Easter 2023

We meet two Marys at the tomb. Now we know the end of the story but imagine with us for a moment that we are walking with Mary Magdelene and the other Mary.

They had been walking with Jesus for the last few years. They had seen Him go to the cross and die.

When they show up on that Sunday they go to prepare JEsus Body for death. THey didn’t go to check on the tomb, they went in tradition for what they would have done for any body. They went to go and prepare the body like they would prepare any body.

They were trying to deal with the end of something. This was the end of that time. They were working, according to their tradition, to find closure.

But then they were struck with the supernatural reality of the fact that what they thought was true, Jesus death, was not in fact true.

URuguay drink cart in knee. All of the sudden I was in another reality. Sometimes we are shocked into a new truth, a new reality. The resurrection is the wake up call that all things are now different.

This news changes everything.

This is what we will be looking at:

In rising from the dead Jesus speaks a stronger word than sin, rejection and fear. He has invited us into something new.

They leave and run into Jesus along the way.

And when they meet Him they hear from Jesus. This morning I want to look at the resurrection of Christ from the first 5 words we hear in Matthew from Him.

Greetings and

do not be afraid

These encapsulate the promise of the resurrected Christ for these women here but also for us as a whole.

Greetings!

Matthew 28:9 ESV

And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

This “greetings” is not a formal greeting. like we hear from the angel. This is a formal greeting. But Jesus is a familiar greeting.

It is the greeting of One who is known and the One who knows.

This is the greeting of One who is calling people into relationship.

This is the greeting of a friend.

The Welcome and Embrace of Jesus as the first action from the tomb to the women is a reminder that the posture of the resurrection is one of welcome and invitation.

This is good news for us.

The resurrection of Christ is the recognition that every human has come across a deep need and a definitive incapacity to meet that need.

And Christ’s greeting is the posture that that need has been met. The capacity to solve humanities great need is in the resurrection.

The resurrection is the recognition of what has been lost.

This is of ultimate importance for the Christian. If we understand that Christ rose from the dead everything changes.

1 Corinthians 15:14–17 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Christ sees the brokenness that has kept you down, has kept you back.

And still went to the cross.

The resurrection is the reminder that all that could die now has resurrection possibility.

We have to realize that the resurrection is stronger than our own rejection and whatever it is that held us back.

The resurrection is the reminder that Christ has passed through every distance and difficulty to offer us new life.

Everything has resurrection significance.

When we recognize the depths to what Jesus did we recognize that even simple words have profound impact.

A few weeks ago, when it was still colder outside. It was a particularly icy morning and the grass was frosty and spiky. I let my dog outside into our backyard to go to the bathroom. She is older and harder of hearing these days, so she tends to wander off a bit, which she did that morning. So I called her. Nothing. Called her again. Nothing. Now I was in my barefeet and still had sweats on and a bathrobe but she wasn’t listening

I walked a few steps into the yard. It hurt my feet. I took another few steps. I considered at this point just letting her walk into the woods and wishing her geriatric dog body well on her own, thinking I would just tell the kids a hawk got her or something.

But I persisted. Walked further. Yelled. Walked further. Yelled. Walked further. Considered what my neighbors must think of me. Walked further. Reconsidered all my life choices. My feet were at this point numb. I finally got to her and walked her back in giving her a full guilt trip, full with condescending eyes.

Here’s my point. It took me half a morning to walk across the yard to get my dog and I’m still not sure that was the right choice.

If we can get that fairweather around small inconveniences, we have to consider God’s great love for us to cross, not an icy backyard, but earth and hell, death itself, to rescue us. To embrace us.

- The God of the universe has crossed more than an icy backyard to greet us to Himself.

He crossed death and hell itself.

So then Even a welcome from Jesus is more than a welcome.

It’s more than an invitation

more than a hello or recognition, Jesus is welcoming these women in. He is proving life beyond the grave.

HE doesn’t chastise them for a lack of faith or for their fear, He embraces them in their lack of faith and their fear.

Because the death of Christ was intended to deal with our lack of faith and fear.

The resurrection of Jesus is provided by the will and power of God.

That is much bigger than our fear,

Than our lack of faith.

Jesus came to embrace and welcome what we reject

in ourselves

in others

But it happens through resurrection power

It happens because we have rejected God Himself first

There is a cost to resurrection.

That cost was the brokenness of the world in our sin and Jesus’ death

SO this is not just the meeting of friends.

This is the solution to everything they were looking for.

Jesus crossed death itself to greet us to Himself.

He crossed our own rejection of HIm to greet us to Himself.

Don’t Be Afraid

Matthew 28:10 ESV

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

That dissolves all fear

We hear this refrain all throughout the Bible. Do not be afraid. Partially because meeting with God is just shocking business.

And partially because in the presence of God there is an understanding that there is nothing to be afraid of.

We have met the world and have recognized that it is more wobbly than we would have hoped

Christ says, don’t be afraid

There is more death in the world than is comfortable for us

Christ says, Don’t be afraid

There is more anger and rage and frustration than is comfortable for us

Christ says, Don’t be afraid

There is more doubt and rage and frustration inside of us than is comfortable for us,

Christ says, Don’t be afraid.

If Jesus is Lord, If He has been raised from the dead,

We don’t have to be afraid.

So when Jesus says it on this side of the resurrection, we can believe it.

Jesus takes the fear of the disciples and the fear of the women. And He redeems it, changes it, speaks into it. Jesus doesn’t speak past the fear, He speaks into it.

Jesus moves right into the middle of everything that keeps us stuck

Jesus goes back to the place of death itself to proclaim life.

He speaks into our own death to proclaim life.

When HE says do not fear, He speaks from the experience of death.

He has been in the places we fear entirely. And has come out victorious.

Our role is to hear his words in light of His plan and experience.

Christ who knows everything about us, knows the tiny deaths we have lived or we have caused, and still greets us and calls us to HImself.

And when Jesus tells us that we do not have to fear, HE does it because HE has been in every place where fear has ruled.

He invites us and dispels fear because He knows where we need to be.

Jesus has been in every place where rejection and fear have ruled. He has lived our very nightmare. He has beaten sin and death.

His offer is in the face of rejection and fear.

It is the invitation into new life beyond rejection and fear.

I mentioned this on Good Friday but author Simone Weil says that our response to affliction is either “we can’t” or “we must.”

On Good Friday we follow Jesus into “We must.”

On Easter Sunday, we change it to “we can’t” though “he did.”

We look to things in our life that are overwhelming, that are frustrating, or unclear.

We can’t

But then we look to the resurrection

But He did.

The role of the scientist is always to ask questions. How do we navigate our bodies, our environment? Space? Our lived experience?

For some of the most innovative features in science and design people aren’t looking for the next big and greatest thing, they are looking back.

They are looking at the ancient art of paper folding: Origami.

Scientists and designers are applying origami to space exploration and architecture and biomedical design. They are designing robots based on origami. They are applying ancient practices to new problems.

When we are facing the uncertainty of life, we can see the resurrection of Christ as an application to new problems.

The resurrection itself is the reality that in the application of the raised life of Christ, everything is different.

Even when we can’t

He has.

Whatever it is that you can’t or don’t want to face,

you can’t

He did

And HE is inviting you into a relationship, whether you have had one with Him or not, whether you need to occupy the space He is inviting you into for the first time or 100th time, He is calling you into the place

Where He recognizes us, where He sees us, and calls us to HIm.

And where He calls us to not have to fear. We can’t because He did.

But that space changes everything.

Because the God who has gone to every place we could not on our own now calls us to follow Him.

That is the celebration of Easter.

Everything has the possibility of new life knowing that He has done.

So wherever you need the possibility of resurrection, to find the place where you can see hope in the same place that JEsus sees hope.

HE is calling us to see from His perspective and live from His perspective.

When my kids were little, I would sometimes have to pick them up and place them on my shoulders. And it was usually for one of two reasons

They needed to see something that I could see

They were too tired and needed me to carry them to where I was going.

That is the resurrection.

Christ lifts us to Himself to allow us to see what we can’t see

And grants us strength and forgiveness and life where we didn’t have the strength to go on.

He is calling you to that this morning.

Wherever your’re “I can’t” is is where “He already did” is.