Easter Sunday Traditional Service

Sermon from Matthew 28:1-10 for Easter Sunday

So…

It had been so overwhelming. Never could we have imagined that when we entered Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover Feast that things would go as they did.

After all, we had been here before, we had come to other Passovers meals. We had experienced so much over the three years, it was hard to see how this would be different and yet it was, so, so different.

From the assignment to go get the donkey and the colt, to the cleansing of the Temple, to the daily teaching times, and the freaky cursing of the fig tree.

We should have known that after the raising of Lazarus that the final confrontation was coming. But Jesus had raised the child and healed so many others without so much as a murmur.

He had told us he would die. He had told us that he would suffer. But who wants to hear that – that the Master you love will leave you and that his leaving will be catastrophic.

We had gone into the city and secured an upper meeting room, and even made sure that the Seder feast would be ready, yet somehow, we had forgotten and not arranged for someone to wash our feet. It is a servant’s job and none of us were servants. Boy did we get schooled about that, when the Master took up the task.

It was just like him, to remind us by his actions, that we were not royalty, but rather servants of the most high God, and all servants to one another. What did he say? “You are to love one another!”

And then during the meal, a festive occasion of remembering God’s provision for the people of God in the passing over of the angel of death above the houses with their doorposts and lintels painted in the blood of the lamb, that he was the lamb of God, given for us and all who believed.

“This bread is my body, broken for you, take and eat and do this in remembrance of me. Take this cup, filled with my blood, the blood of the New Covenant, and drink for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Oh my!

And one of you will betray me. And Peter, you will deny me. And then we went to the garden. It all happened so fast, the soldiers, the crowd, Judas, and Jesus taken away, tried, convicted, sentenced, and crucified. It was overwhelming, surreal, and we all felt like we were drowning without a way to swim to shore.

And then he died, and it was as if time stood still.

And then, who knows why, those silly women decided to go to the tomb! Silly I say, yet faithful and believing in ways we couldn’t. They wanted to re-anoint the body they said. But that is not the truth as far as I am concerned.

They went because they believed.

They went because they listened.

They went because they were sure that if Jesus said it, it would be true.

Three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! And as soon as the sun rose and the Sabbath was complete they went, with burial spices they believed they wouldn’t need.

If only I had that kind of faith, but I don’t and I didn’t.

If I had, it would have made me proud. I would have known he was coming back.

But for the women, it just was part of their humble devotion.

And once again, he bids me to learn.

He is not dead. He is risen. We have seen him, touched him, eaten with him! He is different, yet so much the same. His smile just as bold and as broad. His laughter so rich and so full.

Yet he is so beyond the limitations of this life. He has already died. Now he is alive forevermore. And the challenges of this life are behind me.

Now he invites us to follow in a brave new way, and he tells us we don’t need to worry for soon the Spirit is coming to fill us with understanding and power.

And we his faithful ones will bring glory and honor to his name.

So, all you who listen do as we do, and go into all the world and bring them the good news! For he is risen. He is risen indeed!  Amen.