[We] Love to Tell the Story
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Now after the Sabbath,
toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
went to see the tomb. 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. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for
fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to
the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.
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. See, I have
told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and
ran to tell His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”
And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said
to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee, and there
they will see Me” (Matthew 28:1-10).
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Easter morning. The Resurrection of Our Lord. There’s no greater day to
be a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. I’ve yet to
hear of any pastor who has intentionally scheduled a vacation during Holy Week.
Easter is the most significant Sunday, not because of the pastor’s work or
creativity, nor the number of people who show up to church on that day, but because
Christ is risen, death is defeated, and all of God’s promises find their
fulfillment in Jesus. The central task for the preacher on Easter Sunday (as on
any day) is to proclaim Christ, crucified and risen for the life of the world
and the life of each person gathered here this morning. I love to tell this
story!
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Alleluia (with or without the H) is a call to “praise the
Lord!’ It is an invitation to worship. It is our tradition to abstain from
singing the alleluias during Lent. But on Easter, we let the alleluias
ring. It is a call to and an expression of worship. It is most fitting to
worship the Lord for all His faithfulness, for keeping all His promises through
Christ, and especially for raising His Son from the grave!
Whether you’ve never heard it before or heard it for ninety years,
I’d love to tell you the story of Jesus and His love shown in His death and
resurrection.
Time has passed. It is after the Sabbath, early in the morning of the
first day of the week. Something new is about dawn after that dark and
doleful day of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and burial. The two Marys who are headed
to the tomb were among the last to witness Jesus’ crucifixion on Golgotha
(Matthew 27:55-56) and His burial in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb (Matthew 27:59-61).
In their own hearts, they bring that darkness and defeat with them now early on
the first day of the week, for Matthew explicitly declares their purpose
to be “to see the tomb” (Matthew 28:1)—and nothing more. Little do they know
they will be the first witnesses of something so great they could not have
believed.
“And behold, there was a great earthquake” (Matthew 28:2). Significantly, an
earthquake marks both Jesus’ death and His resurrection. These quakes are
obviously more than coincidences of nature; both quakes signal that great and
mighty acts of God are taking place. It is as though God the Father is tying
the crucifixion and the resurrection of His Son together with a seismic knot.
Since the women had also been at the cross, they may have made the connection
as well.
These are no ordinary
earthquakes. The earthquake at Jesus’ death accompanies the splitting of the
curtain in the temple in two and the raising of the bodies of the saints who
had fallen asleep. This one is caused by the Lord’s angel, who comes
down, approaches the grave, rolls away the stone, and sits on it.
Angels are mentioned
often in Matthew. Angels repeatedly communicated with Joseph who was Mary’s
husband, but they only spoke; they did not do anything else (Matthew 1:20;
2:13, 19-20). Angels came and ministered to Jesus after His faithfulness in the
wilderness (Matthew 4:11). Jesus did not, however, give in to the temptation to
demand that God sent His angels to protect Him while He hurled Himself from the
temple (Matthew 4:5-7). Similarly, Jesus submitted to arrest, condemnation, and
execution, foregoing the angelic legions that His Father could have sent to
protect Him (Matthew 26:53). Now, for the first time an angel of the Lord
descends in fearful power, causing the earth to shake and performing what
Matthew regards as a crucial task.
That task is to enable
the women to see that the new has dawned and that the old darkness they
expected to see has passed away. Before that can happen, however, two barriers must
be removed. The first barrier is the great stone that Joesph had (with help, no
doubt) rolled up to the door of the grave. The angel is more than a match for
it. In a gesture that might be an expression of triumph, after rolling away the
stone, the angel sits on top of it. Now it is possible for the women to look
into the tomb and to see inside. The first barrier is gone.
The second barrier to
be removed is the power of Rome and (indirectly) of the religious leaders who
successfully sought Jesus’ death at Pilate’s hand (Matthew 27:1-2, 12, 20).
Some of the chief priests and the Pharisees had pressed Pilate to place a guard
and seal the tomb. The prefect had granted this precaution (Matthew 27:62-66).
Whatever the seal consisted of in physical terms, with the appointed guard, the
seal represented the power of Jesus’ enemies who had killed Him and who had
wanted to ensure that everyone else would know that He was still dead. The
angel removes this second barrier as well.
The appearance of God’s
messenger is like lightning, and his clothing is like snow. Matthew says that
the soldiers are so overwhelmed by fear that “they became like dead men”
(28:4). Ironically, on the day of resurrection to life, unbelievers respond as
though they are already dead! The stone is rolled back; the guards are out of
the way, as impotent as corpses. Now the way is cleared for the women to see
what they never imagined they would see.
By the time this happens,
Jesus has already left the tomb in much the same way He enters the locked room
where His disciples are gathered later that same evening (John 20:19). His
glorified resurrection body is no longer bound by time and space. He simply goes
where He wants to go. The walls of the tomb cannot contain Him. The reason the
angel comes down from heaven to roll the stone away is to show the women, and
the world, that Jesus has already left the tomb.
At first, the angel’s
words sound too good to be true: “He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.”
Jesus had promised His suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection from
the dead. That promise has come true and the women are to see evidence of
it. The women and all Jesus’ disciples had faltered, failing to believe the
promise. But Jesus had said it, over and over, to them. His opponents even knew
that Jesus had said it (Matthew 27:62-66). That’s why the stone and guard had
been placed as barriers to the women. But they were no barrier to the risen
Christ. The promise of embodied life after physical death, of victory and
vindication after abandonment to His enemies and abandonment by God Himself
(Matthew 27:46)—the promise has come true. Just as Jesus said it would.
Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary had come “to see the tomb” (Matthew 28:1). Now the angel invites
them to see something quite different. “Come see the place where He lay.” This,
too, will calm their fear. This will also equip them for the task of announcing
to Jesus’ disciples that the promise has been kept and that another promise
will surely come true as well. “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.”
At once, the two Marys
run with fear and great joy to carry out the angel’s directive (Matthew 28:8).
Having come there with one purpose in mind—“to see the tomb” (Matthew
28:1)—they leave to announce Christ resurrection to Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 28:8).
Before they reach their goal, however, they receive a stunning new gift and a
new focus for the promise that awaits fulfillment with the Eleven in Galilee. Jesus
meets them and says, “Greetings!” Immediately, they recognize Him and fall
down, take His feet, and worship Him (Matthew 28:9).
Their status as
eyewitnesses grows, and by their reaction, they show two important truths. The
first is contained in the words “and they worshiped Him.” With the possible
exception of Matthew 14:33, this is the first time in Matthew’s Gospel when
Jesus of Nazareth, the man who walked the ground (and the water!) is rightly
“worshiped” for who He is: God’s Son, Immanuel, the human presence of God on
the earth, and God in the flesh! They worship Jesus, the man who
died in the darkness three days before and the second person of the Trinity.
Matthew reveals the
second truth when he writes in the preceding clause: “And they came up and took
hold of His feet” (Matthew 28:9). This action on the part of the women has been
interpreted as having different sorts of significances throughout the centuries.
There is, of course, what this action portrays about the women and their attitude.
As already mentioned, they were worshipful. What, however, does it say about Jesus?
The obvious answer is the
most important one. What Matthew has written affirms that the risen Jesus has
feet that can be grabbled. His is a real resurrected human body—the same human
body as before He died—not some ghost or phantom of which many ancient and
modern sources assume (or described) as spirits floating, often appearing with
no feet or legs.
You can make the case
that looking into the human eye feels like looking into someone’s soul or
eternity itself. You can argue that the tender touch of someone’s hand is
intimate and deeply personal. But the feet? That is earthy. The women grab on
this Man’s feet, and that is where they worship. That is whom they
worship. Their alleluia is directed at the actual feet of this Man,
Jesus. Like Thomas will later articulate verbally, their gesture declares, “My
Lord and my God!” There, gripping the feet through which the nail had been
driven, the feet that were cold and colorless the day before, the feet that
once again are warm with blood flowing through them, there the women worship.
And, in that moment, they are upholding the First Commandment. They are fearing,
loving, and trusting God above all things, as they grip the feet of Jesus in
faith.
In his commentary on
this passage, Jeffrey A. Gibbs writes: "For some years, I have advocated
for a new liturgical custom. During the Easter season, I would like pastors to
greet their congregations with 'Christ has feet!' and for the congregations to
respond, 'He has feet, indeed! Alleluia!' So far, the idea has not gained much
traction."[i]
Whether Gibbs’ suggestion
ever catches on, the fact that the women grasp Jesus’ feet is significant. In
Christ, our God is that specific, that earthy, that alive. He is worthy of
being praised and worshiped, and not just for the abstract qualities of
holiness and transcendence, His omniscience and omnipotence. We sing the alleluia
and give our praise and devotion to the Man who belongs to these feet
because He is crucified for our transgression and raised for our justification.
The Lord has visited and redeemed His people.
Having been crucified
for us, Jesus walked out of the grave on His own two feet. Having worshiped at
the feet of the risen Lord, the women are sent by Jesus to His disciples with
the Good News. Having worshiped the risen Lord this Easter morning, Jesus sends
you out into the world. Such Good News is too good to hold in and keep to
oneself. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! You are forgiven for
all your sins.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i] Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew
21:1-28:20. Concordia Commentary. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House
(2018) 1611.
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