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The Resurrection of our Lord - Easter
Day
(A) Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen! Today’s Easter gospel has two great messages from God. One is a message of invitation. The other is a message of command. Both of these messages were given to the two Marys, the first persons at the tomb. One was Mary Magdalene, from whom, as Luke's gospel puts it, "seven demons had gone out". We don't know exactly what that means, but we DO know that Jesus had totally transformed her life. In her gratitude she had ministered to Jesus and his disciples during his earthly ministry, and she was among the last persons at the cross and the first one at the tomb. The other Mary was a woman whom we know almost nothing about, except that she was a follower of Jesus and very devoted to him. But whatever, what exactly were the messages that were given to those two women...and what were they all about? And what do they mean for us today? The first message was an invitation from the angel at the tomb to “Come and see.” This is Easter's invitation! Come and see the greatest thing that ever happened on this earth! See it for yourselves and thrill to it in your hearts! “I know that you are looking for Jesus,” the angel said to the women. “He has been raised!” Those four words in English, “He has been raised”, are only one word in the original Greek – Egerthei! Surely this is the mightiest single word ever spoken on earth in any language! With just one word the greatest event in history was announced! “EGERTHEI! He has been raised!” And along with it came God's invitation to “Come and see!” What did the women see? They saw four things in quick succession. First, they saw an angel of the Lord sitting on the huge stone, which he had rolled away from the opening of the tomb. The angel shone like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. The stone had been placed at the entrance to keep anyone from getting into or out of the tomb...specifically to keep the disciples from possibly stealing Jesus' body and then proclaiming that he was alive! The stone was huge, but the first thing the women saw was that it had been rolled away and that the angel was sitting on it. For nothing, no matter how large and imposing, was going to stop God from accomplishing His purpose! The stone had been rolled away as easily as any of us could roll away a penny! This certainly has something to say to us today. It shows us that anything in this world that obstructs God's purposes, no matter how large and imposing, will ultimately be rolled away, and an angel will sit on it in victory. Nothing can stand in the way of God's loving will! The second thing which the women saw were the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb lying around on the ground like dead men. They were there in order to make sure that a "RESURRECTION" did not happen. But when God's time had come, not even the troops of the mightiest power on earth could stop Him from acting. “Come and see” how those who oppose God fall flat on their faces in the end! This does not mean that everything is yet perfect. It certainly is not. Today we still have many who work against God's loving will. In this world we still have terrorists, militarists, criminals, drug pushers, pornography peddlers, and the like. We have warfare and injustice and oppression. BUT...when God's earthquake comes, all those who hate and oppress and exploit will be just like the soldiers in today’s gospel. In the end, those two defenseless women in that garden at dawn walked right through a squad of armed soldiers because God had flattened them! “Come and see!” The third thing that the women saw was an empty tomb. God had not only rolled away the stone and flattened the soldiers, but He had also conquered death! The greatest and final enemy of humankind had been vanquished. What a victory! And yet I am afraid that many people, even Christians, have not fully grasped its message. Right now many Christians are terribly upset that Terri Schiavo, the woman in Florida who has been comatose for fifteen years, has had her feeding tube disconnected and is about to die. They seem to be focusing only upon the bad in this case. But today especially upon this Easter Sunday, - no matter which side of the issue we are on - whether she should be allowed to die or whether she should be kept alive - we all as Christians should be focusing upon the RESURRECTION that is awaiting this woman! If we really believe the message of Easter – and I would hope that we do – we should all be proclaiming to the whole world right now that we are not afraid of death! We should not be afraid of Terri’s dying and death! (I am afraid that we have not been hearing that message proclaimed - by either side!) As Christians, we should all be proclaiming to the whole world that even though Terri may be about to die, she will be victorious over death and will be raised to a glorious, new, eternal life that is FAR, FAR better than the one she has been having! Do we believe that? Do we really believe that? I do! I believe that Jesus’ victory over death on Easter is also our victory! I believe that when we die and are laid to rest, we will not be in the tomb forever. I believe that on the last day we shall rise again and our tombs will be empty – just like Jesus’ was! “Come and see!” Then fourthly, best of all, the women saw the risen Jesus himself. He met them and said, “Greetings!” “Come and see” and meet Jesus for yourself! You may not be able to take hold of his feet like the woman in our gospel reading did, but you can have your own personal encounter with the living Christ! You can feel His power and experience His love! You can meet Jesus through hearing his gospel and sharing in his Holy Supper of Communion. And this living Jesus, who is with us now, continues to change the lives of people today just like he changed the lives of those two women on that first Easter Sunday. "COME AND SEE! COME AND SEE!" But...there is also a second message in our Easter Gospel...the message to “Go and tell!” This is the message of command from the angel when he told the women to “Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’” And of course that is exactly what the two Marys did, for as our gospel lesson tells us; “So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” You know, there are some interesting things about this. In those days it wasn't proper for women to run, and yet these two Marys took off like deer. They couldn’t help it! This great good news was bursting in their hearts, and they simply had to tell it! As a commentary on this passage says, all of the Easter accounts in the New Testament have a sound track of RUNNING FEET. Peter and John raced to the tomb when they heard the news in the gospel of John. And here the women RAN from the tomb to tell. Every one of the four Gospels has people running with the news of Easter! You see, our Easter faith is not just a private, personal thing that is supposed to be kept to ourselves. It is meant to be shared with others! The urgency for Christian mission and witness began with that angel's command to “Go and tell.” Were the two Marys nervous about doing this? Of course they were! But they were filled with fear and GREAT JOY! Although nervous and somewhat afraid, their JOY was greater than their fear, for as the gospel tells us, they had “Fear and great joy!” May we here at Pella Lutheran Church and the Church the world over feel the JOY of that first Easter...the JOY that overcomes our fears of putting our faith on the line, our fears of doing new things, our fears of what other people might think about us...and go RUNNING to share the GOOD NEWS of a resurrected and living Jesus Christ! How and where does this happen? When thinking this over it is interesting to note a rather obscure point in today's gospel lesson. The angel told the women to tell the disciples that “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” Why Galilee? Why would the risen Jesus want to meet his there? Galilee was over 70 miles away...a good three and a half day walk. But Galilee was the disciples' home, the scene of their everyday life, their working world. God wanted Easter to transform the disciples’ everyday life and working world. Jesus did not rise to life on the Sabbath. That was their "holy day" of the week. He rather rose on Sunday, equivalent to our Monday...a WORKDAY...the first workday of the week. What does that say to us here? Perhaps it tells us that God did not intend Easter to be just a Sunday experience for us. God rather meant Jesus’ resurrection to influence us when we are at our work, at home and at school, changing the whole climate of things there. The risen Christ is Lord – not only in Church on Sunday – he is also Lord in our everyday world! In other words, for Christians Jesus’ resurrection does not just make a joyful difference in our lives just once a year on Easter. Or even just once a week on Sunday mornings. Jesus’ resurrection at Easter should make a real joyful difference in everything that we do and wherever we are! Jesus’ Easter resurrection – if we really believe it – should give us a NEW LIFE and a NEW OUTLOOK on everything! Perhaps today we need to ask ourselves; “Is Easter 70 miles away from powerfully affecting our everyday lives? Are we conscious of Christ’s living presence in our ‘Galilees’?” But finally, we also see in today’s gospel that Jesus did not wait until Galilee to reveal himself. He met the women as they ran from the tomb. Jesus did more than was promised. He met them right then and there as well as later in Galilee! God always does MORE than He promises, never less! Although God's promises are fabulous, His performance always far exceeds them! What a matchless God we have!! And so we have heard the two messages at dawn on the first Easter from God's angel at the empty tomb to the two Marys – and to us: “Come and see!” and “Go and tell!” When we “Come and see” and experience the risen and living Christ...our lives can be transformed with love, gratitude, and joy! And then, may we “Go and tell” with running feet what it all means to us in our lives. May we “Go and tell” our neighbors, our relatives, and our friends about our excitement and about our experiences with the living Jesus and his church and invite them to also “Come and see!” When we do this, Easter becomes something that is much more than just a once a year event. It becomes something that can make a real difference in our lives today, wherever we are! May it be so among us! For Christ has been raised from the dead! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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