4/4/2010

Easter Day Reading: John 20: 1 – 18

Pastor Verla Miller

The Sad Surprise

Not everyone enjoys surprises. Imagine you are the sponsor of a high-school play — a slapstick comedy filled with corny jokes and wild costumes. You watch the young people work hard to learn their lines, hit their marks and flesh out the characters they are playing. Finally the day of the performance comes. The young people do a terrific job. Everyone who views the play demonstrates their appreciation for the performance with roaring applause.

At the end of the play the entire cast is on stage. You, as class sponsor, are called up to receive recognition for your support and leadership.

What you don’t know is that several members of the cast, in keeping with the slapstick tone of the play, have decided to smack you in the face with a shaving-cream pie. As you stand smiling before grateful parents and faculty, two young people approach from the sides of the stage and splatter you with shaving cream.

Not everyone enjoys surprises.

Surprised by an empty tomb Mary may have felt she had been smacked in the face as she stared into the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. It was certainly not what she was expecting. The rush on the previous Friday had made it impossible to properly prepare Jesus’ body for burial. This is something Jews of the first century took very seriously. Mary was there to perform the final act of responsible love. She was sadly surprised to learn she would not be able to do it.

Life offers us many examples of these sad surprises. We go to the doctor for a routine check-up only to find out we have cancer.

We set aside money to live comfortably in retirement only to learn that changes in the marketplace have depleted our funds.

We watch our children grow, hoping and expecting them to become responsible, capable adults, and one day find that they have moved back in with us.

These are the surprises that challenge our faith, challenge our hope and, like Mary facing the empty tomb, even challenge our grasp on reality.

Life lessons from sad surprises

It is important to understand that the sad surprises that sometimes intrude into our lives are, in fact, part of the deal. Nowhere does God promise us that we will flow through life with no disturbances. Just because we establish a relationship with God does not mean we get preferential treatment as human beings. There will be times of sunlight in our lives, but there will also be times of shadow. We must be prepared to accept both as a part of who we are as human beings.

Jesus spoke directly to this reality when he asked his disciples who they thought he was. As he told them he would eventually be rejected and killed, he also told them that the symbol of their discipleship would be a cross. In order to faithfully follow Jesus, we must know that suffering is potentially, and even probably, part of our future.

This does not mean that suffering or other sad surprises fully describe what will be the composition of our lives. But they will be part of it, and to deny that or to convince ourselves otherwise only sets us up for disappointment or even crises of faith.

The sad surprises that come into our lives, whether as a result of our own choices or the choices of others, all serve as opportunities for us to grow. The old adage that what does not kill us makes us stronger has a certain truth to it. What life brings to us in the form of sad surprises can serve as life lessons that create wisdom in our lives, and depth. Sad surprises are not forever.

 It is difficult for us not to look quickly past Mary’s encounter with the empty tomb to the happy ending we know is coming. The story is so familiar to us. We know that beyond the sad surprise of the empty tomb is a happy surprise encounter with the risen Christ. We know her sadness will not last.

As we deal with our own sad surprises, that is not a bad idea to hold onto. While it is necessary for us at times to live through unfortunate or difficult circumstances, it is also necessary to understand that God will not forsake us. As we are reminded in Psalm 23, even as we trek through valleys of shadows, God is with us. Even when we face the ultimate sad surprise — death, we are assured of God’s care for us, God’s ultimate provision.

This awareness accomplishes at least two things for us. First, assured of God’s care and provision, we are able to live our lives with confidence and purpose. We need not fear the sad surprises that are coming, or even dread them. We know they are part of our experience as human beings and so we can prepare ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually to deal with them when they come. We will still be surprised — that is the nature of the experience — but we will not be undone.

The second thing that the awareness of God’s care does for us is to create opportunities for us to be compassionate and caring. Pain and suffering can cause us to turn inward, to become overly focused on our own plight or problem. But as we become convinced of God’s presence and gracious caring in our lives, our suffering, our own sad surprises, can help us be responsive to others whose lives have encountered the sad surprises of an empty tomb somewhere along the way.

Sad surprises rewrite the script of our lives

As Mary stood in the dim light of that early morning, staring into the emptiness of the tomb before her, everything she thought her life was about changed. That process certainly started on Friday as Jesus died, but the empty tomb completely rewrote the script of her life.

The same thing will happen to us, and for us, as we encounter whatever sad surprises that make their way into our lives. We think we are acting out a part that will resort in a certain outcome in our lives. Suddenly, and without warning, the plot of our life’s drama changes. The script we thought we were acting out as part of our lives has suddenly slammed a shaving-cream pie right into our faces.

But we are not undone by these surprises. God is with us and we learn quickly that a new script is being written. The play is not over; we are merely moving into another act in the play. We may not be the same character we were before. We will grow and become different, deeper, more responsive to others, more compassionate.

We may even find ourselves surprised by how we feel about our life as move past the sad surprise. The empty tomb we have discovered may yield to a fresh encounter with the love of God. Despair gives way to hope. Sadness gives way to joy. Confusion gives way to clarity. Pain gives way to strength.

Surprised by surprises

It is important to remember that we cannot orchestrate these events. Whatever good may come from the sad surprises in our lives, we cannot be surprised on demand — which means, obviously, we probably won’t see them coming.

And that means that the sad surprises that come to us will be painful. We will be disoriented, confused, off balance, at least initially.

But let Mary be our teacher here. What began as a terrible morning gradually gave way to the best day ever. The sad surprise of the empty tomb eventually gave way to an even greater surprise that changed everything forever.

(Proclaim Sermons)