Sermon: “Wanting It to Be True” John 20:1-8 , April 5, 2026

Scripture: John 20:1-8

Preacher: Ryan Slifka

Sermon: “Wanting It to Be True”

Well, here we are. Finally, Easter’s here. The white cloth, the trumpet blast, the joyful strains. The call and response, flowers and colour covering over the rugged old cross. Children’s stomachs filled to the brim with sugar against all our better judgment. It’s a day where it’s hard to say no, for even the most health-conscious among us. Why? Because it’s a special day. It’s Easter. Because it only comes around once a year. Might as well live a little. Might as well even go to church. Or even try church for the very first time.

It’s a special, joyful, even fun-filled day. But is it true? Is it true?

You may remember the late, great writer and journalist, Christopher Hitchens, who was once known as one of the “four horsemen” of the new atheism. In his book with the incredibly subtle book called God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, he tells the story of how he joined the Greek Orthodox Church. He did it to please his then-wife’s Greek family. Though he claims that at no point was he ever a believer, he says this: “I could feel,” he says. “I could feel, even if I could not believe, the joyous words that are exchanged between believers on Easter morning: “Christos anesti!” (Christ is risen!) “Alethos anesti!” (He is risen indeed!).”[i] Even though Hitchens felt the joy and the beauty in words “Christ is risen.” He couldn’t ever bring himself to believe that they were actually true.

Today’s a special, joyful, even fun-filled day. But is it true? Like him, we can certainly feel the beauty and the joy, but is it—with apologies to Boston, “more than a feelin’?” Is Christ risen? Risen, indeed? Or otherwise?

Of course, there are many reasons to believe so. There’s the fact that we have multiple witnesses who say they saw the empty tomb, just like in this morning’s scripture passage, and that even more witnesses claim they saw Jesus again, alive. Then there’s the fact that the sources we have that say Jesus’ resurrection happened are closer to the event and more historically reliable than most other events from the exact same period. And not only that, but there’s the fact that most of Jesus’ immediate followers died gruesomely as martyrs or were exiled because they refused to recant their belief that he had indeed been raised. People are willing to die for all manners of illusions. But they don’t usually die for a simple feeling.

They aren’t airtight. But there are good reasons to believe in Jesus’ resurrection.

Now, as many reasons as there are, though, and as good as those reasons might be, one thing I have learned in my forty years on this earth is that nobody ever in the history of the world was ever won over by a single rational argument. It’s just true.

Of course, I wish I’d figured that out before I wasted countless hours formulating perfect knock-down comebacks in internet comment sections. But now I know. And you know it, too. We just believe what we want to believe. Even in today’s scripture passage. This one guy, the Beloved disciple, maybe John the author, he peers in, sees Jesus’ burial shroud nicely folded, and it says he sees and believes. The other two there, Peter and Mary, they’re at the same place, but they see nothing. At least not at first. But the Beloved disciple, he already believed before he saw it.

We’re not won over by arguments. You, me, everybody. We just believe what we wanna believe.

People just believe what they wanna believe. So that’s what I’m gonna talk about this morning. Why we might want to believe in Easter. Why we might want to believe that the tomb was empty that first Easter morning nearly 2000 years ago, and that Christ is risen. Why we might wanna believe that it’s all true.

There are many reasons. This morning I’ll give you three.

First, if Christ is risen, then he is who the scriptures say he is. He’s God in the flesh. Meaning that not only is there a God, a Creator, who brought all things into being, but this God is good. This God is love, the kind of love that would die on a cross for the worst of us, and the worst in us. If Jesus is who he says he is, if he is God. Then it’s good news.

It means that there isn’t a cosmic sword hanging over our heads, waiting to hack us to bits, but at the heart of the universe is understanding, it’s forgiveness. It’s unconditional one-way love, that sees you. Love deeper than your spouse, deeper than your kids, even deeper than your mother. Not as you oughta be, but as you are. That word grace.

Like, the whole thing that turns Mary around in the Easter gospel is the fact that Jesus calls her by name. It’s because he truly knows her. And he knows everything about you—all the good stuff, but most importantly all the stuff you stuff down and hide from the rest of the world.

We might wanna believe Easter’s true, because if it’s true it means Jesus is who the scriptures say he is. Meaning there’s no reason to be ruled by guilt or shame. Because there’s a God who sees you as you are, and loves you anyway.

That’s the first reason. Here’s the second: if Easter is true, it means that death isn’t the end.

You see, the scriptures don’t just paint Jesus’ resurrection as a one-off miraculous event. But that Jesus in his resurrection is the “first fruit” of those who have died. Might be the reason as to why Mary mistakes him for the gardener. He’s pictured as the first son is a large family. Jesus’ resurrection is the down payment on our own. Some of us are more worried than others—usually based on age, but sometimes by health. Some are OK, others terrified at the prospect. But we’re all gonna die one day. Life will cease. The universe itself will one day go dark. But if Christ is risen, that’s not it. It’s not it at all.

We might wanna believe Easter’s true, because if it is, we need not be ruled by the fear of dying, or the terror of all that has been left undone. We can make peace with it, because it means that death is not the great end point, but the gateway to eternal life. A never-ending future.

That’s the second reason. And here’s the final reason, which has always been the most appealing to me. If Easter’s true, then it represents the reversal of all sadness. The reversal of all sadness.

In today’s scripture Mary Magdalene weeps by the open tomb, crying, and grieving. Until a Word from outside enters her ears. And that’s when the weeping ceases. The whole Christian message is indeed about a good God, and about life after death. But it’s also about healing. Healing all the wounds of this life. It’s why just after this Jesus shows his disciples the scars in his hands and his side. Salvation, in the words of one writer, salvation means “creation healed.”

To that end, Jesus’ question to Mary Magdalene isn’t just for her in that moment. It’s the same question to you and I, here and now—“why are you weeping?” Why are you weeping? What weighs most on your spirit? Is it someone you’ve lost? Is it something you’ve lost out on? Is it the fact that you’ve screwed everything up? Or haven’t lived up to your potential? Is it the state of the world that’s got you short on breath? If the gospel is true, all of it—ALL OF IT is, in the end, going to be made undone. Reversed. Made right. Made new. I’ve quoted it before maybe a dozen times but I’m gonna do it again, because I think Sam Gamgee said it best in the Lord of the Rings when he asked the wizard Gandalf: “Is everything sad becoming untrue?" If Christ is risen, then means that everything sad is becoming untrue. Everything sad is becoming untrue.

We might wanna believe in Easter because it means that every heartache, every heartbreak, in the end, will be healed. Every injustice ended. Every tear wiped away. All things made new. We should want to believe in Easter. Because if Christ is risen, it means that everything sad is becoming untrue.

Friends, dear friends. Today is special. Today is a fun, joy-filled day.

Why? Because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!

Christ is risen, meaning that the future isn’t closed, hemmed in. It means that though it’s inevitable, for you for me, for the universe itself, death is not the end. It means that there’s always hope, always life to be found in the least likely of places, because the story of our world ends in relief, in triumph, and with joy.

We believe it’s true. And if you don’t believe it, then there’s always next Sunday to try it out again! But if you don’t believe it yet, I hope at least you leave today wanting to. Because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

It’s good news, the very best news. And it changes everything.

I offer this to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

[i] Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (New York: Twelve Books, 2007), 218.