“A New Destiny”

Luke 24:1-12

The disciples, in the early morning hours, come to the tomb, and find that Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. The Greek word. “anastasis,” generally translated as “resurrection,” means, “standing up.” Jesus was lying in the grave; now he was “standing up.” The Latin equivalent is “stenare,” from which we get the words, “destiny” and “destination.” A destination is a place – and the ultimate destination of every person, including Jesus, is the grave. But the other meaning, the one we mean when we talk about resurrection, is “destiny.” Destination is about an ending place – in Jesus’ case, as in ours, ultimately the grave; destiny is about journeying – about the ultimate direction in which we are headed – which, in Jesus’ case, was life. One person said, “Destination is about where you’re going. Destiny is about what gets you there.” A destination is something we control – the end result of a plan we have made. Destiny is a future into which God invites us, which we cannot see, beyond our control – one which requires a walk of faith to achieve.

The father of our faith, Abraham, we are told, wandered until the day he died. He never reached a final destination – rather, he was held by a promise. He traveled toward his destiny, one which he held to in faith. His destiny was to be the father of a nation, to receive a land of promise, and to have heirs as numerous as the sand on the shore. We are those heirs, we are those who share that destiny with him. And with Jesus. Our destiny is not a place. Our destiny is the kingdom of God – not a place here on earth, as Hebrews 13:14 says, “For here we have no lasting city.”

Eleanore and I like to travel. We’ve been fortunate enough to travel in Europe, the Middle East, and around the Mediterranean, as well as a bit in this country. We’ve always found, however, that the traveling we like best is when we go somewhere, rent a car, and set out to explore. We end up in interesting places and get to meet real people – the kind you don’t get to see on a tour. It’s not like going to Disneyland, where every experience is prepackaged. Some people like that, I guess. You always know what’s coming, and you always feel in control. But when you travel this other way, you get what happens, and it’s always an interesting surprise. When you travel like that, the ultimate destination is not the important thing – the journey itself is the thing, and that’s what makes it interesting.

We tend to fill our lives with destinations, rather than seeking out our destiny. We think that, when we get out of school, then life will begin. We think that, when we get a good job, we’ll have achieved what we wanted. We think that, when we have financial security, or when the baby comes, or when she graduated, or when we retire, then everything will fall into place. We fill our life with destinations, instead of living with a sense of destiny. The resurrection proclaims that the grave was Jesus’ destination, as it is ultimately ours as well. That’s the bad news. But Jesus’ destiny, the place where he stood, was in a place beyond the grave. He stood in God’s grace, trusting God with his future. His destination may have been the grave, but his destiny was life in his Father’s kingdom.

That is the choice that is open to us today as well. The choice the resurrection gives us, is whether we go from destination to destination, and finally see the grave as our final destination, or will we walk with Jesus, engage fully in the journey, and place our destiny in God’s hands. The choice you have to make today isn’t whether you are going to heaven or hell, but whether you are headed toward death, or are leaping, in faith, into the hands of your loving Father.

Luther once remarked:

“This life, therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health but healing; but being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

The disciples, as they approached the grave that Easter morning, had assumed that Jesus shared their common destination – the destination that all humankind shares – that his was simply another sad story about a good man who got run over by the powers that be, who paid the ultimate price for opening his heart to the least and the lost, who crossed the wrong people, and suffered the tragic consequences. The disciples, as they approached the grave, figured that the game was over – Jesus had reached his final destination – the grave.

But Jesus’ destiny was not the grave, but the arms of his heavenly Father. And the disciples would soon come to understand that they would share this destiny as well. Death is not the end. Our Father’s arms are the end.

There’s a big difference between leaping into the abyss, thinking that we will die there, or leaping into the arms of a loving Father. One fills us with fear; the other fills our hearts with joy. The one we will shy away from at any cost; the other is something we anticipate in hope. The one will cause us to cringe, to try to defend ourselves; the other will cause us to be fearless and, perhaps, even courageous. It all depends on what we see on the other end of our leap.

We are people of the resurrection. Our baptism informs us that our lives are hidden in Christ’s. Our destination is to be drowned in the waters of death. Our destiny is to rise to new life in him. We are called to courageous living. While the grave may be our body’s final destination, life is our destiny. Like Jesus, we are held in the arms of a loving Father, who will not let us go. Christ is alive. And we will live, too.

The disciples came to the grave, to pay their last respects to the one who had come to his final destination. Instead, they found that he was standing up – he was raised by the power of the Father. And they, along with him, had found a new destiny for their life. May we also live in the power of the resurrection.