What the Empty Tomb Provides, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, based on Matthew 28:1-10 An Easter Reflection

What the Empty Tomb Provides

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United, Aurora, Co 4/20/2014

Based on Matthew 28:1-10

 

Then the angel said to both Mary’s: “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he 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 indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you."

In the Gospel of Matthew, the birth of Jesus was first announced in a dream by an angel to Joseph, telling him that Mary his betrothed was with child, and not to be afraid to marry her for this child was the son of God.  This visit by the angel was God’s way to help Joseph accept the news that God was at work in the world.  After the angel’s visit, it was up to Joseph to either accept his invitation to be a part of God’s plan or to reject his invitation.  Now at the end of Jesus’ life, once again an angel from God has come to present an invitation to Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of Jesus to become the voice of God by announcing that Jesus has been raised from the grave and is not dead.   Both Mary’s are told to go back to the disciples and tell them what they had been told by the angel and that Jesus was going to meet them in Galilee.

Matthew’s story varies significantly to the other three gospels.  In Mark, Luke and John, both Martha’s were going to the tomb with spices in order to properly prepare the dead body of Jesus.  In all three of these stories, the boulder that protected the tomb had already been rolled away, the tomb and its surroundings abandoned.   

In Matthew’s account, the Roman guards are still at the tomb and the boulder is still in place and there is no mention of the women’s intensions to finish the burial ritual.  Matthew tells us that both Mary’s were going to see the tomb, much like we would go to the grave site of a loved one to pay our respects, to be near our loved one, and to mourn our loss.  But Matthew tells us that when they got to the tomb there was a great earthquake caused by the descent of an angel of God, who once there rolled back the stone that closed the tomb and then sat on top of it.  The Roman soldiers that were there were so terrified Matthew implies that they fainted.   Then the Angel spoke to the women and say, “I know that you are looking for Jesus.”  In the other stories, the angel asks who they are looking for. 

There is a significant difference in Matthews story of the empty tomb.  In the other three gospels, when the women come up and see the stone rolled away, it leads to an immediate assumption that someone had been there over night and had stolen the body, which was addressed in one of the other gospels, as Mary asked: If you have taken my Lord, please tell me where so that I might go to him.  With the stone still covering the entrance Matthew is telling us in no uncertain terms that nobody has been tampering with Jesus’ body.   The tomb isn’t opened until the women arrive and it is the angel of the Lord who has opened the tomb, it is the angel of the Lord who tells Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that Jesus is not there in the tomb, it is the angel of the Lord who delivers the message of where they will find Jesus.

That in and of itself was enough for the two women to have taken off running to share with the other disciples that Jesus was not dead, yet just like an infomercial, but wait there’s more!  As the two women started back to tell the disciples what had just happened to them, suddenly Jesus met them and says, “greetings” and after a time tells them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee so they might meet with him.  So, as I read this story, I have to ask myself: If the women were already on their way back to tell the disciples what they had been told by the angel, why would Jesus need to appear to them and tell them the same thing?

Several things are going on here, I think.  First off, I think what the angel is saying to both Mary’s is “fact giving information – that Jesus who had been crucified and put to rest in the tomb was not there; He was not there because he had been raised from the dead.”  When Jesus came before them, the fact has now become a personal experience.  They didn’t have to rely on a secondary source, meaning the angel’s testimony, they have had a personal encounter with Jesus – they know by experience that Jesus is alive.  I also think we see a difference with the angel telling the disciples to do something and of Jesus’ invitation to come meet him in Galilee.

What is the significance to us who live in twenty-first century?  Science tells us that there is no such possibility of a physical resurrection.  So, if we wish to accept the story of Jesus’ resurrection as truth, does this mean that are we forced to choice between what science says is and isn’t physically possible, or that to believe in what the scripture is telling us means we have to throw science out and take scripture on a literal basis and accept it as physical fact?   

I think if we get caught up in those types of questions, we are missing what the real question might be.  The question that comes to my mind is, “What does the empty tomb provide?”  As I read Matthew’s account of these two women who are going to mourn at the tomb of their dead Rabbi, I think we are being told without a doubt that God is doing something extraordinary in our world.  Matthew starts out his story about Jesus saying that God is doing something extraordinary in our world, as the angel announces to Joseph that Mary is pregnant with God’s son.  Now at this tomb which holds death, God again sends an angel to announce that even in the tomb, there is not death but life.  In this story, we have been given hope that we too, when we physically die, will not be held in the grave by death, but also will be raised to life.

A second theme that is being told to us through both the beginning Jesus’ life and now here at what seems to be the end of Jesus’ life is an invitation to join in these extraordinary events that God is orchestrating.  Joseph and Mary both are invited to be an active part in God’s plan to begin building God’s kingdom here on earth.  Here again, as Jesus interacts with both of these women, he extends an invitation for the disciples to join him in Galilee, where he will be waiting to meet them.  But why Galilee, why doesn’t Jesus just meet the disciples there in Jerusalem where everybody is already gathered.  I think the underlying message is, that in order for the disciples to be able to meet Jesus comes by their acting upon this invitation.  The disciples have to do something; they have to go in order to accept Jesus’ invitation.  If we are interested in having Jesus as a part of our life, we too must take action.  If we are wishing to follow Jesus, he says that we must pick up our cross to follow him, and in that following, we die to ourselves, and find life in him.  I truly think this is the hardest action for us, for we by nature wish to protect our life, and the life that Jesus is speaking about is the very core of who we are, our nature, our ego.  If we wish to follow Jesus’ teachings, those things that create heaven here on earth, those “blessed are” of the Beatitudes, we have to be able to make room in our hearts for God’s desires and that comes only by letting go of inner self.

And finally, Matthew shares with us how we are able to let go of our inner self, by that personal encounter with Jesus.  The only way that we can truly know that Jesus lives, is through a personal encounter.  I think this is why Jesus appeared to both Mary’s, to give them the confidence that they were going to need to stand up to the disciples and tell them that Jesus was not dead.  I think this is the reason why Jesus found in necessary to meet with the disciples, to give them that personal experience of Jesus had risen from the grave, so that they too would have the courage to take his message to others.

I cannot tell you what a “personal” encounter with Jesus is for you.  That has to be a personal thing between you and Jesus.  But I can tell you assuredly that without this personal encounter with Christ, you will always have a little bit of doubt about the truth of God.  What the empty tomb provides is the hope of building God’s kingdom while here on earth.  It is what gives us the confidence that death and defeat does not hold power over God’s desire for life.  Christ is risen, Christ is risen, indeed!   Amen.