Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb taking the spices they prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, but they didn’t find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

The women were terrified and they bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He’s not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, crucified, and on the third day, rise again. Then they remembered these words and, returning to Jerusalem, told all of this to the eleven and all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles but these words seemed to them and idle tale and they didn’t believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking inside, he saw the linen cloths and went away, amazed at what had happened.

Apparently, The Velveteen Rabbit turned 100 this year. Did you know that? Do you remember the story at all? My youngest son, Max, was in the car with me when I heard this little human-interest story on the radio and I’m certain it’s a sign of bad parenting that he’d never even heard of The Velveteen Rabbit. Anyway, I sort of remembered, and the little report about the anniversary on the radio last week reminded me some, and it got me thinking about Easter.

There’s the rabbit-factor, of course. But the point of that story, really, is full of Gospel kind of good news, too.

For those of you who don’t remember, it’s the story of a boy who has a favorite stuffed bunny that he plays with and sleeps with and loves more than any of his other toys, even though the bunny isn’t the coolest toy in the toy box. The boy loves the rabbit so much that the bunny wants really badly to be Real (with a capital R) – Real in the eyes of the other toys in the nursery, Real in the eyes of the boy, and Real, even, in the eyes of the actual bunnies hopping around out there in the world, too. (It has a very Toy Story vibe to it, come to think of it!)

Anyway, eventually, the boy gets sick and the toy Velveteen Rabbit gets taken away from him. I think it was a scarlet fever thing they were worried about 100 years ago.

Ultimately, somehow, the Velveteen Rabbit becomes real and learns that something the Skin Horse, one of the other toys in the nursery, had told him once is actually true – that being loved is what makes someone real. And that, according to the Skin Horse, “once you become Real [with a capital R], you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”

And what’s sweet and good and nice in the realm of children’s stories resonates with us in the real world, too, because there is a whole lot of Truth (with a capital T) to that fairy tale’s message.

What makes us real… what makes us tick… what makes us matter in the world and matter for ourselves is that we are loved for real by the God who made us. The Skin Horse in the story also told the Velveteen Rabbit that “Real isn’t how you’re made – [whether you’re the coolest toy in the toy box or not] – it’s a thing that happens to you.” And he said, when you’re loved “for a long, long time, then you become real.”

For the Velveteen Rabbit, the evidence that he was loved – for real – was how worn his ears and velvety fur had become from all the time his little boy spent with him. In other words, he could look at his body for evidence that he had been loved well and for real and for good.

For us, on Easter, we look to Jesus – at God, in the flesh – for evidence of how deeply we are and have been loved. There are pierced hands and wounded sides. There are scars and scabs on this Easter morning that remind us of God’s grace for all creation and of God’s deep and abiding love for each of us, too.

And this love is real, with a capital R. It lives beyond the Scarlet Fever, COVID-19 and Cancer. This love is greater than the war that worries us. This love is more real and everlasting, even than the death that will befall us all.

Because, just like the old and wise Skin Horse promised the Velveteen Rabbit, the same is true for you and me: “Once you become Real … once you have been loved by God, in Jesus Christ … once this death has been conquered, once this grace has been declared, once this love has been offered … you can’t become unreal or unloved, ever again. It lasts for always.

Amen. Happy Easter.

John 13:1-17, 31-35

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We’re going to get serious in a minute – and very serious in a little bit – but here’s a little something for the kids. It might actually be for anyone old enough to remember School House Rock, too.

That weird, cheesy little blast from the past came to mind when I learned about a doctor a few weeks ago named Jonathan Reisman. He’s written a new book called The Unseen Body. Each chapter is about a specific body part or body fluid (yeah.) and everything that particular body part, or body fluid, might have to tell us about ourselves, our health, our body, and its function or purpose. So, as you might imagine, there’s a chapter on the heart and the brain and the liver and the lungs, and so on. And, as you might not like to imagine, there are also chapters on blood, urine, and feces, too.

As part of his research and his lived experience as a doctor, really – as someone who found great respect and reverence for the human body on the very first day he started dissecting his cadaver in medical school – Doctor Reisman also credits his medical studies and career as a physician with turning him into a “foodie” of all things, someone with a fascination with and penchant for discovering more about fine food and drink.

He says that when he started learning about which muscles in the human body correspond to which cuts of beef he was eating, for instance, he wanted to know more about that. So, not only did he do some research by way of slaughterhouses and butchers, but that led him to start collaborating with a chef on a project they call “Anatomy Eats,” where they gather people for dinner and he and the chef teach, talk about, and explain to the guests what it is – exactly – that they’re eating.

Like, each dinner has a theme – the cardiovascular system, for instance – where they serve three species of heart, cooked in three different ways. And they serve things like blood cookies and blood sausage, too. (I know enough about blood sausage to know I want nothing to do with a blood cookie.) And as part of such a meal – before or during dinner, I’m not sure which – he dissects a heart for his dinner guests, showing them the arteries and the valves, how it all works, what makes it healthy what causes it disease, and so on. Bon appetit!

Now, despite the fact that I don’t eat mammals or birds, I have zero judgement about any of this, but this is not a dinner reservation I would make. I actually give Dr. Reisman and whoever dares to attend one of his “Anatomy Eats” dinner parties credit for wanting to know that much about what it is they’re eating.

And it all made me think about Jesus – his Last Supper – and what in the world those first disciples must have been thinking when he invited them over to celebrate the Passover meal … when he started breaking bread and pouring wine and then talking about eating his body and drinking his blood, for crying out loud, I wonder if they felt like they were at some First Century version of an “Anatomy Eats” dinner party.

And they were in a way … with the Great Physician, in Jesus, after all … who was teaching them about what it would mean to eat and to drink and to be fed, and nourished and filled up with the body and blood of the Lamb of God.

Now, Jesus didn’t dissect any lambs … blood sausages likely weren’t on the menu … but he did show them what his body came to do – its function and purpose, if you will. When he disrobed at dinner; when he wrapped that towel around his waist; when he got on his hands and knees to wash the feet of his friends, Jesus modeled for his followers what servanthood looked like – he embodied humility, meekness, generosity, grace. And he invited them to do likewise.

And he gave them more clues that night, too, about what his blood would accomplish. His was a new covenant of sacrifice, mercy, and forgiveness of sins. His was a cup of goodness to be shared with the whole wide world.

And it wasn’t anything like a science project, but Jesus revealed his heart to them, in the end. And he invited them to show theirs, too. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this [kind of love and mercy; this sort of sacrifice and servanthood] everyone will know that you are my disciples.” “… if you have [this kind of] love for one another the world will know we’re in this together.”

And that’s what I think this Maundy Thursday, this First Communion, this Last Supper, and this Greatest Commandment stuff is all about, for us. There’s so much symbolism, so much emotion, so much ritual and tradition surrounding what we’re here for tonight.

And I think it’s hard to wrap our heads and our hearts around it all, really. And it’s hard to swallow, as it were – the fullness of what this meal and this commandment mean for us. And I’m not talking about the “gross” factor in all of this. I’m talking about the “grace” factor, here:

That God would take on flesh, I mean, and take up a cross and give his life for the sake of the world – and ask us to do the same.

That God would stoop to serve humbly, give generously, suffer sacrificially – and ask us to do the same.

That God would love people so deeply, without condition, with no strings attached, without a return on the investment – and command us to do that, too.

So we eat, we drink, we remember, we give thanks, and we hope …

We hope that the saying is true … that you are what you eat, in some way … and that this meal fills us with the same deep love, the same wide forgiveness, the same faith that even though we die, we will live – connected, one to another, and bound together by the grace of God, in Jesus, crucified and risen for the sake of the world.

Amen