Easter Sunday

Alleluia, Christ is risen – Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

As I was reading through commentaries and Bible studies to prepare today’s sermon, this line caught my attention: “Matthew presents the resurrection of Jesus as an earthshaking occurrence.”

According to Matthew’s account of Easter morning, as the two Marys make their way to the tomb, there is an earthquake. The Greek word he uses is where we get the word ‘seismic’ from. For Matthew, Jesus’ resurrection is seismic.

I remember the earthquake that struck our region 15 years ago. My family had just moved to Maryland. I was in our new home’s basement unpacking boxes when suddenly everything wobbled. It was very unnerving and disorienting.

I think that’s why Matthew mentions the earthquake in the Easter story: The resurrection was rather unnerving and disorienting. Dead people usually stay dead. Angels don’t come down from heaven and move stones. Nothing about this morning is as the women had expected.

No wonder they are scared! The angel has to assure them, “Do not be afraid!”, and then the angel explains what had taken place: Jesus has been raised; the tomb is empty; Jesus will go ahead of them and meet up with them in Galilee.

The women are afraid, but can I just say, kudos to the women?! The guards at the tomb, trained soldiers of the tough Roman empire, they faint in fear and fall to the ground like dead men. The women are still standing and talking. Good for them!

The angel rolls back the stone that had sealed the tomb and then sits on it. I just love that image! I picture this apparition dressed in white, sitting on that stone, one knee across the other, leaning back in a relaxed way, smiling broadly, utterly enjoying the scene.

It shows in a visual way what God has done on Easter morning.

God has overcome the power of death. God has raised Jesus, a man whom the Roman Empire had arrested, tortured, and crucified. Jesus had been killed because he bothered and criticized those in power.

Empires are always are always aiming to silence their critics and foes. A favorite tool for silencing is death or the threat of death. That has always been the case with any and all autocratic rulers anywhere in the world, be it the Third Reich in Germany or the Apartheid regime in South Africa or Communist governments in Eastern Europe or North Korea or China. Empires kill anyone who challenges their power or criticizes their reign.

The Roman government that occupied Israel in Jesus’ day was exactly the same. It killed John the Baptist, and it killed Jesus, and it killed countless others who spoke up against injustice or the exploitation of the poor.

But now, one of those killed enemies of the state was alive again. God’s power was stronger than the power of death the regime wielded.

What happens at the tomb on Easter morning demonstrates this truth.

An angel comes from heaven and rolls away the stone. That stone was a perfect image for the empire’s attempt at silencing Jesus: Jesus was in the tomb, a stone was rolled across the entrance to block it, and then the government had sealed the stone to make sure nobody could temper with it. Plus, the government had placed soldiers at the tomb to guard it. Nobody and nothing were to overcome the power of the authorities to kill and silence and disappear people.

But that’s exactly what happened. The angel couldn’t care less about government seals. He rolls away the stone, sits on it, dangles his feet, and if it had been an option, I am sure he would have taken a selfie. Like the stone is flipped over, so are the realities of powers. Those who were supposed to guard the dead man are now laying around like dead people themselves. Everything is shaken up. An earthquake. A seismic event.

The women respond in a couple of different ways. They respond with worship, falling at Jesus’ feet. They respond with obedience when they carry the message about meeting up in Galilee to the other disciples. And they respond with a mixture of joy and fear.

I can totally relate to the latter. Think of all the times in your life when you were about to enter a new phase, and you were really excited about it, but at the same time also really anxious. Getting married comes to mind, right?! Or having a baby. Or beginning a new job. Or buying a house. Or going on a journey. Events where joy and fear hold hands.

That’s where the women are. This new reality they are entering is full of amazing joy and great anxiety. Jesus is alive; that’s great and frightening. They are to meet Jesus again; that’s awesome and spooky. They are to trust that God in Jesus has overcome the power of death; that is liberating and hard to wrap your head around.

What carries them and all the disciples through this unsettled time where joy and fear hold hands is their obedience and their worship. They will continue to talk with Jesus in prayer and eat with Jesus in holy communion. They will continue to live in obedience to everything Jesus had commanded them. And through that, the seismic shift of Easter will shape them.

They turn into a bunch of people who defy the empire’s power of death. They go out fearlessly and preach a gospel of love and inclusion and hope. Within a nation held tight by autocratic power, they speak of peace and act out peace. To a society stuck in a strict class system, they gather people of all races and all segments of society and share a holy meal. In a world where everyone takes care of their own needs, they catch attention by the way they minister to the sick and poor and lonely. A seismic shift in the way Jesus’ followers live and act.

This seismic shift continues in us. Through worship and obedience, motivated by both joy and fear, we dare to live a life inspired by Easter. We dare to embrace the good news that Jesus is alive and is with us and will always be with us. We spread the message that Jesus is risen and is always ready to meet up with us.

Easter is God’s declaration of love for this world – this world that so often is ruled by the power death; that put God’s only Son to death. And yet God did not give up on this world, but raised Jesus from the dead so he could come back to us and forgive us and love us, guide us and save us, invite us and inspire us.

That is the living Christ we worship and obey. That is the risen Savior who will accompany us into resurrection living where joy and fear hold hands, and where the blessings are innumerable, and where the changes God can bring about are seismic. For alleluia, Christ is risen – He is risen indeed, alleluia!