On Easter Morning A Simple Question, With A Glorious Answer, Challenged And Changed Everything

4.17.22 Luke 24:1–12

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. 3 When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. 5 The women were terrified and bowed down with their faces to the ground. The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they returned from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. 11 Yet these words seemed to them like nonsense, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over to look in, he saw only the strips of linen cloth. He went home, amazed at what had happened.

On Easter Morning a Simple Question, With a Glorious Answer, Challenged and Changed Everything

Just this past week we were cleaning the back of our garage. One reason for doing this was because there was a mousetrap missing beside the freezer. I assumed there was a dead mouse around somewhere close. We eventually found it. It’s one thing to look for a dead mouse, but another thing to look for a dead person. When we were at a class reunion last year, one of our classmates wasn’t answering his phone and none of us had seen him for a few hours. That wasn’t like him. We were afraid he may have had a heart attack, so we gained access to his room to see if he was in there. Thankfully, he was alive and well, resting by the lazy river in a different part of the hotel. But it was kind of scary to think there might be a dead body in a hotel room.

Now think about the women on Easter morning. They knew what they’d find at the graveyard. It was still pretty dark out, and they were going to the graveyard by themselves to ask for the tomb to be opened so they could put some more spices on Jesus’ body. Nicodemus had already wrapped him in 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, but the women didn’t think that was enough: not for Jesus. So they would have to either unwrap Jesus’ dead body and wrap it back up, or even just wrap it in more spices. I’m not sure they thought this through. I would never want to do something like that. Think about the spiritual ramifications of all of this as well. If Jesus was still dead on Sunday morning, it would mean He was a fraud. A part of me would have wanted to unwrap Him and expose Him for the fraud he was rather than show Him any type of love at all.

But these women had no seeming vindictiveness in them. Only compassion. They couldn’t just forget all of the GOOD things Jesus did for so many people. He had healed one of them of demon possession, and you don’t forget something like that. They had seen Him heal so many sick people and raise the dead Himself. They had heard His beautiful sermons. They had seen Him even die with grace and mercy and forgiveness. In spite of the ramifications of what His death may have meant, they still wanted to honor Him even in His death. They couldn’t just shut that off, even if Jesus would turn out to be a fraud. I can’t imagine what that walk would have been like on Sunday morning.

Maybe you can. Maybe you’ve had to get yourself up for a funeral, knowing what you’re going to see and face that day. Standing for hours by the dead body of someone you loved very dearly. Sharing memories. Shedding tears. Maybe that death hits you especially hard at Easter time. A day that is supposed to be bright and full of sunshine has deep shades of darkness and sadness because of death. Maybe you’ll go out to the graveyard too today. Buy some flowers. Put it on a grave. Look at a picture. Get a tear in your eye. No matter how much sorrow you feel, it doesn’t bring them back. It can’t. Maybe that’s why some stay home on Easter. It’s just too sad for them.