The Resurrection of Our Lord
March 23, 2008
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
I would imagine that most of us are expecting to have a quiet, uneventful Easter celebration. Many of you are planning an Easter dinner in your home. After the liturgy, it will just be a matter of changing your clothes and making final preparations for the meal. You will be anxiously waiting for your special guests to arrive, be they family or friends. Sometime this afternoon, before evening, you will enjoy a delicious dinner with many special dishes.
After dinner, some of you will be fall asleep on the couch or in your favorite chair. The children in their play may get loud, which will get on the nerves of the adults. Some of you will turn on the big screen or a not-so-big TV screen to watch the NCAA Basketball tournament. Others will enjoy talking with one another.
It will be good to be with family and friends. It is a time when we can put aside our troubles, fears and the stress of everyday life. We will enjoy the peacefulness and happiness that comes with being with those we love.
Some of us will be traveling to our Easter celebration. We will be the guests for whom others will be anxiously waiting. Then just as it would be if we were staying at home, the rest of our visit will play out in the same way. Even if we are away for Easter, we will enjoy the peacefulness and contentment that comes with being with those we love.
On that first Easter morning, when the two Marys, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, went to the tomb, there must have been some moments of peacefulness for them. The horrific violence, the vile hatred, the massive evil hurled against one man, and the systematic injustice of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion were finally over. Jesus was dead. His enemies could do no more harm to him. The evil was over. Now there was some peace.
The two Marys began to experience this peaceful relief late Friday afternoon. Joseph of Arimathaea had just placed Jesus’ body in the tomb carved out of a rock, and rolled the stone against the entrance. He then went away. Quietness began to settle on the two Marys, as the horror, violence and shock of the day slowly drifted away. They sat quietly and alone in their sorrow and grief. Everyone else was gone; it was just the two of them and the massive rock that had Jesus sealed in death. Being consoled for a while, the Marys then went home because of the Sabbath. However, as soon as it was legally permissible, they returned to the tomb the following Sunday morning. Once again there was quiet peacefulness in that place.
However, that peace was soon shattered. According to Matthew, a great earthquake rocked the earth. In fact, it registered so high on the Richter scale that it shook loose an angel from heaven that came and rolled back the stone covering Jesus’ grave. The angel then climbed onto the stone and was sitting on it.
Matthew is the only Gospel writer who refers to the occurrence of an earthquake. Was it really an earthquake? Not in the same sense that we know earthquakes.
We know of earthquakes to be destructive. Even in our lifetime, we have heard and seen reports about devastating earthquakes that killed thousands of people. Many people are buried alive under tons of debris. Hundreds of buildings are pulverized, or piled on top of one another. Roadways split apart and bridges collapse. Not much good comes out of an earthquake. Earthquakes disrupt our peaceful, normal and secure lives.
The earthquake that Matthew talks about was not a destructive earthquake. Rather it is a liberating event. This earthquake is part of a series of events that began on Friday when Jesus died. As we heard last Sunday in the Passion Story: “Jesus cried with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”
From the moment of Jesus’ obedient death, the new and decisive age of God’s salvation and new life had begun. The sacred barrier in the Temple rent asunder, now allows the people to come into the presence of God. The rocks being split open frees God’s people from the grip the world has on them. The graves being opened; the dead are now free to live again.
The earthquake is a metaphor that Matthew uses to tell us what the resurrection means to us. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God shakes us free from the grip our sin, the world and death have on us.
What has its grip on you? A wrong that you did; something you should have done but didn’t, or something you regret saying and now it is too late. Does an illness, the uncertainty of employment, or a personal problem have a grip on you?
The world has its grip on us. We can’t shake ourselves from the volatile economy, from high gas prices, the increasing cost of living or from the many anxieties of making a living, keeping a home, and raising our children. Even the presidential campaign has a grip on us – who will we vote for? Who can we trust? Who will fulfill what he or she promises?
We may be caring for elderly parents, or an ill or disabled family member, or we may be looking after a friend who is in need of our support and care. We are carrying heavy burdens. Our loads are weighing us down.
It does feel sometimes like we are pinned under a great rock. We squirm and wiggle but we cannot free ourselves. Or it seems as if we get sealed in by a great rock obstructing our freedom.
Where is that line in the sand that when we cross it, we will enter the new era when our burdens will be lifted, when the rocks that seal us can be rolled away, and when the powers of evil, injustice and death are negated and destroyed.
It is going to take quite a powerful force to free us. We are not pinned under little rocks. Nor are we in shallow pits, or under light burdens. We are in need of a great earthquake – a great power of liberation to set us free from all that holds us in its grip.
On that first Easter Sunday, the two Marys experienced the great earthquake that is Jesus’ resurrection. It not only rolled away the stone sealing Jesus’ grave, but it also freed them from their sorrow and grief. In seeing the empty tomb and being greeted by the Risen Lord, the rocks of sorrow and grief that held them were split open. They were lifted out of the pits of their fear, despair and helplessness. They saw in the living Jesus, the new era of God’s presence and salvation.
Surely, all of these events made them to be afraid. But when Jesus greeted them, he said, “Do not be afraid.” Now their peace was not just that evil had subsided, but that God’s presence had fully come into their lives. The new era of God resurrection and new life had fully come. “Death would be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the former things had passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)
Greater than even the tremors that occurred at Jesus’ death, Jesus’ resurrection is the great earthquake that releases the grip that our sin, the world, and death have on us. When Joseph of Arimathaea rolled the stone across the tomb, he thought that was the end. The story of Jesus was over. He was dead. He was done. The huge round stone sealing his grave was a gigantic period at the end of his life. Joseph walked away. What more was there to do? It’s over.
And yet Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained, sitting opposite the tomb. To them there was more to come. On Sunday morning, the earth shook and sure enough more came.
As we sit opposite the empty tomb of Jesus on this Easter Sunday, our trust and hope are in the Risen Lord. The power of His resurrection is now among us. Just as the women took of Jesus’ feet, so now we can take hold the Risen Lord in Word and Sacrament, expecting the great earthquake of resurrection and new life to free us from whatever evil holds us in its grip.
The empty tomb is our good news that God now dwells with us. No grip of evil, rock or tomb can hold us. God is the one who shakes us free to have forgiveness and new life, and at our last hour to give us resurrection and everlasting life.
“Do not be afraid,” says our Risen Lord, for he is our sure and lasting peace. It’s not over for us. Jesus is risen. Alleluia. Thanks be to God.