St. Matthew 28:1-10
April 16, 2017
The Resurrection of Our Lord-A
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus~
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! It sure feels good to say and sing those alleluias again. It’s like we’ve been stifling our sneezes for forty days. Finally, today, we get to let it roll right off our tongues.
But let’s back up for a moment. For the account of our Lord’s resurrection begins with a journey to the cemetery—a visit to the tomb. That’s a journey that nearly all of us have made. We know the weariness of grief and the pain of a loved one’s death. Like the women who got up early with broken and fearful hearts, we, too, have walked that trail of tears. We’ve laid to rest the earthly remains of those we love who have departed this life. And that departure always seems so final—so permanent. The cemetery always seems to get the last word: The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins shall die.
I’ll never forget my first Easter as a pastor, 20 years ago. I was serving in the teeny, tiny town of Avon, SD. And as Holy Week drew near that year, someone mentioned to me, “By the way, pastor, our church is hosting the community youth sunrise service this year. What do you want to do?” Now, as a rookie pastor I didn’t know what do for much of anything—let alone a community youth sunrise service. But for some reason I said, “Let’s go to the cemetery. Let’s do it there.” And there, on a chilly, windswept hillside, beneath brilliant sunshine, we proclaimed that Christ is risen and death is destroyed. Amidst the tombstones we sang, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” We heard the angel ask, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” And we confessed our belief in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Turns out, a cemetery is a great place to celebrate Easter—the perfect place to declare death’s defeat.
Luckily, there was no earthquake, like there was in the cemetery on that first Easter Sunday. There are few fault lines in South Dakota—and even fewer in Jerusalem. But that doesn’t matter. Because when the Lord wants an earthquake, He gets an earthquake—with or without tectonic plates shifting. Just as there was an earthquake on Good Friday, at the death of Jesus, so is there an earthquake on Easter Sunday, at the resurrection of Jesus. These two tremblors go together. Calvary earthquake and Easter earthquake show us that the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus are inseparably connected. They are the divine hinge on which all of human history hangs.
But so that there might be no question about what’s going on, God sends an angel to apply His Word to the situation. Look at that angel, as bright as lightning and as white as snow—casually camped out, sitting on the stone. Death is defeated. Death doesn’t deserve our respect. The tomb holds no terror for those whose lives are already hidden with Christ in God. So the angel sits back, stretches out, and relaxes to announce the best news since the dawn of time: Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, just as He said. An angel had announced His birth “to save His people from their sins.” And now, another angel declares, “He is risen.” The deed is done. The tomb was temporary. He is risen; just as He said.
Just as He said? Oh, yeah! Let’s not overlook what seems to have escaped everyone’s notice. Jesus had predicted, on several occasions, in clear and simple sentences, that He would not only be put to death, but that He would rise again on the third day. Anybody can predict their death with a pretty good shot at that prediction coming true. But Jesus predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day. And it happened, just as He said.
Beloved in the Lord, do you know what this means? It means that you can trust this Jesus. You can believe Him. You can hold Him to His promises and you will not be disappointed. For if Jesus got His own resurrection right—if He could speak with truth and accuracy and specificity about rising from the dead—then there is nothing He says that you cannot believe. You can stake everything—goods, fame, child, and wife, your living and your dying—you can stake everything on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course, on most days, we don’t do that. On the other 364 days of the year, we’re not so eager to hear those words and take them to heart and trust them. As the culture around us slides into madness and darkness and depravity, you must not let go of Jesus’ words. Jesus tells us that God created human beings as “male and female” (Matt. 19:4). That’s all—male and female. He tells us how a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife—that the two become one flesh—that God establishes the family as the foundation of His creation. Not the individual—the family. Jesus tells us that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood. He says, “Let the little children come to me,” and the word He uses for little children is also used of little children still in the womb, little children yet unborn. All are precious to Jesus. All deserve our love and protection. Take Jesus’ words to heart—all of them—and trust them. Live by them, die by them, and be raised by them. For He is the resurrection and the life.
Easter changes us. Each year the good news of Jesus resurrection touches our lives and we are never quite the same again. St. Matthew tells us that as the women left the tomb after hearing the angel’s message, they were filled with both fear and joy. They were fearful and joyful. Fear and joy make for a strange combination. But I think you can understand how it works. Many of us will leave here this morning feeling not so unlike those women—joyful yet fearful. We don’t know exactly what tomorrow brings; but we do know that the devil and our own sinful nature have certainly NOT surrendered in their war against us. They have not given up on their very creative attempts to lure us away from Jesus and so destroy our faith.
That’s why it’s worth noting that Jesus Himself met those fearful, joyful women. They hadn’t gone far from the tomb before Jesus crossed their path. You don’t have to go far either, before Jesus will cross your path here again, every Lord’s day, where His Word is proclaimed and where He gives His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus met the women and said, wait for it, “Greetings.” Greetings? How about Easter greetings? In modern English, “greetings” sounds a bit stiff and detached. Greetings is what the aliens say when the step off the flying saucer. The King James Version translates it as, “All, hail” which doesn’t really help us modern English speakers.
But at the root of Jesus’ Easter “greetings” there is a deeper, fuller, richer, weightier connotation. It’s like in English when we say “goodbye.” Goodbye has a deeper meaning. Over the years, “goodbye” is what evolved from the phrase, “God be with ye.” The ancient root of Jesus’ Easter “greetings” actually means, “Rejoice,” or “Be ye glad.” So, take Jesus at His Word. Do what He says. Be ye glad. Rejoice. For like those lowly women, the love of Jesus has made you precious. In Jesus, your sin is paid for. In Jesus, you will live forever! The women bent their knees, knelt down in worship, and took hold of Jesus’ feet. And on this Easter, we too bend our knees, kneel down, and worship the risen Christ at His altar. “This is my body,” He says, “given for you. Drink of it all of you, this cup is the new testament in my blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” The Lamb who was slain has begun His reign. Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
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