Luke 24:1-8 * Easter
Dear Friends in Christ,
The words just read transport us in spirit back to that very first Easter dawn and allow us to consider the glorious Easter message through the eyes and emotions of those who first lived it. Must have been quite a morning, don’t you think?
Looking at the events as they unfolded in our text, we see that these devout, faithful, early-rising women were confronted with three things; three things which we might call
THE COMPONENTS OF EASTER
1. A mystery 2. A message
3. A memory
We have gathered here today at this early hour 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. At the time this talk 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. And it is no different today. Let’s talk about our Easter today using these 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 and 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.
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? Promises to hear us in prayer… promises to never leave us or forsake us… 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. The total reliability of the Words and promises of Christ is another great blessing of the Easter message…
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. We would pronounce it vivit, but in Latin it is pronounced wee-wit, and 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.