First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge

The "So What?" of Easter

·24 min·2 clips

After 100 years of Easter celebrations, the pastor asks what difference it makes for a woman caring for her husband with dementia.

The episode opens with a reading from the Gospel of Matthew describing Jesus's crucifixion, death, and burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It continues with the resurrection account: Mary Magdalene and another Mary visit the tomb, encounter an angel who rolls back the stone, and later meet the risen Jesus who greets them casually. The pastor leads the congregation in the traditional 'Christ is risen' call-and-response. He reflects that First Methodist Church has celebrated Easter in its sanctuary for 100 years. He poses the central question: 'So what?' given ongoing world suffering like war, disease, and personal grief. He invites close reading of Matthew's narrative, noting the angel's appearance like lightning and white clothes. The angel rolls back the stone and sits on it, while Roman guards posted at the tomb pass out in fear. The pastor highlights the irony: the dead man is alive, the living soldiers are like dead men. He describes this as 'holy mischief' and 'resurrection laughter,' a defiant mockery of death. He emphasizes Jesus did not avoid suffering but entered into it to break sin and death from within, comparing it to Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope boxing strategy. Citing Colossians 2:15, he frames the resurrection as God's triumph, declaring sin and death are not ultimate. He acknowledges current grief and fear in the congregation and world, noting the women's initial response was 'fear and great joy.' Easter does not require denying pain but acknowledges a new world breaking in where Jesus writes our story. He gives concrete examples: a woman caring for a husband with dementia finds Jesus in small joys; a grieving mother feels Jesus crying with her; the church's Love Your Neighbor Van ministry serves Baton Rouge's homeless, where volunteers discover Jesus already present. He invites listeners to imagine their own struggles and let Jesus, not sin or death, tell their story. He urges living as if Easter is true through prayer, worship, and service. He closes with an anecdote about a Sunday school girl answering 'Ta-da!' when asked what Jesus said emerging from the tomb, reinforcing Easter's joyful defiance.

As heard by us

A warm Easter sermon that treats resurrection as comfort, irony, and defiant hope.

The sermon treats Easter as a hard question: if Jesus is raised, what changes for grief, fear, and ordinary life? It moves from the cross to the empty tomb with tenderness, then stays with Matthew's details: the torn curtain, the centurion's confession, the women at a distance,…

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Why you'd press play

You hear why Easter is not polite optimism.

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