Easter vigil
Easter Vigil
Mark 16:1-8
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
I’m going to tell you a secret: I’m not a morning person. When I do get up early, I’m not in the mood to think too hard about anything. I don’t want to watch perky morning shows, I don’t want to digest a weather report, I don’t even want to eat breakfast. Needless to say, I don’t want life throwing me any curve balls. I’m just not ready to deal with surprises yet. So why am I even conducting an Easter sunrise service? It’s early in the morning, and with candles and processions and everything else, there’re a lot of opportunities for something to ruffle my early morning feathers. Obviously, the real reason is because this is the most important day of the church year. This is the day we celebrate Christ’s victory over death and hell and our own sin. But being the non-morning person that I am, I can’t help but notice that on the first Easter, some other people had to get up early, too. They lived in a hot country, so they were probably used to getting up early to get some work done before the noon-day sun forced them to take a siesta. But whether they were used to it or not, when they rolled out of bed before the sun came up on that first Easter morning, those poor ladies were in for a shock. You could sum up their trip to the tomb in three simple words: Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
I.
All kidding aside, those ladies had a sad duty to perform. They had loved Jesus and they had lost him. All that was left for them to do was anoint his body for burial. Jewish burial customs dictated that bodies be anointed with a mixture of spices. But Jesus had died so close to the beginning of the Sabbath late Friday afternoon that they hadn’t been able to fully anoint his body. So they were going to do it now. The job wasn’t going to be pleasant. People then were more used to bodies than we are, but still preparing a dead body would not be a job most people would volunteer for. In fact, under the law of Moses, they would be ceremonially unclean for seven days. And the work wouldn’t be easy, either. There’s a reason we talk about “dead weight” in English. I’ve had to do it, and I can tell you moving a body is hard. And it’s often unpleasant. These people were in Palestine and at least one full, hot day had passed. They could expect odors and secretions and who knows what else. There was a dirty job to do, and as so often happens in real life, the women got stuck with it. But what an act of love it was! All that unpleasantness and all their sorrow only brings their love into sharper focus. While he was alive some of these same women had provided for Jesus’ physical needs. When he was dead, they were going to take care of his one last physical need.
No matter what kind of morning people they were, on this morning, we can well imagine that they were sad and silent. But there was at least some conversation. I’ve noticed at funeral visitations and at the meals after funerals people tend to talk about ordinary things. It’s almost like we need to talk about something simple and on-going in the shadow of the death that has intruded into our lives. These women also talked about a very real and concrete concern. They asked who would roll the stone away. Joseph of Arimathea had blocked the entrance to Jesus’ tomb with a boulder and they knew they couldn’t move it. Roman soldiers had been posted to guard the tomb, but there wasn’t much chance they would help. But the women didn’t turn back. Maybe they were just on “auto-pilot” going through the motions because they didn’t know what else to do. Maybe they figured they would find someone to help them when they got there. But they kept going to do the impossible.
Then they ran into surprise number one: an open tomb! An angel had come down from heaven and rolled back the boulder and sat on it. His face and clothing had blazed like the sun and those veteran Roman troopers had fainted. By the time the women got there, the angel was gone and so were the soldiers. What they saw when they got there was an open tomb. That’s what they were supposed to see. God had opened that tomb -- not so that Jesus could get out. He was gone before the angel ever came. God opened the tomb so that the women could see what was -- and what was not -- inside.
II.
I wonder what the women thought as they came closer to that open tomb. They might have looked around for a minute, just to make sure they were in the right place. But this was where Jesus had been laid. Once they got to the doorway, there really wasn’t much more to do except go inside and see what had happened. John’s description gives you the impression that you had to stoop down to get in. The tomb had been carved out of rock and there wouldn’t have been a light switch. No doubt it was a little scary to go inside. They could probably have imagined logical reasons why the tomb would be open. The most obvious would have been grave robbers. They may even have worried that robbers might still be around, even inside. Whatever they felt or thought, the ladies did what had to be done. They went in. What they had hoped to see was the body of Jesus, still lying there wrapped in a strips of cloth, undisturbed. But there was no body. At first, there was nobody else, either. But then came surprise number two: an angel messenger. Suddenly there was a living person standing there -- what appeared to be “a young man.” In fact, we know from the other gospels that there were two of them. And they weren’t “young men” at all. They were angels.
Angels don’t have bodies like we do. They’re spirits. Not the souls of people who have died, but beings that God created as spirits. But from time to time, they take the appearance of a human to talk to us because angels are God’s messengers and sometimes that’s the best way to deliver their message. These angels delivered a message that I’m sure those ladies never forgot. A message that made their trip and their sorrow and their whole lives different. A message about Jesus. Only one of the angels spoke. He wanted the women to hear his good news. He wanted them to rejoice in what had happened. And he wanted their minds to be clear enough to grasp what he was saying. So the first words out of his mouth were, “Don’t be alarmed.” Unfortunately, it was already too late. The women were already terrified. But he had more to say. He knew why they had come: they were looking for Jesus. For Jesus of Nazareth, the human teacher. For Jesus of Nazareth the man who had been crucified. They were looking for a dead man. That they weren’t going to find. The angel told them, He has risen! He is not here! Then to get the message to sink in, he pointed to the place where that body had been laid Friday evening. A place that now was empty.
III.
The angel showed them that Jesus was alive. He had risen, just as he had promised to do. That was the heart of the message. In fact, in a sense, you can say that was the resurrection. Some time before the women arrived, Jesus had come back to life. But that coming back to life did nothing for them or for us until they knew about it. The Bible spends very little time describing that coming back to life. But the showing and proving that he wasn’t in the tomb anymore -- that the Bible covers in detail. All four gospels tells us about angels proclaiming that to the women and the disciples. And then Jesus himself appeared to those who had loved him and lived with him. That is the resurrection in its fullest sense. God raised Jesus’ body from the dead and then showed the church surprise number three: a risen Lord.
God showed the women the risen Lord by proclaiming his Word before he showed them the Lord’s risen body. The same is true for the disciples and for everyone who ever came to believe. God announced that the Savior was alive and that should have been enough for them and it should be enough for us. Of course, we know that as the women fled from the tomb, Jesus himself did appear to them. But that only underlined the truth that had already been revealed. The angels told the women to tell Peter and the other disciples the same thing. The Lord had risen and he would meet them in Galilee. Now, it’s a little difficult to tell how clearly that message was transmitted. We know that Mary Magdalene told Peter and John that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. But the two disciples on the road to Emmaus reported that “some of the women” had seen a vision of angels who said that Jesus was alive. But they don’t mention the two times Jesus himself appeared to the women before he appeared to them. As so often happens, human messengers turn out to be inadequate. But God keeps using us and in spite of our weaknesses he keeps sending his message: Jesus is alive.
Why do you suppose the women had such difficulty communicating what’s really a pretty simple message? Mark says, Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. They had walked into the tomb expecting to find a dead Jesus and instead they found angels announcing he was alive. That shook them up. It terrified them. They fled from the tomb. Fear kept their mouths closed for awhile -- at least until Jesus himself appeared to them. Then joy took over and they had something to share. But fear wasn’t all they felt. Mark also says they were bewildered. It took time for them to process what had happened. There was a lot of confusion that morning -- not all of it was due to the early hour. People who don’t want to accept that the Bible is true see many contradictions in what the different gospel writers say these women did and didn’t do. But there really aren’t any contradictions. The women themselves reacted in different ways -- in unbelief and fear and confusion. It shouldn’t surprise us that the women did all these different things. Some of you may remember that after we came here a semi side-swiped our van. The police and the insurance company all wanted complete and accurate accounts of what happened. I did the best I could, but I couldn’t always give them the details they wanted. These women had had a far greater shock and they had difficulty understanding and processing all that they saw and heard. So they did and said contradictory things, things the different writers recorded for us.
That difficulty points out why these women needed their Lord to rise. The reason they thought Jesus would still be dead, the reason they were terrified in the presence of an angel, the reason they saw Jesus himself and still didn’t get the message completely correct was that they were sinners. Now, they did love their Lord. They did try to live their faith. But they were sinners. The same sinfulness that kept them from understanding what was happening and that weakened their faith to the point that they didn’t trust Jesus’ promise to rise from the dead would eventually have sent those dear, humble, committed women to hell. Because no amount of human dearness or humility or commitment can outweigh human sin in our hearts. That’s was their problem. But that’s exactly the problem Jesus solved for them and for us. We have the exact same sinfulness in our hearts. Our faith struggles against the same human weakness and unbelief. And just like those women, every one of us, including the preacher, has confused and even missed the gospel at times. If we’re honest, we all have to admit at times we’ve even doubted the resurrection of Christ. That should send us all to hell. But Jesus rose to conquer our unbelief and weakness. Jesus rose to tell us that the sin that infects our hearts and even corrupts our faith is paid for and erased in God’s eyes. Just like he did for those dear ladies so early on the first Easter morning, God has related to you and to me the good news that Jesus has risen. That good news is the power of God. At first those women were terrified and unable to understand or believe what they had seen. Yet, God planted a seed of hope and joy in their hearts through the gospel. The Lord himself nourished that seed into a joyful witness of his resurrection, a witness that still thrills us today. God has planted the same seed in our hearts through the same gospel message and made us joyful witnesses of the same resurrection.
In truth, Easter Sunday morning is always worth getting up for. In fact, it may be one of the very few things in life that are worth getting up before the sun to see. It certainly was worth the effort for that little group of women who went to Jesus’ tomb. And it certainly is worth our presence here today, because this is our chance to see our Lord. Not physically -- but in the experience of these women and in the testimony of Scripture. Jesus is alive. Rejoice in that! Amen.