Matthew 28:1-10 He is Risen, Just as He Said!

It’s Easter! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed is how the church has greeted each other for thousands of years each Easter. The world has never been the same since Jesus rose from the grave and left his tomb. That first Easter was a crazy kind of day after a crazy bad weekend. Everyone’s waiting to see what’s going to happen, both enemies and friends. No one’s really expecting a resurrection, but there is a sense of uneasiness. Jesus’ enemies are actually more prepared for something unusual happening. The religious leaders ask Pilate for guards to be placed at Jesus’ tomb and a seal placed on the rock to prevent anyone from coming to steal Jesus’ body and then claiming he’s still alive, while most of the followers of Jesus are hiding away in a locked room, mourning and afraid.

Morning has arrived, the sun is peeking above the horizon and Mary Magdalen and the other Mary head off to look at Jesus’ tomb. They know where Jesus’ body is because they followed Joseph of Arimathea Friday when he had taken Jesus’ body down to place it in his own tomb. The unusual now begins, “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightening, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” The angel’s now guarding the tomb as an honour guard, while the soldiers guarding the tomb are lying there like dead men; so much for the religious leaders’ plan.

The first words out of the angel’s mouth are, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said,” powerful words at any time, but especially powerful to the women, and to us in a time like this when many of our plans and hopes are up in the air. How do you live with the hope and comfort of the resurrection in such unsettled times, when even going to the grocery store can cause you to catch this nasty virus? God recognizes the power of fear, this is why the first thing most heavenly visitors say is, “Do not be afraid.”

With Easter, we discover the power Jesus has; power even over death, power over viruses and economies, over all things. This doesn’t mean there aren’t difficult times and that we won’t get sick, lose a job, business or even life, but we know that in all things, God is in control and that Jesus is with us; nothing can separate us from the love of God, Paul tells us in Romans, and Jesus tells us that he will send his Spirit to be with us always, something we’ll celebrate at Pentecost!

And yet, the surprise of everyone in the resurrection story is somewhat surprising. Jesus told his followers many times that he would die and then rise again in three days; check out Mark’s Gospel where Jesus tells everyone in chapters 8, 9 and 10, and still they don’t really believe it. Jesus tells Martha at the death of her brother Lazarus in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life.” I wonder if they just spiritualized it, and if we often do the same thing, not really seeing how the things Jesus teaches us fit in real life, but we simply put it off until heaven. Why should we be surprised that even today, many people have a hard time believing that Jesus really rose from the dead, that he’s alive right now and is with God in heaven, a real place, not just some make-belief place in the clouds when even those closest to him had a hard time accepting it.

The angel goes on and tells the women, “Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” The women are still afraid, but can’t help feeling joy with the astonishing news, joy in hearing that Jesus’ enemies haven’t succeeded, that death isn’t the end of the story, instead resurrection and life is. But it’s still hard to believe and so as the women hurry from the tomb, there’s still fear mixed with the joy. I believe this is why Jesus appears to them with a word of greeting and the familiar, “Do not be afraid.” Seeing Jesus, touching him, hearing his voice, makes it finally, completely real and true! Now they go forward with confidence to do as Jesus told them, “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

It can be hard to believe in the resurrection, even Jesus’ disciple Thomas had a hard time believing, even though the other 10 disciples told him they had seen and talked to Jesus while he was gone. Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus before he could believe. Even the 10 disciples had a hard time believing Jesus was alive at first, as Luke writes, “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.”  

Jesus tells Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This is us, and yet, even though we haven’t seen Jesus in the flesh, that doesn’t mean that our faith is based on thin air. We have a faith based on an empty tomb, even the chief priests acknowledged the empty tomb, creating a story that is still told today, that the disciples came during the night and stole the body while the soldiers slept. The soldiers were paid a large sum of money, because they were confessing to failing to do their job as soldiers; something they would be punished for.

There is the testimony of eyewitnesses, especially the women’s testimony. We may wonder, what’s the big deal about the women’s testimony, but at a time when women were often marginalized, the only reason to include the women’s testimony would be because they were really there and reported what they saw and experienced. They weren’t the only witnesses, Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,  and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”

The greatest proof for me though is how Jesus’ resurrection changes, transforms people. Jesus’ resurrection has had a long-term impact on the lives of Jesus followers for thousands of years. The original disciples were cowering and afraid in a locked room, filled with fear and grief, unable to move forward and they were changed almost instantly into bold joy-filled witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. These disciples then went out into the world and preached the joy filled gospel that Jesus came as one of us and he died for our sins and was raised after three days as a sign that God accepted his sacrifice on our behalf. Many of the disciples gave their lives for the gospel. Why would they give their lives for a lie; it’s only for something they believed in with their entire being that would compel them to offer up their lives for Jesus: a living Jesus. Many of you have your own times of experiencing Jesus’ presence, his closeness in your own lives.

This is the great message still today; that Jesus is risen, death is not the end, and that the sorrow, grief and fear many of us are living in this Easter is not the end of the story. Jesus comes to change the world, to renew it and restore it. God goes before us and is with us always, as we are reminded in Deuteronomy 31; nothing can separate us from Jesus’ love as Paul reminds us in Romans 8. Celebrate today that Jesus is risen, just as he said and he is still at work today, renewing and restoring the world for his return.