Matthew 28:1-10 (NIV)
Have you ever dreamt that you were supposed to give a presentation and you show up and no one is there? Scary, yes? Did you ever think the churches would be empty on Easter Sunday? No Easter egg hunts. No gathering for Easter lunch. No visits to the Easter Bunny. This was the year 2020. Our minds shifted to health concerns. Fear covered us like an itchy blanket.
We started hearing stories of friends losing loved ones. We found ourselves expecting one thing and then something else happened. Ventilators and masks were the talk of the town. We learned a new word…Coronavirus a/k/a COVID-19. We heard the phrase “unprecedented times” ad nauseam.
While Jesus walked the earth, he became known as a troublemaker. You know the kind that seems to disrupt everything. There’s no event the trouble maker doesn’t try to turn into misery. This is how the people viewed Jesus. In reality, Jesus pulled down the curtain that hid the evil doings of the Pharisees. Jesus accused them and the scribes of being hypocrites.
As we enter the story of Jesus—His life, His death, His resurrection, we see how Holy Week plays out.
This year…the year 2021 Holy Week Begins
Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter—March 28 – April 3, 2021
Palm Sunday—Triumphal Entry into the city of Jerusalem
Holy Monday—Jesus Clears the Temple
Holy Tuesday—Jesus Goes to the Mount of Olives
Spy Wednesday—Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper. While Judas conspired to betray Him
Maundy Thursday—Commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles
Good Friday—Commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and His death at Calvary
Holy Saturday—Commemorates Jesus’ body resting in the tomb
Easter Sunday—The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and His victory over sin and death.
We know how the story of the life of Jesus ends. What was to be is no more. Matthew 28:1-10 reveals the final scene. Jesus was dead and in the tomb. It was after the Sabbath at the dawn of the first day of the week. We see Mary Magdalene and the other Mary going to the tomb. Out of nowhere, an earthquake takes hold of the earth. The cause—an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and rolled back the stone placed in front of the tomb. They see the angel sitting upon the rock dressed in clothing white as snow. And the guards? They were so frightened of the angel they became like dead men. Of course, the women were afraid. Wouldn’t you be? But the angel said, “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.” Without hesitation, the women went quickly from the tomb to tell the disciples. They were terrified yet filled with joy. As they were going they saw Jesus. He met them and said, “Greetings!” Can you imagine? I know I’d be a hot mess. The two women walked up to Jesus and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. They were trembling. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” WOW!
What an amazing invitation for these women to share with Jesus’ disciples that Jesus was alive, and they had seen Him and He spoke to them. What a privilege it is for us all to read about this invitation and to believe in the resurrection in a time when our lives have been turned upside down by a yearlong pandemic.
The two Marys knew Jesus had died. They were there. They witnessed the entire crucifixion. The brutality with which Jesus suffered. But now they see this angel who says, “Jesus is alive. He’s risen.”
Easter is the story of a risen Christ. Easter is an invitation for us all to believe. Matthew says it happened not to explain it but that it happened because the angel told the women to go tell—tell the good news.
Rev. William Sangster, a Minister at Methodist Central Hall in London, began to lose his voice and his mobility in the mid-1950s. The disease muscular atrophy became progressive. He knew his time was near, so he threw himself into his writing and prayer time. He asked God to please let him at least lead a regiment if he couldn’t be a general. When his voice finally left him and he could no longer walk he wrote a letter to his daughter on Easter morning, a few weeks before his death. In the letter, he said, “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout, ‘He is risen!’—but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout.” There’s no way you could read these scriptures and not feel joy. Not want to shout!
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
We are currently in a place to share our faith with the world. Today we have an opportunity to tell others that God is a God of love. That Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. He then arose from the dead and now He sits at the right hand of God the Father.
Doesn’t Easter make you want to shout? Even now? To rejoice in a risen savior.
Even though we are still scattered one year later from the time this pandemic hit, we can absolutely rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ has risen.
When the story doesn’t go as it should we still must proclaim the good news of a risen savior. God is truly at work. He always is at work. As parts of our country start to fully open up, as we see less and less death, as fewer people are getting sick, as a new vaccine is being given to those who want it, the opportunity to shout reveals itself. Don’t be that person with a voice and not want to shout.
We serve a risen savior. The Lord has risen. He has risen indeed.
This is the greatest story ever told.
And that’s what I learned in Church……see ya next time!
