Focus: Embrace Jesus’ resurrection! It’s well-established good news for the whole world.
Function: To encourage the people to embrace the resurrection story.
Text: Matthews 28:5-10
How then shall we respond to such a wondrous story as
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? I say: enter the story, experience its
mysterious, transforming power, and welcome the news of Jesus’ resurrection by
faith. Here’s why: Jesus’ resurrection is well-established good news for the
whole world!
As we enter
the story, we notice that some close supporters of Jesus—some of the women like
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joses—encounter the angel of
the Lord close to the empty tomb. The scripture says that “The angel said
to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who
was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”
Note that the angel calms their frightened hearts: “Do not be afraid.” Then the angel tells them the news of Jesus’ resurrection. The angel underscores that he is talking about the crucified Jesus (that is, the one who died a crucifixion death; the one who was placed in this tomb; the one who has left this tomb).
We also note that the angel invites the women to enter the tomb and see for themselves the truthfulness of the angel’s message: “Come and see the place where he lay.” In other words, I’m telling you the truth; Jesus is not here; he has left the tomb; he is risen, just as he said.
Then the angel gives the women some instruction: “Go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” The good news that the angel told the women, and that their eyes have verified as they entered the empty tomb, must now be told and shared with Jesus’ disciples. Jesus’ disciples will see the resurrected Lord Jesus with their own eyes in due time, in Galilee.
The women, then, are bearers of good news. They believed the angel’s message. They run back to the disciples. And the scriptures make clear their emotions: they are afraid and at the same time filled with joy. Belief and wonder, fear and shock—these are the emotions that surround these women as they run back to Jerusalem. They heard the message! It’s marvelous good news.
Then we
notice that these women have another encounter: not with an angel of the Lord,
but with the risen Lord Jesus himself. The text says: “Suddenly Jesus met
them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped
him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go
to
Galilee; there they will see me.’”
Now the women see with their own eyes the risen Christ.
And it’s not a ghost they see, for they “clasped his feet.” (You simply do not
hold on to fleeting ghosts). No, they are holding on to the resurrected Jesus.
And they worship him as the eternal Son of God in the flesh. These women
realize that they are in the presence of God.
These women are the earliest eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Do as they did: embrace the risen Lord Jesus. For the story of the resurrection is well-established good news for the whole world.
There are many other eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection: the disciples, and at least another 500 followers of Jesus have witnessed the risen Christ before he ascended into heaven.
Here are two more reasons why we may embrace the resurrection of Jesus by faith as well-established good news for the whole world:
1.
Scriptures foretold and foreshadowed Jesus’ victory
over death and sin and evil. The shadows pop up in the book of Genesis, where
God told Satan “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
The same
shadow, in different form however, pops up centuries later at the end of the
reign of King David, when God spoke through the prophet Nathan to David,
saying: (out of your family line, your house will come someone) “and
I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” (II Samuel 7:12,13)
This Someone is Jesus, the Messiah, the eternal Son of God, who took on our flesh, born of a virgin, from the house of David.
Clearly, the ancient scriptures foreshadow and testify to Jesus’ victory and eternal rule. This is another reason why we simply embrace the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.
2. Here is one more reason: the inner testimony of God’s Spirit confirms Jesus’ resurrection with our own spirit. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8 that “…if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
Even though
we ourselves have not seen Jesus with our own eyes, we accept by faith his
wondrous work of resurrection. And we do so confidently, because the Holy
Spirit confirms in our own hearts, with our own spirit, the resurrection of
Christ. That’s why Paul can say: “The Spirit himself testifies with our
spirit that we are God’s children.”
We do not need to be eyewitnesses of the risen Christ in order to embrace the Easter message. For now, until Jesus comes again, we must live by faith. That’s the gospel style. We embrace Jesus’ resurrection by faith. And we do so with the knowledge that Christ’s resurrection is well-established good news for the whole world.
And also
today we let these words of Jesus ring true in our ears when he said to
struggling, doubting Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have
believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 21:29)
The day of resurrection! Earth; tell it out abroad…. (Let’s sing it!)