I thought I would start out this morning by asking a question—do we have any movie buffs in here? I know we have one sitting up here on the chancel. Apparently there are movie buffs, and then, there are movie buffs. Have any of you ever seen the websites dedicated to those who pay excruciating attention to every detail of a movie to try to catch all the little technical glitches and historical mistakes that movies make? It’s insane! There’s moviemistakes.com and nitpickers.com and a bunch of others—entire communities of people who live to find a microphone boom dangling in the corner of a scene, a plane that you can just make out flying into one of the scenes of “Troy,” a piece of jewelry that magically appears and disappears throughout a scene or an extra wearing a wrist watch in one of the ancient battle scenes of “Brave Heart.” Honestly, if I had to pay that much attention, I don’t think I would ever enjoy a movie again.

Sometimes, there is no question that these mistakes, these little details, reveal their own fascinating insights or back stories. For example, do you remember the scene in “Top Gun” near the end of the movie where Tom Cruise takes off from the aircraft carrier to fight the Russian MiGs? Just as he leaves the deck he puts his plane into a complete 360-degree roll. They shot the scene from the perspective of Maverick’s wingman, looking back, so that all you see is the aircraft carrier and the whole horizon flipping upside down.

Supposedly in real life, an F-14 doesn’t have enough speed when it has just taken off to be able to roll like that without crashing. So, when they were making the movie, they had the naval pilot who was filming that scene take off from the carrier, make a giant loop and pick up speed. Meanwhile, they cleared everything and everyone off the deck of the carrier so that the pilot could fly in fast and low over the deck. When he cleared the end again, he had enough speed to safely roll. The glitch is, as Maverick’s plane is taking off, the audience sees a deck packed with other planes, crew and equipment. A split second later, as Maverick pitches his plane into the roll, we are looking back at an aircraft carrier with a completely cleared deck. Sometimes, it is the smallest details that can reveal the most fascinating insights.

There are all sorts of obscure details woven throughout this morning’s story—John’s account of the resurrection—that are easy to miss if we’re not paying attention. We’ve read the story so many times that we probably just gloss right over these details without a second thought. Yet, it is the little details that expose some of the most important insights as to what is really going on that first Easter morning. In fact, I believe that it is the same details that expose two major themes that God wants to make sure we don’t miss this morning. The first is that God understands and is okay with our doubts.

I don’t know if you have ever really noticed how much doubt there is laced throughout this entire story. We give Thomas such a hard time, but the truth is he wasn’t any more skeptical than the other disciples. They were all loaded with doubts. Jesus had told them (how many times?) that he was going to die and three days later be raised from the dead. However, when Mary comes and sees the empty tomb, what is her first reaction? Someone must have come and stolen his body. She is so caught up in and preoccupied with her disbelief that she actually stares Jesus right in the face and says, “No, come on, tell me! Tell me where they have taken him and I will go and get him.” Isn’t that just like us? How often do we see the wonders of God right before our very eyes and immediately start looking for alternative explanations?

In Luke’s account, it takes two radiating angels to sit Mary and the other women down and spell out for them exactly what is going on, and yet, when they go and tell the rest of the disciples, the disciples don’t believe them. They say the women are talking nonsense. At least Peter is intrigued enough to run down to the tomb to check things out for himself, but even then, after he sees the situation with his own eyes, it says in Luke that Peter walks away scratching his head wondering what really must have gone on. Don’t you see? It is not just Thomas. If there is anything that this story tells us, it is that we are all doubters to the core. It is how we were made.

Sometimes our doubts are real. Other times they are the best excuse we can muster to keep ourselves from having to take that step and get personally involved. Have you ever noticed this little bit in John’s Gospel where Peter and John launch into a foot race to see who can get to the tomb first? It is a small detail, but isn’t it interesting that John goes out of his way to describe how he outruns Peter, arrives at the tomb first, but doesn’t go in? He stands there peering in from the outside. It’s a little odd, don’t you think? I feel like God is trying to say, “Look, I understand your doubts…I created them. Don’t ever forget that doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is an important and integral part of faith. I want you to question things and grapple with things. It is how I created you. I don’t want you to be gullible. I don’t need you to check your brain at the door; I am the last one who wants you to just blindly accept whatever comes along. But I also don’t want you to miss out on what could be the most important day of your life because you were not willing to step inside and give it a good honest look for yourself.” How tragic would it be if we rose early, dressed and primped in our Easter best, arrived extra early to make sure we got a seat, sang these magnificent hymns with gusto, listened to these spectacular anthems, read this timeless story, prayed these shockingly intimate prayers and still felt like we were John rushing up to the edge of the tomb but only able to peer in from the outside, unable to climb in and allow Easter to be a celebration not just of Jesus’ new life, but ours as well. This point brings me to the second broad theme that I see unfolding in the details of this story. Despite our doubts, maybe even because of our doubts, God has pulled out all the stops this morning and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that we don’t miss the chance to let this morning be not just about Jesus’ resurrection, but about our resurrection as well. I said on Friday that, unless we were able to follow Jesus into the tomb and die a little bit on Friday, we would not be ready to be raised with him today. I suspect that if the people on nitpickers.com were let loose on this text, one of the first details they would catch, one of the first questions they would ask, is why do all four gospel writers seem to go out of their way to tell us that the stone has been rolled to the side? If later in the very same chapter Jesus is freely walking through stone walls and locked doors, then why would he need the stone to be moved in order to get out of the tomb? It’s a good question, isn’t it? Scholars all agree; he didn’t need the stone to be moved. The stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out. It was rolled to the side in order to let the disciples inside, to see for themselves. It was as if Jesus were saying, “Please, whatever you do, don’t miss this! Come on in, poke around, pick up the linens, see for yourself; don’t let yourself miss this.” I am handing out rocks this morning; not for you to throw at me if I say something you don’t like, but for each of you to take home. You can put the rock in your car, on your dresser, carry it around in your pocket, whatever. I want you to have it as a reminder that God understands that we all doubt, but He has moved the stone to the side for the sole purpose of inviting us to come in and see for ourselves—not to take anyone else’s word for it but to try Him out for ourselves. In fact, every time you see this stone, I want you to imagine God saying, “Don’t miss this! Come on in! See for yourself!”

A pastor with whom I worked in Houston told me about a scientist who made an appointment to see the pastor in his office. The man had just joined the church but was wondering if he really should have because he had so many doubts. My friend asked him what kinds of things he was struggling with, and the man said, “You know….the deity of Christ, miracles, the resurrection, the virgin birth, the existence of God.” He went on and on and on. My friend said it was like listening to the entire Apostles Creed in reverse: “I do not believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth or in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord. I do not believe in the resurrection of the body or in the life everlasting.” After the man finished, the two of them sat there talking for the longest time. My friend tried his best to answer as many of the man’s questions as he could, but he knew he really wasn’t going to be able to convince the man of anything. Finally, my friend gave the man a copy of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, the book we studied last fall, said he would be praying for him and sent him on his way. A few months later the pastor saw the man in the hallway of the church. The man was smiling from ear to ear and said, “Vic, guess what? I’ve finally taken the plunge. I’ve decided to do my questioning from the inside looking out instead of from the outside looking in.” Vic said, “That’s great! Was it C.S. Lewis?” The man said, “No, I had a dream.” “A dream?” “Yes, a dream. It felt so real. I dreamt I was walking down this long corridor, and I was carrying a huge backpack on my back. At the end of the hallway, I came to a door. And through that door I could see the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen, and inside there were people laughing and talking and having the time of their life. The room was flooded with the most gorgeous light and there was a genuine warmth and peace and radiance pulsating out of it.” Then he said, “Inside that room was everything I’ve ever wanted in life. So I tried to walk in, but my backpack was too big to fit through the doorway. I tried to turn it sideways, but again, it kept me from getting through the door. The things I had in there were just too bulky. I realized that the backpack contained all of my doubts about God and my questions about my faith. Inside that doorway was the life that God was offering me but my questions and doubts were too big. They were holding me back from where I most wanted to be.” He added, “Then I heard a voice, as clear as day. It said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t miss this! Go ahead, take off your backpack. You can leave it right here by the door. It’s not going to go anywhere. You can come back to it anytime you want. Anytime you want to revisit your questions or explore your doubts, it will be right here.’” And the man told my friend, “So I took it off…just like that…I took it off and I left it at the door. My questions and my doubts are still there, but now I am living inside the room, and I can already tell that my life is never going to be the same.”

God knows that we doubt and He is okay with our doubts; but he has pulled out all the stops this morning because he does not want you to miss what this morning could be. Can you think of any better way to celebrate Easter than by dropping your backpack and walking through that door? Will you make the decision to no longer stand on the outside peering in but to climb into the empty tomb to see for yourself? Everything we have done here this morning—from the timpani and the brass to the children and the processionals to the lilies and the litanies—it has all been done for one reason and one reason only: so that you won’t miss it, won’t miss the fact that the tomb is empty, that Jesus Christ is alive, and he is standing right here in front of you this morning offering the exact same resurrection power that brought him back to life. The promise of Easter is that we can be brought back to life too, that new life is available to us now. Eternal life is not something that begins once we die but is something that can start today. It is a fresh start, a new way of living and a new way of loving. It is a way of leaving behind the baggage that weighs us down and letting go of the hurt that cripples us. If there is anything that the empty tomb represents, it is that the best is yet to come, that real life starts now, if we will just put down our doubts long enough to climb in and see for ourselves. Whatever you do, don’t miss this!

AMEN