Easter Begins

Context Reading 1

Isaiah prophesied during the exile. People in great sorrow. Little control, poverty, death, longing for their homeland and better times.

Isaiah speaks for the Lord, assuring them that such a day will eventually come. And it did. The exiled Jews did return to their homeland.

Christians see in this prophecy a sign of Jesus Christ, through whom we are all promised a new life.

Isaiah 65:17–25 NRSV

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Context Reading 2

Jesus betrayed on Thursday.

Crucified on Friday afternoon.

Jesus’ body was locked away in a tomb with a great stone rolled to block the door and under armed guards for all of Saturday, awaiting its preparation for final interment, which had to be delayed because the Jewish Sabbath is observed on Saturday and all work is forbidden on that day.

The disciples, overcome with grief, fear, and confusion, went into hiding.

Early on Sunday morning, the women who loved and followed Jesus go to the tomb, to provide the final anointing of the body for permanent burial.

Luke 24:1–12 NRSV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Prayer of Illumination

Lord God as you sent the Angels to proclaim the gospel to the women at the tomb, so also send your holy spirit that we might be filled with faith.

[Introduction]

An example of something that I thought was the end, but was actually the beginning. It was sad to come to the end, but surprise it was the beginning!

Exegesis 1: The women are perplexed by the empty tomb

Morning began in solemnity, in grief.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the Mother of James, and other women went to the tomb.

They went to the tomb to finish a messy and sad business. To anoint the tortured body with oils and spices for its final resting place.

They arrive to discover that the immense security stone that had covered the opening was rolled away.

The sepulchre was exposed and no guards in sight.

Went inside. Nobody and No-body. Abandoned.

Let us notice what did NOT happen.

They did not yell, Yay! It is Easter! I knew it! He is Risen, he is risen indeed!

Luke tells us that they were perplexed. Confused.

A tug of war is being suggested. On the one hand, creeping panic — has someone desecrated the tomb, stolen the body…OR, wait, could it be that they were on the doorstep of another miracle. To have known Jesus was to be constantly surprised by his miracles…and hadn’t Jesus said something about rising from the dead…

But surely that could not be possible!

All these thoughts, these questions, swirled in their minds…

Application 1: Are you ready for faith?

When we come to Easter morning, year after year, we may suppose what we are celebrating is expected and routine.

But it is not. It is easy to get to church, but not to arrive at Easter.

A lot of narrative in our world takes it for granted that we live in a closed universe of only physical laws. There is no God who enters into the equation. This belief is in the air we breathe and it can seep into our spirits…and cause Easter to be just a tradition.

William James, a famous psychologist who focused on spirituality, “If we are indeed part and parcel of a meaningless universe, the kind in which Jesus could be murdered on cross [with no resurrection], then being depressed only makes good sense.” (Cited by Miller, p.458)

Some of us live with spiritual depression, because we know death happens, but do not believe that resurrection can happen.

Resurrection stories in the Bible are honest accounts. They are a kind of confession: We admit that faith is not our first response to God.

On Easter we are confronted with an open space. A missing body. An empty tomb.

Easter begins with a question..

Are we ready to have our faith renewed?

Exegesis 2: The women are comforted by angels

Suddenly two angels appear. The women fall on their faces before them. Terror. Common response to angels in the Bible.

Angels bridge between this world and God’s realm.

The angels = messenger. They have appeared at the tomb to help the women.

They ask: Why are you seeking the living among the dead?

Rhetorical question.

By it the angel is pointing out to them a mismatch between where they are and what they are searching for.

A tomb is for a dead person.

But Jesus is “the living”.

There is no dead Jesus, only a living one. So, you won’t find him here.

Not ridiculing them. There was a time when the grave was the place to find Jesus. On Friday. On Saturday. But not today.

HE IS NOT HERE, BUT HAS RISEN.

At Christmas the angel said: Today is born you a Savior, Christ the Lord. Go to Bethlehem and you will find him swaddled in clothes and laying in manger.

Today the angel says: Today the Savior is risen from the dead. He is freed from his graveclothes. He is not here.

Containing his joy:

Christ is arisen, Joy to thee, mortal!

Out of His prison, Forth from its portal!

Christ is not sleeping, Seek Him no longer;

Strong was his keeping, Jesus was stronger. (-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Angel: Remember, says the angel, how Jesus told you that he must be handed-over, crucified, and raised on the third day.

The women: hearing these familiar words from Jesus, are catapulted from perplexity to faith. The empty tomb is a doorway that Jesus has walked through. He is alive and on the move!

Application 2: It is time to have faith

When my family and I travel, we like to visit religious sites. We’ve visited famous churches, monasteries, gravesites of famous saints and leaders.

Not uncommon. Many of you have probably done the same.

People make pilgrimage to the burial sites of the founders of their religions. Pay respect, and rightly so.

Buddhists can visit: Gautama Buddha's final resting place. His body was cremated in Kushinagar, India, and the relics were placed in monuments.

The grave of Confucius is in his hometown of Qufu, China. Body located in a large cemetery where many of his descendants are also buried.

Muhammad is buried in the "Mosque of the Prophet" in the city of Medina. Beard, bones, and other relics are there.

We Christians can visit

the garden of Gethsemane outside Jerusalem where Jesus was betrayed.

Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified outside the city walls.

The tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea where Jesus’ body was placed.

If you go there, you will discover, that the tomb is open. It is empty. There is no sarcophagus or crypt or coffin. There is a sign that quotes the angel, “he is not here, he has risen.”

Easter begins with an message..

It is time to have faith!

Exegesis 3: Peter is amazed

The women went back to the apostles with the story.

But the disciples did not believe and considered their words ‘idle tales’.

Except one of them: Peter.

Before Jesus’ passion, Peter had promised that he would stand with Jesus even if it meant prison and death. Jesus had said to him, No, When the moment comes, you will deny even knowing me. And so it happened.

Much to Peter’s bitter sorrow.

....So when the women report that Jesus’ prophecy of resurrection had come true, hope surged in Peter’s breast as he recalled something Jesus had said to him:

I have prayed for you, Peter, and you will have faith again.

Peter ran to the tomb to investigate. When he got there he found everything just as the women described. The stone rolled away. The tomb empty.

Peter was likely hoping to see Jesus or the angels…but no.

Yet the word and the possibility were enough.

Peter’s grief and self-recrimination is replaced by amazement.

Christ is not done with me!

Application 3: Lord bring me faith!

Jesus died for our sins, and he rose for our new life.

That is the gospel in a nutshell. The message of Easter.

Yet, if we are content with our life as it is, then we may have little motivation to seek Christ. It may seem like an idle tale.

But, if we know our spiritual wounds. If we know our brokenness. If we have felt our alienation from God. Our deep need for connection with God…

Then the empty tomb says that there can be faith after doubt, there is life after loss.

Easter begins with amazement.

Jesus is not done with us.

Conclusion

Today Easter begins. With an empty tomb. With questions….with faith…with amazement!

From today we go forward eager to meet the risen Christ who over the next 7 Sundays will appear to us, teach us, bring us into his new life.

PRAYER OF INTERCESSION:

For Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

O Holy God, beyond our imagining and yet near to us our next heartbeat, we come before you this Easter day in gratitude. We confess, O God, that we like to think of Easter as a sunny and warm day, full of light and sweetness, redolent of all that is fragrant in springtime. Yet no matter what the weather outside, on this day your world remains in so many corners a dark and stormy place, sunk deep into the cold winter of sin and evil. Those who first witnessed your Son’s resurrection found it to be a fearful and fearsome event. For you, O great God of surprises, crashed into our reality with something new and unexpected. But on this morning we do not want to forget the darkness of last Friday afternoon and the way by which the Easter victory, about which we so happily sing this day, came about. We cannot forget the sacrifice, the bloody death, the God-forsaken pain of it all. This clash between your kingdom and this world was fierce. Today we do praise you for all the might, power, and creativity by which you won the victory, Father. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We praise you for raising from the dead our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the great shepherd now of all of us sheep who follow him. But because we cannot and must not forget also the darkness of sin that even still is around us, we make petition this morning for all people anywhere and everywhere who continue to feel crucified by a cruel world and yet do not perceive any Easter. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We pray for refugees, for tortured prisoners, for the innocent victims of war. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We pray for abused children and battered women, for stricken families from whom a loved one has disappeared without a trace. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We pray for the homeless poor and those victimized and diminished by -isms of any kind and oppression of all kinds. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We pray for all those who can see no Easter light because all that is good and lovely has been eclipsed by a depression that will not lift, by chronic pain that will not abate, by a stretch of unemployment with no end in sight, or by a job that is slaying the spirit day by day because the work seems so meaningless. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

O Lord, the things that led Jesus to the cross have not yet disappeared from the face of the earth. The need for resurrection remains stubbornly present in the lives of millions. Make us, O Spirit of the living God, life-giving spirits to minister to those in need this Easter Sunday and always. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Right here in this congregation there are also needs aplenty. So we make petition for the widow or widower who marks this Easter for the first time without a beloved spouse who died since last we observed this holy day. Be with anyone who feels that he or she needs to believe in the resurrection more than ever but is finding it more and more difficult because the absence of that dear person is too real to deny, too total to grasp. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We pray for those who are sick this day or who are worried about a loved one who is very ill. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

And be with each of us gathered for this service. Thank you for friends and family who are our guests this morning, and grant them a special blessing by your Spirit. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Above all we thank you for the presence of the Spirit of the living Lord, Christ Jesus. As we encounter nothing short of your very self here this morning, may we know for sure that we have indeed been in your sacred presence, and may this encounter in turn embolden us to live an Easter life not only now but also in the days to come and forevermore. Help us to take what we experience and learn here and to allow it to set a holy tone for us always and everywhere. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to pray:

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

Go forth in joy to love and serve God in all that you do.

May God, who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, all put that same power to work in you and bring you at last into resurrection life.

For he is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!