Walk into a crime scene, and you don’t expect to find good news. Unless you have a RedWeb Sentry security system.

When this new system is activated by an intruder, a substance called “i-powder” is sprayed on the criminal. Each batch of spray contains a red dye and a powder containing distinctive strands of DNA. This powder cannot be removed for several days, and when the offender is caught it creates an unbreakable link to the scene of the crime.

RedWeb puts an indelible mark on burglars, making it easier to catch and convict them. In test cases, the conviction rate was 100 percent. That’s good news for anyone who is a victim of crime.

But maybe you’re not concerned about break-ins. Perhaps you worry about cranking up your lawn mower this week, and cutting off a toe while you are cutting your grass.. Well, there’s good news for you as well! After 18 months of development, a man named Russell Stark has created a special shoe called “LawnGrips.” This special footwear is designed to give you traction and safety while you push your power mower.

To protect your big toe, LawnGrips are the way to go! I should go into advertising, don’t you think?

I found both RedWeb and LawnGrips on HappyNews.com, a website devoted to the spreading of upbeat information. Death, disaster, and destruction don’t appear on this news service, since you can get plenty of horrifying headlines on CNN, MSNBC, and ABC. There’s nothing controversial, such as stories about the Gospel of Judas or the president’s latest poll numbers. Instead, HappyNews gives you reports on a new weather model that predicts hurricanes, an AIDS vaccine that exceeds expectations, and the steps being taken to prevent bird flu.

This website is not “Fair and Balanced,” as FOX News claims to be … instead, it’s “Real News. Compelling Stories. Always Positive.” HappyNews.com “doesn’t do bummers,” writes Paul Farhi in The Washington Post (September 24, 2005): “no death, no destruction, no shocking Lindsay Lohan weight-loss updates.”

Maybe it’s time for some good news, for a change.

When Mary Magdalene and two other women head to the tomb on Easter morning, they aren’t expecting to be uplifted. They are bringing spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus, a dismal and depressing task, and as they walk in the early morning light they are worrying about how they will manage to muscle the heavy stone away from the entrance to the tomb (Mark 16:1-3).

What a surprise it is to see the stone already rolled away.

They enter the tomb and spot a young man, dressed in white, sitting on the right side. They wonder: Who is this guy? A guard? A gardener? A grave-robber? Not knowing who he is, they feel a sense of alarm. If only they had a RedWeb Sentry security system to help them.

“Do not be alarmed,” says the mystery man; “you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here” (v. 6).

Jesus has been raised. That’s some very happy news..

But that’s not all. “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee,” continues the white-robed messenger; “there you will see him, just as he told you” (v. 7). Jesus is going ahead of them, always ahead of them, and he will be waiting for them in the future. That’s a second piece of truly upbeat information.

Jesus is alive. Jesus is ahead of us. That’s the HappyNews headline for the story of Easter.

But there’s something I find really interesting about this story — the three women don’t immediately feel a sense of happiness. Instead, they are “alarmed,” “afraid,” and filled with “terror and amazement” (vv. 5, 8). The joy of Easter doesn’t become clear until later, when they come to understand and believe that Jesus has conquered death and begun his resurrection life. When the women first arrive at the tomb, all they see is a mysterious intruder and the absence of a dead body. No wonder they are alarmed and afraid.

On top of this, there isn’t much HappyNews going on around them. Easter in Jerusalem is a day like any other: criminals are being crucified, uprisings are being squelched, businessmen are bribing politicians, the poor are being ignored, and the iron fist of the Roman army is keeping everything under a kind of heavy-handed control. For the average resident of Jerusalem, the day of resurrection is the typical grind — breakfast is eaten quickly, household chores are checked off, grueling manual labor is performed, injury and illness take their toll, and conflicts flare up with spouses, relatives and neighbors.

There seems to be more bad news than glad news on the day of resurrection. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much to put on a HappyNews website designed to “lift spirits and inspire lives.” And that may be true for us as well. After all, we are dealing today with problems in school, marital troubles, job losses, aching joints. I’m scheduled to run the Boston Marathon tomorrow, and for most of the past week I’ve been struggling with a sharp pain in my right knee.

Where’s the HappyNews on this Easter morning?

Let’s go back to what the mysterious man in the tomb says to the women gathered there: Jesus is alive, and he is waiting for us in the future. That’s the core of the good news of Easter, and it’s a story too big to be overshadowed by reports of death and disaster, injury and illness, corruption and conflict, frustrating jobs and aching joints.

When Jesus is raised, he actually succeeds in putting death to death. He smashes the status quo, and turns the tables on those — both then and now — who see violence and corruption and disease and destruction as unchanging constants in the world that we live in. When Jesus leaves the empty tomb, all bets are off and all expectations shattered. He races ahead of us into the future that he is planning for us, and he invites us to follow him in the direction he is going.

What a story this is. It’s a story that has an impact, whether it immediately fills you with happiness or not.

Most importantly, it’s a story that continues to have an impact. During the Second World War, an 18-year-old German named Jürgen Moltmann was drafted to serve in Hitler’s army. Assigned to an anti-aircraft battery, he experienced the horror of watching fellow soldiers being incinerated in fire-bombings. After surrendering to the British, he spent three years in prison camps, and saw how other German prisoners “collapsed inwardly [and] gave up all hope … some of them dying.”

Moltmann had not grown up as a Christian, but an American chaplain gave him an Army-issue New Testament and Book of Psalms, signed by President Roosevelt. He read the Psalms and found something he desperately needed: hope. He became convinced that God was present with him, “even behind the barbed wire.” After being transferred to a camp run by the YMCA, Moltmann learned Christian beliefs, and experienced the love and the acceptance of the local population. They “treated me better than the German army,” he told journalist Philip Yancey.

Jürgen Moltmann found new life in Christianity, after seeing only death in the Second World War. The gospel was life-giving good news for him, and it can be for us as well.

But that’s not all — there’s more. The risen Christ was moving ahead of Moltmann, leading him into an unexpected future. After the war, Moltmann became a Christian theologian and focused on the ideas that God is present with us in our suffering, and that God is leading us to a better future. Both ideas come out of the story of Jesus, and both come out of Moltmann’s personal story as well. Easter Sunday is the beginning of the “laughter of the redeemed,” he says; it is “God’s protest against death.” God is not satisfied with the way the world is today, and he intends to make all things new.

The good news of Easter is that Jesus is alive, and he is leading us to a better future. This was true when the women visited the empty tomb, it was true when Jürgen Moltmann met Christ during the Second World War, and it is true today. Whether we are facing a time of grief, a period of personal pain, or an experience of hopelessness or desperation, we can look to a Lord who is alive and well and inviting us to follow him.

The Christ who was crucified knows our deepest personal anguish.

The Christ who was lifeless knows the complete desolation of death.

The Christ who was raised knows the life-giving power of God.

The Christ who goes ahead of us knows that the future is full of promise and possibility. Jesus is never stuck in the past, but is always racing into the future, challenging us to move with him into new understandings, new relationships, new insights, new forms of love and service to others.

This news, the good news of Easter morning, trumps all the reports of death and destruction that tend to dominate our normal morning updates. It fits the vision of the founder of HappyNews.com, who is convinced that good news has been trumping bad news for some time, and he wants the world to know it. You know, I like that line — it’s a pretty good message for an Easter sermon. Good news is trumping bad news, and we want the world to know it.

Christ is risen! Christ is ahead of us! Christ will lead us forward!

This report is real, compelling, and positive — the happiest news of all. Amen.


Sources:
“Spray helps catch and convict burglars.” United Press International, July 24, 2005, HappyNews.com.
“New shoes designed for cutting the lawn.” United Press International, August 7, 2005, HappyNews.com.
Farhi, Paul. “Happynews.com, where the beat is always up.” The Washington Post, September 24, 2005, C1.
Yancey, Philip. “God behind barbed wire.” Christianity Today, September 2005, 120.