Colossians 3.1-4, Matthew 28.1-10
This Sunday, Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of Our Lord, is the high point of the Christian year, the center of our faith. No Sunday, no feast, compares; not even Christmas. The entire New Testament is permeated by the affirmation that God raised Jesus from the dead. “If Christ has not be raised from the dead,” St Paul says, “then our faith has nothing to it.”
The resurrection of Jesus is not merely a metaphor for nature coming back to life in springtime—a good thing considering our persistent winter weather. (You’ve seen the meme that lists the changes of season from winter to spring in this part of the world? Winter is followed by ‘fool’s spring;’ then there is ‘second winter’ followed by ‘spring of deception,’ then there is ‘third winter,’ with the note that says, ‘You are here.’) The truth of Easter doesn’t depend on the weather and whether or not it cooperates. The truth of Easter doesn’t even depend on the world and whether or not we cooperate. Christians throughout history have celebrated Easter through war, famine, and times of disaster. Through it all, they have been sustained by God, and so will we, because resurrection depends on one thing only: on God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
Of all the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the New Testament, the scene in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew is the most dramatic. The guards at the tomb, stunned, stand stick-still like the corpse Jesus once was. There’s an angel dressed in white; looking at that angel is like looking at lightning. This same angel rolls the stone back, not to let Jesus out but to let the women look in; the tomb is already empty. The angel tells the women to go to Galilee to see Jesus. They turn to head north and suddenly he’s with them.
And it all begins with an earthquake. Jesus’ resurrection shakes the foundation of the old world and is the beginning of God’s new world. It is a seismic shift in the way we see the world. Like changing from thinking the world is flat to knowing it is round, Jesus’ resurrection opens dimensions of life—three dimensions, four dimensions, more—dimensions we cannot yet grasp but one day will see face to face. In Jesus’ risen from the dead, a world of sin and suffering, terror and tyranny, disease and death topples.
What makes Jesus’ resurrection so earth-shaking is that the women in the gospel didn’t go to the tomb expecting Jesus to be raised. Yes, Jesus said during his life that he would be put to death and rise again in three days. But that message was always met with confusion; it was puzzling, cryptic, like a message written in black ink on black paper. No one at the foot of the cross on Good Friday was thinking, ‘I know it’s bad today. Hang tight. It will all be over on the third day.’ The women went to the tomb for the same reason we visit graves: to perform burial rite, to lay flowers, to grieve and say, ‘We miss you, we love you, we wish you hadn’t died.’ In a world defined by power, domination, and revenge, Jesus’ way of life—blessing the meek, the merciful, and peacemakers; love for enemies; a life of forgiveness and hope—looked like a failure and total loss. That’s what makes the resurrection so earth-shaking.
The resurrection is God’s vindication of Jesus’ life, his ministry, and the life he calls us to. In Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, we see that life is stronger than death—not only the final death we all face at the end of our lives, but the little ‘deaths’ that diminish, devalue, or destroy human flourishing: addiction, despair, broken relationships, corruption, injustice, and war. Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop in South Africa during the brutal days of apartheid reminds us of the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. “Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours through God who loves us.” The God who remained silent on Good Friday has the last word. It is a word of victory in the Risen Christ.
The death and resurrection of Jesus is the turning point in a cosmic battle of good and evil. In our own American history, the Civil War battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg were turning points in that war. From those moments on, the ultimate victory was clear. Now there would still be conflict ahead; opposing forces would continue to battle. But they were a defeated force; their days numbered. That, on a small scale, is true of Jesus and the resurrection on a cosmic scale. His resurrection is the turning point of the world, God’s victory and judgment against all powers that hurt and destroy.
Now it is true that suffering, sin, and death are still with us, more persistent then second and third winter. But that season is ending. It’s not completely over but it is on its way out. Jesus’ resurrection is down payment on a day when death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, and all things will be made new. The rulers of this world crucified Jesus. A blizzard of sin, death, and evil did its worst at the cross and continues to bluster. But now they are a defeated and spent force. “Death is swallowed up in victory,” says the New Testament. God’s new season has already begun in this old, wintery, and dying world.
And that can give us courage now to live as people of God, as people of life and hope, people who don’t fear even when fear is all around us. Isn’t that what the angels said to the women? “Do not be afraid. He has been raised.” Isn’t what Jesus himself says today? “Do not be afraid.”
The late author John Updike once said that the presence of people in church on Easter Sunday is an “act of defiance.” An act of defiance! Now I don’t know what brings you here today: habit, hope, a favor to your family before you head to brunch. But I suspect that whatever it is, the one thing that did not enter your mind when you got up to come to church today was ‘act of defiance.’
Yet in a world such as ours that takes bad news as the only real news, the proclamation of good news is an act of defiance. To say, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen,” is more than a sigh of relief after the awful events of Good Friday. The resurrection of Jesus is a beginning not an ending. That means that every act of justice, every quiet kindness, every healing and loving word matters. God preached peace in Jesus Christ; God shows no partiality in Jesus Christ; in Jesus Christ forgiveness, healing, life, hope are the values that endure. All the good that we do, even good that so often feels like it doesn’t matter, is not wasted. In the hands of the One who turned death into victory, nothing good is ever lost. All that is good will be taken up into the life of God and transformed. As for the rest? Gone like melted snow. And that changes how we live. Do not be afraid.
The message of Easter is this: what happens to Jesus happens to those who believe in Jesus: life for the women at the tomb and fear changed to joy; life for the disciples who fled at cross now reconciled and restored; life for you, too. Colossians today says, “Your life is hid with God in Christ.” The key word there is ‘hid.’ Death will not have disappeared when we leave here today; mourning and crying and pain are still with us. Today is not the end but we have seen the end in Jesus’ risen from the dead. Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours through God who loves us. Your life is hid with God in Christ. Your life is in Christ.
The Risen Christ is alive and among us today and every day, shaking the world that passes for reality, and opening us to God’s world—to dimensions of grace and mercy, reconciliation and peace, blessing and hope, that we cannot yet grasp but one day will see face to face. Today, between the past event of Jesus’ resurrection and the fullness of Christ’s future appearing, a new season with God has begun and you are included in it. It’s like stepping outside on a snowy April weekend and telling third winter, ‘Your time is done.’ It’s saying the same to the powers of death with all their bluster. ‘Your time is done.’ Because what Jesus says to the women he says to you, “Do not be afraid; go and tell” and you will see me.
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