[Sermon preached on 1 April 2018, Easter Sunday / 3rd year, ELCF Lectionary]
“Were you there when they crucified our Lord?”
It is a rhetorical question. Of course, we were not there when they crucified our Lord. The drama that we watched at the beginning of the service gives us some idea of the people that might have been there. We heard them tell how they might have experienced the dramatic events on Calvary. The shepherd, the Roman officer, Peter, and Mary—they were all touched in their own personal way by what happened that day. Each of them had gone through some unique experiences with Jesus. Each of them had a unique relationship with him.
When we look at today’s Easter Gospel, we see women going to the tomb where Jesus was buried immediately after the crucifixion. It is Sunday morning. They want to pay their respects to Jesus and anoint his body.
Like the other disciples, they are disillusioned and perplexed. What happened on Friday is impossible to grasp. It should never have happened. It is the abrupt and cruel ending of what should have been a success story for the whole nation of Israel. The man whom they loved and who was destined to rule Israel as king forever, lays dead and buried.
All the disciples are overcome by fear and despair. The Eleven are hiding. They dare not go to the tomb out of fear of being caught by the authorities. Only the women have the courage to go.
What happens when they arrive at the tomb is really beyond description. There is an earthquake—perhaps an aftershock of the one that struck Jerusalem the very moment when Jesus breathed his last breath. At that very moment, they see an angel coming from heaven and rolling the heavy stone away from the opening of the tomb. It is such a frightening event that the brave Roman soldiers faint on the spot.
The women are scared to death. But the angel comforts them and puts them at ease. “Don’t be afraid.” Those are the same words that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary when he announced the birth of Jesus. For Mary, the sister of Lazarus, there is another point of recognition. It is not long ago when Jesus commanded the tomb of her brother to be opened. Then, they saw a revived man, who had been dead for days, walking out of the tomb. Perhaps that is what she expects to happen on Easter morning, when the angel has opened the entrance of the tomb. But no. Jesus does not come walking out. The tomb is empty already. The body of Jesus has disappeared, even though the entrance was closed and sealed all the time.
The angel speaks words of hope:
“I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, just as he said.”
I doubt whether, in this rapid sequence of events, the truth dawns on the women, who are still full of fear and confusion. Matthew tells us that when they rush off, they are still afraid, but mixed with their fear is another sentiment: joy. But what really changes their mindset and their lives once and for all is when on the way back to the city they encounter the risen Lord Jesus.
The resurrection of Jesus is a historical reality. Even though many scholars have tried to disprove the biblical accounts of that first Easter, there can be no reasonable doubt that what the Gospels tell us about Easter is true. More than that, it is not only true in a historical sense, it is also crucial to our Christian faith and life. Many liberal theologians want to deny the historicity of the resurrection, and of the virgin birth, and of the miracles of Jesus, and of a lot more. They want to make us believe, that it doesn’t really matter. They claim that, even if Jesus had never risen from the dead, it does not take anything away from our faith. We can still believe in Christ in many other meaningful ways.
But that claim is in total disagreement with what Peter, Paul and the other preachers in the early church proclaimed. For them not the death of Jesus on the cross but his rising from the dead is the central point in the Gospel. Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, leads the crowds to a dramatic summit of his speech. After accusing them of killing the man whom God has chosen, he says:
”But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Paul goes further still. In 1 Corinthians 15 he argues:
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. – – If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
There is no doubt whatsoever, then, that the resurrection of Jesus as proclaimed by the Gospels is both historically true and absolutely essential for our faith. But there always remains a question that needs an answer—an answer from you and me: What is it to me, personally?
Imagine with me for a moment, that Jesus after his resurrection had gone in hiding somewhere. Or suppose he had been taken up into heaven immediately, instead of hanging out for forty days with his disciples. Would the sight of the empty tomb have been enough to support them in their faith of a risen Lord and Savior even in the face of fierce persecution? Would their disappointment, their despair, and their fear have made place for joy, hope and anticipation that could stand the test of time?
I doubt it. I believe that the community of disciples would have dispersed quite soon. in no time, their hope in the kingdom of God and in Jesus as their Messiah would have vanished into thin air. The whole project would have been abandoned right there and then.
It is not the historical reality of the empty tomb. It is not the promises and predictions of Jesus. It is not the earthquake or the angel. They only left the women “confused, but on a higher level.” What comes next is the life-changing moment for them. They have a personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus.
I cannot recall having heard of any atheist who became a Christian purely on the basis of historical evidence. Perhaps there are some, and perhaps you know some, or you have read books by people like this. But the overwhelming majority of people, that have come to believe in Jesus, have done so after some form of personal encounter with Jesus.
I have heard of Muslims who became Christians without ever meeting a Christian or reading a Bible. Many of them claim that it was because Jesus appeared to them in a dream or a vision. I have read testimonies of criminals who became Christians while sitting out a long term in jail. It was because the Jesus of the Gospel stories became a reality to them. The Spirit of Jesus touched their hearts and their consciences. He literally came into their lives.
The Apostle Paul knew very well the historical realities surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus. But it was not until he met Jesus personally on the road to Damascus, that he was able to believe and give his life to the service of the gospel.
For the women who hurried away from the scene at the tomb, the resurrection became a personal reality the moment they had a personal encounter with Jesus.
There are many people on the face of the earth, who call themselves Christians. They basically accept the claims of the Bible, at least intellectually. They are active members in a faith community. And yet they have not encountered the living Lord Jesus personally. They are like people who know the fountain of living water, who are offered the bread of life, and yet do not drink of the water or eat of the bread that can truly give them life.
In Christ, God offers us eternal life, citizenship of the kingdom of heaven, and adoption into his family. But we must personally receive that gift from him. We must receive Jesus in our lives. We must enter into a personal relationship with him. The facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus are of no benefit to us, unless we take ownership of him—make Jesus our own, so to say.
That is the first lesson to draw from today’s Gospel lesson. There is a second lesson to be learned.
When the women who rushed from the tomb towards the city bumped into Jesus and recognized him, what did they do? Matthew says that “they came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.” They did not just stare at him, they did not run away, they did not try some small talk. They fell at his feet, clasped them, and worshiped him.
We know that no serious Jew—man or woman—would ever worship any other than the One God who had revealed himself to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses, and to the prophets. After all, the first of the Ten Commandments emphatically states
“I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods besides me. – – You shall not bow down or worship them. I am an envious God.”
The women who had followed Jesus for quite some time, who had financed his mission, and who had believed that he would be the man destined for the throne of David—these women recognized in the risen Jesus the Son of the living God. And they reacted in the only appropriate way—in worship.
Worship is more than coming to church for a worship service. It is more than singing songs of worship and praise. It is more than uttering sighs of prayer, telling Jesus how good and wonderful he is. Worship is the recognition of Jesus as God, the Son—not just a man of God. And it is the proper response to his godhead to humble ourselves before him and let him be God in our lives—in each and every aspect of it. That involves respect and obedience. It involves letting him take command over our lives, determining the direction to go. Someone long ago once said, that if we want to get to heaven, we must allow our Captain of Salvation to steer us towards our destination.
The third lesson that we can draw from the Easter story for today is this. If we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and worship him as the god of our lives, that worship leads inevitably to mission.
If we are serious about letting him call the shots in our lives, we will find that he calls us to be missionaries—to go out into the world with the mission to witness of his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to heaven, and to share the hope of his coming again in glory. That is what we confess every Sunday in church, as we join together in affirming our common Christian faith.
It is easy to affirm that, when we are gathered with like-minded people who are likely to agree with us. But what about the world outside the walls of St. Matthew’s Church?
The angel told the women: “Come and see… and then go quickly!” And Jesus repeated that command: “Go and tell!” The good news of the gospel is not something to be enjoyed in the privacy of our lives or in the fellowship of like-minded Christians. It is meant to be spread everywhere.
The last command that Jesus gave his disciples before being taken up into heaven, at least according to the Evangelist Matthew, is this:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In this Great Commission the three facets of today’s Easter story come together wonderfully well.
First, Jesus reveals that he is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father has given him authority that knows no boundaries. He rules over heaven and earth, and that is why we should worship him and submit our lives to him.
Secondly, Jesus sends us to make disciples. As we witness of his life, death and resurrection, we also call people to receive him as Lord and Savior and to follow him in worship and service and mission. Can people hear in our speech and see in our lives that standing invitation to join us in following Christ?
And thirdly, the Great Commission ends with the promise of Jesus’ presence with us always and everywhere. When we are sent out, we do not go away from his presence. We are not on our own. The personal encounter with Jesus is not a one-off thing. His presence is a privilege that we can enjoy every day, everywhere—that is, if we want; if we don’t turn away from him. That is his promise for us.
Let us, then, follow in the footsteps of the women who were the first to encounter the risen Jesus: in seeking his presence day by day, in worshiping him as our Lord and Savior, and in going out to call people in.
Christ is risen! — He is risen indeed!
Amen.
