Now after the
Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for
an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone
and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as
snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the
angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who
was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the
place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen
from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will
see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with
fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:1-8 ESV)
On
resurrection morning a few women went very early to the burial place of Jesus.
He was no longer in a grave and an angel said he was alive. The women reported
to the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Luke
records two disciples going back home to Emmaus in deep discussion later in the
day. Why these two chose to leave Jerusalem after hearing a miraculous report
is anyone’s guess. Their leader and friend was back alive and they did not
stick around. Amazing!
They told
an unrecognized traveler “some women told us Jesus had been raised from the
dead.” These confused disciples were debating a report given by some women. If a person refuses to
accept the testimony of reliable eyewitnesses the only recourse is pure
speculation.
A
conclusion out of the errant Jesus
Seminar reads: “The disciples had an experience. They said, ‘Wasn’t it
great being around Jesus before they killed Him? You remember those great
stories He told? … Just thinking about it makes Him seem almost still here ...
Let’s all close our eyes and believe real hard that He’s still here.’”
The
disciples were simple and ordinary people. These were not imaginative minds,
writers of drama and creators of art. His followers were the kind of people who
could see a crucifixion and not get a queasy stomach. The idea of a physical
bodily resurrection is reported by
common laborers, not created.
First
century people, like you, believed when someone dies they are dead. Many may
consider a resurrection possible someday in the future yet, at the same time,
live in everyday reality. Most hope for eternity but also want their world un-rocked
by the resurrection of Jesus.
Is this why
Matthew says the earth shook on Resurrection Morning? Luke describes
resurrection as a meal on Sunday evening. John has the resurrected Jesus
encounter Mary Magdalene in the garden. Yet Matthew sees the resurrection as an
earthquake, with a barrier removed and an untroubled angel sitting on the
stone.
The gospel writer
introducing the New Testament records an earthquake on only two occasions. The
first is the moment Jesus died on the cross. The result was the temple veil rent
in two from top to bottom. His death gives everyone access to God.
The second earthquake
is the moment Jesus was resurrected. The aftershock of the cross was a stone rolled
away from His tomb. His life provides everyone a relationship with God.
Seattle
regularly experiences tremors and earthquakes. In the spring of 1966 I was attending
Queen Anne High School and taking an exam early one morning in an English class.
Two students sat at a table in the classroom. The person sharing the table with
me occasionally vibrated his legs, sometimes knocking against the desk.
The table
began to move and I was about to ask my classmate to quit knocking the table leg
when I noticed the whole room was shaking. The floor was buckling like rolling
waves. The experience was exhilarating and exciting.
Earthquake
drills at schools in the Pacific Northwest were as common as fire drills in
other places. Throughout my growing up years I experienced several tremors, and
they rarely caused alarm. Earthquakes were out of the ordinary but still
business as usual.
Matthew
says Resurrection Day was an earthquake. The whole world was shaken, yet no longer business as usual.
The Resurrection
is not explained
People
often try to explain the resurrection. Some say Jesus was in a deep, vinegar-laden
drugged coma and woke up. Others say the disciples got all worked up in their
grief and fantasized the whole thing. Still others say the body was taken while
the guards were sleeping.
You cannot
explain the resurrection. The resurrection explains you. The truth about Jesus
is seen in the testimony of the dumbfounded disciples. Not one of them expected
His resurrection. In one way the disciples probably did not want a resurrection.
Death, while regrettable, is at least explainable.
If Jesus
would have stayed in the tomb they could have said, “It was a good campaign
while it lasted. We almost got Him elected Messiah but death spoiled
everything. We had hoped, yet now it’s time to face the facts. Hey, is anyone
interested in getting something to eat?” This is what happens at funerals. We
face the facts and go back to the church to eat lunch.
People are
much more comfortable when they can explain something. How does someone handle
the resurrection? How do you deal with something when things do not happen as
they normally do?
People live
in the tight death grip of the facts. Everyone is encouraged to face the facts.
The fact is, all that lives dies. Although a sober thought, some things stay
the same. When someone is dead they stay that way. The resurrection cannot be
explained with complete satisfaction.
The Resurrection
is about God
Resurrection
is not about the resuscitation of a dead body, or the immortality of the human
soul, or a divine spark enduring after the body dies. That is Plato, not Jesus.
The
resurrection is not even about the human spirit continuing when the body is
placed in the grave. Resurrection is about the One True God. Not a sympathetic
but ineffective Good Friend, not some inner experience, but the Lord who creates
a way when no way exists, the One who makes war on evil until evil is undone. The
resurrection is about the Heavenly Father raising the dead Jesus and clearly
revealing He is in charge. The empty tomb is about the Creator designing a new
heaven and earth for believers and one day bringing about their resurrection,
clothing them in glorified bodies.
Although
mere speculation, could the earthquake angel sitting on the rolled away stone
be the same angel shaking Joseph one night with news of Mary carrying a divine child?
God did on Resurrection Day by invading the tomb what He did at Christmas in a
virgin’s womb. He made a way when there was no way.
The angel sent
to tell Joseph the infant Immanuel was to be named Jesus, could be the same
angel telling the women at the tomb, “Do not be afraid. He is not here. He has
risen.” The child “God with us” grew up, was crucified, made the earth shake,
and is on the move to take back the world.
On Good
Friday the world did all it could do to Jesus. On Resurrection Day God did what
He can do to the world and the earth shook.
The Resurrection
is witnessed
A person
does not explain the resurrection. It is witnessed. Is this why the risen
Savior appeared first to His own disciples? They heard Him teach, saw Him heal
and watched as He loved the poor and attacked the rich. They witnessed His
arrest by soldiers, His trial by religious and political judges, and His
execution by crucifixion.
Jesus came
back first to His disciples because they would be able to recognize the risen
Lord as none other than the crucified Jesus. The execution of Jesus was not
just an unfortunate distortion and falsification of truth to a Roman governor. Crucifixion
is the inevitable, predictable result of saying the things Jesus said, doing
the things Jesus did and being the Savior that Jesus is. The world always treats
harshly anyone who threatens business as usual.
On
Resurrection Day God inserted a new fact. The Lord took the cruel cross and
made it the means of triumph. He took the worst people could do, all their
death-dealing doings, and brought life. The resurrected Jesus picked up a piece
of bread, ate it, and His disciples saw the nail prints in His hands. At that
moment they discovered the world is about life, not death, and the earth has
been shaking ever since.
Resurrection Day
A
devastating earthquake occurred in China in the middle of the last century. As
a result a huge boulder was dislodged from a mountain. Behind the rock was a
great treasure of wonderful artifacts from a thousand years earlier. A new
world suddenly became visible.
On
Resurrection Day the earth shook and the stone was rolled away. The disciples
got their first glimpse of a new world, a world where death does not have the
last word, a world where injustice will be made right, a world where innocent
suffering will be vindicated by the intrusion of a powerful God.
The women
came to the tomb to write another chapter in the story of deaths’ dominion, one
more episode of how the good always get it in the end. This is the way life is
suppose to end, not with a bang but with a whimper of resignation that death
has won. And then the earth heaved, an angel appeared, the stone was rolled
away and the soldiers shook.
The angel
said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus? He isn’t here.” Could
this same angel have possibly turned to the soldiers and said, “Be afraid! Everything your world is built upon is being
shaken.”
Nobody at
the tomb went back the same way they came. Resurrection Sunday declares the
world will never be the same because God has come and shaken everything up.
Enter your
celebration of the resurrected life by proclaiming to one another, “He has
risen!” or give the victorious response, “He has risen, indeed!”
[I stood behind a
pulpit on Easter for 36 years talking about the resurrection, looking at the
greatest event ever told through several windows. The outlines were created and
developed from my personal study of Scripture. Yet to get the creative juices
flowing, I also developed a discipline of reading what is sometimes referred to
as “Sermon Starters.” They helped me gain fresh approaches to telling His story.
Occasionally a sermon starter was so exceptional it was more than a starter but
the sermon itself. The outline of the article today was too good to make better. I put
some of my personality, my writing style and word usage, and a couple of
personal observations into the narrative but, generally, the telling of this
ageless event was designed by someone else. I wish I knew their name. I would
gladly give them credit.]
