Easter, 2011 Immanuel Chapel, Matthew 28:1-10
Let me begin by speaking to those of us who were here at church on Good Friday evening. We shudda taken cover. My wife commented this morning, “net time we should pray less and run more.” I could speak this morning about the mighty storms we have had the past week. However, Matthew reports another powerful force that affects lives, as we have seen in Japan in March. “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 on it.”
It was before the crack of dawn on the first day of the week that two women were walking toward the tomb. They had been on Golgotha where Friday Jesus had been crucified between two robbers. The women were present that evening when Joseph of Arimethea laid Jesus body in the tomb and rolled a stone in front of the entrance. Now the women were on their way back to Jesus tomb. But they would be too late.
Before dawn’s rosy red fingers reached above the horizon, three things occurred. An earthquake, an angel and a rolling stone. Friday evening as the church darkened during the Tenebrae service the sky lit up with lightning and rumbled with thunder. Early that first Easter morn, rumbling did not emanate from the sky, but from the quaking earth. Lightning did not flash in the sky but in the appearance of the angel. The grating of stone rolling over stone rasped the air.
The guards Pilate posted to secure and seal the tomb also quaked in fear and fell down like dead men. All the security measures to ensure that Jesus body stay in the grave failed. Neither stones, nor guards nor seals nor death itself could keep God from fulfilling Jesus promise that on the third day he would rise. With the guards fainting dead away and the women still on their way, the only one who witnessed the resurrection was the angel sitting on the stone, flashing bright as the heavenly host had the night Jesus was born.
This was the dawn of the first day of a new creation, and it was good. It was very good. Now, the age of resurrection began burst forth. Now, is the age of life breaking in.. Now, the age of forgiveness was breaking forth. The reign of death was broken. Now the Holy Spirit energizes life through the water of baptism, in the name of Jesus Christ. It was the day of the resurrection of the Lord and the hope for our day of resurrection also dawned.
When the women arrived at the grave, they too were filled with fear. The angel spoke the same message that calmed shepherds abiding in the field the night of Jesus birth, “Do not be afraid.” Now Christmas and Easter are brought together. To shepherds watching their flocks by night the angel announced, “Unto you is born…this day, a Savior Christ the Lord.” To the women the angel said, “You seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here…he has risen.” A Savior born is now the Savior risen.
On Friday, God had given a preview of things to come. Even as Jesus cried out and yielded up his life, the earth quaked and the rocks split, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. And the tombs of many who had looked forward to the coming of the Christ were opened and their bodies raised. As life in our gardens bursts out of the ground in the spring, so life could not contain itself on that Good Friday. It could not wait until Sunday. The power of God’s resurrection burst forth among the saints who trusted God’s promises as it will for us one day.
The English writer C.S. Lewis gives us a picture of the resurrection in the “Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Aslan the lion had been hoisted up on the Great Stone table bound and muzzled. Susan and Lucy the two girls in the story could not bear to watch from their hiding place in the bushes as the witch killed the bound lion with a knife. It was still quite dark when mice began gnawing of the ropes. While the girls were looking out to sea as the edge of the sun was rising over the horizon, “They heard from behind them a loud noise-a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate.” In the growing light they saw, “The Great Stone table was broken into two pieces…and there was no Aslan” Suddenly they heard a voice behind them. They saw Aslan alive. Overcome by joy the girls romped, ran and rolled in the grass as they burst forth in laughter. But Aslan said they had further work to do. With the girls on his back he raced to the castle of the White Witch where hundreds of beings had been turned into stone statues. In the presence of Aslan, life returned as the statues turned from stone to flesh once more.
There have been countless earthquakes and aftershocks around the world, but none as powerful and life changing as the resurrection of Jesus. The aftershocks continue to this day. They started with a few women at the tomb. The angel told them, “Go quickly and tell his disciples.” Filled with fear and great joy they ran to tell the disciples. However, Jesus met them on the way saying, “Good Morning!” They grabbed hold of him and worshipped him.
But Jesus knew there was work to done. Stony hearts needed to made alive again and set to beat to the rhythm of a new and eternal life in Christ. He would see his disciples in Galilee. From there the aftershock of the resurrection spread to Samaria, Galilee, and the Mediterranean and beyond. It has continued to vibrate in you through your baptism. In baptism a tsunami of God’s grace flooded your life destroying sin and death, bringing instead, the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and promise of life and eternal salvation in Jesus name.
Psalm 114 predicted, “Tremble, o earth, at the presence of the Lord.” Someone has written, “The earth which trembled with sorrow at the death of Christ has, as it were leaped for joy at His resurrection.” We also read this morning, “Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sin through his name.” We have work to do in enlarging the joy that comes in the seismic event of Jesus resurrection.
A plane had just taken off when a man pulled out his pocket New Testament and began to read. Eventually the man sitting next to him remarked: “I don’t go much for religion.” Oh?” said the other. “Well, I surely feel you’re missing something.” “Well,” replied the man in a nettled tone, “I don’t see much reason in believing in a Christ that’s been dead 2,000 years.” “What’s that?” replied the other. “Christ-dead? Why, that can’t be! I was just talking to Him a few minutes ago.”
Do you still feel the earthquake of Christ’s resurrection rumbling through your life? You too have been raised with Christ and your life is hidden in God. Through your Christian life, through your baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, through your communication with God in prayer, through the life of Immanuel Chapel, the earthquake continues to rumble and spread. The world looks at our lives as evidence for Christ’s reverberation.
The earthquake will continue until it is ended with a trumpet call when our life will be revealed and we will live with Christ in glory.
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