Luke 24:1-8 * Easter 2007
* Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
After providing his listeners with some little known background information on a famous person or event, news commentator Paul Harvey concludes with his trademark phrase, “now you know the rest of the story.” What he’s really saying is “now you know how everything fits together.”
We gather this Easter as those who know the rest of the story. There will be no new information shared today that hasn’t been shared on past Easters. That, of course, is a good thing, because the news today can’t be improved upon.
But let’s try for just a moment to consider the glorious Easter message through the eyes and emotions of those who first lived it. The difference between the women in our text and us is that they didn’t know the rest of the story. Must have been quite a morning, don’t you think?
Looking at the events as they unfolded in the opening verses of Luke 24, we see that these devout, faithful, early-rising women were confronted with three things; three things we might identify as
THE MYSTERY, THE MESSAGE AND THE MEMORY OF EASTER
We have gathered here today because these are not only the component parts of the first Easter, but of every Easter.
On the first day of
the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had
prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They
found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not
find the body of the Lord Jesus.
The Gospel writer John tells us it was still dark when the
women set out for the tomb. Emotionally
they must have been sad and drained. We
know the tomb was in close proximity to the place of crucifixion, so going past
Nevertheless, they had prepared spices and set out for the grave of their dear friend in order to give him a proper Jewish burial. The Gospel writer Mark informs us that as they went they were concerned about moving the stone at the entrance of the grave. The purpose of such a stone was to keep grave robbers and animals from disturbing the body, so it would have been big and heavy – more than they could handle.
Imagine their surprise when they rounded the bend and found the stone rolled away. Even more surprising was that the body of Jesus was gone. The next verse says “they wondered about this.” We can be sure they did.
They had a mystery on their hands. They had been there when Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ body in the tomb, so they knew He had been there. But now He’s gone. What happened? What’s going on? They were about to be told. They were about to receive
4 While
they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like
lightning stood beside them. 5 In
their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men
said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember
how he told you, while he was still with you in
The two men in gleaming clothes were angels. And the initial reaction of the women to them was the same as the shepherds when angels announced Christ’s birth: they were frightened. But the angels weren’t about scaring mortals. They came to give the women the message of Easter.
At first it came in the form of a question: “Why
do you look for the living among the dead?”
Then a statement: “He is not here; he has risen!” Then an explanation: “Remember
how he told you, while he was still with you in
And that message struck a chord. It jogged their thinking and produced
3. A Memory
8 Then they remembered his words. They remembered that He had said this. In fact many times He had said this. Each time He said it in the past it sort of just passed over their heads. But now they were beginning to understand. Not fully, but beginning. Now they remembered, and the verses which follow our text tell us that they told all the other followers of Christ what they had seen and heard.
For the women, then, the first Easter was composed of a mystery, a message, and a memory. It is no different today. Let’s talk about our Easter today using the same terms.
Easter is still a mystery. It is beyond our comprehension how one who was dead could become alive. It’s beyond our comprehension because we’ve never seen it.
But it happened on that first Easter Sunday: Jesus rose from the dead. And to prove the genuineness of His resurrection we know that Jesus showed Himself to many different people at many different times, thus letting it be known in no uncertain terms that His resurrection was not just a desperate hope of despondent disciples or the futile fabrication of a few followers grappling with grief.
No. Nothing like that. He was and is alive. This is a mystery. But this is reality.
Presenting us with an even greater mystery, however, is the love of God that brought this whole chain of events about. Let’s go back to Good Friday.
On the cross Jesus is suffering and dying for us and in our place and because of our sins. What is most amazing is this: the nails didn’t hold him to the cross. Love did. And that kind of love is a mystery because it is deeper, wider, longer, greater than anything we’ll come up against here on this earth. That love seen on Friday finds it completion today. Today we learn “the rest of the story.” And how everything fits together is…
The message of
Easter. The fact that Jesus Christ
rose from the dead tells us that His sacrifice was acceptable, that His mission
was accomplished. The resurrection was
God’s stamp of approval on the perfect life and substitutionary death of Christ. On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished,” meaning
the work of redeeming us. By His resurrection, God the Father said, “It
is accepted.”
And that means our salvation is secure, because the whole reason Jesus came to this planet was to make it possible for us to have everlasting life.
Practically speaking, do you know what this means? It means we will never die. Why? Because, in the words of an old Eastern Orthodox hymn, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death with death.” In other words, death is dead. And with death – “the last enemy” as Paul refers to it in 1 Corinthians 15 – now out of the picture, all that remains for us now is life. Fulfilled life in the present, and eternal life in the future.
Let’s not misunderstand. Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, we’re all going to die physically one day. But that’s not the end of our existence. It’s more like a spiritual moving day. The moment we close our eyes for the last time on earth we open them in heaven. How do we know this? Jesus once said, “Because I live, you also will live.” How do we know He lives? The tomb is empty.
And what was just said of us pertains to all our loved ones who died in Christ.
There is a delightful poem written by William Wordsworth entitled “We are Seven.” It’s about a man who strikes up a conversation with an eight year old little girl. He asks her how many are in her family, and she says seven.
A little farther into the conversation he learns that two of her siblings had died. She matter-of-factly states they are in heaven. So he attempts to correct her. He wants her to say that they are now only five. But she doesn’t see it that way. The poem concludes:
“How many are you, then,” said I, “If they two are in heaven?”
Quick was the little maid’s reply, “O master! We are seven.”
“But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!”
‘Twas throwing words away; for still
The little maid would have her will,
And said, “Nay, we are seven!”
And thanks to our risen Lord Jesus Christ, she was right.
Another great part of the Easter message is what it tells us about the reliability of Jesus’ words and promises. If Jesus can make good on a claim like rising from the dead, doesn’t it stand to reason He will make good on every other promise He makes to us as well? He promises to hear us in prayer. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He promises to hold us in the palm of His hand during the difficult times in life.
We can count on these and every other promise He makes to us in His Word. Why? Because the tomb is empty, just as He said it would be.
And when we remember these things, like the women in our text, this information has a powerful effect on our lives. The memory of Easter fills us with joy, strength, encouragement and power for living.
The empty tomb is our declaration of independence from sin, death and hell. Sin will remain with us and among us, but it is no longer our master. Physical death will eventually claim us, but eternal death has been sent packing. And hell remains real, but not real for us. That is the message of the empty tomb.
And as long as the memory of Easter is in our hearts and on our minds, we can live triumphant and victorious lives regardless of the trouble and pain we encounter in this sinful world.
Here’s a closing thought. When Martin Luther would become despondent or depressed or allow himself to be weighed down with the cares of this world, he would often pick up a piece of chalk and write down on his study table the little five letter Latin word: VIVIT. It means “He lives.” When pressed for an explanation, Luther would say: “Jesus lives, and if He was not among the living, I would not wish to live even an hour.” Martin Luther understood the centrality of the resurrection of Christ to daily life.
And, thanks be to God, so do we. Therefore may the mystery, the message and the memory of Easter comfort each of us today and every day. It can and it will. Because He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia. Amen.