A<\/em>fter the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, \u201cDo not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, \u2018He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.\u2019 This is my message for you.\u201d So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, \u201cGreetings!\u201d And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 28.1-10 NRSV)<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Christ is risen!\u00a0 He is risen indeed!<\/em>\u00a0 Yes, in a world that sometimes seems to offer nothing but tragedy\u2014war, prejudice, violence, natural disaster\u2014He is risen indeed!\u00a0 That is the good news of this day\u2014that Christ breaks free from all that would bind him.<\/p>\n This theme is wonderfully told in Matthew\u2019s gospel.\u00a0Let us go back just a few verses and see what Matthew tells us about the tomb of Jesus.\u00a0First, we hear about Joseph of Arimathea, who is, Matthew says, a disciple of Jesus.\u00a0He gets Pilate to give him Jesus\u2019 body, and he places it in his own tomb.\u00a0Then Joseph rolls \u201ca great stone to the door of the tomb.\u201d\u00a0Joseph is trying to see that the body of the dead Savior is kept secure.\u00a0After all that has happened, he fears that enemies will come and desecrate the grave.<\/p>\n But the authorities are afraid, as well.\u00a0The Pharisees go to Pilate out of concern that Jesus\u2019 followers might steal the body and claim he has been raised from the dead.\u00a0At their request, Pilate has the tomb sealed, andhe \u00a0posts guards to ensure that there is no funny business.<\/p>\n Of course, it is all for naught.\u00a0Christ breaks free!\u00a0As Charles Wesley\u2019s great Easter hymn puts it:<\/p>\n Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Christ has burst the gates of hell.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Vain the stone, the watch, the seal<\/p>\n Then Matthew very methodically tells how all the human precautions are indeed vain!\u00a0 First, the seal is broken and the stone is rolled away.\u00a0Then the guards are struck down.\u00a0And the tomb itself is empty!\u00a0Nothing keeps him in, nothing!\u00a0Christ breaks free!<\/p>\n And it happens in our world, again and again!\u00a0Sometimes those who try to keep Christ imprisoned are his enemies.\u00a0George H. W. Bush, when he was Vice President, witnessed what he called the \u201cmost profound act of civil disobedience.\u201d\u00a0He was attending the funeral of Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev.\u00a0The funeral was long and dreary, as almost everything about the Soviet system seemed to be.\u00a0Brezhnev\u2019s widow stood throughout the ceremony, betraying no emotion whatsoever as the Soviet ritual droned on.\u00a0But when the soldiers moved in to close the casket, Mrs. Brezhnev stepped forward; and there, in the presence of the high priests of atheism, in that society officially hostile to all religion, Mrs. Brezhnev leaned over and made the sign of the cross on her husband\u2019s chest.\u00a0Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!\u00a0Christ breaks free!<\/p>\n Sometimes it is Christ\u2019s friends who try to hold him down.\u00a0Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple, with the best of intentions, is the one who placed the stone in front of the grave\u2014the stone on which the angel now so casually sits!\u00a0Ah, the friends of Jesus too often try to hold him down!\u00a0Perhaps the most common example is our tendency to keep our faith a private thing, to insist that what really matters is our own personal religious experience.<\/p>\n But Christ will not be kept down!\u00a0There is a wonderful story about a monk who one day in the chapel was having an incredible experience of Christ.\u00a0Christ was so real to him that day, so utterly present!\u00a0The monk longed to stay there and enjoy the presence of his Lord.\u00a0But he remembered that his job that day was to go into the town and serve the homeless and the destitute.\u00a0So he left the chapel to do his service.\u00a0When he returned that evening to the chapel for evening prayer, he found Christ waiting for him.\u00a0\u201cHad you stayed,\u201d the Lord said, \u201cI would have gone.\u00a0Because you went, I have stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n Christ breaks free!<\/p>\n We see much the same idea in Matthew\u2019s account of the women.\u00a0The angel instructs them to go and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised.\u00a0They might have lingered at the tomb; if I encountered an angel, I think I would love to linger!\u00a0But they go running to do the task they\u2019ve been given\u2014and Jesus, says Matthew, met them on the way. You see, we so often try to hold him back!\u00a0We try to keep him in\u2014to lock the doors of the church and keep him here!\u00a0But he breaks free!\u00a0He meets us, not here in this building, but in life, in the needs of those around us, in the tears and sorrows of the world.\u00a0That is where he will be, and where he asks us to find him.\u00a0Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!<\/p>\n Now of course Christ\u2019s breaking free goes far beyond a tomb in Jerusalem twenty centuries ago.\u00a0The seal was broken, the stone rolled away back then; but he is yet today rolling away the stones that pervade our lives, the stones that try to keep us in, the stones of despair and hopelessness, of fear and anxiety, the stones of hatred and resentment.<\/p>\n Gail Zimmerman\u2019s life fell apart when she got a call one winter morning saying that her mother had been struck by a pick-up truck, driven by a seventeen-year-old high school senior named Christine.\u00a0The police investigation indicated the girl was not really at fault; she had simply turned a corner and been blinded by the sun, and in that instant failed to see the pedestrian. For months Gail felt resentment and anger.\u00a0She hated that this girl could go on with her life, while her own children would not remember their grandmother.\u00a0Then one day she chanced to see Christine in the park, and the expression on her face made it clear that \u201cgoing on with her life\u201d was not really what was happening at all.\u00a0The girl felt terribly responsible and guilt-ridden, even months later; and when\u00a0Christine cautiously approached Gail and asked how she was doing, Gail took a deep breath and suddenly saw what life looked like right now from Christine\u2019s eyes.\u00a0Gail asked her if she\u2019d like to come to lunch one day and talk.\u00a0And slowly, out of so much pain, grew a deep and lasting friendship.\u00a0Christ breaking free\u2014rolling away the stone of resentment and anger.<\/p>\n Rolling away the stone<\/p>\n When the Berlin Wall was first erected, tensions were high between East and West.\u00a0Adding insult to injury, the East German authorities one morning brought truckloads of garbage to the wall and threw it over into the West.\u00a0The West Berliners were outraged, and much talk occurred about how to respond.\u00a0But Mayor Willi Brandt had the perfect answer, and it is what happened.\u00a0The West Berliners gathered together all the flowers and fragrant greenery they could find, brought them to an appointed place beside the wall, and threw them over on to the Eastern side.\u00a0A huge banner was erected:\u00a0\u201cEach gives what it has!\u201d\u00a0The East German communist government had thrown garbage; the West German people threw back flowers.\u00a0Christ breaking free\u2014rolling away the stone of hostility and division!<\/p>\n And what are the stones in your life that need to be moved, the stones that would keep you in the darkness and despair of the tomb?\u00a0Fear?\u00a0Sorrow?\u00a0Prejudice?\u00a0Self-doubt? Anger? Nothing can keep Christ from rolling those stones away and breaking free.\u00a0Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!\u00a0On this Easter morning, the glad news is that Christ has broken free, and he wants to meet you!\u00a0He offers to release you<\/em> from what binds you, to free you<\/em> from your prison.\u00a0There was nothing and is nothing that could contain him; and with him, there is nothing that can contain you. <\/em>Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!\u2014not just for him, but for you.<\/em>\u00a0For Christ is alive!<\/p>\n Look, now he stands!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Stones could not hold him down for long;<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The Risen One is made upright and moves again.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He speaks, he is God\u2019s wish of life raised up for all:<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Our Lord Christ lives in resurrection strength made strong.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This broken world\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n is touched by Christ; oh, rise and live,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Creation, rise.\u00a0Your Lord is <\/em>risen<\/em> indeed!<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He shapes all things, transforming them;\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n he makes them new:\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He blesses all existence in the living God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [George Utech, Lutheran Book of Worship #<\/em>152]<\/p>\n May he bless you this day and roll away the stones that keep you from life and joy. For Christ is risen!\u00a0He is risen indeed!<\/em><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Pastor Richard O. Johnson<\/p>\n Webster, NY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Easter Day | April 09, 2023 |\u00a0Matthew 28.1-10 | Richard O. Johnson | After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,157,108,110,305,3,109,285],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-18026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-28-chapter-28","category-nt","category-predigten","category-richard-o-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18026"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18031,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026\/revisions\/18031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=18026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}