EASTER SUNDAY -A - 17 MATTHEW 28. 1-10
“Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus
who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come see the
place where the Lord lay.”
That is the Easter message the angel delivered to
the women who had come to the tomb to mourn the death of their beloved Jesus.
Not only were the women terrified by the earthquake, and by the angel’s
appearance, but even more so by the fact of the empty tomb. Before they can
collect themselves the angel sends them on a mission to tell the disciples that
Jesus is risen from the dead and that He will meet them in Galilee.
The angel had
rolled back the stone to allow the women to look inside the tomb to see for
themselves that Christ had already risen. However, Matthew does not tell us
that they did. It seems they took the angel’s word for it and ran away from the
tomb as fast as they could with fear mixed with joy. Could it possibly be true,
what the angel had said?
That’s when they ran into the risen Lord. Amazingly
they recognized him and fell at his feet and worshipped him, still trembling
with fear. Jesus tries to quiet their fear by allowing them to touch him and
then he sends them on their way to accomplish the mission given them by the
angel at the tomb; “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, there they will
see me.”
Matthew’s account of that very first Easter is one
filled with fear. The guards were frozen stiff with fear. The women were afraid
of the sight of the angel, afraid of the empty tomb, afraid of the
resurrection. So they ran away from the scene as fast as they could still
afraid of what was said concerning Jesus, and what might come next.
What came next for them was the sight of the
resurrected Jesus, and even then their fear was present. What were they afraid
of? They were not afraid of the dead, that’s why they had gone to the tomb in
the first place to mourn. But it appears that they were afraid of the idea that
Jesus had risen from the dead and what that might mean for them.
After hearing this story many times over, we sit
here today still amazed at the idea of the resurrection from the dead. The
women who went to the tomb were afraid of it and the disciples, when they first
received the news, did not believe it. In our own day the very opposite is
true. We fear death and are still puzzled at the idea that God can raise the
dead. Many still don’t believe it.
Yet we are Easter Christians whose very faith is in
Him who died and rose again and in the Hope of the resurrection to eternal
life. Are we not here today to celebrate that very idea? That’s what kept the
early Christians going in the face of centuries of persecution. They believed
that they would one day be re-united with Him who died and rose again.
That’s what keeps us going today, is it not, when we
stand at the grave of a loved one or friend. Isn’t it the hope that they will
be resurrected with Jesus and that one day we will be re-united with them? That
there is life after death?
What keeps us, then, from living the new life that
Jesus Christ’ death and resurrection brings to all who believe in him? What
keeps us from holding fast to the Hope of eternal life? More often than not our faith is like that of
the women who ran from the empty tomb with mixed emotions - of fear and joy?
Sometimes I think we are still afraid of the very idea and what it might mean
for us.
We want to believe. We want to hope that it is all
so true. But death seems so final, even though we go to great extremes to mask
it. The angel referred to Christ as the One who was crucified, teaching us not
to shy away from death, but to glory in the cross, which is the weapon Christ
used to destroy death and the trophy of his victory.
If only we could see Him. If only we could touch Him
as the women did on that first Easter morning. The original Christians experienced
Jesus in their midst. He appeared to them after his resurrection. He ate and
drank with them. Where is our direct encounter with the risen Lord? Where do we
meet him today?
We can’t meet Jesus in the way the women did that
morning. It is a vital part of Christian belief and experience, however, that
we can and should meet Jesus in spirit, and get to know him as we worship him
and learn from him. That personal and intimate relationship with the living
Lord is central to what being a Christian means in practice.
So where can we touch him, see him? We meet Him in
the breaking of the bread, in His body and blood in the Eucharist, the memorial
of His Passion. We meet Him in His Word as we read and share the Holy
Scriptures. We sing “Jesus Christ is risen today,” because we see the risen
Christ all around us, in the faces of those sitting besides us, in the bread
and wine of the altar, and in the people we encounter in each moment of our
lives.
What God did through the resurrection of Jesus, was
the beginning of a promise from long ago. Jesus’ resurrection is the
fulfillment of God’s purpose for the redemption of the world, and a vindication
of the Son of Man’s suffering. It was the start of God’s new age that continues
until Christ comes again and God’s kingdom here on earth is, at it already is,
in heaven.
The resurrection of Jesus changed the world forever,
as it changed the lives of the women who first met the risen Lord outside the
empty tomb. It changed the lives of the disciples who met Him in Galilee where
they were commissioned to a new work; a new way of life.
It continues to change the lives of those who meet
Him today, whose eyes are opened to recognize Him, and whose Faith opens their
hearts to receive Him; and where fear is replaced with Joy.
“Do not be afraid;” the angel said, “for I know that
you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen as He said.
Come see the place where the Lord lay.”
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The
Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! AMEN+
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