Resurrection Power

Matthew 28:1-10 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.  For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for 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 on the road to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”   So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Homily: According to Matthew’s gospel, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary rose early on that first Easter morning.   They came to the tomb with heavy hearts weighed down with grief and disappointment. They came to anoint the body of Jesus. They had no idea what was about to happen. When they arrived at the tomb, there was a great earthquake.……

Not a gentle stirring, not a quiet adjustment, but a GREAT earthquake.  The whole ground began to shake beneath them.

That is how God acts when it comes to resurrection power. God causes the very foundations of the earth to tremble. The old order of what use to be begins to disappear; and the new order bursts forth into a glorious reality.

Some of us prefer that Easter be peaceful, pretty with lilies, music, and sunlight shinning through stained glass widows. But that was not the nature of the first Easter. The first Easter was disruptive. The first Easter shook the earth. The first Easter shook loose despair and gloom from its long held throne.

And isn’t the place where many of us are at today on Easter Sunday?   Many of us come this morning carrying our own sealed tombs: a diagnosis we did not expect, a relationship that has gone sour, loneliness that no one knows about except us, regrets that feel like stones that are too heavy for us to move.

Easter does not come sheepishly into the dark heavy places of our lives. Easter comes to shake us loose from our entanglements. Easter comes to throw open the door to God’s glorious light.

On that first Easter, God sends his angel to roll away the stone. The angel did not roll away to the stone to let Jesus out.  In his glorified body, no barriers could hold Jesus back.  So it was for Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that they angel rolled away the stone. He rolled the stone away to let these two women inside so they could see for themselves that the tomb was empty.

That is what Jesus desires for you and me today. He wants us to see inside the sealed places of our lives. He wants us to see that the darkness and death (which used to be there) is no longer there.

Let us hear the message of God’s contemporary messengers? They are speaking the same message which Mary Magdalene and the other Mary heard, “Come and See. Come and see for yourself the tomb is empty. Come and see for yourself that all of your tombs are empty.

And what emotions did the two women experience.  Having seen that the tomb is empty, what are they feeling. Matthew tells us that they leave the tomb with fear and with great joy.

Fear and great joy?  Isn’t that interesting. Two seemingly contradictory emotions all at the same time; fear and great joy. But isn’t that an honest description of faith. Not fear replaced by joy. Not joy without fear. Both fear and joy all at the same time.

Isn’t that how we experience resurrection power in our lives? Resurrection does not instantly take away uncertainty. Rather it presents to us a new reality, a reality in which we are learning, learning every day; learning to trust Jesus more, more; learning to trust him more today than we trusted him yesterday.

When I think of these two women, I think of Walter Brown. Walter and his wife had eight children. Three of them were born with disabilities. But through all of Walter’s tests and trails he was a faithful member of the little church I attended as a young boy. He sat on the left side, second row back.

And when an opportunity to request a favorite hymn was given, Walter always selected the hymn “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.

I think I remember seeing him smile when we came to the chorus of that hymn; “Jesus Jesus, how I trust him. How I prove him ore and ore. Jesus Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more”.

That was the nature of faith for Walter Brown. His faith caused joy to rise in his heart, But he continued to pray for more faith to gradually subdue the vestiges of fear that still remained in his heart.

Like the two women at that first Easter event, Walter knew the paradox of joy and fear at the same time.  And can we not all relate to Walter, and Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary? I think we can.

I remember when I was considering marriage to another Mary. Mary Jacqueline. There was great joy…real joy. There was a sense that this was right, that this was a gift, that this was God’s grace.

But there was also fear. Not fear of Mary Jacqueline…but fear of the unknown; fear of stepping into something that would change my life forever; fear of whether I could live up to the calling of love that marriage requires.

And I discovered something then that has stayed with me through the years; that some of the most sacred moments of our lives are marked by both joy and fear at the same time.

And truth be told, even now….after years of marriage, after years of ministry, after walking this pilgrimage of faith…that mixture of joy and fear has not entirely disappeared. There are still moments when joy and uncertainty sit side by side in this very same heart of mine.

This reality helps me understand something about these women.  They had seen the empty tomb….but they had not yet lived the full meaning of resurrection. They were standing between what had been and what would be.

And perhaps that is where we often live as well. Maybe that is where you and I are on this Easter morning.

The apostle Paul tells us in First Corinthians (the passage that Sharon read moments ago) that Christ is the first fruits of those who have died. In other words, the resurrection has begun…but it is not yet complete. We are living in between; between death defeated and death finally undone; between the stone rolled away and every tear wiped away.

So it should not surprise us that we feel both fear and joy. Easter does not remove that tension. It simply redeems it.

And that means that if we come this morning with joy. If we come this morning with fear…Christ meets us. If we come carrying both joy and fear…Christ meet us still.

He meets us because the good news of Easter is not that we have it all together.  Instead, Christ is alive in the middle of our unfinished faith.

The tomb is empty. The stone is rolled away. The voice of Jesus still speaks. “Do not be afraid”.  And that is enough; enough to trust the light we have already been given; enough to believe that even now…God is at work, still at work every day in our lives.

He is at work..bringing life out of death, hope out of fear, and joy that no tomb can hold back. Christ is risen indeed. That is the good news of Easter. And to God be glory both now and forevermore. Amen.