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Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Easter Date: 3/27/05 Text: Matthew 28:1-10 Title: The Empty Tomb

3/27/2005
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Title: The Empty Tomb

Please join me in prayer. Eternal God, on this most holy of days, stir up your Holy Spirit within all that are gathered here this morning, so that your words to us would lead us to be faithful always to your way, through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is so good to see you this morning, as we come together to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, for he is risen, he is risen indeed. Alleluia!
It is a joyful day, a day when we put on our best duds, a day when we come together to worship with our family and fellow believers, a day when we sing those wonderful Easter hymns, and for many, it is a day when we will gather together later with family or friends to share a wonderful meal.
It is a joyful day, but on that first Easter morning, it was not very joyful for the followers of Jesus. The disciples were hiding, scared to death. Their sorrow was great, for their leader was dead, there was no hope, all was lost, it was not going to be a good day.
The women going to the tomb that morning were not going there to celebrate a resurrection. No, they were going to finish the burial process, for on Friday afternoon there had not been time to properly prepare Jesus’ body. For them it was not going to be a good day.
They were not thinking springtime thoughts about flowers bursting forth from the earth, or caterpillars turning into butterflies, or new born baby chicks breaking loose from eggs. None of those thoughts entered their minds because you see they were in the middle of the Easter story.
What they saw and heard that day was an earthquake shaking the earth, a stone being rolled away, guards being so frightened that they became like dead men, an angel appearing, and last but not least, Jesus talking to them as they rushed back to tell the disciples that the tomb was empty and that, can you believe it, Jesus was going to meet them in Galilee. He was going to meet them in Galilee, how could that be, after what happened to him Friday. They did not know how Jesus was brought back to life, but they believed it happened, just as we believe it happened. It was going to be a good day after all.
For those of you who saw the “Passion of Christ,” last year I am sure that the memory of the beating and crucifixion of Jesus is still etched in your mind; I know that it is for me. We do not know how close to reality that depiction was, but it was probably pretty close, for Jesus died rather quickly. Unusual for a crucifixion, for they were designed to prolong the time it took for someone to die. That was the whole point of it, a slow, and agonizing death.
I am reminded of an article I read about a family who had a tradition of watching “The Greatest Story Ever Told” a classic movie made in 1965. The focus of the article was about a little girl who while watching Jesus being beaten and then crucified was moved to tears. As Jesus’ body was removed from the cross and put into the tomb, she suddenly started smiling as she wiped away her tears, and joyfully shouted out, “Now comes the good part!”
Now comes the good part! What an understatement. What wise words from a child, a child with a simple, trusting faith. For she knew, we all should know, that the cross and the tomb was not the final word. Jesus Christ is alive, Alleluia!
That is why we still gather, close to 2000 years later to remind ourselves that we do not pay homage to a dead founder, but to a living Lord. A God who is active in our lives, who walks with us during those times in our lives when we are in pain, or have family problems, or have lost our job, or a loved one has died. Any of those times in our lives when we feel unloved, or unlovable, he is there for us, for you see, when he cried out on that cross, “It is finished”, it was finished.
But sometimes we do not live that way do we? Times are good, and we act as if we do not need Jesus in our lives. If we even think of Jesus dying on the cross, paying the price for our sins, we live as if something must be added to his death, it cannot be that simple. There must be something that we must think, something we must feel, or something we have to do. We act as if what Jesus won on the Cross merely starts everything off for us that must be finished by something that we do or something inside of us.
Hear the Good News! What Jesus did on the Cross is the final word on your salvation! Your sins, all of them, were answered for on the Cross. It is finished; Jesus did not miss any of your sins, not a single one of them. You are freely forgiven, the condemnation that you, that we all deserve, was set aside on that cross by his death. It is finished. God cannot punish you, for Jesus suffered pain and agony in your place. Because God is perfectly just he had to accept Jesus death on your behalf, you have to be pronounced innocent. It is finished, for though you die a physical death you will live an eternal life in Christ.
You can know, without a doubt that you will live, because Jesus’ tomb was empty that morning. He said he would be raised from the dead on the third day and he was. He kept his word. That is the importance of his resurrection, for his resurrection guarantees that all who trust in him as their Savior will also be resurrected and made alive again to spend eternity with him.
That is the Good News of the resurrection. It is the guarantee that there is more than just this life, there is eternal life, eternal life with God for those who trust in him as their Savior.
You might be thinking that is good news for the future, but what about where I am right now? What does the resurrection have to do with my living my life today, tomorrow, and the next day? That is a legitimate question, a question that needs to be answered. The answer to that question is found in his resurrection, for it is in his resurrection that we see Jesus is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living.
Because he is a God of the living he knows your personal struggles. He knows everyone of those sinful thoughts that you keep trying to get rid of and cannot. He knows that favorite sin that you struggle with. He knows every little thing that you have done and not done, and yet he loves you just the same.
He knows all those times you have been hurt, maybe by a fellow Christian in the church. He knows those times when you have been ridiculed, or betrayed by maybe a good friend, a business acquaintance, a spouse or a family member. He knows those times when he gave you an opportunity to share the Word of God with someone and you were paralyzed with fear. He knows all those times for he is a God of the living.
The wonderful thing about our living resurrected God is that he does not just know what is going on in your life, he is active in it right now. He is active through the healing hands of those in the medical profession. He is active through those who raise the crops, those who deliver the food, and prepare it. He is active through those who govern us. He is active through your life and your neighbors as we care for each other. He is an active God.
But he is especially active through his church; for it is there that we hear his words to us. It is there that we become his through baptism. It is there that we receive his body and blood in his supper. It is there that we are reminded that we are forgiven. It is there that we are given the hope and confidence to lead the lives he wants us to live, a life of service toward others.
There is no doubt that Jesus’ glory blazed against the blackness that shrouded the sky on that day we call Good Friday, for it was there that Jesus Christ lived up to his name Messiah, the one who saves. It was there that he saved us from our sins.
However, I would say that Jesus’ glory burned its brightest, in all its splendor from that empty tomb that first Easter morning. For it was there that the Savior rose, defeating death for every one of his people. His story is now our story; his glory is now our glory. Amen