Why Bother
The Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Day
April 5, 2026
The Rev. Josh Evans
St. John’s Lutheran Church
Albany, NY
Why bother?
Why bother with all of this?
Not just today.
Not just Easter.
But all of this.
Why bother
telling the story
of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem,
waving our palm branches with acclamation?
Why bother
going to Last Supper
when we already know how it ends
in abandonment and gloom?
Why bother
walking the way of the cross
to suffering and certain death?
Why bother
keeping vigil
on Holy Saturday,
hoping against hope
for the impossible?
Why bother with all of this –
when our numbers as church are dwindling
nearly as quickly as our seeming relevance?
Why bother
showing up today,
as though today were any different
than any other Sunday?
Why bother
coming to see the tomb,
as though Mary Magdalene and “the other” Mary (who is she anyway?)
were expecting anything different,
anything out of the ordinary,
anything surprising –
let alone anything worth celebrating?
***
A few days ago,
at the start of the Great Three Days,
several of us gathered in this space
around tables for Maundy Thursday Dinner Church.
We heard the familiar Maundy Thursday stories:
the first Passover, on the cusp of the exodus from Egypt –
a story of liberation for God’s people;
and the Last Supper as told by John, on the eve of the Passover commemoration –
a story of betrayal, suffering, and death.
And, around the tables, we pondered:
What must it have felt like in that upper room?
Have you ever been in a situation like that –
simultaneously joyful – celebrating a festival of liberation –
and uncertain – wondering (fearing) what was coming next?
Where do joy and heartbreak share space?The women come to see the tomb
and leave “with fear and great joy.”
We gather this day to proclaim that Christ is risen –
and leave into the same world we came from –
filled with war, political violence, and persistent uncertainty.
What relevance does resurrection have now?
How can we dare to proclaim, with any sincerity,
“Alleluia! Christ is risen!”
in these times?
Why bother?
***
In their book The Meaning of Jesus,
respected biblical scholars Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright
trade back-and-forth essays around key theological doctrines about who Jesus is.
In one chapter, they take up the question of the resurrection:
What happened on Easter Day?
How are we to understand the events in and around the empty tomb,
as though one could have captured them on video?
What would we have seen on the recording?
Ultimately, as Marcus Borg asserts in his essay,
it doesn’t matter.
And: It also doesn’t change the truth of Easter.
Reading that claim for the first time several years ago,
freshly out of my conservative/fundamentalist Christian college,
I was taken aback:
What do you mean it doesn’t matter?
How could Easter mean anything else
than a physically empty tomb
and a physically resuscitated Jesus?
If that’s not the case,
why bother?
But I was missing the larger point.
“The truth of Easter,” Borg writes,
“does not depend upon [the story] being literally and historically factual.
It does not depend upon the tomb being empty
or on something happening to the corpse of Jesus.” (135)
For Borg,
the meaning and the truth of Easter
is more profound than that.
First, it is to say:
Jesus lives.That is, that Jesus continues to be experienced after his death
in the lives of his followers,
that who Jesus is and what he taught
continues to matter and be relevant.
And second,
and perhaps more importantly:
Jesus is Lord –
that is, in one sense, the one to whom we give our ultimate allegiance,
and, in another sense, the one whom we experience to be God.
If Jesus is Lord,
Borg goes on,
then Rome – who tried to kill him – is not.
Because Jesus is Lord,
the domination system of the empire is not.
Because Jesus is Lord,
then Washington is not –
no president, no military, no political ideology,
no threat of violence nor ICE reign of terror.
Which is not to say that we shouldn’t take these things seriously,
especially when they are harming our most vulnerable neighbors,
but it is to say that these things do not and will not get the final word.
Because Jesus is Lord.
Why bother?
Because Jesus lives and Jesus is Lord.
This is more than just a liturgical acclamation or an arbitrary statement.
It is a rejection of empire.
When we take to the streets
and line both sides of Central Avenue on a Saturday afternoon
to proclaim “No Kings,”
it is more than just a clever protest slogan.
It is a rejection of empire.
Why bother to show up?
Because our witness matters.
What we have to say about and to the powers of this world matters.
Because Jesus’ victory over the self-serving, fear-mongering, death-dealing
powers of the empire matters.
That is the truth of Easter.
***
Still, if you’re anything like me,
it’s not difficult to become apathetic, complacent, or worse, cynical –
in the midst of everything else going on,
everything else that competes for our attention and our time –
and continually return to the question:
Why bother?
“Very few people lay prostrate on their ordination day,”
the bishop reminded us in his homily,
“dreaming of snow removal contracts
and the hours of life spent on the phone with Church Insurance.”
Gathered last Tuesday at the Cathedral,
with my fellow priests and deacons – Lutheran and Episcopal –
we came together to renew our ordination vows
at the annual Chrism Mass –
to remember our “why” – why we do this:
in the midst of each menial administrative task of ministry
to remember how each task, each moment, each breath
is a part of something so much bigger, so much more profound;
to proclaim “the life-changing, world-changing Gospel of Jesus”
and “to be an icon of the love of Christ amidst this groaning creation,”
as Bishop Jeremiah reminded us.
And this isn’t a calling limited to clergy.
This is the call of all the baptized,
to which all of us together will re-commit this day
in the renewal of our baptismal vows:
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin,repent and return to the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people,and respect the dignity of every human being?
***
Why bother?
Because the world is hurting,
and we have a message
that this hurting world needs to hear.
This is why we bother:
because all of this still matters
and we still have good news to share,
until all can find and be found
by God’s extravagant, unconditional, life-giving and life-saving love.
Why bother
telling the story
of Palm Sunday,
Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday,
Holy Saturday?
Because we know how it ends today:
Jesus lives,
and Jesus is Lord.
