Luke 24:1-12 I remember when my son Jacob was little,
he climbed into my lap and asked me, “Dad, how old will I be when you
die?” That’s the world we live in, a
world in which little boys have to worry about their dad dying. And I remember thinking to myself, “Dear Lord,
I hope that’s the way it goes! I hope
that I am the one who dies first!”
Because that’s the world we live in—a world where parents have to mourn
the loss of their children.
Ever since God pronounced
death as his judgment on our sin in the Garden of Eden, there has been an
unending stream of humanity being carried along to the grave.
The Bible says in Romans
that “death reigned” from the time of Adam.
But on this Resurrection Sunday, we know that the reign of death has
come to an end because Jesus has been raised from the dead and is alive at this
moment and promises each of us: Because I live, you shall live. The Bible says that:
On the first day
of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had
prepared. And
they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but
when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Every funeral is sad. Jesus wept at the graveside of Lazarus. Paul says that even we Christians
grieve. But for me, the saddest part of
a sad day is when the family and friends of the deceased have to walk away from
the grave, leaving their loved ones behind.
That’s where we left these faithful women
on Friday evening. They saw Jesus die a
violent, unjust death. They heard his
cries at being forsaken by his Father.
They experienced the most sobering reality of living in a broken
world: watching a chest rise and fall
with every breath and beat of a heart—and then, finally, nothing at all, any
more.
Because they were forbidden from caring
for Jesus’ body by the Sabbath, they were there at the grave, early in the
morning on the first day of the week.
They loved Jesus. They wanted to do everything for him that
could be done. Anyone who has planned a
funeral knows that feeling—of wanting things to be right—of wanting to show our
love, one last time.
And so like every other person who has
ever lived, grief marked the lives of those faithful women, death cast its dark
shadow over their morning walk, the grave had swallowed up their loved
one.
They came there that morning to do that
one last thing that we can do for our loved ones and that is to care for their
mortal remains.
We know from the other Gospel accounts of
our Lord’s resurrection that they were worried about who would roll the stone
away from the entrance so that they could care for the body of Jesus—but when
they got there—the stone was rolled away—and no body was found. The Bible says that:
While they were
perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and
bowed their faces to the ground,
I guess they were perplexed about
this! We know how the story goes and so
it doesn’t hit us with the same force as it did them. But imagine going back to the graveside of a
loved one whose funeral was the day before, maybe you wanted to retrieve some
of the flowers—and not only is there no big pile of dirt, the casket is open
and no one is inside!
Perplexed! Astonished!
Amazed! Appalled! Who can even imagine the range of emotions
these women must have felt because if there is one thing we know—one thing that
has the witness of countless billions of examples over thousands of years: those who are buried, stay buried. But not this day! The Bible says that:
The men said to
them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
What
has been true billions of times over for thousands of years--what every person
in the world has experienced—what we know to be true—has been changed forever
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Death is no longer an
unvanquished enemy. The grave is no
longer the final destination for us.
Futility is no longer the verdict on our lives. The Suffering Servant who died for our sins
on the cross-- is now-- and forever-- the victorious Savior and King.
Thirty or so years before
this moment, angels had promised Mary and Joseph and Zechariah and Elizabeth
that a Savior would be born—that God himself would come to the aid of his
people and that God himself would abide with them forever.
On the night of the
Savior’s birth angels sang his welcome into the world and now on this day when
his mighty, saving work was complete—the angels told the simple,
earth-shattering message that changes the entire direction of the
universe: He is not here, but has risen.
What Satan and sin
destroyed—life and fellowship with God—Jesus restored by his death and
resurrection—and with his mighty, nail-scarred living hands he laid hold of the
cosmos he created and moved it away from death and destruction and set it on a
new course of life. That is exactly what
he promised to do. The Bible says:
Remember how he
told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
And they remembered his words,
Those wonderful women, as faithful
as they were, as much love as they had for Jesus—were just like the disciples
and they simply did not believe what Jesus had said.
Anybody who had been paying
attention—anyone who had taken his words seriously and at face value—would have
been there at the tomb early on the morning of the first day of the week—not to
anoint a corpse—but to welcome a conquering king.
Jesus had told them what would happen
again and again: rejection, betrayal and
death to be sure—but also victory and resurrection.
Over the previous week they had seen just
exactly what Jesus had prophesied:
rejection by his people, betrayal by his friends, death and the hands of
his enemies. Every moment foretold by
the Lord. Faithful, faithful, faithful
to his promises as he always is. But not
one of them believed that he would rise from the dead, such is human certainty
that death is the end.
But death is not the end! Not for Jesus and not for us! Yes, we will experience the separation of our
body from our soul just as the Lord did on the cross (unless the Lord comes
first). But the grave did not have the
victory over Jesus and the grave will not have the victory over us.
That was the promise of Jesus and as the angels
preached that sermon one more time, the Bible says that the women “remembered”
Jesus’ words.
That doesn’t mean that they had forgotten
those words (Jesus had said them on a number of occasions) but in that moment
they understood them and called them to mind and they became a new reality in
their lives.
So it must be for us! We have heard the good News of Jesus’
resurrection since we were children but it must become new for us again and
again—laying hold of our heart and mind again and again—and moving us to new
life again and again-- just like it did for the faithful women that day. The Bible says that:
Returning from the
tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna
and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these
things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them
an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
The greatest story ever told—the
story that has the power to change lives for time and eternity-- is told to us
one more time so that we would be moved to tell that story to others.
The Bible says that the Good News of the
resurrection is the power of God unto
salvation—that if we confess with
our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him
form the dead we will be saved.
So it is for us and so it must before
every person in the world if they are to be saved. The example of the faithful women is a true
picture of the church in action, sharing the Good News that sin is forgiven and
death is conquered because we have a living Lord.
And yes, just as it was for the women that
day so it will be for us. The Holy
Spirit had to do his work in their hearts because they came to the tomb
expecting a dead teacher and it was not until the gospel was preached to them
that they believed. When they travelled
to tell the disciples the Good News they encountered the same lack of faith.
But there is power in this message of
Christ’s victory over the grave---life changing, life giving power—and it is
our privilege, our calling, our responsibility to share that Good News even in
the face of rejection and ridicule-- for the power of the resurrected Christ is
infinitely greater than the unbelief that reigns in men’s hearts. The Bible says that:
Peter rose and ran
to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves;
and he went home marveling at what had happened.
So
it would go over the next hours and days and weeks as hearts that were dead in
sin-- and minds that were darkened in unbelief-- were made alive and changed
forever by the resurrection of Jesus.
One by one Jesus’
disciples and friends and family members came to faith—not in a dead
teacher—but in a living Lord --and by the time of Pentecost fifty short days
later, thousands and thousands of people had been born again to a living
hope.
Here
in Peter we see how that change happened:
Is it possible? Is it true! It is!
Why look for the living among the dead?
He is not here because he is risen!
And Peter marveled at this Good News.
Brothers and sisters in
Christ, as we hear this Good News of our Lord’s resurrection, I pray that for
each and every one of us today that same amazement and wonder and awe would be
restored to us anew and that we would never cease to marvel at the resurrection
of Jesus Christ! Amen.
