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Text: Luke 10: 25-37 “A COMPASSIONATE HEART Matthew 28:1-10 “ALL BOXED IN?” 4-8-12 Easter Sunday Pastor Braun I want you to begin this message by having you watch an Easter celebration dance that occurred two years ago in Budapest Hungary, where God is doing amazing things. It’s called “Resurrection Sunday Dance”. Can anyone watch this dance and not want to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus? Easter is about a four letter word LIFE, a life that triumphs over death. Are you wanting to join in the Resurrection Dance or things so dismal in your life that you prefer to live your life in a confined space (bring out a box). Would anyone really choose confinement over freedom? The answer is yes. The more we arrange our life according to what is comfortable the more we put ourselves into a “box.” Who was it who first said – the only difference between a rut and the grave is the depth? 1. EASTER IS ALL BOUT BLOWING OUT THE BOX! But it’s tough for us Lutheran Christians to do that. Do you know what’s amazing to me? People will get so much more worked up at a stadium over a game involving strangers they will never know than we do with people we love. Why do we feel so free to jump and holler at a game but when we come to church we’re so reserved?! What is more praise worthy, what Jesus accomplished on Good Friday and Easter or your favorite team winning it all? For 2,000 years, on Easter Sunday when one person says: “Jesus is Christ is Risen!” the response is: “He is risen indeed, alleluia!” I want to do that again this morning but we’ve got to do a little prep work first to make it more celebratory! There was a man named Jesus. He lived like no one ever lived, and taught like no one ever taught. He loved like no one ever loved. He had a heart for the sick, the forgotten poor, the terrible sinners, the despised rich, the disliked soldiers, for the excluded. On Friday, His great courage got Him arrested, His great love led Him to the cross, His great heart stopped beating. On Friday, that which looked like a horribly tragic ending turned out to the greatest sacrifice of love in the history of our world. On Saturday there was a great silence. Jesus entered into hell and death for you and me. On Sunday, a stone got rolled away, death lost its sting and the grave lost its victory! On Sunday, hell was defeated, death was dethroned and darkness was derailed, the tomb was empty and hope got fulfilled, faith got vindicated and the prophets were validated and the soldiers were aggravated. On Sunday sin lost, shame died, hope soared and love won. On Easter Sunday you got something beyond yourself to live for, something beyond your life to die for. This is the greatest victory over the darkest enemy. If anything is worthy of celebration, it is this: JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN! (He is risen indeed alleluia)! That means everything is different: life, hardship, death has changed because of Easter Sunday! But in looking at all 4 gospels, Easter didn’t begin this way. Everyone was stuck in the box of grief and death. In verse one we read: “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” They didn’t go to join in a resurrection dance, they went in grief. They set out before the sun rose. These women had stayed near Jesus as He suffered and died on the cross. They were extremely loyal for they had observed Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus take Jesus’ body, anoint Him in a body cast filled with 100 pounds of spices, wrap Him in a linen shroud, and place Him in the tomb. They watched as the stone was rolled in front and the tomb sealed. They didn’t have time to prepare the body for death on Friday because the Sabbath was sneaking up even as His body was placed in the tomb before sunset. As dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, the women couldn’t wait any longer. The two Mary’s hustled toward the tomb. They didn’t go to anoint Jesus for that had already been done by Joseph. They went back to demonstrate their love and devotion. No one expected to have any hope at the tomb. Those women didn’t know it was Easter. But verse 2 tells us that something unusual happened: suddenly, without warning “There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.” Matthew is the only Gospel writer who tells us about the tremendous earthquake and how the angel descended from heaven. The way he writes, you can almost feel the ground shaking. He goes to great lengths to focus our attention on the tomb. Earlier in the previous chapter Matthew lists in detail how secure the tomb was. Pilate had ordered the guards to make the tomb as secure as they could so they rolled the huge stone in front of it, put a seal on the stone and posted the guard. The stone was a wheel of granite, eight feet in diameter and one foot thick. It was rolled into a groove and perhaps weighed more than 4 tons which is 8,000 lbs. Matthew tells us that the angel flexes his muscles, and then nonchalantly sits on top of the stone. What a display of power - that stone represented that Jesus was sealed in death but now the angel came in the earthquake and kaboom! And he could have just rolled the stone away and stood there but he sat on it! I love that!! 2. BOTH MARY’S EXPERIENCED NOT ONLY AN EARTHQUAKE BUT A FAITH-QUAKE! In verse 3 we’re told what the angel looked like: “His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow.” He’s powerful and brilliant! So much so that in verse 4 we see that “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. These guards had been placed at the entrance of the tomb to prevent any disciples from taking His body. They felt the earthquake and saw the angel and witnessed the stone being rolled back but instead of being filled with joy these were frozen in place, paralyzed with terror. Do you see the humor in the fact that as the resurrection is taking place, it’s the living guards who became like dead men?! They miss out on the resurrection miracle even though they witnessed it!! 5The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid…” The Bible is full of these understatements: the guards fall down like their dead and the angel says, “Don’t be afraid ladies…” Put yourself there – you’re shaking in your boots and you can’t move because of fear! Verse 5 continues: “I know that you’re looking for Jesus who was (past) crucified. 6He is not here (present); He has (is) risen, just as He said , Come and see the place where He lay. 7Then go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you (future) into Galilee. There you will see Him. Now I have told you.” 8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid (I think they hurried because they were scared to death) yet filled with joy and ran to tell His disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them, “Greetings,” He said. Doesn’t what Jesus said and did seem a little understated here? The women are devastated, they come to the tomb, the stone is gone, there’s an angel who tells them to go quickly and tell the disciples. As you leave, all of a sudden Jesus stands before you and the only thing He says is: “Greetings!”? This Greek word is just a common informal way of someone in that day saying, “Hey, how you doing? Nice day, isn’t it? What’s going on?” Wouldn’t you expect Jesus to embrace you and say, “I’m alive!” but He doesn’t. A little girl was at a children’s message on Easter morning. When the pastor asked the children “what were Jesus’ first words to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. And this little girls raised her hand and said, “I know…Ta Da!” Jesus didn’t even say, “Ta Da” He simply said: greetings On Easter Sunday everything changed, but not in a way we think. Look how many people think of Easter as this comforting little story that says: Spring is coming and flowers are blooming and it’s nice to wear new clothes and everything is going to turn out okay. But Easter is not a fairy tale where all danger is removed and everybody lives happily ever after. One of the most striking things in the gospels is people became more afraid after the resurrection. We just read in verse 8 that the two Mary’s hurried away from the tomb afraid and filled with joy. These two emotions aren’t usually compatible. What’s interesting about the gospel of Mark is that Mark 16:8 says that after the women hear the news: “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.
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