Easter 2019

EASTER

Back in 1922 a British archaeologist named Howard Carter became famous when he discovered the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun, a young Egyptian pharaoh who lived and ruled in about 1332 BC. Other tombs in Egypt had been found before this, but what made this tomb so unique was the fact that it still had everything in it. There was so much wealth that it took 7 weeks to get all 5400 items of treasure out. Among these treasures was a solid gold coffin, golden face masks, chests, chairs and even 7 model boats. Even though he only ruled for 10 years, a great deal is known about his the life of this pharaoh because of the objects that were recovered from his tomb.

Tombs often are able to tell us a lot about a person. Tomb stones themselves are often said to be a summation of one’s life. Today however I want to talk about the greatest tomb of all time, a tomb that changed the world forever. Unlike the tomb of King Tutankhamun it was a simple, empty tomb.

John 20:1-8 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

Today is Easter. It is a celebration of the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. So what does the empty tomb of Jesus remind us this morning? It reminds us of 3 important things;

1. God’s Power

The tombs of Egypt are famous because they contained the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian Kings. Westminster Abbey in London is revered, because in it rests the bodies of English nobles and notables. Arlington cemetery in Washington, D.C. is revered for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans. But the tomb of Jesus is famous not for what it holds, but because it is empty.

The empty tomb reminds of God power. It is the fulfilment of many prophesies written hundreds of years before Jesus was even born. They told how the Messiah would die, be buried and how he would be raised from the dead. The resurrection was God’s definitive demonstration of power. It transformed the lives of everyone who experienced the risen Christ, infusing them with new found courage and hope.

There were those who try to argue that the resurrection did not really happen. Some say that Jesus was not really dead when he was laid in the tomb. They think he was beaten until the point of death, so that he could no longer stand, then had his hands and feet nailed to a cross, pierced with a spear so that water mixed with blood poured out of his side. He was then verified dead by an expert in death and buried in a tomb, tightly wrapped in 100 lbs of linen and spices. That he suddenly came too, threw off the wrappings and pushed aside the 2 ton stone that normally took 20 men to move, breaking the Roman seal and scaring away the guards that were there.

Others argue that the disciples stole the body of Jesus. The fearful disciples who fled so they wouldn’t even be associated with him by the Roman authorities, somehow came together and overtook the trained Roman soldiers and moved the stone. Their fear was somehow transformed into relentless courage, with which they all would go out and die for what they knew to be a lie.

Others argue that the disciples simply went to the wrong tomb that morning. That Mary and the other women, then Peter and John went to the wrong place. That Joseph from Arimathea had forgotten where he had placed Jesus and that the guards had simply run away for no reason.

The truth is that Peter could stand forty days later and proclaim to everyone that Jesus had risen from the dead and no one could dispute his story because they all knew it was true. All the authorities had to do to stop those early Christians was produce the body of Jesus. They couldn’t. He had risen.