Experience An Easter Earthquake!

It happened on an Easter Sunday. The date was April 4, 2010. The time was 3:40 p.m. Pacific Time. It turned out to be the biggest earthquake to hit Southern California in nearly 20 years. The magnitude—7.2 earthquake struck near the border with Mexico in Baja California. The earth shook for 45 seconds. In fact, the earth shook so hard that 20 million people felt it, some as far away as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Over 100 aftershocks followed. Needless to say, this earthquake was a frightening disruption for many Easter gatherings—like those that many of us will enjoy today with family and friends. Thankfully, although there were injuries and destruction of property, only three people lost their lives. And I am sure that on this Easter Sunday many of the thousands of Americans and Mexicans who experienced that Easter earthquake of 2010 will reflect on how their lives were impacted by it.

In our Gospel Lesson for this Easter Sunday from Matthew 28 we heard about a violent earthquake on the first Easter Sunday. It doesn’t sound like it brought any significant destruction of property or loss of life. Instead, it brought disruption. It disrupted a quiet morning for the soldiers stationed at Jesus’ tomb. It disrupted the unspeakable grief of two women who up to that moment believed that Jesus was dead. It forever disrupted the lives of Jesus’ disciples. And I think we can say that it disrupted the history of this world!

Although the earthquake on the first Easter Sunday shook the ground its purpose was to call attention to the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. In that way it “shook people up” I think we could say. It rocked the lives of the soldiers, the women, and Jesus’ disciples. The earthquake at Jesus’ tomb served as a loudspeaker for some earth-shattering news. Jesus is alive! And the earthquake at Jesus’ tomb marked a life-changing moment in time for Jesus’ followers. They would now have a life-changing faith in the living Christ.

It is my prayer for each of us that today we will experience something similar. No, I am not hoping for a literal earthquake that will bring death and destruction to Summerville, SC. I am asking God the Holy Spirit to get our attention this morning and to shake our lives so that we leave this worship service changed forever. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to enable each of us to:

“EXPERIENCE AN EASTER EARTHQUAKE”

I. Hear the earth-shattering news

II. Leave with a life-changing faith

Recall with me some of the details from Jesus’ suffering and death that led up to this earthquake. In the verses just before our gospel lesson Matthew tells us that the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate after Jesus’ death. They warned him that Jesus had predicted that he would rise from the dead after three days. Because of that they asked Pilate to make Jesus’ tomb secure so that the disciples couldn’t sneak in and steal Jesus’ body. They might then claim that he had actually risen from the dead. Pilate ordered this to be done. So, they went and made the tomb secure by putting some kind of official seal on it and posting a guard there. The seal made it a crime for anyone to open Jesus’ grave. The guards were there to enforce that fact. But the Easter earthquake announced that someone with greater authority wanted the tomb opened. Then the earthshattering news about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead could create life-changing faith in those who heard it.

I.

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” We know from Mark’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel that the women went didn’t just go to look at the tomb. They went there to finish Jesus’ burial. Remember that on Good Friday they had to hurriedly bury Jesus before the Sabbath started at 6:00 p.m. So they brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body according the custom of the Jews at that time. But as Jesus predicted they never got to use those spices. Matthew continues, “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” Don’t you wonder if at least a few of the people in Jerusalem asked each other about the earthquakes that weekend? Remember that there was one on Good Friday. Matthew wrote this in the chapter before our Gospel Lesson that when Jesus died, “The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.” And then on Sunday morning there was this earthquake at Jesus’ tomb. It seems like at least a few people would have asked about what was happening.