All Saints Oakham, 10.30am Holy Communion
Matthew 28.1-10
At last, here we are: the big day. The climax of a big week.
In sporting parlance we have got to the ‘business end’. It’s all very well impressing with some wins in the first week of Wimbledon, but you will only be remembered if you survive to the ‘business end’ – to the final, and you triumph.
And this is indeed the ‘business end’ of Jesus’ life – the last week. The writers of the four gospels are selective in which events in Jesus’ earlier life they recount, according to their intended audience. But all four give long accounts (very long accounts compared to the rest of his life) of this last week. Everything from Palm Sunday until today. Each gospel gives some different details, but each consistently confirms the heart of the matter, the historical events, the climax.
We have been looking forward to it all week, ticking off the days – as we have followed the events of Palm Sunday, of the Last Supper, of his arrest, his trial, his death. A complex mix of opposites as David described it when he was preaching last week – triumph & disaster; glory & humility; praise & lament.
And now………today. We call it the third day, but in truth it is only 36 hours since Jesus was confirmed dead, taken down from the cross and put in a tomb on Friday evening, and dawn on Sunday where we take up the story in this morning’s reading from Matthew 28.
We’re excited, but in a way the problem for us is that it is no surprise. Like a birthday party or a cup final or a wonderful concert, which we are looking forward to. It is exciting but it is no surprise. We know it’s coming. I reckon this is the 55TH Easter I have enjoyed since as a student I made the decision to be a Christian. Easter is no surprise.
Exciting for us but not for the disciples. Where were those men – at dawn on Easter Day? Behind locked doors we are told elsewhere, fearful, cowering, dreading the knock on the door. That ‘s where the men were.
Where were the women? Matthew 28 verse 1: After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. At least they had the guts to turn up, and indeed we know from Mark & Luke that they had taken with them spices to anoint the body of the dead Jesus.
By contrast how do you reckon the Jewish religious leaders were feeling over the weekend? The elders, the scribes, the High Priest. By contrast with the angst and terror of the disciples, they were perhaps feeling rather pleased with themselves. They had engineered the elimination of this tiresome blasphemous upstart Jesus, they’d had him arrested without provoking riots and needing to send in the National Guard, somehow they’d made it seem as though Pilate made the final decision about his death sentence, and Jesus was dead, done for.
But in fact they remained anxious and were back seeing Pilate. Just before today’s reading, at the end of Matthew chapter 27, we read
Matt 27: 62 The next day, ie Saturday, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” 64 Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, .. 65 Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
The disciples woke on Sunday (if indeed they slept at all) with misery and dread in their hearts. We woke this morning with anticipation, with joy. Today is the big day. It is not a birthday or a cup final or a concert, it’s not that sort of big day. No – it is THE big day. The day like no other. The DAY that changes everything. it is the day which changed the world for ever, irrevocably.
There is … before Easter Day, and there is …..after Easter Day. And the world is different.
The Jewish religious leaders had remembered what Jesus had been saying: that he must go to Jerusalem, that he must die, that he would rise. Come on disciples -wakey, wakey – don’t tell me you didn’t see it coming? Weren’t you listening to Him? No… they didn’t see it coming, they were panicked, it had all gone wrong.
But Mary & Mary Magdalen will not cower behind closed doors, they are out with heavy hearts with their basket of spices – not for a unique ceremony for Jesus, just doing as you would for any dead body.
What are they are expecting … the tomb, the stone, the dead body.
But as they approach the tomb, things start going off
2 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.
Someone is perched on the moved stone as the women approach. But no casual figure, this is an angel, a messenger from God. And as so often in the Bible, the writer struggles for words to describe this staggering apparition.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
The guards – set there to make sure there was no interference with the tomb – were utterly gobsmacked
4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
And then with wonderful understatement… the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid (I think they are probably terrified). Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said .
Come, see the place where helay. And they look in…no body…. Just the burial cloths (as John tells us in his account) lying neatly where they had been removed.
Go on, says the angel, go quickly and tell his disciples “He has been raised from the dead.
So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, fear and great joy, mixed together and ran……..
And in the whirlwind of those moments, what were they thinking? Had someone else remembered what Jesus had said about being raised, disabled the guards and stolen the body to make believe. The Jewish leaders were desperate to suppress any nonsense like that – it was their guards at the tomb. And even if the disciples amidst their misery and fear had the nouse to think of such a plan, it is unimaginable that a charade, a deception with a stolen body, could sustain the courage and confidence of Jesus’ followers, about which we read throughout Acts and throughout the life of the Christian church.
Nor do I think for a moment the women gave serious thought to another populist explanation: that Jesus was not really dead when they took him from the cross, and somehow 36 hours in a freezing cold pitch dark airless tomb without food or drink enables Him to revive and walk out. Oh the women had been at Calvary, they knew He was well dead.
Nor did they consider a more modern sceptic view – Jesus can’t have risen because we know that sort of thing never happens…. Ah, but it had happened.
And now as they run from the tomb, here is the moment of moments: Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. They saw him, they heard him speak, they touched him. He is real, He has risen.
And Jesus also says to them: ‘Do not be afraid’ May be now there is more joy washing away their fear as they scamper off to tell the others.
It is real, it has happened. The risen Jesus is the proof that His death on the cross wins our salvation, wins the salvation of anyone who accepts it.
And this is THE moment. Because if it did not happen, if he did not physically rise, if it is all just wishful thinking. The whole enterprise collapses like a deck of cards. If Jesus did not rise again, we should all give up and go home now.
Now in the very early days after Jesus’ resurrection, the debate was that this might still be a Jewish thing. That Jesus, the Jew, had died for the Jews, but not for anyone else. We had the reading from Acts chapter 10 to remind us that Peter had a momentous vision which convinced him that this is for everyone.
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ….. He is Lord of all.
And one of the joys of Easter is that in every country in the world, in many different ways, many different styles, many different cultural influences , right now (if their time zone is the same as ours) people are standing and celebrating as we are: Jesus is Risen. The outward ways we stand and celebrate are many, but the message is one.
We are celebrating Easter here today in this way. Others do it differently: they might think us a little curious, we might find them eccentric? In Kenya for example near the school which Geraldine built and opened a few years ago – virtually the whole village will have turned out this morning for an open air service, all ages, they have already gathered and been singing in praise of the Risen Jesus for a couple of hours, and the gathering will last another three or four hours. Who will be preaching there today? There is often no pastor, no one trained in the Bible, so the best equipped person in the community will do the teaching , and that might even be the senior girl who runs the Christian Union at the school. At the end of a four hour service everyone will stay together for a meal, before they begin to wind their way home.
My friend Jason is pastor of a church in County Durham. There will be a couple of hundred people there this morning to celebrate Easter. Jason will preach as he does Sunday by Sunday for about 45 minutes – they expect that. There will be holy communion as there is every week. One of the senior church members will talk for a couple of minutes about the meaning of the bread and the wine, quoting the familiar words from 1 Corinthians, an ordinary loaf of bread will be broken up and distributed with wine to everyone. Jason will wear his usual ‘uniform’ for Sundays of chinos, trainers, and an open neck shirt. Whichever way we do it: one Jesus, one resurrection, many styles of joyous praise, all are welcomed by the Risen Jesus. Peter says: in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ……. everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
Our Easter celebration is communal, we stand this morning shoulder to shoulder and sing our praise to the Risen Jesus.
But here’s the thing, it is communal, but it is also intensely personal.
Each of us is face to face with the Risen Jesus. Whether in the silence as we kneel at the communion rail in a few minutes, or back in our pew as the choir sing the lovely Palestrina anthem, or quietly at home later, the Risen Jesus meets us and says , ‘Greetings!’ And as the women did, we can come to him, take hold of his feet, and worship him. It’s our choice.
In our short reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians chapter 3 we began to unpack the enormity of the choice, as Paul points out that if we choose the Risen Jesus, we are ‘raised with Him’ and that begins to changes us. So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
So, this is our communal celebration, We, who have accepted Jesus as our Savour and Lord, join in songs and words of praise – Jesus Christ is Risen Today we will sing at the end of the service.
We sing together, we pray together, we proclaim together. But let’s be sure we each on our own reflect on the unstoppable power of the risen King, and as we say ‘Yes Lord Jesus Christ you did rise, you are alive’, we will be ready for Him to begin to change us.
Amen