A Permanent Wave

Seeing how the resurrection changes life on earth

04/21/2019

John 20:1-9 On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

I have to start this Easter Sunday homily with a sad news, and it involves Fr. Stephen. Fr. Stephen was blissfully driving along the highway when he saw the Easter Bunny hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to miss the Bunny, but unfortunately, hit it hard and killed it. As you know, Fr. Stephen is a sensitive soul. He got out of the car and holding the Bunny, started crying. A woman driving the same way stopped to help. She asked what was wrong. Fr. Stephen explained: “I feel terrible. I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and killed it. There may not be an Easter because of me. What should I do?” The woman told the priest not to worry. She retrieved a spray can from her car trunk, walked over to the limp bunny, and sprayed the entire can over the little furry animal.

Miraculously, the Easter Bunny came back to life, jumped up, waved its paw at the two people and hopped down the road. But about 50 yards away, the Bunny stopped, waved, and continued hopping. Again, about 50 yards farther it suddenly stopped, waved, and continued hopping, until finally out of sight. Fr. Stephen was dumbfounded and turned to the woman and asked: “What on earth did you spray on that Bunny?” The woman turned the can around so the man could read the label. It said: “Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave.” I know that was a pretty corny joke, but I think it also touches the reality of the resurrection. When the resurrection becomes really real, it puts a pep in our step, and a permanent wave of joy not in our hair, but in our hearts.

In the gospel today, the resurrection becomes real to Peter and John, the unnamed “beloved disciple.” Many of Magdala, called the Apostle to the Apostles, because she was the first to share the Good News of the resurrection, announces that the Lord’s tomb is empty. How do the two apostles react? They get a pep in their step: they race to the tomb to see for themselves. The first effect, therefore, of the resurrection is a zeal and zest for life because death has been destroyed and life continues after the grave. The second effect is the permanent wave of joy in their hearts knowing Jesus is alive. Soon they would see their Savior and Friend. But that permanent wave would have another meaning when Jesus commanded them to wave their hand in blessing and baptizing the whole world in Matthew 28 and the Great Commission. In other words, like the Easter Bunny brought back to life, so the apostles would hop all over the world and wave their hand in blessing over all humanity. When the resurrection becomes really real, it not only changes your life in heaven, it fundamentally changes your life on earth.  The resurrection is a reality for the here-and-now.

My friends, may I suggest three ways the resurrection can become more real for you, changing your earthly life as well as making you look forward to heaven? Firstly, the resurrection helps deal with your own death. This year I will turn fifty years old, and to be honest I have not given much thought to dying. Even though I am a priest and preach about heaven, and frequently do funerals, I tend to forget I will not live forever here on earth. So, when the thought of my own death hits me, like on my fiftieth birthday, I can easily feel gripped by fear and despair. But when the resurrection becomes real to me, I get a pep in my step and feel a permanent wave of joy in my heart. I don’t worry about the day that I will wave “good-bye” to this world, because I have hope that one day I will wave “hello” to everyone again.  The good-bye wave is temporary, the hello wave is permanent.

Secondly, the resurrection becomes real when we deal with the death of those we love. When I go home to visit my parents in Little Rock, they frequently ask me questions about purgatory, about the final judgment, about heaven and even about hell. My parents are not talking theoretically or for some test they are taking in school; it’s not academic. This is something they are facing sooner rather than later, imminently. They want to know what they’ll soon be dealing. So, in a sense, this homily is for them, and all the other people we dearly love and will one day lose. I pray the resurrection becomes really real for them like for the Easter Bunny so that they might have a pep in their step and a permanent wave of joy in their heart.

And thirdly, the reality of the resurrection can help us deal with any loss in this life. How do you deal with the loss of a good job and steady income, or the loss of your health by serious illness, or the loss of your marriage because of divorce, or the gradual loss of your physical appearance, your mental aptitude, your mobility and independence? These things can depress us and make us want to give up on life. But if the resurrection becomes really real in your life, these set backs are seen as merely temporary, and go from being roaring lions to purring kittens. We walk with a new pep in our step and a permanent wave of joy in our hearts. In other words, when the resurrection becomes real for us, it not only changes our life in heaven, it fundamentally changes our life here on earth.

On Easter Sunday the resurrection became real by becoming a historical fact in the life of Jesus Christ. Satan threw his worst at the Savior, especially the crucifixion, but our Lord never lost the pep in his step or the permanent wave of joy in his heart. Why? Because the resurrection was something real for Jesus, not only as something only to hope for in heaven, but as something to light his path on earth. Folks, Jesus’ resurrection is the spray can that reads: “Restores life to the dead, and adds a permanent wave.” And that’s no joke.

Praised be Jesus Christ!