GO QUICKLY AND TELL

April 16, 2017 (8:30am)

Easter

Matthew 28:1-10

Acts 10:37b-42

This morning begins where Friday left off.  Jesus is dead... executed (officially) as a traitor to the Empire,  but (more accurately) the victim of a brutal regime ruling with the power of fear... a non-threatening ideologue treated like a dangerous criminal to send a message to anyone considering upsetting civil order.

Most of Jesus' close followers spent the weekend huddled behind locked doors... evidence that Pirate's decision to execute the group's leader was wise (from his perspective): it created enough fear to paralyze the followers.

Only one thing could get a few of them venture outside... giving Jesus a dignified burial with aromatic spices.  The women would leave as early as possible on Sunday morning to minimize the chances of running into any trouble.

Matthew 28

¹After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And 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.³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ ⁸So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

#412VU "This is the Day"

The various gospels vary in their descriptions of the women's reaction to finding the empty tomb. 

The passage I read from Matthew is a nice amalgam of the accounts in the other gospels... it contains most of the major details we associate with the Easter story:

- the women came to the tomb at first light: sadness in the dominate emotion,

- they discover that the stone is rolled away: fear accompanies sadness,

- an angelic messenger proclaims that Jesus is risen: the women are told to 'not be afriad',

- the women are told to share the good news of Jesus' resurrection,

- Then, Jesus appears in person... alleviating any doubt about the angel's proclamation.

The four gospel accounts vary on who is involved (how many women? did men go check things out?), how quickly people believed, and ... when and where the risen Jesus appears and to whom.

The phrase I really like in Matthew is the angel saying, "go quickly and tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead."

I like the urgency of this instruction.  Sadness and Fear dominated the women when they arrived at the tomb and realized that something was not quite right.  Relatively quickly those emotions were transformed into Reverence (fear) and Great Joy.

But back in the upper room, the rest of the followers of Jesus were still grief stricken and worried.  In the urgency of the instruction (go quickly and tell), I hear a desire to transform the mood of the rest of the disciples in the same way it has happened for the women.

#121MV "Singin' Hallelujah"

Matthew's version doesn't describe how the disciples reacted when they were told the women's story, but - in the other gospels, the words (on their own) are not very convincing. Luke says that the others called it an idle tale.

For the most part, it is not until Jesus (himself) appears do others believe... the disciples in Emmaus when Jesus broken the bread; Thomas' need to see and touch; even when Jesus appeared to them in Galilee, Matthew says that 'some [still] doubted'.

Easter is a hard to believe part of our faith... it runs counter all that we know about how things operate in this world.

For those earliest, most fearful and grief stricken disciples... words were not enough to believe that Jesus Is Risen.  So, it appears that a few special resurrection appearances were arranged to get most of them over the hump.

If all that was important was for people to believe that Jesus was physically resurrected, there would have had to have been an endless string of Christ appearing behind locked doors with his crucifixion wounds available for inspection.

But the next step for Jesus' followers was not simply to bask in the knowledge of resurrection, but to learn to live and minister in the name of the Risen Christ.  The mission of the church was not to only proclaim Christ Raised, but to share Jesus' basic message dating back to his time with John the Baptist ... the realm has come near!

A few years later when Simon Peter shared his faith with the household of Cornelius, it was not just the Easter story he told.

Acts 10

^37bBeginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.

We carry the same legacy as Mary, Peter, Cornelius and the countless other believers throughout these last two millenia.

From the old, we travel to the new.

#639VU "One More Step"

Go in peace to great this new day with hope and promise.  Amen.