Matthew 28:1-10
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.” (ESV)
Introduction
This is a unique time in our world history. As we gather in our homes because of the COVID-19, we may feel like we are not doing the right thing by staying home on Easter Sunday. Perhaps, this Easter can be used as an illustration of what was going on in the morning after the Sabbath, especially in that day after the Jewish Passover celebration. That morning, the first day of the week, was also a day when the followers of Jesus of Nazareth were disappointed and sad with the brutal death of their Rabbi and Master. So I would like to ask you at this moment to take a brief time to reflect on how sad that morning was for all.
However, a few women—Matthew relates that they were “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary”—went to the site of Jesus’ burial in order to bring to him some special oils and spices, which was the costume of the time. They went to that place of burial to honor their Master, without knowing that the greatest miracle had happened that morning: Jesus was raised from the dead!
The following is a declaration that has been made by a Jewish rabbi at around A.D. 190! Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, as he compiled the Mishna, wrote the following: “After three days the soul of the Messiah shall return to its body, and he shall go out of the stone in which he shall be buried.” What is sad is the fact that he did not recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. The statement is correct, but he missed the date and the central point: The Messiah had already come! And He is risen indeed!
We celebrate the Resurrection of our Messiah Jesus today! He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! But what is so important in this whole statement of faith by the followers of Jesus? Why do we celebrate this unique fact in History? Is there any truth in this cosmological event? This is what I would like to bring to our attention and elicit our devotion even more when we explore the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christianity Without Resurrection Is Worthless
I draw our attention to a very key passage, written by Paul to the Church in Corinth: “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16-17). Paul is addressing the whole issue of resurrection in this particular chapter. For him, as we can verify below, Christianity without resurrection is completely worthless.
Even though this passage was written some thirty years after Jesus’ resurrection, it resonates the disbelief of many today. The resurrection is not a theological imagination; it is the central focus of the entire Christian Faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one Reality that surpasses any other religious concept. If we take it out of our faith, Christianity will be just another moral-oriented religion in the world. What Paul is telling us today is that, if Jesus Christ has not risen from the dead, our faith is totally futile, worthless. We are now confronted with the most critical stand in our faith: Do we really believe it? Do we really believe that Jesus Christ is alive, or do we make such an affirmation just because today is Easter?
We live in a time of great confusion. There are so many religious options available through different channels. The time of religious shopping is now greater than before with the constant presence of the media, literature, science fiction, and the list gets longer by the day. Globalization has come to stay and it has brought so many different religions, and many of them are appealing to our senses of curiosity, rebellion, and also lack of understanding of the Scriptures. Because of this, we sometimes fail to realize that the Christian faith stands only because it is a faith based on a living God and a living Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other religion on earth claims to have their founder or founders living eternally; only Christ is alive forever because he conquered death. He is alive! He is risen!
The Resurrection of Christ Is the Work of the Triune God
As we continue, we take this declaration from the angel who spoke to the two Marias, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.” (v. 6a). In this statement, we see that it is mentioned that what had happened, had indeed happened because it was the fulfillment of prophecy; even Jesus’ own words of prophecy. It was a concerted work of God Triune; Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Nothing that happened to Jesus Christ happened by accident or randomly: It happened to fulfil God’s plan of salvation for those who believe in the gracious gift of eternal life guaranteed by the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of Man, the Son of God.
It is the Work of the Father. We find numerous passages of Scripture to affirm this truth, but the ones I am giving here will suffice. The first two come from Paul’s pen and speak of the Gospel as being centered in the death and resurrection of the Messiah. As we find in Romans, we read the following, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). It is crucial for us to make the connection between Jesus’ death and resurrection with our new life in faith. The longer context of this particular passage (Rom. 6:1-14) will tell us more about our deep relationship with Jesus; it is through his death and resurrection that we are in Christ, a term that Paul explores throughout his entire writing, in all his letters and epistles.
Paul, when opening his letter to the Galatians, does not forget to mention that he was an apostle through Jesus. Not only that, the Jesus he was serving was the Jesus of the True Gospel, not of the gospel that some false teachers were trying to bring to those churches in Galatia. Thus, he writes, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—” (Gal. 1:1, emphasis added). What made his Gospel truthful was the fact that his Gospel was the Gospel of the Risen Christ, as we read above.
But the apostle Peter also has the same affirmation about the resurrected Savior, as being resurrected by the Father. We read the following in his first letter to the churches in the Dispersion in Asia Minor, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Yes, the resurrection is a work of the Father, as we can see.
It is the Work of the Holy Spirit. I think this is a most powerful declaration of the work of the Holy Spirit in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It gives us the assurance of God’s Spirit acting in that awesome moment in History, when in the middle of sadness, in the quietness of the night of despair, God’s Spirit comes and bring life back to the Son of Man, the Son of God. Again it is Paul who makes such tremendous declaration, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11, emphasis added).
It is the Work of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ is both God and Man. He died as a man to pay for our sins and, according to John’s narrative, Jesus also worked in his own resurrection. It is a mystery for us, limited as we are, to understand it! But he is truthful in his word. Jesus is the giver of life and he has the power of taking his own life up again as he said. These three passages will help us realize that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was also the result of his own power. “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18, emphases added). When he spoke to the Jewish leaders, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (John 2:19, emphasis added). And just before he went to the Cross, on his way to bring Lazarus back to life, he declared to Martha, Lazarus’ sister, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25, emphasis added).
It is of ultimate importance that we realize that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the work of the Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were present in the raising of Jesus from the dead. Again the question persists, Do we really believe this? As Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26b).
As We Meet the Risen Christ
A key point in the larger passage for this message is the fact that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, met the women as we read in this verse 9, “And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’” We find here an element of great joy: His gentleness in greeting those women. Jesus Christ always comes to his disciples with a gentle voice, with a gentle touch of his grace.
It is a this point that we face the reality of worship. As we come to God in worship, we must be always reminded that we are in the presence of the Living God, the God of the living, not of the dead. True worship happens before the Risen Christ: “And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.” It is only when we face the awesomeness of God’s presence that we realize that he is alive. The same happens when we bow down before Jesus and declare that he is risen!
They went out and told his disciples about the resurrection… The women were the first ones to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection is more than just a way of saluting each other in church on Easter Sunday. It is the sacred commission from the Risen Savior to tell the world that we believe, follow and serve the Risen Lord. It was the privilege of those two women[1] to receive Jesus’ command to tell the other disciples that he was alive.
We may draw two important lessons from this: The first one is that Jesus brought women to an equal status before God—thus before him— and also that, by doing so, he gave them the privilege of being the first post-resurrection missionaries in the history of the Church. We take this very seriously because there is a renewed need to emphasize that servanthood in the New Testament Church is for both men and women. Jürgen Moltmann, a German theologian, is credited to have said that, “Without women preachers, we would have no knowledge of the resurrection.”
Conclusion
My closing question at this moment is: If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what are we doing about it? Our Christian faith is completely anchored on two essential and final confessions: Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross and he rose from the dead. As Jesus said to Martha, Lazarus’ sister, and I repeat here, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
May this day, in our homes, in the sacred abode of our families, like the Israelites did in the desert and throughout the diaspora, be a day of great celebration because our Lord Jesus Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed! May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified today in our lives and in our Church. To Him be all the Glory forever! Amen.
[1] “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1).