Easter Day, 12 April 2020 | Sermon on Matthew 28:1-10 | by Paul Bieber |

 

Matthew 28:1-10 Revised Standard Version

 

28 Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre. ² And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. ⁴ And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Lo, I have told you.” ⁸ So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

 

also

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Colossians 3:1-4

 

There They Will See Me

 

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

 

Mary Magdalene and the mysterious “other Mary” go to the sepulchre after the sabbath has ended. They were there when Jesus died and when he was buried, and now they are here as the first day of the week is dawning. Where are the Palm Sunday crowds, the disciples, those Jesus healed? Where are we? We’re keeping our “social distance, missing the Resurrection Liturgy as only communities of persecuted Christians have in the past. This year our season of fasting, prayer, and works of love is not over yet; the long Lent of A.D. 2020 goes on. How can the message of resurrection be heard when there is so much fear?

 

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s greatest intervention in the course of human events. As Matthew tells us, it is an earthquake, shaking the foundations of life as this world understands it. The stone and the guards are as nothing to the power God wills to release. No earthly power can frustrate God’s will to raise the dead. For fear of God’s angelic messenger, those who thought they were alive discover that what they took to be life is like death.

 

The angel does not announce a message about the Son of God, the Son of Man, the King of the Jews or of Israel, but rather about a crucified man. This is the one raised from the dead. This is the life God wills to vindicate. The angel interprets the empty tomb and invites the Marys to come closer and see the evidence. Then the angel’s message—go quickly and tell this: he has risen; he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Those who hear this message will have to go almost 100 miles from Jerusalem before the promise of seeing him is fulfilled. We have walked through Lent pondering the cross and suffering of Jesus and of stricken humanity all around us. Maybe we need a little more strengthening to go on.

 

Jesus appears with his familiar greeting to reinforce the angelic message. He calls the disciples who denied and abandoned him his “brethren.” Calling us brothers and sisters is offering us forgiveness for our lack of faith, casting out our fear, bringing us to trust, forgetting the times when we have not confessed him but lived as if he had not been raised from the dead, letting fear of death determine our living.

 

This is Jesus’ reinforcement of the angelic message, and this is the apostolic preaching. Peter, who goes from denier to witness of the resurrection and apostolic preacher, addresses us today in his last great missionary speech in Acts, at the conversion of Cornelius and his household. He speaks of the message to Israel that spreads beyond Israel, a message of the unity and equality of all humanity before God. It all began in Galilee with John’s baptism, when God the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit. Jesus went about doing good and healing those who were oppressed by the devil; sin is here defined as oppression by the evil one. And so to preach that Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead is to proclaim that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins in his name.

 

And so there is no need to fear—at least not to fear as those who have no belief in this promise. Fear comes from the attempt to secure our lives in the face of death, an attempt that can never succeed. The resurrection of the crucified shows the Father’s decision to justify the ungodly, to reckon faith as righteousness, to show us who we are as justified sinners: like the Marys, yes, fearful, but with great Easter joy even as we journey on to the place where we will see Jesus.

 

Before the Marys set off to tell Jesus’ brethren and journey to Galilee, they worship him. The risen Jesus can not only be seen but also touched. The resurrection is not an idea, not virtual; there is no social distance in the resurrection. Worship is the central activity of the new reality of the church. This year we are living in anticipation of the fullness of that reality returning. The Word is preached, Baptism is remembered, but we fast from the gathering for the Sacrament of the Altar. The brothers and sisters of Jesus are waiting for the family meal where we, too, will eat and drink with the risen one.

 

In this time of fasting from the Eucharist, we need some strengthening to go on, in the form of the baptismal catechesis of Colossians, mystagogical catechesis in the language of resurrection. In Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection we have died. Our lives are hidden with God in Christ, hidden until he is revealed and we with him. That is to say, while our pilgrimage goes on each one of us can say that it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me, no longer ego but the mind of Christ, bringing us to union with the crucified and risen Christ in the Spirit of his resurrection and so with the Father who raised him, who raised us from the baptismal waters, and who has promised to raise our frail and fallible bodies to Christ’s glory at the last.

 

Trusting that promise we are freed even now from trying to justify ourselves, to secure our lives, to save ourselves from virus, sins, or temptations. Rather, we have been freed by Jesus’ rising to live as children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, reborn in the Spirit, finding life by being unafraid of losing it, dying and rising daily on this baptismal journey.

 

For the resurrection is the vindication of Jesus’ finding life by losing it, the servant glorified, the one who emptied himself even to death on the cross exalted. The sacrifice of the Son has been accepted by the Father. That acceptance brings a joy that drives back our fears, by beckoning us into a way of life, a trust so compelling, that all our fears will be coupled with resurrection joy.

They went with fear and great joy. Jesus is alive, filling us with strength and hope to go on. The outcome of our lives, of human history, will be different than could have been expected because of God’s intervention, Jesus’ resurrection.

 

As you journey on to Galilee, tell this joy to someone who needs to hear it. And journey on in trust. You will see him, as he promised. Your life is hidden in him until he is revealed, among his brothers and sisters. Back where the ministry began, they will be regathered in forgiveness. And he will call us back to where he gathered us as a family, drawn by the promise. Fearful, yes, probably, in our frail humanity, but with great Easter joy.

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber, STS

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net