Matthew tells the resurrection story deliberately leaving a huge hole in the action. But to get the impact of that hole we have to realize that Matthew tells the entire scene with irony and humor; almost slap-stick humor. I get frustrated when people can’t seem to see that the Bible’s writers are often playful and even silly.
We start, not with
the morning of the resurrection, but the day before. If you read Matthew’s gospel this last week
going through the events of Holy Week day-by-day you’ll remember that on
Saturday the religious leaders go to Pilate and ask to have the tomb of Jesus
guarded. They ask for this guard to
ensure that the disciples don’t slip in at night, steal the body, and then say
Jesus was resurrected. Pilate gives them
an unspecified number of soldiers to guard the tomb.
Never mind that
all the disciples fled like cowards the moment Jesus got arrested; this despite
their promise to him that they would be with him regardless of what
happened! There’s also the twisted
reality that when Jesus was alive no one wanted him. We talked about that in the sermon on Good
Friday. And certainly no one protected
him. Now that he was dead he is heavily
guarded!
I wonder what it
would have been like to be a Roman soldier assigned to guard the tomb of a executed
Jewish itinerant preacher? This is no
prestigious honor guard like those who guard the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier. This is just plain silly. If you’re a soldier what do you do when your
shift ends and you go back to the barracks and tell the guys your
assignment? You, a Roman infantryman,
about the most feared fighters in the world, were doing cemetery duty! Only the Parthian Empire, directly to the
east of the Roman Empire, had a military to give the Roman infantry pause. And so, a battle hardened, fearsome fighter
is given guard duty over a dead guy whose followers fled at the first sign of
trouble.
Apparently they
didn’t take into account the terror of a heavenly soldier! Each of the gospels tells the story of the resurrection
differently. In Matthew’s gospel the
women come to visit the tomb on Sunday morning.
When they arrive the tomb is still sealed with a great stone. And then, there is a great earthquake and an
angel of the Lord, descends from heaven and rolls back the stone.
You’ve probably
heard me say before that the way angels are depicted in art and on greeting
cards is laughable. These beings are not
sweet cherubs with halos and wings.
Angels are mighty warriors no one dares fight with. Rather than thinking of an angel on a
greeting card, picture an angel as Arnold Schwarzenegger in the old Terminator
movies. He’s a terrifying warrior afraid
of nothing. Plus, this angel’s got to be
mighty strong to roll a great stone back all by himself.
How do the mighty
Roman guards handle this warrior from heaven?
Well, they don’t exactly invite him to a tea party! Matthew says, “For fear of him the guards
shook and became like dead men.”
Now there’s a
funny thing. The guys outside the tomb
are acting like dead men. How about the
guy inside the tomb?
Notice that the
women are also terrified, but not to the extent of these mighty Roman guards!
Now here is where
we get to the big hole in the action.
The tomb has been sealed. I just
said the live guards outside the tomb were like dead men. How’s the dead guy in the tomb doing? Well, the stone has now been rolled
back. The very next thing that should
happen is that the resurrected Jesus walks out.
But…
the tomb is already
empty. Where’s Jesus?
I’ve used this example
before and I think it gets at what we’d expect.
I’ve always loved Snickers candy bars.
You’ll remember their advertising slogan, “Snickers really
satisfies.” I’ve always thought there
should be a Snickers ad where the resurrected Jesus steps out of the tomb. He has a smile on his face. In his one hand is hold up a partially
unwrapped Snickers bar. There’s a bite
taken out of it, and then Jesus says, “Being dead takes it out of you. But Snickers really satisfies!”
Yet my idea for an
ad wouldn’t work! For despite the tomb
being sealed with a stone AND guarded by soldiers, when the stone is rolled
back by the angel the tomb is already empty!
(Apparently if Jesus had a Snickers bar he ate it sometime earlier.)
The resurrection
of Jesus, the greatest event and miracle associated with him, happens offstage. It’s like it’s a non-event. What are we to make of this? Is this resurrected Jesus a ghost; some
disembodied spirit who can float through solid rock?
Matthew
continues. The angel invites the women
to see the empty tomb. He tells them
that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
And then he tells them Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee. There they will see him. Galilee is important. Galilee is where Jesus’ public ministry
began.
These two Marys
are now the first witnesses to the resurrection. They are the first evangelists of the
resurrection reality.
As they go towards
Galilee in fear and great joy they meet the resurrected Jesus. What is his nature? How did he get out of that sealed and guarded
tomb? Is he real flesh and blood? Matthew gives us the detail that when Jesus
says to them, “Greetings!” they take hold of his feet and worship him.
Well, he has feet
they can take hold of, then he’s got to be solid and real. He isn’t just a disembodied spirit, or some
sort of a hallucination.
I think our
translations fall short when they say Jesus first word to them was
“Greetings!” That sounds really
formal! The Greek word there is cairete,
which means more like “Rejoice!” Greetings is not only stiff and formal, it
also sounds weak. Rejoice is a command –
and a happy command at that!
Their world of
fear, death, pain, limitations, and everything like that has just been
completely overwhelmed with a new reality.
Resurrection!
All through Matthew’s
gospel we’ve seen contrasts, inconsistencies, and contradictions. That shouldn’t surprise us. Matthew is a well-versed Jewish writer. The ancient Hebrews often used contradictions
and contrasts to teach a truth deeper than simple logic. We see that here.
Matthew is not
asking us to turn off our brains and receive this text like a fairy tale. No, Matthew invites us to use our brains to
embrace the reality that goes beyond human understanding.
Human
understanding – all logic – leads to this undeniable truth. You will die.
Death is death. Death is the
end. Done. Finished. Period.
No further discussion.
People miss the
point when they assume that eternal life is a foregone conclusion. As if when you die you automatically are
somehow having eternal life. It doesn’t
work that way, at least not in Christian faith.
Christian faith is at its most powerful when we give death its due
credit.
Think
critically. Think logically. Think where the evidence takes you, and don’t
speculate further. All of experience
tells us that when you die that’s it.
There is no scientific evidence for eternal life, resurrection, or
anything of the sort. All of what you
can observe tells you otherwise. Give
your mind and your skills of observation their due credit. Don’t be a scientific thinker for every
aspect of your life and then automatically assume some fairy tales about eternal
life when it comes to the power of death.
It is when we give
death its due power that we can also recognize the jarring mystery and power of
God. You don’t automatically get
resurrected. You don’t automatically get
eternal life. Those things are impossible.
But for God all
things are possible.
When we think we
automatically get eternal life then we think it’s somehow normal, or within our
power, when it is completely and totally beyond our power. I don’t care how good a person you are, I
don’t care how righteous you are, I don’t care how perfectly you eat and stay
fit and all of that stuff; you’re still going to end up just as dead as anyone
else. Nothing you can do can get you
eternal life.
That’s is God’s
business. That is God’s power. That is grace.
The Easter message
isn’t necessarily a happy little ending to a good man who was killed. The Easter message upends our reality
entirely. Jesus should have walked out
of that tomb when the stone was rolled back.
But he was already gone. When he
told the women to rejoice he wasn’t just telling them to be happy. He was telling them that every reality they
knew was now secondary to God’s power.
Resurrection is a surprise, a mystery, a new reality.
May the power of
God’s grace over death be the reality that you live – not an automatic foregone
conclusion sort of power – but a startling power that equips us to live in a
new reality this day and every day forward.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment