Today is resurrection morning and many people who follow the Christian faith throughout the world are celebrating this joyful time.
All four of the gospels record an account of the resurrection. Matthew’s gospel is the only one to tell about an earthquake happening but all four gospels emphasise the role of women that early resurrection morning. It was a number of women who saw the risen Lord as they went to the tomb first. Noticeably the men who followed him were absent, presumably hiding in fear of the Jewish leaders.
Most of us cannot begin to imagine the whiplash of emotions for those first disciples including those women who loved and cared for Jesus during his earthly life. Just the day before the Lord they knew and loved was lying in a tomb presumably gone forever. They still did not understand or perhaps believe what he had told them about rising from the dead on the third day. Now the trauma of his brutal murder rested heavily on them as they still were coming to grips with the speed of his apparent demise. Then just as quickly as they saw him laid in a tomb, they became aware in the most unbelievable way possible that is through the words of angels or an angel according to Matthew’s account, that he was now alive. He had risen from the dead. Every time you say those words to this very day it still sounds astounding to the ears. He is risen! What happened next filled those women with great joy and still does for all of us Christians today.
- We must overcome any debilitating fear before we can fully serve the Lord.
As those women approached the tomb their hearts must have been pounding. They knew that to be associated with Jesus in that time could mean being ostracised or being persecuted or both. The Jewish leaders were adamant that no mention of this Jesus fellow should ever happen again. The women were also in mourning. Their grief would have been indescribable. The savagery of his physical assault and then his crucifixion would have been very raw in their minds. I doubt that any of his disciples and friends including these women slept that Friday night at all. Fear and grief can lead to paralysis of thinking. You get stuck not knowing exactly what to do but these women were certain of one thing. The body had to be properly prepared for burial even if they had to do it after the fact.
All of us, if we experience tragedy and the trauma that results from it, can become fearful and anxious about the future. We can get stuck in that state as well if we are not careful. In that state of fear we find it difficult to see any hope in the future. This probably was the experience of these women as they approached the tomb that morning. They had only one intention which was to do one last thing for their friend and brother and they wanted to do it early in the morning before daylight came and exposed them. These women were told by the angel that they should not be afraid and this is quite important. Before you can experience the joy of new life, you have to overcome your fears, whatever they may be. They were going to be the first evangelists and to do so they could not hold on to anything that made them afraid. The message for them and for us today is that we have to overcome our fears, whatever they may be if they threaten to prevent us from entering a new relationship with God.
2. The resurrection is an invitation to a hope-filled relationship with Jesus.
It is often said that ‘seeing is believing’ and even though as Christians we know that our faith is grounded on what we don’t see physically, we know that seeing is not just a physical act. It is in experiencing something that we are best able to testify to its reality and its effect on us. The women were told to “come” and “see”. These two words taken together emphasise the invitation that is being offered to enter into a new experience that is expected to be transformative, that is to say you will not be the same again after you have the experience. You may recall the same invitation was given to Nathaniel by Philip when he was sceptical about Jesus simply because he came from Nazareth. (See St. John 1:46)
Hope comes alive when you come and see. The power of the resurrection is in the fact that like those women we are invited to come and see. The difference is that we are not looking for grave clothes in an empty tomb but we are looking to enter into the life-transforming relationship with the risen Lord and Savior. Our hope is enacted by coming and seeing not so much with our eyes but even more so with our hearts. We will never know the joy and hope that came to those disciples beginning with those women when they saw an empty tomb and heard the words, He is not here;he has risen…” but we can experience the joy and hope of the resurrection with the life that we can have with Jesus through the presence of the Holy Spirit today.
3. The resurrection of our Lord reminds us of our mission as evangelists.
We may notice that the resurrection account is also a call to evangelizing. To evangelize simply means to tell the good news. There is no greater news for humanity than the news that Christ has conquered death and as such we now who accept him as Savior have hope of life eternal. The women were told by the angel to “go quickly and tell his disciples” (St. Matthew 10:7 NIV) You may notice the operative words in the command are, “go quickly and tell” . This indicates that there is always an urgency to the mission of telling others about Jesus. It also emphasises the importance of the mission. If we are filled with joy about the resurrection, then our compulsive action is to tell others about it. Isn’t it the same thing we do with anything else in our lives? A family member has a newborn baby, we tell our friends about it. Our son or daughter has successfully passed her medical exams, we share the news with friends and so on.
This resurrection morning, what gives you joy? My hope is that your greatest reason for happiness and joy today is in the reality that you do not serve a dead savior but a risen one. This means that our hope for eternal life is secure in Jesus. It also means that we have good news to tell to the world. All of us who celebrate Christ’s resurrection today are also being sent on a mission to tell the world that Jesus lives today because he lives in our hearts. Let us go from here with renewed hope and joy to share this good news with all whom we meet and interact with because there are still many many people in our world who do not know that Jesus lives. Let us go as instruments of God’s grace to tell in actions and words that there is hope and joy in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus for all who come to him today. Amen.