Sermon Texts

March 23, 2008

The women left the tomb with "fear and great joy." The "great joy" we can understand: Jesus, their crucified Lord and beloved teacher, was no longer dead and buried. But why fear?

Actually I think it is encouraging to us believers nearly 2,000 years later to hear that the women reacted with fear. I say that partly because that can help us feel less guilty about our own fear reactions. I say that also because I believe it adds a note of reality to this story that can be so difficult to believe. But if this story were made up, it seems unlikely that the first witnesses of the risen Christ would be described as being afraid. It also seems unlikely that they would have been described as women, for the testimony of women was not considered particularly credible in the biblical world. So the women reacting in fear lends some credibility to a story that is difficult to believe.

Nevertheless, why fear? Well, how would you react to an experience like this? You go to a cemetery to view your loved one's tomb, and when you get there the tomb is empty, a great earthquake occurs, and there sits an angel shining like lightning. Fear is an understandable reaction to such an unworldly experience.

And I say "unworldly" purposely, for we might call this experience an "epiphany," which is a word for the experience of divine reality in some way. A common response to such epiphanies is fear - or at least a sense of awe in the face of an eerie or other-worldly experience.

I believe Matthew wants us to recognize this as something more than a regular epiphany - if there can be something that's only a "regular" epiphany. Matthew's reference to the angel and the earthquake would signal to his readers that he was talking about an apocalyptic epiphany - that is, an epiphany associated with final judgment and the end of time. The fear the women felt was not only the awe one feels at an experience of the divine but also the deeper awe one feels when one recognizes that they are experiencing the end of this world and the beginning of a new age. However much the women understood this at that very moment, eventually Christians came to believe that the resurrection of Jesus ushered in a new age - a new age that we may experience now in part but that we will know more fully in the life to come.

How do we react on Easter? Do we share the women's response of "fear and great joy"? The "great joy" is not difficult to identify with. Ordinarily at Easter we have a certain amount of joy in the spring-like weather that often accompanies Easter. That joy eludes us this year with our unusually early date for Easter and our unusually snowy winter. But we can share a certain joy that Lent is over. We have completed our Lenten course with its typical somber emphasis on suffering and sacrifice. During Lent we lock up our "alleluias" and don't speak or sing the word until today. I know that some of our children think that this custom is a little silly, but there is a certain joy in being able to say, sing, or shout "Alleluia" freely once again. Shouting "alleluia" or not, the celebration of Easter naturally evokes joy.

We also affirm that the resurrection of Jesus brings us special gifts that we receive with great joy. The resurrection is God's seal of approval on what Jesus said and did. We can count on the truth of his message of God's love and forgiveness, even for sinners and those at the margins of society, and, yes, even for us, no matter what reasons we might have for doubting that his message applies to us.

We confess that Jesus is the "first fruits of those who have died" - that is, just as Jesus was raised from death, we too will share in resurrection. Part of our Easter joy is knowing that death no longer has the last word for us.

It may be that it is difficult for us to join in Easter joy. Perhaps we are carrying burdens of grief. How can we rejoice when we feel so keenly the loss of a loved one? Perhaps we are dealing with serious illness or loss of good health. How can we rejoice in the new life of the risen Christ when we feel such pain, discomfort, or limitation? Perhaps we are dealing with difficulties in relationships or in our work lives. How can we rejoice in the power of the resurrection when we feel so powerless to deal with the problems we face?

By no means do I want to minimize the weight of such realities in our lives, but yet I want to affirm that we can join in Easter joy. Easter joy is not the same as some superficial or naïve happiness. Easter joy is more like an underlying confidence in God's promises that helps us face everything that may war against our joy. The resurrection of Jesus is God's promise to us that all that burdens us now is essentially temporary and not eternal.

So we may share the women's "great joy." Do we share their fear? Perhaps we don't share exactly the same fear, for their fear arose from the eerie, uncanny experience of the apocalyptic epiphany of seeing the empty tomb and then the risen Jesus himself.

Yet I believe that we may well share fear for other reasons. The resurrection of Jesus does mean power for new life, and who knows how that power may change or transform us? In our First Lesson we heard from a sermon of the Apostle Peter. We didn't hear much about the context of that sermon. Peter was preaching at the home of Cornelius, a Roman army officer, who had come to believe in Jesus. To associate in this way with Gentiles went against the grain of how Peter was raised, yet he went to preach to Cornelius because of a vision he had that showed him that this was God's will. How might the power of the resurrection change us? In what new directions might our risen Lord lead us? In many ways the risen Christ turned the world of his first followers upside down. How might he turn our world upside down?

In our Second Lesson Paul tells us, "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above." We might well fear what a life lived in relation with our risen Lord may mean for us. What are the things that are above? What may they demand of me? Will I have to change my behavior, my lifestyle? Jesus' resurrection means the triumph of God's self-giving love that expresses itself in serving others and caring for what's best for them. We might admit that expressing such self-giving love is the "Christian thing" to do but hesitate to do it.

Yes, the women reacted to the resurrection "with fear and great joy" and so may we. But the truth of the resurrection is that no matter how we react the power for new life in the risen Christ is real. The truth of the resurrection is that Christ promises to surround us with his risen presence to feed our joy and overcome our fears. Alleluia! Amen.