Stand Up Messiah

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 20th Chapter

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What flavor?" He said, "Lutheran." I said, "Me, too! ELCA or Missouri Synod?" He said, "ELCA." 

I said, "Me, too! LCA or ALC?” He said, "LCA." I said, "Me, too! Augustana Lutheran Church in America or American Lutheran Church in America?" He said, “American Lutheran Church in America.” I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

The original of that joke was written by Emo Philips about Baptists, but whether you start with Lutherans or Baptists, starting today with a joke is the liturgically proper thing to do.  Today is Bright Sunday or Holy Hilarity Sunday or if you want it in Latin, Risus Paschalis.  It started in the 15th century when priests would insert humorous stories into their sermons on this second Sunday of Easter.  Of course, since it was fun, the practice was eventually banned by Pope Clement X, otherwise known as the Party Pooper Pope.  

Jokes are, of course, stories with unexpected endings and Jesus being raised from the dead is probably the MOST unexpected ending to a story EVER told!  But unfortunately, like all jokes, not everybody gets a joke right away and not everyone got the resurrection right away either. The disciples, locked away in fear in that upper room, obviously didn’t get it at all.  

Let’s see if you do better than the disciples with this one?  What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor? ... Make me one with everything.

Sadly, with the disciples, Jesus was forced to break one of the cardinal rules of comedy by appearing to them and showing them the wounds in his hands, feet and side.  In doing that he was breaking the rule that you should never explain a joke, but that’s what he had to do for his disciples to get it, and thankfully after that, they finally, REALLY got it.

I’m actually really glad Jesus broke that comedy rule, because it is so important that everyone gets THIS joke that it’s worth breaking the rules to explain it. So, following Jesus’ lead we’ll start explaining this joke with the punch line.  Are you ready? Here it is!  CHRIST IS RISEN!  That’s the punch line! Christ is really and truly raised from the dead!  He didn’t just wake up from a really deep sleep and he wasn’t just “mostly dead” either.  He had pulled the pin, he was pushing up daisies, he had bought the farm, he was swimming with the fish, he had kicked the bucket, he was six feet under, he had bit the dust, shuffled off the mortal coil, croaked, cashed in his chips, and had given up the ghost!  Jesus was dead... BUT... NOW… here’s the punchline… Christ is Risen!

It's an amazing punch line! But a punchline without a setup just isn’t a joke.  For the setup we need to go all the way back to when Jesus was tested in the desert. The devil offered to give Jesus power over everything…but there was a catch.  Jesus had to bow down and worship the devil.  Jesus didn’t take the bait and after that, the devil decides that he would “GET” Jesus the old fashioned way…the devil will have him die!  Plot, plot, plot…scheme, scheme, scheme and we arrive at Good Friday and Jesus dying on the cross.  People surround Jesus laughing at him.  The devil is right there too laughing and taunting Jesus, “You should have taken my offer" says the devil, “if you had, these Bell Hops from the Roman Arms Motel wouldn’t have had to ‘put you up for the night’!”

You see, the devil, the Empire, darkness, evil and death itself all thought they had won!  BUT WAIT!  Just when death, darkness and the devil thought that they had pulled the ultimate fast one on God… THOUGHT they had killed God’s Son forever, it turns out that the joke was actually on THEM!  CHRIST IS RISEN! And with that punch line God took the horns off the devil, turned the world up side down, defeated death, and shined the zillion watt light of Christ into even the deepest darknesses of all the world!

With that one punch line... CHRIST IS RISEN!... God not only gave Jesus new life, but gave new life to you and to me and to ALL OF CREATION as well!  This new life is one that is meant to begin here in this life and go on for all eternity!  It’s a life full of meaning, purpose, dignity and love.  That's what makes this the biggest and best joke of all time.  Death, darkness and the devil ended up snatching total defeat, right out of the jaws of victory!

Speaking of the resurrection, do you know why didn't Jesus replace the stone from the tomb when he rose from the dead? ... Because he was born in a barn!

Once you get THE joke it changes EVERYTHING!  There will still be people that say you have to work your way into heaven, but now that you know the joke, you can laugh at that ridiculous notion! There will still be people out there who think there’s an ongoing battle raging between good and evil and that evil still has a chance to win! But now that you know the joke, you can laugh at that ridiculous notion too and sing them the hymn...  the strife is over, the battle is won!  So, do you get it now? Do you get how funny it is to think that death, darkness and the devil have any power in this world anymore? Christ is Risen! And they got nothin’!

Now there’s one last thing. Because once you get a good joke, you can’t just keep it to yourself. You’ve got to pass it on! So go now and tell this joke to the world... LIVE this joke out in the world and don’t forget the punchline… Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!! Amen.

Wait. Just one more. So it’s after the resurrection and Jesus is in the mood to party! He gets his disciples together and they all head out to the club!

They hit the dance floor, but something’s terribly wrong - Jesus just can’t seem to get his groove on. He tries and tries, but finally yells out. . .

Help! I’ve risen and I can’t get down!