Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Luke 24:1-10

Proclaimed on April 11, 2004

One day three men were walking together and came upon a raging, violent river. They needed to get across to the other side, but had no idea how to do it. The first man prayed to God saying, “Please, God, give me the strength to cross this river.” Poof! God gave the man big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours. Seeing this the second man prayed to God saying, “Please, God, give me the means to cross this river.” Poof! God gave him a rowboat and he was able to cross the river in about three hours. The third man, seeing how things had worked out for the other two, also prayed to God saying, “Please, God, give me the intelligence to cross this river.” And poof! God turned him into a woman, who asked for directions and walked across a nearby bridge.

All humor aside, did you ever wonder why women were the first witnesses to the resurrection? Let’s face it, guys, women just perceive the world differently than we do. How many of us guys have ever gone to the refrigerator or to some other place, looking for a particular item? Then when we were not able to find it, in our frustration we called out to our wives or mothers, who came to where we were standing in our impatience and simply reached in and found what we had been looking for. Usually when this happens we just grumble, saying something to the effect that if they would have just put it back where it belonged in the first place, we would have been able to find it! That’s usually the way we try to save face.

However, some scientists suggest that this is related to a gender difference. Men are natural hunters. Had the object in question been moving, we supposedly would find it quickly, which a woman would most likely miss. But women, who are supposedly natural gatherers, quickly locate that which is not moving, much to most men’s amazement and oftentimes embarrassment. But as noticed in the earlier story, these same gender differences are also noticed in other respects, especially when it comes to traveling. Men like movement and once they get going God forbid that they should ever stop and ask for directions. This manly quirk has driven many a woman crazy who has ever traveled with a man.

Taking this information to the Resurrection stories, we find the men in the various reports always moving. First they ran to the tomb, then they quickly ran into it, then they popped out and immediately ran back to tell the others. But the women in these resurrection stories are different. They came and noticed that the tomb was open. And then, unlike the men, these Biblical women hung around to ask for directions. In three of the Gospels they asked for directions and received them from angels. In the fourth Gospel, Mary Magdalene stopped and asked for directions from one she originally thought was a gardener, but who turned out to be the Risen Lord. Given these gender differences, men were able to figure out that the tomb was empty (a fact which could mean many different possibilities), but it took some women to find out that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead, simply because they stopped and asked for directions!

And, if you ask some men, women are often better at giving directions, as well. Take this story of a little girl who received a little puppy. She named it Happy because it was always running, jumping, and vigorously wagging its tail. The little girl’s dad did a great male thing; he built the puppy a huge, spacious doghouse. However, when this fine doghouse was finished, Happy would not go into it, perhaps because it looked too dark and foreboding. The little girl’s father tried pushing the puppy into the doghouse, only to have the puppy immediately pop out. In a fit of disgust, the little girl’s father stomped away, leaving the little girl in tears. As she sat there crying, Happy got into her lap and began licking her face. In the midst of this consolation, the little girl had a brainstorm. She put the puppy down, got onto her hands and knees, crawled into the doghouse and curled up in the middle of the floor. Before long, Happy came in behind her, wagging its little tail. Like this little girl, who had made the dark and foreboding dog house into a friendly place for her puppy, so the women who were the first to the tomb of Jesus, revealed that that which was first thought to be a dark and foreboding place was really a friendly place--a place at least as friendly as their kitchens.

Let me explain what I mean by this by sharing with you something I learned from my wife Kathy after I had bought her a bread-making machine. Early on, I learned about the importance of yeast. Yeast is what makes the dough rise. If the yeast is unhealthy, the dough will literally flop. Now, you may ask, what has this to do with Easter and an empty tomb being like a kitchen? Well, in most all non-English speaking cultures, today is not called Easter, but rather the original Hebrew word for Passover. Originally, Passover was that time when God delivered the Hebrews from the bondage of the Egyptians. Because the men would have to hurry, God ordered the Hebrew women not to use yeast in the bread, because they did not have time for it to rise. However, after Jesus was raised from the dead, the Apostle Paul saw new meaning in the yeast. Like the Passover Bread, the Apostle admonishes us to remove all the old yeast from our lives, all that which falsely puffs us up. We are to become like “fresh dough.” Why? Because in the resurrection Christ has become our Passover. Christ is the new yeast for as the Scriptures say, “God raised him on the third day!” In John’s Gospel Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples saying, “The Lord has been taken from the tomb.” It is almost as though she was saying, “God has taken our new Passover Bread out of the oven!”

In essence, the tomb had become an oven from which comes our Bread of Life. It is with this Bread that we are fed each Sunday: the Bread of Life, the Bread of Hope, and the Bread that strengthens and encourages us. No wonder the resurrection was first revealed to women. It is full of so many symbols that are so easily recognized by women. Unleavened bread, Easter eggs, all signs of new birth, and the giving of new life! We men may have originally said and written, “Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.” But we could only say it after a few good women stopped and asked for directions.