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. 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
Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be
crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8 Then they remembered
his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things
to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like
nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending
over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering
to himself what had happened.
- Luke 24:1-12, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Jesus, who lived and died and lives again, dear Christian friends:
"Follow Jesus" served as the theme of our worship during this Lenten season. For a month and a half we have been our Lord’s faithful followers. We followed him as he walked through the busy streets of Jerusalem. We followed him to the upper room on Maundy Thursday. We followed him as he prayed the Garden of Gethsemane. We followed him as he stood before Annas and Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate. We followed him soberly on the slow march to Calvary. And we followed him quietly as Joseph and Nicodemus laid his lifeless body in the tomb.
"Follow Jesus" is a good theme for Lent, but I guess you could say that all good things must come to an end. We have come to the end of the line. We can follow our Savior no longer. The huge stone that was rolled in front of his tomb on Good Friday should remove any and all doubts.
At least that’s what Pilate thought when he permitted his royal seal to be placed on Jesus’ grave. At least that’s what the Jewish leaders thought when they stationed a guard at the entrance of the tomb. At least that’s what Jesus’ disciples thought when they locked their doors in fear. At least that’s what the women thought when they spent the Sabbath preparing spices and perfumes to anoint Jesus’ body.
We know that we can’t follow Jesus into the tomb, but its not because the stone is too massive to be moved. And its not because Jesus’ dead body is already in an advanced state of decay. We are unable to follow Jesus to the place where he was buried because...he is not there.
The Easter story is a very familiar one. There is a good reason for that. Jesus’ resurrection is the focal point of salvation history. Jesus’ resurrection lies at the very heart and core of our faith. For that reason, it will never become old or repetitive or boring.
Today it is our privilege to hear the miraculous Easter story again, a story that is really much more than a story. These events really happened. These people are real people. With Luke as our guide, we walk behind those people who were eyewitnesses of the resurrection, the first people to hear those wonderful words: "He is risen!" On this joyful Easter morning, we go back to the first Easter morning and...
FOLLOW JESUS’ FOLLOWERS...TO THE EMPTY TOMB
I. What the women saw was a demonstration of God’s power
II. What Peter did not see was a demonstration of God’s love
I can tell you what the women expected to see when they went to the tomb at dawn on Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath. They expected to find a sealed tomb. On Friday, they had watched as Joseph and Nicodemus laid Jesus in the grave. They were so sure that a stone would be blocking the entrance that on the way they were asking each other how they were going to get inside. That is what they expected to see, but this is what they saw.
Maybe it was still dark. Maybe it was a little hazy. Maybe their heads were hanging low. Maybe their eyes were still heavy with sleep. But at some point their eyes widened and their pace quickened because the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. They had prepared themselves for the worst. They were prepared to see Jesus’ dead body. But nothing could have prepared them for this.
As the women raced toward the tomb, try to imagine what they were thinking. What possibly could have happened? Did the Romans decide to move him? Did grave robbers come and steal him? Their worst fears became reality when they entered the tomb and realized that Jesus was gone.
I doubt that these women were looking forward to this. They loved Jesus. They followed Jesus to the end. They wanted to honor his memory with a proper burial. Disturbing his grave was probably the last thing they wanted to do at a time like this, but at the very least it would give them some closure.
Now they had even been robbed of that. Jesus’ body was gone and they were left "wondering about this" (4). The King James Version says that the women were "perplexed." They were filled with doubts. They were overcome with fear. They didn’t know what to think. And they didn’t know what to do.
So far this morning was not going according to plan. The women were not at all happy about what they had seen, but God was about to change that. "Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them" (5). God sent his angels to set the record straight.
And God’s messengers carried an amazing message: "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen" (5,6)! The angels reported that this was nothing less than a miracle. Jesus had not been moved. Jesus’ body had not been stolen. He was alive!
Luke does not tell us this, but we learn in Matthew’s account that God didn’t stop there. The angels spoke with authority. That should have been enough to convince the women that Jesus was alive. But Jesus gave them undeniable proof of his power when he appeared to them in the flesh. When the women saw their risen Lord, "they came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him" (Matthew 28:9).
Most of us here have been in attendance at funerals. There are some things a person expects to see at a funeral: a casket, flowers, pallbearers, a hearse. But have you ever gone to a funeral and wondered if at some point during the service the deceased was going to get out of the casket, or sit up, or even move? The obvious answer is "No." It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, or how strong you are, or how rich you are. No one has that kind of power...no one, except Jesus.
When Jesus came to a place where someone had died, he was not an average mourner. He was actually in the habit of breaking up funerals. The daughter of Jairus died, but Jesus came and brought her back to life. Lazarus died and was in the grave four days when Jesus called him out of his tomb. And when it came to his own death, Jesus did not even wait in the grave long enough to allow his followers to give him a proper burial. Only Jesus, only God’s Son, has this kind of power, the power to raise people from the dead, the power over death itself. The women who came to the tomb on Easter morning were eyewitnesses of that power.
The angel’s testimony that Jesus was alive sounded too good to be true, but it was true. After the terrible things they had witnessed on Good Friday, imagine the change in their hearts when they saw Jesus face to face on Easter Sunday. But how does that apply to us? Angels don’t speak to us directly. When is the last time you saw Jesus face to face? Perhaps in this account we are able to better identify with Peter. As we take a closer look at Peter’s Easter morning experience, the Lord will show us that sometimes those things we do not see are a demonstration of God’s love.
The women were eager to share with the disciples everything they had seen and heard. When they told the disciples their story, however, they didn’t believe the women "because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (11). Luke tells us that there was at least one exception in this group, Peter. True, what they were saying was pretty hard to believe, but Peter was not ready to dismiss it completely, at least not yet. So he ran to the tomb to see for himself.
When he got to the tomb, Peter was able to confirm part of their story. The stone had been moved. And he bent down and could see that the tomb was empty. He saw the strips of linen lying there, and John adds another detail. Peter also noticed the burial cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus head folded separately from the linen (John 20:7).
But as much as Peter saw, there were still some things that he did not see. The angels that had supposedly appeared to the women were nowhere to be found. Where was Jesus, the living, breathing, walking, talking Jesus that the women insisted had appeared to them on the way? So Peter was left with a half confirmed report. What was he to make of it?
He knew that something had happened. Stones don’t just roll themselves away. Bodies don’t just disappear. And there was something unusual about those strips of linen too. You would expect grave robbers to take a body and run. They wouldn’t leave the burial cloth, much less fold it. So Peter went away, "wondering to himself what had happened" (12).
When the women "wondered" what had happened to Jesus, they were perplexed, filled with doubts. When Peter "wondered’ what had happened to Jesus, Luke uses a different Greek word, a word that can also be translated "amazed."
When the people around Bethlehem heard the reports of the shepherds that the Savior had been born, they were "amazed" (Luke 2). When Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee with his word, his disciples were "amazed" (Matthew 8). When the disciples were able to speak in different languages on the day of Pentecost, the people who saw them were "amazed" (Acts 2). When Peter slowly walked away from the empty tomb, he was "amazed." Maybe the women were right. Maybe it was true. Maybe this was a miracle. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus was alive.
Now ask yourself: What if the skeptics were right and the women were wrong? What if the stone had remained where it was? What if Peter had bent down and looked into the tomb and saw Jesus’ body unmoved? Peter could have had peace of mind because he knew where Jesus was.
But there could have been no peace for his soul because then the words of Paul would no longer be hypothetical. They would be true. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (I Corinthians 15:17). If Christ has not been raised, the Christian is without hope. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile. If Christ is still in the tomb, then the grave will be our final resting place.
That is exactly why what Peter did not see is so important to us. And that is why the tomb, the empty tomb, stands as a monument to God’s love. "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:25). Jesus carried our sins to the cross and buried them in the tomb, and the empty tomb means that our payment for sins is complete.
Because Jesus died in our place to take away our sins, and because his tomb is now empty, we can trust in his promise: "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19). Because Jesus holds power over death, he holds out for us the promise of eternal life. Because Jesus’ tomb stands empty, our earthly graves are only temporary. Because Jesus’ tomb is empty, we will trade in our shallow graves for the places he has prepared for us in heaven.
One of my seminary professors told a story in class about a time when he was still a parish pastor. One of his members came up to him and told him that out of all the Sundays during the year, her favorite Sunday of the year was Easter. Thinking that he already knew the answer, the pastor asked her why that was. Was it the because of the glorious Easter gospel message, or the special music, or the beautiful flowers and decorations, or the sanctuary filled with worshipers?
Actually, it was none of the above. She looked forward to Easter more than any other day because when she came to church she knew that her pastor would be smiling. At first, that might sound a bit strange. At first, I thought that her reason was rather odd. But the more I think about it, the more I like it. And I would consider it an honor if the people I serve would ever say the same about me.
These kinds of emotional displays is not be limited to pastors. The Easter gospel has a powerful effect on every Christian. Christ is risen! Satan is defeated. Death is destroyed. Hell is vanquished. And Christ’s victory gives the sinner peace, an inner peace that just might break out and show itself in expressions of love from our hearts or songs of praise on our lips or even a smile on our face.
As followers of Jesus, we join the women who went to the tomb and marvel at the power of Jesus’ resurrection. And we bend down with Peter and look into the tomb, the empty tomb, and are amazed by Jesus’ amazing love, the love that brought about our salvation, the love that only comes from God, the love that carries us from death to life. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.