After the Sabbath, as
the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went
to see the tomb. 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing
white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like
dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “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 he lay. 7
Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the
dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’
This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with
fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus
met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet,
and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go
and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Year A
Easter Sunday
April 16, 2017
Cross~Wind
Title: Five Changes the Resurrection of Jesus Makes
Introducing the passage
Matthew
28:1-10 is the story of the discovery of the empty tomb and the first appearances
of the risen Lord to two women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James. In
a sense, these two women become the first Christian preachers, as they will
witness to the resurrection of Jesus. The story has its source in Mark. In
Matthew, the women know they cannot enter the tomb. They are simply going to
the tomb to do what many of us do even today when a tragedy occurs. They wanted
to memorialize and remember. An earthquake occurs, often a mark of dramatic
events in the Bible. Angels are often signs of God doing something new and
dramatic. An angel is present at the birth of Jesus, and an angel is present
now at the resurrection. We need to note that the risen Lord comes to or
appears to the women as they are going to disciples. They are not seeking the
risen Lord. The risen Lord interrupts and surprises them in their journey. At
the end, Matthew will emphasize the physical nature of the resurrection of
Jesus. The women will hold the feet of Jesus and worship him. For many of us,
this is the sign that God intends to redeem not just humanity, but creation
itself. Rather than their let their fear control them, they need to tell the
disciples to go to Galilee. As they followed Jesus of Nazareth in their brief time
with him in his public ministry, they will now follow the risen Lord to Galilee.
The risen Lord will come to them there as well.
As
we read this account, most scholars will say that Matthew seems motivated by
arguments against the resurrection of Jesus by Jewish authorities in the latter
part of the first century.
Introduction
I have come across an article that
has made me think a little differently about what might have gone through the
minds of the women who came to the place Jesus received burial.[1]
I invite you to imagine a tragic
scene today. We see them in many places as we drive. We see a roadside cross,
bouquets of flowers, perhaps some candles, a stuffed animal or a jersey from
the local high school. Sometimes there is a hand-painted placard with a name
and a date. You drive by and get a mere
glance, but you know there was a moment on this highway when something horrific
happened and a person or persons lost their lives.
Unfortunately, highway deaths and
roadside memorials (sometimes called descansos from a Spanish word meaning
"to rest") have become so common that some states are seeking
alternatives.
Joyce Keeler knows the pain of
losing a loved one in a tragic automobile accident. Nearly 30 years ago, her
son lost his life on a rural road in Delaware. For Joyce, driving by the site
of the accident is still too painful. She avoids it, even all these years
later. Instead, Joyce goes to the Delaware Highway Memorial Garden at the
Smyrna Rest Area near her home. Among the trees, shrubs and flowering plants,
is a pathway lined with memorial bricks that bear the names of those who have
lost their lives on the roads of Delaware. In the center of the garden is a
pond with goldfish, frogs, water lilies and a gurgling waterfall. Tucked amid
the busyness of nearby highways U.S. 13 and Delaware 1, it is a peaceful place
to remember and reflect. To honor the memory of her son, Joyce sits quietly
near the brick that bears his name.
Patrick Bowers, whose 21-year-old
son died in a crash in 2008, also frequents the Delaware Highway Memorial
Garden. "It's not morbid or gloomy, not like a feeling you can get at a
cemetery," he says. "It's a garden like someone would do in their
backyard." Delaware is one of several states providing alternatives to
roadside memorials because traffic safety officers worry they are a dangerous
distraction to drivers, and put those who maintain them in harm's way. In most
states, descansos are illegal, but officials rarely enforce those laws. Several
states have implemented sign programs that offer a safer option to mark the
site of a crash. Others have adopted laws limiting the time a memorial they
will allow on the side of the road. Still others offer to plant memorial trees
at the sites of fatal accidents. Joyce Keeler much prefers the garden to the
roadside memorial. "Things like that get old, and the flowers fade,"
she says. "But this will never go away."
The women who went to the tomb to
memorialize a tragic event, the crucifixion of the innocent man, Jesus of
Nazareth, are part of a feeling we have not to forget the person who
experienced the tragedy. To memorialize Jesus, one might go to the tomb. One
might go to the place of his crucifixion. You might go to Nazareth or
Bethlehem. You might go to Galilee and the place of great sermons, healings, or
exorcisms. After all, the Jewish people had a long tradition of offering such
memorials. Jacob erected a memorial in Genesis 28. Joshua memorialized the
crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3-4.
Application
Of course, with the death of Jesus,
we may need to re-think what it means to memorialize his life.
Then the news came! The tomb is
empty! After the initial questions and confusion subsided, much of what they heard
Jesus say must have come flooding back to their minds!
I invite you to consider the top
five ways the resurrection has changed the way we memorialize Jesus.
First, we do not need to
memorialize places.
They would never need to visit a
cross or a tomb!
They would never need to erect a
pile of stones!
They would never need to maintain a
museum!
They would never need to plant a
garden!
The son of Mary who was dead was --
in fact -- alive! He is alive!
The very same instinct that drives
people to the site of a crash may have carried Mary Magdalene, a close disciple
of Jesus, and another Mary, identified a few verses earlier as the mother of
James and Joseph, to the tomb early in the morning. They came not with a
handmade cross and flowers, but with oils and spices. They came not to set up a
roadside memorial, but to care for the body of the one they followed, the one
who loved and accepted them when no one else did. They came prepared to do the
only thing they could think of to honor the memory of Jesus.
It was a normal reaction -- this
need to take care of, tidy up, and do something! Steve Lopez, for example,
knows that instinct. He has tended a roadside memorial in Arizona where his
wife, daughter and granddaughter died in a 1999 traffic accident. He comes
periodically to pull weeds and clear litter from that spot where his life
changed forever. After every winter storm, Brad Tackett shovels snow from a
roadside memorial in Queensbury, New York, that honors the memory of a high
school classmate who died in a crash. Others come when the weather is better to
mow and remove weeds. Like Mary and Mary, it is all they can think to do. They
want people to know they remember and care.
However, the Marys never get to
their task. An angel greets them and tells them they do not need to make a
memorial. Jesus, the one whom Jewish and Romans leaders crucified, has been
raised from the dead. He is no longer in the tomb. In their confusion, the
Marys run to tell the disciples what they have seen and heard. Along the way,
the risen Lord comes to them. They want to hold onto him, to worship him.
However, Jesus instructs them to find the disciples and tell them to meet him
in Galilee. The one they thought was in his final resting place is instead on
the move. He is still calling them to follow him.
Second, our instinct to mark and remember upheaval, crisis or
life-changing events is a good one.
Marking the places where
significant, life-altering events occur is an ancient practice. For example,
after his dream of a staircase between heaven and Earth, Jacob marked the spot.
He took the stone he had used for a pillow that night, stood it on end, poured
oil on it -- an act of anointing -- and named the place. He wanted to remember
what had happened there.
Mary and Mary went to the tomb of
Jesus to mark the spot where their lives had changed. They wanted to remember
and honor the one who had so significantly altered the trajectory of their lives.
Families and friends erect and care
for roadside memorials at crash sites to mark the spot where their lives
changed in an instant. They seek to honor and remember those they have loved.
On Easter Sunday, we, too, come to remember
the moment when life changed forever. We come to remember that Jesus, the one
who cares for us, who loves and accepts us even when it seems no one else does,
is the one God raised from the dead. He is alive!
Third, death has been defeated.
Life wins.
Too many people today live with the
vague suspicion that death and emptiness is the end for individuals, humanity,
and the universe. The resurrection of Jesus makes it clear that the end is
life, meaning, and redemption. This is not wishful thinking. This is not
reliance upon myth. We rely upon the witness of the original disciples that God
raised Jesus from the dead.
Fourth, the only memorial we need
is our lives.
By following Jesus, by giving Jesus
our very lives, we offer living memorials to Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
There are hints of this in the New Testament. The apostle Paul wrote to
believers in Rome who were following Jesus,
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which
is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the
will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans
12:1-2).
Fifth, we memorialize Jesus by following him.
For the ancient disciples,
following Jesus did not end at the cross; they followed Jesus even after the
resurrection. In Galilee -- their home, the place where he had first called
them, where their journey with Jesus had begun -- he would give them further
instructions. This was their memorialization. They were to follow, to feed the
flock, to baptize and make disciples. They had work to do, and all of it would
help them to remember and to honor.
Jesus likewise calls us to follow
him in the places we know, to follow him in work, at school, with our families,
in conversation with our friends and in ministry to and with our communities.
The one who has shown us resurrected life calls us to share that new life with
others. We are to tell others about what he has done for us and to offer them
the love, grace and healing we have received from him.
Conclusion
To honor Jesus, to remember where
our lives changed forever, we need no memorial. We celebrate Jesus instead with
a changed, resurrected life.
Jesus is alive and calling us to
follow him still today.
Death has been defeated. Life wins.
No memorial needed….Except, of course, your life and mine.
Going deeper
Matthew 28:1-10 (NRSV)
After the Sabbath, as the first day of the
week [Sunday] was dawning, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary (Mark says this was Mary the mother of James) went to see the tomb. [Mark also tells
us that the women come to bring spices and ointment to tend the body of Jesus.
In Matthew, the women do not expect to have the ability to enter the tomb. They
are simply going to visit the tomb. Jesus had to be entombed on Friday because
it was against Jewish law to leave the body of a person who had been executed
outside overnight.[2] Additionally, any person
who goes to the tomb and is exposed to a dead body will be made ritually impure
for seven days afterward.[3] This means that any man
who might come with them on Sunday would render himself ritually impure for the
rest of the Passover holiday. Typically, one would give up his state of ritual
purity only for the death of one of his nearest kin.[4]
Because the women themselves are not entitled to perform Passover sacrifices,
becoming ritually impure is less of an issue for them.] 2 And
suddenly there was a great earthquake; (often the bringer of divine events
in the Bible, even as in 27:51-54) [Archeology has confirmed an earthquake in
the general area of Jerusalem sometime between 26 and 36 AD.[5]
In the biblical tradition, earthquakes marked momentous events or, in some
cases (e.g., the earthquake in the reign of King Uzziah, Amos 1:1; Zechariah
14:5) became momentous events themselves by which other events were marked.
Earthquakes were above all else theophanic accompaniments, as the famous story
of the Lord's appearance to Elijah in I Kings 19 vividly illustrated.
Earthquakes could accompany a divine appearance for woe as well as for weal, as
references in both testaments make clear (e.g., Isaiah 29:6; Revelation 6:12,
8:5, 11:13, 19; 16:18). The preponderance of New Testament references to
earthquakes in the book of Revelation points to their apocalyptic nature, which
is probably also the primary significance of Matthew's mention of an earthquake
in the context of Jesus' resurrection.] for an angel of the Lord, (unique to
Matthew) [We should remember that an angel announced the birth of Jesus as well
in 1:20, 2:13, 19.] descending from
heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His
appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For
fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.[a reference unique
to Matthew. Such a response of human fright is unique in the Bible. The
appearance of death with the guards will contrast sharply with the living
Jesus. The guards will become a key to the apologetic theme in Matthew.] 5 But the angel said to the
women, “Do not be afraid; [as is typical of the appearance of an angel in
the Bible] 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 he lay. 7 Then go quickly and
tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going
ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8
[With no indication that the women accept the invitation of the
angel] So they left the tomb quickly with
fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. [Matthew is different
from Mark here, who said the women were too afraid to tell anyone.] 9 Suddenly
Jesus met them [Barth will emphasize throughout the appearance tradition that
Jesus comes to the followers of Jesus. They do not look for him.[6]]
and said, “Greetings!” And they came to
him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. [This suggests the physical
nature of the resurrection, which would be consistent with the Jewish view of
the union of soul and body as over against the Greek notion of the possibility
of a disembodied soul.] 10 Then
Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to
Galilee; there they will see me.”
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