Read Acts 10:34-43 and John 20:1-18 ..
A pastor was speaking to a group of second-graders about the resurrection of Jesus when one student asked, "What did Jesus say right after hH came out of the grave?"
The pastor explained that the Gospels do not tell us what He said.
The hand of one little girl shot up. "I know what He said: He said, 'Tah-dah!'"
This may sound strange, April Fools day is the perfect day to celebrate Easter.
After all, we’re celebrating the greatest practical joke of all time: God overturned death. And not just any death, but a humiliating, painful, criminal death. The very thing that the Pharisees and the Roman government and even the disciples thought would end the cause of this strange backwater rabbi, is what caused it not only to succeed, but to grow and continue to touch people two thousand years later.
And that laugh is only another in a long line of doing the unexpected that God seems to revel in. From all the way back to the beginning, God chooses a childless couple in their 90s to begin the family of "chosen people." Ludicrous! No wonder Sarah and Abraham laugh when God tells them they will become parents. When Sarah finally does bear a son, the parents name him Isaac, which translates as "Laughter." Sarah declares, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me."
Over and over again God does the unexpected. Instead of being born to a king, Jesus is born to a carpenter and his young wife, in a stable of all places. Instead of picking the best religious scholars in the land, Jesus chooses his disciples from all over, tax collectors and fishermen. People no one liked or expected much of.
He comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, not a noble steed, parodying the processions of the Roman emperors of the time. His death is perhaps the ultimate absurdity. The son of God, this shining King, had submitted to abject humiliation, had, in fact, died while gasping for breath under the watchful gaze of idolatrous, hubristic foreign occupiers. This death revealed a suffering, humiliated man as the Lord of the universe, thereby inscribing defeat and suffering into the definition of what salvation is all about.
And even after the resurrection Jesus does the unexpected. Instead of first coming to his disciples or to the people who condemned and executed him, Jesus comes to a woman: someone who was a second class citizen of the day. Mary was the first one to actually see Jesus. In a world where she had no rights of her own and was still seen as a kind of property to whichever man she belonged to, Mary was the one given to tell the story first.
Easter is meant to be a day of celebration after a period of mourning. For Jesus was dead and is now alive! Easter is an occasion for joy, and collective laughter is one of the strongest and most direct expression of joy. It was once customary for even the most dry and solemn of preachers to begin the Easter homily with a joke. Easter Monday especially was hailed as "God's Laughter Day" — a token of the Christian's scorn for the Devil, who had pretended to win victory over us through death. Easter, of course, proved that the joke was on him instead. Laughter Sunday, also known as Holy Humour Sunday, has its roots in a number of different Christian traditions.
Churches in 15th century Bavaria used to celebrate the Sunday after Easter as Risus Paschalis (‘God’s Joke,’ or ‘the Easter laugh’). Priests would deliberately include amusing stories and jokes in their sermons in an attempt to make the faithful laugh. After the service, people would gather together to play practical jokes on one another and tell funny stories. It was their way of celebrating the resurrection of Christ – the supreme joke God played on death itself by raising Jesus from the dead
In the words of the Irish poet Patrick Kavanaugh, the resurrection of Jesus was truly "a laugh freed forever and ever." That laughter has ever since echoed down the centuries.
Our God is a God who does the unexpected. When people spoke of the messiah, they were hoping for someone who would overturn the Romans and give them back their land. But instead, God gave them a Messiah who overturned their very way of thinking. Someone who refused to return violence for violence. Someone who insisted on healing those who hurt him. Who loved his enemies. Who died for the sins of a people who shouted to crucify him.
And when it was supposed to be over. When the stone was rolled in place and the tomb was sealed and the disciples were scratching their heads, trying to figure out what to do next, Jesus reappears and claims his place as the son of God.
It’s like the song from the musical offered up by our high school last week. "Once again it's topsy turvy day." That song has danced through my head all week as I worked on this sermon. Life in God is indeed a topsy turvy one. The last are made first and the first are made last. The underdogs are lifted up to positions of honor and a humble carpenter who was put to death with criminals, defeated death forever and saves us all.
So on this Easter day, take time to laugh. Take time to rejoice. Take time to celebrate in the God who loves us so much, that God was willing to become as lowly as we are to save us all.
Laugh, for he is risen indeed!
