Not Just An Empty Tomb

Matthew 28:1–15 ESV

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

          This passage needs no introduction, but I’m going to share the words of Matthew 20:17-19 one more time. “Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” That was Friday, Saturday was the Sabbath, and now it is Sunday.

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the things I’ve been doing for fun throughout this “Safer at Home” period is catching up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s really just the fancy way of saying I’m watching Marvel comic superhero movies. Over the last 12 years there have been all these films with Iron Man and Thor and Captain America and the other Avengers. I’ve never been a big comic book guy, but the first movies in this series were released when I was in college and I enjoyed them. When Christie and I dated, we’d sometimes watch them. But life got busy and I didn’t keep up with all the new ones that came out, there are over 20 and still more to come. I haven’t gone back and watched every single one, but I have just four left to catchup on.

           Something that my mind gravitates to when I’m watching movies like these is the imagery of sacrifice, of substitute and selflessness. I’m drawn to scenes where one character lays their life on the line for another. But I’ve also become more aware of resurrection-type imagery. Someone should be assumed dead, the crushing blow has landed, the screen goes dark, and yet by some new technology usually, they’re brought back to life. Or there will be a scene where someone’s powers or their special suit fails, and you think surely this is their end.

The other night Christie and I were watching “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and there’s a scene where Peter Parker/Spider-Man is trapped under heavy rubble, crying for help. Tony Stark/Iron Man had taken back his powerful suit that would have undoubtedly given him the strength to push it aside. Spider-Man is going to be crushed to death. But then he remembers something that Stark had said to him, “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” So, Spider-Man digs deep, he musters up all his superhuman strength, and escapes, he’s a hero. Of course he is, that’s how most hero storylines go. There’s something about the good guy or good woman coming back from death or the brink of death to be victorious that many are drawn to.

But those are things that have been dreamt up. Someone came up with an idea and wrote it down and had it illustrated in a comic book. Or the idea was worked over by many people and was filmed. It’s cool to see the outcome of their creation and hear the stories, but at the end of the day, they’re still fiction. The story, the event, the account of Jesus’ resurrection is true. What we read in Matthew 28, what we’re remembering from the past and celebrating today, really happened.

Let’s begin, then, by remembering that the focus of Easter should be on “Who,” not “where.” When we think about those who have died, it’s common to think about wherever their final resting place is—to think about the cemetery or the location of their headstone, the urn or wherever their ashes have been scattered. In our reading Thursday night, we heard how these women had witnessed Jesus die on the cross—he breathed his last, he had given up his spirit. We have the other gospels tell us a soldier speared him in the side to be sure. These women had gone to where Jesus was buried. They saw his body placed in the tomb. He was dead.

The final verses of Matthew 27 tell us on Saturday, more attention was given to securing the tomb, but when these women arrived on Sunday, the tomb was empty! The angel invited them to see “where he lay.” Luke and John’s accounts tell us about the disciples who ran to and entered the tomb, and they found the burial clothes there left behind. Theoretically, they could have all gotten stuck there, remaining where they expected Jesus to be, or disbelieving the angel and trying to find wherever some cruel people had stashed his body. Yet the angel told them not just was his body not there, but “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said,” and furthermore, “…tell his disciples: ‘…You will see him.” Jesus was alive! Jesus was back from the dead in real human form. He was not a ghost or some type of spirit gliding among them. It wasn’t just the disciples who would get to see him, but “Suddenly Jesus met [the women, who] clasped his feet and worshiped him. If we accept that Scripture is real and true, then we have no reason to doubt this.

In the CRC’s Contemporary Testimony, “Our World Belongs to God,” we find this brief summary about Jesus in his resurrection, “…He walked out of the grave, conqueror of sin and death—Lord of life!” The point of this whole day, this whole event of Easter, is not just an empty tomb, an open grave. The point, the focus, the whole reason for our faith—is our Savior lives. He certainly died and took what death needed, what our sins required—we don’t contest that, but death could not hold him. As 1 Corinthians 15 talks about their sting and their victory is finished, because Jesus in his miraculous power came back to life. God had sent his Son to die for us, but just like Jesus had waited until after Lazarus died to come and raise him back to life, God knew that on the third day Jesus would rise again. It doesn’t take the hurt of that moment away, but his Son’s death was not an eternal thing—he’d have him back!

This is the true story of the resurrected Savior. Let’s move on now to the end of our passage and our second point, the ministry amid a cover-up. In verse 4, we heard when the angel showed up, “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” Matthew tells us the rest of their story—they weren’t dead. Verse 11, “…Some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.” I want to be careful to not add any false details, but it seems like these guards knew quite a bit of what had taken place. Whatever mindset they were in on the ground, their memories weren’t erased. They could tell the religious leaders, “We sealed the tomb.” They could tell them, “We stood guard.” They could also tell them, “There was an earthquake. An angel or some kind of glowing guy appeared and rolled away the stone—that terrified us.” Whether or not they knew that Jesus had come back to life, they knew the tomb was empty, and that something supernatural had happened.

I am calling this a ministry, because these chief priests were the very leaders who had said again and again that this was not possible. They were the ones who had done so much to get rid of Jesus, and were probably patting themselves on the back for his crucifixion. Now these soldiers, maybe some of the same ones who had mocked and flogged Jesus, were informing them that something had happened. Jesus’ body was gone, and they were afraid. Money fixes everything, though, right? “Tell this lie, tell this cover-up that the disciples took the body, spread that around.” The thing about a cover-up is that the chief priests and soldiers all knew this wasn’t true. They knew something different had happened—something they really didn’t want to consider.

This is a difficult piece of the account. As we talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus, we want people, especially those who don’t believe in God, to believe this. Our faith, our religion, is not a mind-trick, it’s not a fairy tale. It’s truth. Yet these religious leaders’ hearts were so hard that the reality of God doing this right then and there, of Jesus being who he said he was—they would not accept it. They would not believe in Jesus; they would not admit that they had been wrong; they would not tell others to look to Jesus. Not that the soldiers necessarily got it or believed in Jesus themselves, but through their testimony, God revealed again that Jesus is the risen Christ. He confronted them once more: “See what happened. You know this isn’t any typical grave robbery. Jesus claimed he would rise again, and here it is, guys. He is the one I promised to save Israel and all who believe from their sins.” But rather than admit their faults and believe, they continued to label Jesus a deceiver, when they were the ones doing just that.

It seems kind of strange that their story worked for a lot of people when Jesus continued to live after this day. He lived on earth for 40 more days until he ascended into heaven. The women, disciples and other followers of Jesus got to see him and could verify the resurrection—that fed into the church! But the lie continues today. The devil seeks to deceive people by any means necessary, to make them doubt, to make them ignore that this happened. The devil tries to cover it up. There are many people whose hearts are hard to the resurrection, to the Christian faith, to God and what he does. Yet, brothers and sisters, that should not stop us from testifying to the reality and the hope that we have. Again, we’re not just telling people the tomb is empty. We’re telling them, we’re to be circulating the true story: Jesus is risen, and he is alive!

Let’s be clear what good this does us, though. Our final point today brings us to the question asked by the Heidelberg Catechism: “How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?” The answer to question 45 is this, “First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, so that he might make us share in the righteousness he obtained for us by his death. Second, by his power we too are already raised to a new life. Third, Christ’s resurrection is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection.”

One of the things about this COVID-19 period is that it seems to strip away our sense of time and life routines. We don’t know what day it is anymore. The flow of our week, if you’re used to a certain work or school schedule or something else like that, the flow is out of whack. For people, for students, for engaged couples, for families, there have been all sorts of dates on the calendar, plans that were made for doctors’ appointments, for trips, for graduations, for weddings, for vacations. A friend or loved one dies or seems to be heading that way, and normally we’d plan a funeral in a particular way, and that’s all out the window or on hold. I’ll admit I’m right there with so many of you that I’m sick of it. I want to go back to what I consider normal. One of the big parts of that is I want us to all be able to gather together, to worship, to fellowship, to study.

But maybe there is something new and good to learn. I’m not saying I’ve completely submitted to this, but this feeling of having so much taken away can remind us to live in today and to not worry about tomorrow. This whole experience can call us to check our dependency and anxiety on so many things that are not God, not essential, things we’ve crowded our lives with.  

One of the beautiful parts when I look at the Catechism’s answer summarizing what Jesus’ resurrection does for us is that it makes me realize what God has done in our past, our present, and for our future. He has made us already share in his righteousness, we are for the present raised to a new life, and we look forward to resurrection. Those are the core things that ought to shape our lives right now—no matter what we can or can’t be a part of. If you are in Christ, then your identity is shaped by what he did on Good Friday and Easter. All of the luxuries that make up our lives, all the comforts, all the typical things that we think a person should do at given points in our lives—those things do not make us who we are in Christ. They can all be stripped away, and we still have Someone to be rooted in right now. We still have something to look forward to that is way better than when you’ll able to shop or attend a sporting event or go to a concert or on that vacation you dreamed of. What Jesus promises in overcoming the grave changes us; he makes us new.

Brothers and sisters, our lives, minds, and hearts can be filled with feel good and thrilling stories from books, movies, and life experiences. We can celebrate milestones. We can celebrate comeback stories. We can enjoy life, but let us no look at Jesus’ resurrection as just a feel-good, “positive and encouraging” story. This is the account of the risen, brought back from the dead, “conqueror of sin and death—Lord of life!” Just as Jesus died for us, Jesus rose from the dead for you and for me. He rose not simply to make us smile and once a year say, “He is risen indeed!” He rose to guarantee all who believe in him the sure hope of resurrection to eternal life.

So, it is my prayer and it’s the hope of God for all his children that wherever you are today, whenever you might be listening to or watching this, that, by faith, you would hold the promise of new life from Jesus with certainty. Unlike Spider-Man or the Avengers finding the will to live in themselves, each of us must be willing to say I absolutely need Jesus. There’s nothing I can contribute to my salvation; I need all that he’s done for me. Believe in him, believe he died and rose for you and for every person who turns to him because he loves you. He has done more more than enough for your salvation. Believe today and for the rest of your life, and with the hope of true forgiveness and salvation, dedicate your new life to his glory. Amen.