Happy Easter, Everybody!
I came across an imagined scenario of the two Roman soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb on that first Easter morning. Each had his cup of coffee in hand. Moments before the angel showed, one soldier said to the other, "Cheer up, it’s Sunday morning. The way I see it, we’ve got one more day of guarding this tomb. By Monday this whole thing will be forgotten."
Two thousand years later, over two billion people claim the name of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Far from being forgotten.
The Easter Story has been read for us this morning. Around the world, yesterday and today, people are being confronted with the historic event of an empty tomb where the dead body of Jesus Christ was placed.
If you were there, what would your response have been?
There were four different responses recorded in Matthew 28:1-20. The women believed the truth. The soldiers negotiated the truth. The religious leaders of that day rejected the truth. And the disciples shared the truth. When faced with an empty tomb, what is your response?
Maybe looking at why each responded differently will help us respond more wisely.
First the women believed the truth. We see this in verses 1-10.
Two women with one agenda came to the tomb where Jesus was buried. Their agenda was to pay their last respect to Jesus. The Gospel of Mark tells us they brought fragrant spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus, maybe to mask the odor of the dead body.
When the women arrived, an angel of God rolled back the stone that blocked the mouth of the tomb. You need to know, the stone was rolled away not so Jesus could exit, but so two grieving friends could express their final act of love to Jesus. But maybe more importantly, the stone was rolled away so that the truth of Jesus’ resurrection could be known.
The women believed what the angel said. Would you have believed, if you were there?
An old issue of the Focus on the Family magazine had an interview with Johnny Hart, the cartoonist for the comic strip, BC. The magazine reprinted one of his cartoons.
The caveman is on his knees praying, and he says, "It’s not easy to believe in you, God. We never see you. How come you never show yourself?"
In the next frame he asks: "How do we know you exist?" Just then a volcano blows up in the background, a daisy sprouts from the ground and topples a rock, a wave washes over him, two meteors converge in the sky to form the image of a cross.
Finally the drenched caveman stands up and says: "Okay, Okay...I give up!" And as he walks by a burning bush and an empty tomb, he mutters, "Every time I bring up this subject all we get are interruptions."
Many see God’s answers as interruptions, because we have our own agendas and expectations. Let me suggest that these women believed, because they didn’t have many agendas.
A Muslim man told me that his worshipping Allah made him wealthy. I told him that his agenda to be wealthy kept him from believing that Jesus Christ is the true God.
The women believed because they had no selfish agenda. They came to pay their last respect to Jesus. Their hearts and minds were not cluttered with selfish ambitions. They saw with untainted eyes and heard with unhurried ears. The evidence of their belief was found in their eagerness to tell others this truth - that Jesus has risen from the dead.
The women believed the truth, but the soldiers negotiated the truth. We see this in verses 11-15.
You’ll notice the soldiers saw and heard the same things as the women did. The difference was the soldiers placed their agendas above the truth. They negotiated the truth for self-protection and selfish gain. They chose to keep their jobs and to accept a bribe over acting on what they knew was true.
How many of us know the truth that a lying tongue displeases God? How many of us have negotiated this truth to protect ourselves from losing our job, losing our privileges or gaining a client and a contract?
How many of us know the truth that Jesus is the only way to God? How many of us negotiated this truth so as not to be seen as intolerant? We face the same temptation as the soldiers, to negotiate the truth for selfish gain and self-protection.
People don’t believe the truth that Jesus died and was raised from the dead, not because the evidence doesn’t support the truth. People don’t believe because the truth doesn’t support their lifestyle or personal ambitions.
If Jesus really did die for our sins and really was raised from the dead, then God takes sins seriously. Furthermore, if Jesus was raised from the dead, then He is the only way for us to have peace with God, and we can’t choose our own way.
God’s truth is non-negotiable. When we negotiate God’s truth, we can never come out ahead.
Jesus asked in Mark 8:36-38, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels."
The women believed the truth, the soldiers negotiated the truth, and the religious leaders rejected the truth. We also see this in verses 11-15.
You might be wondering why, of all people, the religious leaders rejected the truth. Let me give you some background information and some insight into sinful human nature.
Matthew 27:15-18 records, "Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate (the governor) asked them, ’Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’ For he knew it was out of envy that they (the religious leaders) had handed Jesus over to him."
The religious leaders were envious of the miracles, the crowd and the recognition Jesus was getting for his teaching and works of compassion. Envy can turn even the most pious men into a lynch mob. We’ve seen this even in America’s history.
These religious leaders felt threatened by Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing. Their convictions and careers were in jeopardy. They reasoned that sacrificing an innocent man for their establishment was acceptable. And they arranged the crucifixion of Jesus.
When the soldiers reported the empty tomb, the religious leaders felt threatened again. Rather than admit they wrongly killed the Son of God, they decided to cover up their mistake.
It’s one thing to cover up a mistake done to a helpless victim, but another to cover the mistake done to God. Neither is moral, but the latter is impossible.
Yet many succumb to the same temptation today. Consider the growing establishments that teach and support macroevolution. If there is a God, and if He made the complex and orderly universe, then the evolutionists’ convictions and careers have been one big mistake. Few are humble enough or courageous enough to admit wrong and to start on a new path.
Maybe on a smaller scale, each one of us struggles with admitting wrong and asking God for forgiveness and guidance. We’ve invested too much time, too much energy and too much pride into what we believe, and we are unwilling to see the truth.
If you’re struggling in this way, let me encourage you to humble yourself and to muster up the courage. There is no shame in having made mistakes, but there is great shame and great foolishness in trying to cover up the mistakes.
Listen, God is able and willing to help us. That’s what the empty tomb is about. Our offense against God has the consequence of death. But God, in his love and graciousness, pays the fine and offers eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:8 tells us, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The women believed the truth, the soldiers negotiated the truth, the religious leaders rejected the truth, and the disciples shared the truth. We see the commission to share the truth in verses 16-20.
History records the eleven disciples of Jesus gave their lives to share this truth, even when the establishments were using Christians as scapegoats for the religious and political turmoil of the first century AD.
Have you wondered what changed these eleven disciples of Jesus?
Realize that on the night Jesus was arrested, they all fled for their lives. Simon Peter denied ever knowing Jesus Christ. Of the eleven, only John was recorded to be present at the crucifixion. What changed these cowardly men into courageous martyrs?
Simon Peter was crucified upside down for sharing this truth. James was run through with a sword for sharing this truth. Bartholomew was hacked to pieces for sharing this truth. Only one died of old age. John, for sharing this truth, was exiled to Patmos, a horrible island.
Charles Colson, the former counsel to President Nixon, was convicted for conspiring in the Watergate scandal. Colson wrote that the Watergate cover up convinced him that Jesus was raised from the dead.
He explains, "There were only 8 or 10 of us in the inner circle around the President who really knew what was going on. All we had to do was stonewall for a couple of months and the Watergate scandal would be over. We had all the power and prestige of the Presidency at our fingertips.
"And if the truth broke, there would be embarrassment and perhaps a prison sentence. There was no grave danger. Our lives were not threatened. But we could not hold the conspiracy together for more than two weeks.
"We could not contain the lie. Once prosecution was possible, the natural instincts of self-preservation was so overwhelming that the conspirators one by one deserted their leaders.
"They caved in, and they stood in line at the prosecutor’s office to escape jail."
Colson concludes, "I know that [Jesus’] disciples could not perpetuate a lie like the resurrection, because it was not just their reputations that were at stake, their lives were in danger. They had no clout. They had nothing to gain by the lie. And yet, every one of them stood fast in the conviction that Jesus is alive.
Take it from one who saw first hand how vulnerable a cover up is: Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain their dying whispers that Jesus is alive, and He is Lord!"
The women believed the truth; the soldiers negotiated the truth; the religious leaders rejected the truth; and the disciples shared the truth. When faced with an empty tomb, what is your response?
Let me close with a Peanuts’ cartoon: Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of a television set, when Lucy said to Linus, "Go get me a glass of water."
Linus looked surprised, "Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me."
"On you 75th birthday," Lucy promised, "I will bake you a cake."
Linus got up, headed to the kitchen and said, "Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to."
What are you looking forward to 75 years from now?
How you choose to respond to the empty tomb has a great deal to do with how you live life now and what you have to look forward to 75 years from now.
Jesus said in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Closing Prayer
I will lead us in a closing prayer. If what I pray expresses the desire of your heart, simply whisper "yes" after each statement. God will hear. Let’s pray:
Our Heavenly Father, we don’t understand such great love demonstrated on the cross, and such great power demonstrated in the empty tomb. And that makes it hard for us to believe.
Our lives are so full of selfish ambitions and self-protecting agendas that we missed out on so much of what You want to give us. We are so fearful and prideful that we are unwilling to admit wrong and change. Help us, God.
I admit that I fall short of the life you desire for me to live, and I receive the gift of eternal life that you desire for me to have through what Jesus has done on the cross.
And I will share this great truth with others as You have commissioned me to.
In Jesus name -- Amen!
Happy Easter, Everyone!
