Easter Sunday - Matthew 28

The Natural History Museum in London used to have an earthquake simulator. You’d stand in the middle of a pretend Japanese supermarket and the floor would move, literally, under your feet. You’d get jolted back and forth. It always felt a little bit tame – I suspect they didn’t want anyone to hurt themselves and sue them – and I imagine the real thing would be a lot more frightening. When there’s a real earthquake, nothing is the same again. The tectonic plates beneath our feet will be in a different position to how they were before. Sometimes a whole new island or set of islands might be produced, as happened off Pakistan’s coast in 2013. Sometimes there are landslides or avalanches. Sometimes great buildings fall to the ground and whole cities are razed.

The resurrection was a seismic, world-changing event.

• According to the original Greek in Matthew’s Gospel, the earth quaked or shook when Jesus was born and the magi came to ask “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” King Herod, especially, was disturbed. It was a political earthquake, shaking up the status quo.

• And then the same word, from which we get our word ‘seismic’, was used when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the cheers of many, and all Jerusalem asked “Who is this man?”

• And then the earth quaked again when Jesus died on the cross and the curtain in the Temple that separated God from people split in two.

• And then, here on the first Easter day, when Jesus came back to life and the tomb was opened we read that there was a “violent earthquake” (v.2). Not only that, when it says that the guards were ‘shaken’ the same word is used. It was a ‘manquake’. The worldwas being shaken up… turned upside down by the invasion of God’s kingdom.

The resurrection signalled the start of a new age. There is a lot of apocalyptic imagery over the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday – rocks being split in two, the dead being raised, the earthquake, the angel like lightning – to those who experienced it, it must have felt like the end of the world. We know it wasn’t the end, but it was certainly the beginning of the end, the start of a new era – as the world was invaded by God’s Kingdom; as God’s victory over evil began to reverberate through the powers and principalities.

As this new era takes hold, we see four big shifts in Matthew 28:

1. Fear > Peace (vv.5-9)

The first shift is from fear to peace.

The women, understandably, are afraid. They come expecting to anoint a corpse, and there’s an earthquake, an angel and an empty tomb! They don’t understand what’s going on.

But the angel echoes the words of God throughout scripture: “Do not be afraid!” The angel then says twice, to really let it sink in: “He is not here, he has risen.” The angel shows them where Jesus laid, explains that this was all part of the plan – and sends them off to meet the risen Jesus. As they go to the disciples, Jesus meets with them, and again we hear those words: “Do not be afraid!”

Their fear is quelled by the presence of the living Jesus… just as it was when they were caught up in the storm on the lake, and Jesus walked out to meet them. Peace is not the absence of storms, it is the presence of God, the presence of Jesus in the midst of the storm. We need to hear this in the current situation!

So the disciples hold on to Jesus, they clasp at His feet. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says to the disciples twice “Peace be with you!” and he goes on to say, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” In Matthew’s Gospel, those words of peace aren’t recorded, but Jesus goes on to finish the entire Gospel with a definitive assurance, an assurance that echoes down the halls of history: “Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.”

The good news of the resurrection is that Jesus is alive. Jesus isn’t dead. We need to let those words of the angel sink deeply into our hearts: “He is not here, He has risen.” He isn’t confined to history like other great religious leaders. Jesus is alive and active – both in heaven and on earth. In heaven, Jesus prays for us at the Father’s right hand. And on earth, Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t leave us on our own. Jesus is here with you right now. So bring your fears to Jesus. Hold on to Him, and to let the presence of the living Christ embrace you and bring you peace.