This day, this greatest Feast of the entire Christian Religion, is about something that actually happened.  Jesus Christ rose from the dead, really, truly, historically.  That really happened.  And that’s a stunning thing.  We hear those words so often in common parlance: “Jesus Christ rose from the dead...” that we forget how shocking those words really are.  There was actually a man who died, and who did not stay dead.  He wasn’t resuscitated or defibrillated; he was dead, all the way dead, for three days.  And then, by his own power and the power of his Father in Heaven, he came to life again.  That’s a stunning thing for us to claim.  And the Resurrection of Our Lord from the dead is probably the most common thing about our Faith that people dismiss.  People will very commonly say something along the lines of: “I’m sure Jesus was an inspiring man, a great moral teacher of course, an advocate for the poor and downtrodden: but, you know, this Resurrection business is just a legend that came along later, because his followers couldn’t deal with what happened, and they needed to keep the authority of his message alive and symbolically express the fact that his influence lives on in the hearts of his followers.”  Sorry for being blunt, but that’s utter nonsense.  St. Paul says, “If Christ is not raised, your Faith is in vain.”  Nothing about Christ’s teaching, his example, his sacrifice, none of it means a thing, actually: if he did not really, truly, historically, scientifically rise from the dead.  But if he did: if this is real: then everything in our life is different.  Everything in our life should be defined by this event that happened on that first Easter morning. 

Is it true?  Could this rumor actually be true?  The proof begins with the witness of the entire earliest generation of the Church.  Remember that 10 of the 11 remaining apostles, and many thousands of others, died for this truth: they weren’t crazy, they weren’t on drugs; this wasn’t the greatest mass delusion in the history of humanity: this was the most important, pivotal, and inspiring event in all of human history: the most real thing that ever happened.  As the Acts of the Apostles, and many other sources inside and outside the Bible attest, these first generations of Christians endured horrible suffering, humiliation, and even death, rather than denying what they knew to be true.  They had the integrity and the courage to stand up, not just for a generic, arbitrary belief; but for a truth: for something that had really happened to them, that they had really experienced.  They had seen Christ: they had spent weeks with him after he rose from the dead: they ate and drank with him; they talked with him; they received his command to continue his mission in the world: and they saw him ascend into heaven.  There was no way they could go on with their lives, pretending this hadn’t happened.  They and thousands of others in the early Church went to their deaths for the same truth: because they were people of honesty and integrity.  They knew what they had seen, and they were inspired to make this real experience they’d had, the central and defining reality of their lives.  And even more than that, only one thing could have assured and convinced them that their Faith in Christ was more important even than life itself: only their certainty that death had no real power over them.  That they had nothing to fear in death: that Christ would raise them up, just as he had raised himself.  Not symbolically, but really.  No one is willing to be martyred for a metaphor.  But many can summon the courage to give up their lives in defense of reality.  Our first Christian brothers and sisters were inspired by the hope that Christ had given them, hope for immortality.  This is our hope as well.  If we stay close to Christ, then we have nothing to fear, not even our sins, not even death. 

For those with no hope, death is the greatest evil: and life is all about moving from one distraction to the next, maximizing comfort and pleasure until death can no longer be ignored.  But for us, death is no longer a wall that we must all violently crash into one day.  It’s not a wall; it’s now a sacred door.  A door to eternity, which Christ has unlocked for us.  And so we can live in freedom.  We don’t have to live the boring and lonely life of serving our own pleasure.  We don’t have to scramble around constantly to drown out our dread in a sea of noise and activity.  We can live the noble drama of sacrifice and service: we can live for others, without fear that we’re somehow wasting our lives.  This is the freedom that the Resurrection gives us: the freedom to waste our lives in sacrifice and service and true love: love for our family, love for our neighbor, love for our God.  The Resurrection of Christ gives us the freedom to forget about ourselves and find the true peace and true joy that can only come from a life given over to the service of others.  Nothing that ever happened in all of history was more real, more true, or more important than the Resurrection.  We are proud to profess it once again on this most holy Feast.  Amen.  Alleluia.