Sunday of the Resurrection
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
March 31, 2024
Isaiah 25:6-9
Mark 16:1-8
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
So once again we gather together this Festival of the Resurrection because we are beckoned here, we are called here, we are called to be together. And we long to hear the story again and again over the years and over our times and our ages and our lives -- those lived here together and those we have lived elsewhere and those which we are living now.
And in the midst of our lives lived now, comes this story of the unimaginable, the nearly incomprehensible, something that may stir our souls to things beyond … well… beyond US, beyond ME, beyond YOU … and take us to places unknown by paths as yet untrodden.
This is resurrection life. Life lived out from the tomb into rebirth.
We may know this story of Jesus’ resurrection well – or we may be hearing it for the first time. Jesus was crucified on the Friday that we call “Good” – there were two thieves – one on his left and one on his right. He suffered and he spoke the proverbial 7 last words. Jesus and they died. Jesus was buried in a tomb and a big stone was rolled in front of it. And all who loved him ran into hiding. There was great fear because of the Roman Empire and the power they yielded over all within their grasp.
The day after Jesus’ death was what we call Holy Saturday. It is tied to the Jewish observance of the Sabbath. A day of quiet, no work, no activity. All was still. And the Sabbath that followed Jesus’ crucifixion would have had an even heavier pall cast over it for those who had followed him and loved him and believed certain things about him and who he was and what he would do for the people of God. All of that shattered. So many plunged into grief and disbelief. That was a Holy Saturday – a Holy Saturday that likely held despondency and despair.
You see, we know the end of the story – we are post-resurrection people and so our joy could not help but begin even we made plans for Easter dinner, dying eggs and preparing baskets. But for Jesus’ followers then, they didn’t know the end of the story. Their grief and confusion would have blocked out from their brains the times after Jesus spoke of how he would be killed that he went on to say that he would be raised after three days. In the midst of grief, much is forgotten.
And then early at dawn on the day that we now call Easter, the Sabbath having ended, the women who were Jesus’ disciples headed to the tomb to do what is customarily done for the dead – to pick the casket, select the flowers, plan the service, have some final soft whispers and then get ready to carry on with whatever it is that may follow. Many of us gathered here have done these very things.
On their way, we don’t know if they chattered about family and village business or if they walked silently on this last pilgrimage but we do know that they were wondering how the stone would be moved away. This stone. No “pet rock” this stone but rather a great stone was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it. A round and massive stone – perhaps big enough to take 5 Roman soldiers to set in place. No amount of wishing was going to move it. Still, the women, who all had been there with Jesus, wondered aloud, “Who will roll away the stone for us? And when they arrived, lo and behold the stone had been removed.
And they did something that I wonder if any of us would have done – they stepped into the tomb, into the very center of that which held their grief and sorrow. And there heard words from the angel – “he is not here – he who was crucified has risen. Go tell everyone – even Peter – and meet him in Galilee.”
Each of the gospels offer us different insights into the unfolding of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Yet, Mark’s account that we heard read a few moments ago stands in stark contrast to the others. In Mark, those who are surprised by the evidence of the resurrection they have seen run away seized with terror and amazement.
My dear ones, I too face this with amazement. I am awed and overwhelmed by the power of God to defeat the very power of death through the resurrection of the Son of God – the one who was crucified, who was laid in a tomb and stayed there until he was raised from the dead – not by his own volition but by the mighty and powerful and compassionate and embracing and death-defying arm of the Almighty God.
When faced with the empty tomb, what do we do? We may be tempted to run away because we simply cannot comprehend what it is that God is doing, cannot comprehend the daunting task that we are called to – the task and the commandment given to us in his last words among those whom he loved the most – that we love one another.
And because the tomb is empty, we know that death does not have the last word, evil does not have the last word, deception does not have the last word, power and position and status do not have the last word. Resurrection, new life, comes.
And because of this resurrection life, we travel on to the place to which Jesus has beckoned us – to our Galilee – to the place where even more will be revealed. And, like the women that Easter morning, we travel together and not alone. Surrounded by the love of God that rolled the stone away so that the Risen Christ would be revealed.
