"The Angels on the Empty tomb" by tkksummers is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Happy Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed.
That simple statement we said yesterday is rote. We do it reflexively without thinking. But what happens when we think about it?
This wasn’t part of the message yesterday, but I’ve been thinking about it throughout Holy Week. Yesterday brought it to a head. I’ve mentioned it several times through the Lenten devotions I wrote.
We are Christians. You tell people you’re a Christian. I tell people I’m a Christian. We are telling people we believe a man came back from the dead, and we mean it. That’s not a science fiction story lead-in. We profess to believe a man was killed, lay in a tomb for three days, and then came back to life. Not only that, but that actual heavenly angels appeared to announce this event, and the resurrected man appeared to people through locked doors and vanished before people while they watched, culminating in an ascendency to Heaven at God’s own command.
This is the stuff of fiction to the people of the world. How do we explain that in a way that makes sense to them? The answer is you don’t. The answer is yesterday was done for all the world, but the people of the world don’t get it. Yesterday’s ceremony and pageantry were for the faithful who believe. We bring that message to them the rest of the year, but Easter Sunday’s message is one of joy for those who already believe.
Pastor Kristin Lee delivered the message, Faces of Easter. She opened, covering the altar and the elements on it. Sunday, we focused on the word “resurrection” and how it is good news. The second word was “hallelujah” or “alleluia.” The children’s moment had them shouting their choice of H or A -lleluia, which was loud, but she said it would be too.
The scripture for the message comes from Matthew 28:1-10. Having spent Lent covering the Luke version of these events, I like Matthew’s telling better. Let’s read that now.
1Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
2And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
3And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
4The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
6“He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
7“Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”
8And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
9And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
Matthew 28:1–10 (NASB95)
Pastor Lee asked, “Who are your faces of Easter?”
She started her message by talking about Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary.” Mary Magdalene is the Mary with the wealth and money who supported Jesus and the Disciples with her finances. “The Other Mary” is speculated to be Mary, the mother of Jesus. I find it ironic and interesting that we have Mary Magdalene by name and Jesus’ mother as the “Other Mary” instead of the other way around.
The two women arrive at the tomb, and the angel gently rebukes them with a rhetorical question that resonated with me through the entire service, but it is from the Luke scripture we discussed in Lent.
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
2And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;
5and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?
Luke 24:1–5 (NASB95)
“Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” The truth of the resurrection was not yet evident to the disciples. These women would be the first to be told and to realize what has happened. They believed too. Verse eight shows that from Matthew’s scripture.
8And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
Matthew 28:8 (NASB95)
“…with fear and great joy….” There’s no other reason to leave the empty tomb with joy than to realize Jesus is really resurrected. However, I’ll wager there was a bit of Thomas in these women. Why? Because Jesus appears to them and tells them not to be afraid. The “…with fear…” part is their doubt. Jesus erases all doubt from them so that when they communicate with the disciples what the angel told them, there will be nothing to give the disciples doubt that the women believe what they are saying.
Pastor Lee took verse three and said the angel’s face was like lightning. The King James and NASB do not use face but overall appearance. The Greek adds the “o ho” article to “the idea of, sight, or aspect; countenance” of the angel. I take that to mean the entire visual representation of the angel is “…like lightning…,” but since we have a separate descriptor for his clothing, it perhaps means the angel's flesh. As I type that, it is not a far stretch to say the angel’s face was like lightning. Regardless, I love the visual representation of the angel’s face “…like lightning…” in my mind. It leaves absolutely no doubt this being should be both feared and revered. Pastor Lee gave us this angel’s face as the first “face of Easter.”
In verse five, the angel says to “…fear not….” This is legitimately good advice for all things. Fear is not a spirit of God. We should not make decisions based on fear. We can take fear into account when making decisions, but if we make that decision solely because we are afraid of a thing, we have not based our decision on God’s ways but Satan’s ways.
There are a number of places in the Bible where Jesus predicts His own death. The closest one to His actual trial and crucifixion is here.
1When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples,
2“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
3Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas;
4and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.
Matthew 26:1–4 (NASB95)
The angel reminds Mary and Mary that He said this would happen. As this happens, I imagine the two women beginning to realize what might occur. The angel sends them to tell the other disciples, but Pastor Lee made a point I’d never considered here.
The stone isn’t rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb. That’s unnecessary, as we see when He appears to the disciples through locked and barred doors. Why is the stone rolled away if Jesus doesn’t need to be let out of the tomb? The answer is to allow the people, and by association, us, to see into the tomb and know it is empty. The stone is gone to show the world the resurrection.
There were other faces of Easter spread through the sermon, but only two others struck me. First, Jesus Himself was listed as a face of Easter. I should have seen that one coming, but He wasn’t the last face. The last face brought this home and puts all of us in the place of the two women running from the tomb with fear and great joy.
We are all the “faces of Easter.” Each of us, as followers of Christ, are the ones whom Christ Himself has sent into the world with “fear and great joy” to tell everyone He is risen. He is risen indeed.