April 12, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Acts of the Apostles 10: 34, 37-43 + Psalm 118 + Colossians 3: 1-4 + John 20: 1-9
Matthew says:
“After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene came with the other Mary to inspect the tomb. Suddenly there was a mighty earthquake, as the angel of the Lord descended from heaven. He came to the stone, rolled it back, and sat on it.”
Mark says:
“Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were saying to one anther, ‘Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? When they looked, they found that the stone had been rolled back. (It was a huge one.)”
Luke says:
“The women came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back from the tomb.”
You just heard John say:
“Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away.”
If all four evangelists write about the stone, it is a big deal. It is important. There is something about this stone moving that carries with it a message worth our notice this glorious day. However, getting that message is not easy if we continue to think that the stone was there to keep Jesus in. I would propose to you that we have the whole thing backward. The point is not that there was a stone closing the tomb, but that the stone has been rolled away opening the tomb. Open tombs, just like open doors are not open just to let people out.
Some ancient cultures have believed that tombs were a gateway to the next life. That is good thinking. It is certainly Gospel thinking. We need that stone rolled back. We need that tomb open, not to let Jesus out, but to let us in. Peter and John went into that tomb, and they emerged with a new life, a new mission, a new way of seeing and believing. It will be no different for us if we want to be counted among the chosen, the believers. What ever stones get in the way must go. They must be rolled back. We have to die and face a tomb or two or there is no way we shall really live. The point is to live, not to survive. People who have not faced a tomb, only survive for another day to survive again. We are not called by God to be survivors who scratch around in this life defending and protecting ourselves, fearful of what will come next to threaten what we have and what we have stored away. We are called to Life – called to Live, and the only way to that life is through the tomb.
There are in this life a thousand deaths and more. Times when there is loss or change and we think we are going to die. Times when bad news comes, and we die of fear and sorrow. There are people in this assembly who live this day with sadness and an empty place at the table, parents who have lost children and discouraged men and women who have lost jobs and savings. This sadness is the sadness of the tomb. Yet for those who know the story of an open tomb in Jerusalem this sadness is not the end.
Something happens in tombs for those who are attentive to the will and word of God. Pay attention to Jesus in these accounts of the tomb and resurrection. The verb in the gospel is in the passive voice grammatically: “He has been raised.” Jesus is not the actor here; he has been acted upon. He did nothing except fulfill the will of God and accept the consequence of doing so. Because of that, God acted upon him raising him to new life.
It is this news that gives us hope and confidence that whatever death we may face, sadness, disappointment, or tragedy if we have fulfilled the will of God, we shall be raised from any grief or loss that has put us down. God acts upon those who are faithful. To anyone who has ever cried out: “God, Why?” “Why have you forsaken me?” there is an answer. God’s action in the tomb is God’s answers that question. The news today is that the stone has been rolled back: the stone that would leave us defeated by evil, sorrow, sadness, or grief; the stone that would not give us access to that action of God who will raise us again and again, as many times as it takes for us to really live. Life is what God is about. Life is the Will of God. Life is the surest sign of God’s presence. Life is the consequence of a willingness to die to self, to sin, to selfishness.
I have this idea that some might find slightly irreverent, but I think that Jesus lived in a state of constant surprise. I believe he was surprised when Peter, Andrew, James and John quit their jobs to follow him. I believe he was surprised when Matthew left his desk in the tax office and came along. I feel sure he was just as surprised as the wine steward who tasted that wine in the water jugs at Cana and raved about its quality. I think he was surprised when Peter’s mother-in-law got up after he touched her. I think much of his life was a pleasant surprise, even the day he called for Lazarus and he actually came out of the tomb. Think how much more wonderful it is to imagine these events as surprises rather than as just something ordinary in the life of a miracle worker. With that thought then, imagine how surprised Jesus was that morning to discover what God could do with and for him. My Easter prayer and my hope for you my friends is that having been faithful to the will of God you will be surprised again and again and what Life God has planned for you. May every Sunday be another Easter for each of you, and may you be surprised to find that the stones that keep you from truly living have been rolled