EASTER SUNDAY, April 24, 2011
On Matthew 28:1-10
It is over. The glorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the last meal together, the praying in the garden, the arrest… it seems too long ago. All they can think of is that Jesus had died a shameful death on the cross just a couple days ago, and with his death the amazing journey, the high times of the disciples are over. The whole movement is dead – like Jesus… it is scattered, locked up, in hiding.
The women had been there, too, and watched from a distance when Jesus of Nazareth, their friend and teacher, was crucified and was buried. They had watched as a great stone was rolled to the entrance of the tomb… as it was sealed, as the Roman guards manned their post to make sure that no-one could go into the grave. Everything was secured – even death. And all that the women can see at the dawn of this early morning is the end. They are grieving. They have followed the traces of death to the grave – the sign of the seemingly victorious power of death. They want to be close to the place of their shattered hopes, their disappointed expectations, their unfulfilled dreams.
Grief is feeling the darkness, and many of us have experienced that darkness. Many of us know that overwhelming feeling of anguish – many of us have felt the agonizing pain over the death of a loved one, or the great disappointment over the betrayal of a friend, or the collapse of dreams, or rejection without a reason. We grieve together as a community, and mourn the loss of our youth to the city.
Mourning has many faces: The young might believe that, when they fail to succeed, they are no longer acceptable in their own eyes and in the eyes of those around them. The older among us might feel disadvantaged and dream of the long gone golden days of their lives and can’t accept the present. These are the traces of death… the graves, the rubble, the ruins that grief and hurts and resignation leave behind.
While the disciples are hiding out of fear to be killed like some criminals… like Jesus, all that Mary and Mary Magdalene can see on this early morning is the devastating loss. They need to be close to the source of their grief.
When suddenly into this state of standstill, into this leaden weight of darkness and grief breaks the messenger of God like a flash. Light illumines this darkest of nights, shines into the deadly nothingness of life, into the hopeless despair. Night turns into dawn. All creation participates in this turn: even the earth quakes when the stone is rolled away from the grave.
And the guards drop to the ground and faint for they are afraid when the angel lands right in front of their eyes, whereas the two women are consumed by grief and sadness that is much more powerful than fear. And they are the ones who get to hear the unbelievable news that the angel brings to them: “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
Christ is risen!
The message brings the women back to life. They leave the angel with fear and great joy. They can’t contain themselves, they have to pass on the good news: Jesus is raised from the dead. Jesus is alive – a message that has been passed on for centuries when the Church celebrates the Easter event.
Then Jesus appears to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” And it is now that Mary and Mary Magdalene fall to the ground – not because they are afraid but to worship Jesus, to worship their risen Lord.
The women’s encounter with the risen Christ is the source and the reason for the existence of the Church, the reason for the God-people movement in all the world, for today’s story does not have an end. In fact, none of the stories of Jesus’ resurrection in the four gospels in the Bible ends, for there is no end. Not even an explanation of how this all happened.
The account of the women with the risen Christ doesn’t get us any closer to the facts.
For that is not the point. The point is that this story continues – unlike any of our stories. Every story we have, young or old, ends. Every story of our lives has ends, death, and grief. But this Jesus-story does not end. Jesus’ blasting of the bonds of sin and death, the story of his resurrection continues. It is to be continued in you and me and in every life that has been touched by the power of the good news that Christ is risen. The first time this announcement was made on Easter morning by the messenger of God who fell out of the sky and told the good news to Mary and Mary Magdalene about 2,000 years ago. And yet the words continues to spread through the centuries, and even now.
Christ is risen!
These words have power. This story makes people want to tell it over again. The women run off to tell the other disciples the Good News. Jesus has risen from the dead. Three simple words have changed their entire world. All those other details, about betrayals, trials, crucifixions and burials, they don’t matter anymore. The woman have heard and seen the story of the resurrection. They have fallen down at the feet of Jesus and the story has been etched on their very beings forever. It is a story given, so that it can be told over and over again.
Because of that story we are here together, not because of an empty tomb, as spectacular as that might be, but we are here together because the story of the risen Christ has kept going, is full of power to this day and beyond. We are here together because the story has shaped us into links, the links in the chain of the continued proclamation that Christ is alive. Any message that doesn’t have the power to proclaim Christ’s life, death, and resurrection dies eventually, and won’t be passed on. But this story lives on. It has not ended. We don’t need to be the first ones at that first tomb, because the message that has been passed on to us through time has the power to bring us to the empty tomb.
Christ is risen!
Jesus, the Word, the Word made flesh, the story of Christ is Risen is still turning death into new life: everywhere where there is death, there God is also. Death is not the end of our stories but in Christ they continue on.
God places us into new life, but it won’t look like angels falling from heaven. And it isn’t the drama that we might expect to unfold. But the life God brings appears in something simple: Don’t be afraid, go and tell it to the world; wherever the story is told there they will see me.” Jesus doesn’t come back to start his ministry again. He is not preaching any longer, or teaching. He does not perform miracles, or picks fights with the Pharisees. But Jesus has come back and says to us: I am alive. Keep the story going. Today isn’t the end. Where there is death God makes alive.
The three simple words ‘Christ is risen’ can’t be contained. These three simple words break into our lives over and over again – here and today and tomorrow…
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed.
