MATTHEW 28:1-10 RISEN!

Written by , Rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia
 

¹ After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

What a reversal of the ways of the world. As Aslan, the great lion of C.S. Lewis’, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, put it, “[W]hen a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead…Death itself would start working backwards.”

Easter is the recreation of life so that it is lived backward! Since the resurrection, human beings have been given the opportunity to live a new life – the divine life. It is a life that starts with death and is lived toward birth. The resurrection takes our emphasis off the stoicism usually associated with adhering to Jesus’ command recorded in all four Gospels that “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). Yes, Jesus’ call is to die to self, but that is not a summons to our execution. Rather, it is an invitation to truly live. He is the same Jesus that said we must be born again (John 3:3). By dying to this world with Christ through baptism, and being raised to new life in him we can know true life – the life that runs from death to birth. Do you see the logic?

When we are born into this world, life progresses to death, a certain end. But when we are reborn into the resurrection life, we start with death and progress toward birth. If our destination is birth, then there is no end but only an eternal beginning! Death working backwards IS eternal life. This is the “good” in Good Friday and the glory of Easter Sunday.

Dear Lord Jesus, you are the life that defied death, and you have opened to me the way that leads to eternal life. Do not allow me to remain apathetic or indifferent to the wondrous glory of Easter, but shatter my hardness and open my heart as you shatter the earth and rolled back the stone sealing your tomb. May my life become as different beginning this day as the eternal is different from the finite. Amen.

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