"No Doubt About It, Part 1"
The tomb was empty. Everyone agrees on that point. Not only did Jesus’ followers find an empty tomb on that Sunday morning, but the guards who had been placed at the tomb – who had been placed at the tomb to make sure that the disciples didn’t steal His body – agreed on that, too. There had been an incredible earthquake, and that enormous stone that had closed up the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away. The body was gone – no doubt about it. The guards even ran off and told the chief priests what had happened, and then they told lies to try to hide what had really happened.
On Friday, Jesus’ lifeless body had been placed in the tomb – no doubt about that, either. There had been many witnesses, and they all agreed that Jesus had died. They saw Him breathe his last breath. They saw Him hanging on the cross, as dead as dead can be. When the soldiers received their orders to break the legs of the other two men who were being crucified so that they would die faster, there was no need to break Jesus’ legs. He was already dead. But just to make sure – or perhaps as just one more senseless act of cruelty – one of the soldiers took a spear and jabbed it into Jesus’ side. All of a sudden, large amounts of blood and water came gushing out of this newest wound. There’s just no way that anyone could survive something like that. Jesus was dead, and everyone – His followers, His enemies and the soldiers who were just following orders – knew it.
The witnesses saw the body of Jesus being taken down from the cross, they saw it being wrapped in burial cloths, they saw it being placed into a brand-new tomb that had never been used, they saw a large stone being rolled in front of the entrance so that no one could get into it. Later, when the guards showed up, they even put some type of seal on the tomb – just in case anyone wanted to fabricate some far-out story about a so-called resurrection.
But here we are on Sunday morning, and the tomb is empty. Jesus is gone. To emphasize that fact, an angel of the Lord is sitting on top of that large stone that previously covered the entrance. And the words that the angel speaks to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were words that anyone with a lick of sense would recognize as being just plain unbelievable. St. Matthew tells us that the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”
Keep in mind that these are the same women who saw Jesus die and who saw His lifeless body being placed in that tomb. They expected to find a dead body, and nothing else. And now this angel was telling them that Jesus had arisen? If they hadn’t been there and seen the empty tomb with their own eyes and heard the angel with their own ears, it would have been – well, unbelievable.
For too many people in this world, these words of Matthew – as well as the similar accounts and additional details recorded by Mark, Luke and John in their Gospels and Peter in the words we heard today from the Book of Acts – are still too unbelievable. Dead people don’t just come back to life. When the body dies, too many physical processes and chemical processes take place to ever allow for something like resurrection. When the heart stops beating, the blood supply stops bringing oxygen to every organ, and every bodily organ vital to life simply shuts down. The brain suffers damage that cannot be reversed. The process of decay sets in almost immediately. Today, in certain circumstances, doctors can sometimes delay death by prolonging the life of a patient, but they still can’t stop death. And once the person is dead – well, there’s no going back.
Unless, of course, you are the Messiah. Unless you are the sinless Son of God. Unless you are fulfilling what the prophets had been inspired to write about You so many hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Unless you are doing exactly what You told the disciples that You would do. Jesus had told the disciples specifically what would happen to Him – how He would be arrested, put on trial, beaten, killed, buried and rise from the grave on the third day – and they never understood. They never believed. Everything He told them was too unbelievable.
But now there was proof – undeniable proof – that the unbelievable truly was to be believed. After leaving the empty tomb, the two Mary’s are greeted by the risen Jesus. In Acts chapter 10 Peter tells us that during the next 40 days Jesus appeared “not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses.” We read that Jesus repeatedly appeared to many and various witnesses, and on one occasion, according to St. Paul, Jesus appeared to more than 500 witnesses. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Paul recount only some of those appearances – how many more times Jesus appeared we simply don’t know. But Jesus, who once had been dead, was now alive. There was absolutely no doubt about it.
Have you ever wondered why the New Testament writers put so much emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Have you ever wondered why the Church puts so much emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Have you ever wondered why we here at St. Paul put so much emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ – not only on this day, but over and over again in virtually every day of our lives?
The answer could not be more simple. The resurrection of Jesus represents the grand and glorious truth that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead. Jesus’ death and resurrection are verifiable facts, recorded by witnesses who saw Him – who were there. And because of these facts, because of the testimonies of those witnesses, because of the very words of Jesus Himself, we have the additional fact that our sins are forgiven. The blood of Jesus our sacrificial lamb has covered our sins so that God the Father sees our sins no more. As forgiven sons and daughters of God, we know that on the last day we and all believers – believers who are still alive and believers who will themselves be resurrected from the dead – will be taken by our Savior to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven. As we read so often in Luther’s explanations in the Small Catechism –as those witnesses who saw the risen Christ have testified – and as we in faith testify still today: “This is most certainly true.”
Author Ben Patterson recounts an episode when a missionary was working to bring the Gospel to natives who lived in the jungles of East Asia. They had never heard the name of Jesus and knew absolutely nothing about Him. This missionary was showing them a movie about Jesus, and those who watched it were fascinated. They were so caught up in the movie that when Jesus – who they had seen healing the sick and being adored by children – was being beaten by the Roman soldiers, they began to shout and demand that the outrage of it all be stopped. The missionary actually stopped the film and explained that there was more to the story. Moments later he had to stop the movie again during the scenes of the crucifixion. The natives were weeping and crying and wailing loudly at Jesus’ death, so the missionary told them again that there was more to the story.
When the movie was restarted, the next scenes were of the resurrection on Easter morning – and that’s when the tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy. The natives were screaming in joy! They were celebrating and dancing and slapping each other on the back! Christ is risen indeed! As the missionary described it, it was like these natives were actual eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection – as if they had been there with the women who went to the tomb on Easter morning! As if they, too, had been met on the path by Jesus and had heard Him speak: “Greetings! Do not be afraid.”
As we gather on this beautiful Easter morning, we – you and I – are really no different than those natives in East Asia who saw a movie about the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. With the exception of those blessed men and women who saw the risen Jesus between Easter morning and His ascension some 40 days later, we are no different than believers of all ages, of all times, of all nations. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was buried. And He was raised from the dead on the third day – all in accordance with the Scriptures. Because He has risen, we too shall rise from the dead – all in accordance with the Scriptures. No doubt about it.
And that is why we join today with the saints of all ages to proclaim: “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia”!
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