Once you start looking through the lens of Easter, everything looks tilted God-ward. Blessings to you all as we approach Easter again.
A Seismic Shift
A Sermon on Matthew 27:50-28:20
Easter—The Resurrection of the Lord
“Okay,” Pilate agreed with the chief priests and Pharisees. “Take a guard. Go and make the tomb as secure as you know how.” Something had stirred up their fears. They realized that Jesus might be even more dangerous to them dead than alive! Was this an afterthought, or did the Good Friday earthquake shake them up as it had the executioners?
Something certainly had shaken them up. On Saturday the religious leaders hurried to see Pontius Pilate. Notice: it was the Sabbath, and it was unlawful to visit Pilate on the Sabbath, and unlawful at any time to go into his house. Their anxiety was so great that they were willing to break the very Sabbath law that they condemned Jesus for breaking. “Jesus may be dead,” they told Pilate, “but he said he would be raised to life three days later. His disciples might go steal his body, then spread a rumor that he has been raised. This lie would be even worse than the first one. That tomb’s got to stay shut,” they insisted. “You’ve got to make sure that nobody and no thing opens it!” In other words, they needed that tomb to be earthquake proof.
I recently learned that the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, one of the New Testament era books that didn’t make it into the Bible, pictures the sealing of the tomb. It says that the religious authorities all joined the guards in keeping watch over the tomb, and that they put not just one, but seven seals on it. Seven—the perfect number—and it was like multiple locks on a door: deadbolts, chains, sliding bars, like multiple barriers to keep somebody out, or else keep somebody else in. All eyes were on that tomb.
As Sunday dawned there was nothing Mary Magdalene and the other Mary could do but look. They were helpless. Matthew highlights their helplessness because he says not a word about them bringing spices and ointments to anoint Jesus’ body. He says they just came to look. Look. Remember. Cry. Maybe start finding a way to move on.
It had been beautiful while it lasted: the dream of the kingdom of heaven. Healing. Hope. Life as God intended. Why did Jesus have to die? Why did he have to be crushed? Seems like the world is always tilted in favor of the powerful. The ones with the money win. The ones with the weapons win. They always seem to get what they want. Dreamers like Jesus are a threat to people’s empires. The lowly don’t want to stay in their place when a dreamer like Jesus catches their imaginations. Dreamers threaten stability. Dreamers are troublemakers. They must die. This world seems inevitably slanted, skewed, shifted towards darkness, towards pain, sickness, death. Sometimes it seems that only the darkness is really real. Light is a temporary illusion. Death always wins.
Nobody was going to open that grave that Sunday morning, and especially not these empty-handed women. But they could look and remember. Suddenly the ground started rocking and shifting beneath their feet. Another earthquake, a big one on the Richter scale! And at that moment, God’s shining angel descended, rolled back the stone, and sat on it like a conqueror. The guards trembled with terror, fainted dead away. The shocked women were also frightened, but they kept their wits about them, and heard the angel say what angels always say when they bring God’s message: “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I know you’re looking for Jesus who was crucified. He’s not here. He has been raised just as he said. Come see where he lay. Go quickly now, and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from death and now he is going to Galilee ahead of you. There you will see him.’” Afraid and joyful at the same time, they hurried off.
Matthew wants us to understand that the death and resurrection of Jesus was an earthquaking, earthshaking event. It was a seismic shift. The very ground those women stood on tilted in the other direction. (more…)
The Mustard Seed Journal 