EASTER: EARTHQUAKE

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.]