Surprised by Joy! (An Easter Sermon)

(Scriptures: Acts 10:34-43 , Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10)

*Note: Sermon title is the title of a book by Christian writer C. S. Lewis*

Of course it was the women who were faithful to the end. Judas had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied he ever knew the guy, and the other disciples practically burnt the bottoms off their sandals running away from him after the arrest. But the women stood by Jesus as he was crucified, though off at a distance. It was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph who watched as Jesus was crucified, and it was the two Marys who watched as Joseph of Arimithea buried Jesus in his own tomb. We’re told that after Joseph had rolled a stone in front of the tomb and gone away, the two Marys stayed there, sitting opposite the tomb.

And on the first day of the week, it was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who went once again to the tomb. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us why they went, but Mark’s Gospel tells us that the women went to anoint the body, and despaired of how they were going to move the stone.

However, after both Joseph of Arimathea and the two Mary’s had left the tomb the day before, some other folks went to the tomb as well. They weren’t there to mourn, or even to pay their respects to Jesus…but rather, to pay disrespect to Jesus from the Temple leadership. Matthew tells us, you see, that the Pharisees and chief priests were afraid Jesus’ disciples would stage a hoax by stealing the body and claiming he’d been raised. So they were given a detachment of guards to stand watch over the tomb.

So Matthew sets the stage: the women had watched as Jesus was put in the tomb, and then went home; then guards came to standing watch at the tomb, and now the women are going back to the tomb. But suddenly another party is heard from: God, in the form of an earthquake, and an angel who rolled away the stone and sat on it.

Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. Matthew gives us their contrasting reactions: the guards, tough men who’d seen it all, shook and became like dead men. The angels had nothing to say to them. But to the grieving women, the angel said, “Do not be afraid! Jesus has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “he has been raised from the dead, and is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”

“He is going ahead of you to Galilee….” Then the women remembered. At his last Passover meal with the disciples, Jesus had said that the disciples would all desert him. But then Jesus made this odd statement: “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” At the time, the disciples probably just shrugged; Jesus was saying a lot of things that at the time didn’t make sense. But now the angel was saying the same thing to the women: go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus was going ahead to meet them. They quickly made their way from the tomb, with fear and great joy….when they ran into Jesus himself. Matthew tells us that they grabbed his feet….perhaps to assure themselves that he wasn’t just a disembodied spirit, wasn’t a ghost…and worshipped him. And then Jesus repeated the message – go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.
Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. The guards, who had no allegiance to Jesus but were just there to do the job they’d been ordered to do, were so scared they fainted. But the women, while terrified by all that happened – the earthquake, the angel – were also surprised by joy! In a place where they had hoped to mourn the dead, they encountered an empty tomb, and resurrection life. Life, not death, had the last word for Jesus.

And has the last word for us. Amid all that is death-dealing in our lives – the passing of loved ones, physical illness, broken relationships, lost jobs, all that weighs us down – Jesus points us to see beyond all that. Illness, estrangement, unemployment – even death itself – does not have the last word. To borrow a verse from our first hymn, ours is indeed the cross – all the struggles of this life, all the struggles that are a part of being a disciple – and ours is the grave – but ours is also the skies. Christ is raised from the dead, and our lives are hidden in Christ, become part of the life of the risen Christ.

And Jesus promises, not only life and hope, but his abiding love. Remember that Jesus told the women: Go and tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee. After Peter denied him and the rest deserted him, Jesus could still claim them as – his brothers. And when we have failed, when we have failed God, when we have failed ourselves, when we have let God or others or even ourselves down, betrayed them, denied them, deserted them, Christ still claims us as brothers and sisters. He still promises to go ahead and meet us, even when in our guilt and fear we’re not quite ready to meet him.

We at Emanuel Church know a few things about tombs. We worship God in a sanctuary surrounded on two sides by a cemetery, the upkeep of which is an ongoing project of our congregation. We know what to expect when we walk through our cemetery – the familiar headstones of our departed loved ones and of those others who founded this church. We’ll find grass and trees, palm crosses and floral arrangements or other mementos left at graveside by loved ones. What’s out there in the cemetery - our headstones and our mementos, and all the effort that goes into maintaining the cemetery, is a testimony to this congregation’s love for our forebears in the faith. But what goes on inside here, in this sanctuary, in this space, our hymns and our prayers and our celebration of communion, the community we create with one another when we meet, is our testimony that the grave is not the end, that what’s outside our window is not the end, that while the mortal remains of our loved ones lie outside our window – because Christ was risen, our loved ones are with Christ, in God’s presence where tears and pain and illness are no more.

Jesus told the women that he was going ahead to Galilee, to meet the disciples there. So, in a sense, Matthew’s Gospel ends where it began, in Galilee, where Jesus had grown up, where Jesus had begun his ministry; indeed, where Jesus had originally chosen and commissioned his disciples. And where Jesus will meet with them again, on the mountain, to commission them to go out into all the world, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are back home in Galilee. Everything has come full circle, but nothing will ever be the same again. And it can be like that for us, as well, as we meet Jesus in familiar surroundings, and are surprised by joy as all that is familiar is transformed by his presence.

In a few moments we will celebrate Holy Communion. As we break the bread and share the cup, we are assured that we are truly members of the mystical body of Christ, and heirs through hope of God’s everlasting kingdom. Having come and seen, we too are told to go and tell, to go and tell of the mighty things that Christ has done for us. Amen.

**********
Come and be surprised by joy at Emanuel United Church of Christ. We worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org