nearly always stayed dead. Any story that stated otherwise was nonsense.

     The last several days had been difficult on so many levels. The disciples had watched as Jesus, betrayed by Judas, was arrested. They waited as he was questioned by the Sanhedrin and Pilate and Herod. Then, as they watched a ways off in the distance from their friend, they saw Romans kill him. There was one man from the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea. He made sure Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb, a small measure of grace on a mournful day. He assured that Jesus’ remains would have a measure of respect in burial. And, then, the women disciples would make sure that his body was tended to, a job that Katherine Shaner points out usually fell to the women. In doing the thing expected of them, they would be empowered to do the unexpected.

     What is it about Peter that lets him believe that checking out the tomb is worth it after the women testify? You might remember that Peter’s behavior after Jesus’ arrest was quite suspect. Jesus knew that Peter would betray him. But, Jesus also seemed to know that Peter would try to do better, too. Cheryl Lindsay, in her commentary, wonders if that’s why Peter is more willing to listen to the women than the other men are. She says, “...[f]or Peter, this revelation must have reached him like answered prayer offering him an opportunity for personal redemption and restoration.” Peter, who had never believed that he would betray Jesus, knew something impossible was happening. Maybe this impossible thing would be redemption rather than betrayal. When he got to the tomb and saw that all that is left is Jesus' burial clothes, Luke tells us that he is amazed. 

     The preaching professor Anna Carter Florence once said that is story of the Resurrection from Luke might be here to show us that just because our hopeful testimony is incredible, it doesn’t mean that people will believe us when we share it. This is a wild and radical story, and she thinks if you’re preaching it in a way people don’t hear as an idle tale, you might be taming Jesus too much. We need to preach about new life in a way that will amaze even Peter, the one who really messed up when he needed to be brave. It is a wild and impossible resurrection that will help him return to the mission that Christ called him to in the first place.

     Cheryl Lindsay speaks about the resurrection as a transition point in Jesus’ story. She says, “Resurrection is both ending and beginning.” She points out that Jesus does not appear at the tomb in Luke. He will appear to two of the disciples who are walking to Emmaus, but, he’s not at the tomb. There it is just angelic messengers and devoted disciples: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women, and eventually Peter. Lindsay argues that this shows us that the author of Luke understands the Resurrection to be the point where the followers of Jesus shift into leadership of the earliest Jesus movement. They are the ones who will carry his message forward. We know that they have grown into the Spirit-led power that Jesus gave them when new people hear them testify and choose to become part of the ministry.

     Peter becomes the test case for the power of sharing a good word about the resurrection. He is the first to hear and become curious. He is the first to consider that this radical tale of new life is worth exploring. When he runs to the tomb, he runs back to his commitment to Christ. The women pick up the mantle first. Then, Peter. Eventually, we, too, follow them to witness for ourselves what resurrection might look like.

     One thing it probably won’t look like is an easy path. As Lindsay notes in her commentary, the new leaders of the Jesus movement will find plenty of obstacles in their path, especially from powerful people who are challenged by early Christian commitments to share money in a common purse, care for the marginalized, and build relationship across ethnic and class differences. Jesus’ followers themselves will be tempted by the power that comes with allegiance to the state, too often abandoning care for the marginalized in exchange for power to coerce people into following our demands. It is wise for us to return to the testimony of the first preachers, the women who were not believed, and remember just how wild this faith calls us to be. May we be willing to speak to the power of Renewed Life, even when our audience refuses to listen. And, when we hear a word of shocking resurrection, may we have the curiosity of Peter that allows us to find our way back to the mission where Christ calls us. Let us not miss our second chance to love as bravely as Christ did.

Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here, on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, and into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope--
Good morning.
— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning” excerpt https://poets.org/poem/pulse-morning

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
An article about endometriosis: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2020/08/27/why-it-takes-so-long-to-be-diagnosed-with-endometriosis-according-to-a-expert/
Katherine Shaner: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/resurrection-3/commentary-on-luke-241-12-11
Craig R. Koester: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=558
Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-at-early-dawn/
Anna Carter Florence

• http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2249
• http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4016

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