Loving God, you bring light into the darkness, hope into the midst of despair and new life where there is death.  Help us this day to experience both the power and the hope of resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Have you ever felt as though your life was over?  Perhaps the death of a loved one smacked you down so hard that you felt as though you just couldn’t go on.  Perhaps it was an illness that seemed to smash all your hopes and dreams.  Perhaps you suffered other losses that you felt you could never get over – like the loss of your job, or the loss of your church, or the loss of your independence.  Perhaps not everybody has been there, but at least some of you know what I’m talking about.  There are things that happen in this life that just tear our world apart and leave us wondering if there is any good left for us on this earth.

    The women who went to the tomb that Easter morning certainly could have been feeling this way.  After all, they had invested a lot of time and energy in Jesus.  They had traveled around with him and had provided for him.  They had listened to him teach and watched him heal people and perform miracles.  They had put their whole selves in, and had believed that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was sent to save his people.

    They had invested themselves in Jesus and in his ministry, and then they had watched as he was arrested and flogged and crucified.  They had watched from a distance as Jesus hung on the cross and then breathed his last.  And then they had been there with Joseph of Arimathea as he had prepared Jesus’ body for burial and had laid him in the tomb.  And so, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary could have been feeling as if all hope was lost as they walked to the tomb that morning.

    However, it doesn’t seem as though they were.  Did you notice why Matthew says that they went to the tomb that morning?...  They go to see it (Mt. 28:1).  Not to weep or to anoint the body or anything like that, but to see it.  So why would they go to see it when they had already seen it the day that Jesus was buried?...

    Could it be that they actually remembered what Jesus had said?  Not just once, but three times he had told those who followed him that he would be mocked and crucified and then raised on the third day (Mt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:19).  So what if the women came to the tomb in order to see what would happen next?  It was the third day, after all.  What if they came with hope and expectation, wondering what comes next?

    To say the least, they are not disappointed.  Another earthquake happens – perhaps an aftershock from the first one a couple days earlier – and an angel who is so bright that he looks kind of like lightning descends from heaven and rolls the stone away from the entrance of the tomb.  It is the guards who faint – not the women – and then the angel delivers his message.

    Their hope was not in vain.  Jesus is no longer in the tomb, for he has been raised, just as he said.  And then the women are told what comes next.  Come and see, and go and tell.  Come and see the tomb.  Check it out for yourselves.  You’ll see that he is no longer there.  Then go and tell his disciples that he has been raised from the dead and will meet them in Galilee, just like he told them (cf. Mt. 26:32).

    The English translation tells us that the women go away from the tomb with a mixture of fear and great joy (Mt. 28:8).  However, a better translation might be reverence or awe – kind of like all those places that talk about the fear of the Lord.  Rather than being afraid, they are in awe of what God has done and are ready to worship.

    As it happens, Jesus gives them that opportunity as he meets them on the way.  Now, they will not just be passing on a message, but will be speaking from experience.  They will be pointing not just to an empty tomb, but to the risen Jesus, whom they have seen and touched and talked to.  Jesus confirms the angel’s message and asks them once again to tell his disciples to go to Galilee.  There they will see him.

    While it seems as though these women came to the tomb with hope and expectation, it is entirely likely that some of Jesus’ other disciples were feeling entirely hopeless.  The last we heard of them, they all deserted Jesus and ran away (Mt. 26:56).  Peter hung around a little bit longer, but ends up denying three times that he even knows Jesus.  And so there are certainly people in the gospel story who felt as though their lives were over.

    The thing about the resurrection of Jesus is that it addresses all those who have been in the depths of despair, or who are feeling hopeless, or who feel as if life as they know it is simply over.  One of the first things that we learn from these women is that there can be hope and expectation even in the midst of death simply by remembering what Jesus has promised.

    In their case, they remembered how he had predicted his suffering and death and had told them that he would be raised on the third day.  In our case, there are any number of promises that we might bring to mind.  There is the promise to be with us always.  There is the promise of his peace.  There is the promise of resurrection for all those who have died believing in him.  There is the promise of healing and new life.  There is the promise of the Holy Spirit.

    Another thing that we discover from the women who go to the tomb is that at some point, we all need to find out what is next.  In their case, because they remembered what Jesus had promised and went in hope and expectation, it didn’t take very long to move on to what would come next.  For some of us, though, sometimes the hurt runs too deep, and sometimes we need time to grieve before we can move on.  However, no matter how deep our hurt, there is always the hope of resurrection.  Maybe we can’t do it, but God most certainly can!

    And so, once we start to remember the promises of Jesus and to know his presence and power, we too need to make that journey to the empty tomb to find out what comes next.  The gospel narrative goes one step at a time.  It starts with something simple: Come and see that he’s no longer there.  Then, it’s “go and tell the disciples,” and then, “go to Galilee.”  It starts with simple things, and then it gets bigger, as we will hear next week.

    The thing is that God is well acquainted with situations that seem hopeless and delights in bringing to birth hope and new life.  Our God also delights in raising to new life all those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ.  May all those who are gathered here today experience that new life and be filled with hope.  After all, Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed!  Amen.

Resurrection of Our Lord (NL 1)                        Matthew 28:1-10
April 5, 2015
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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