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. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.” According to the oldest manuscripts, that’s the end of the story. What an odd ending! In the gospel of John, we’re told that even after the resurrection and the appearance of Jesus, the disciples are meeting together behind locked doors because they’re afraid. Why?

Let’s go back and put ourselves into Easter morning for a moment to understand what the women and disciples were thinking/feeling. Jesus has been crucified by the powers in Jerusalem. You are terrified because you know you’re going to be next, and then suddenly, Jesus appears! What’s interesting is that He does not say: “Now, all your troubles are over.” He doesn’t say: “Let’s all go to heaven and have a big party”. He doesn’t say: “Thank God the hard part is over!” What He says is: “The cross didn’t stick. Would you still be afraid? The disciples were because Jerusalem was still a powder keg. It was only 36 hours ago when angry mobs yelled for Jesus’ crucifixion. To be sent to that city to tell everybody that the crucifixion failed, that Jesus is still on the loose running around, and you’re on Jesus’ side is a very dangerous assignment! On Sunday, their life didn’t get safer, it got a lot more dangerous. But 3. AFTER EASTER, JESUS’ DISCIPLES FOUND OUT THAT THERE’S SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN DANGER! They are afraid but filled with joy. Sunday is not the idea that flowers force their way up through the cracks in the sidewalk – Sunday is Jesus’ power, love and resurrection giving us a new identity.

Don’t you find it interesting that women were the first persons to be eye witnesses of the resurrection? This is what’s stated in all 4 gospels! This was so “out of the box!” Today this wouldn’t mean much but in Jesus’ day this is very striking! In ancient Israel women were not even allowed to serve as witnesses in a legal dispute. 100 women could have the same story and if one man disagreed, their testimony meant nothing. We see this dynamic a little bit in Luke’s gospel, chapter 24:9-11 “When the women came back from the tomb, they (the women) told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” You’ve got to picture this: women come to the men and say we saw it, we heard it and the disciples don’t believe the women! When the disciples mentioned it was nonsense, can you imagine the frustration of those women at that moment? Don’t forget, it was the disciples that ran away from Jesus while the women were the ones who followed Jesus to the cross! They could have said to the disciples: “Jesus chose to appear to us, you’re the runaways, we’re trying to help you and you accuse us of being out of our minds?” And then later that evening, Jesus appears to the male disciples (Ta Da!). Wouldn’t you love to have been there the next time the women and the disciples get together just to hear what the women said to the disciples? “Jesus Christ has risen – told you so!” Easter changes everything – it gives us something worth living and dying for! But it doesn’t make our life safe. Sometimes the only way to get to Sunday is through Friday. The disciples and you and I will learn that this Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday story is not just Jesus’ story but ours as well. As we see the rest of verse 9 we see the women’s response: They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshipped Him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. And He’s still saying it today! “Lord, what’s Your will for my life?” His response is “Don’t be afraid!” “Lord, what am I going to do in this situation?” “Don’t be afraid!” “I’m so confused and hurt.” “Don’t be afraid!” The meaning of Easter is that now our old grave clothes have been thrown off and we no longer live in despair. God has the power to roll away every fear. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.”

Jesus lived His whole life “out of the box.” He left His birth box. He chose to wander without a steady source of income. He was wifeless and childless. He willingly moved from His homeland of Galilee to Samaria. Jesus was not a “keep it in control” kind of a Savior. But then on Good Friday Jesus’ crucifixion blew away the box of sin and despair! This morning, on Easter Sunday we celebrate that no box could hold Jesus – not even the box of death! The gospel text shows us how “out of the box” Jesus’ resurrection was! His resurrection occurred after the Holy Sabbath. His resurrection was witnessed first by women — persons who did not count legally as “official witnesses.” His resurrection was to be completed in Galilee, not in holy Jerusalem, but in a minor league place of worship. Jesus did not fit into any one’s box. That is his greatest ongoing Easter gift to us. He broke out of the box of sin. He bashed the box of death. He smashed the box of judgment. He broke down every Devil’s box. Jesus took a sledgehammer to all boxes — replacing them with power, compassion, forgiveness and grace. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

In closing, does anyone recognize the name Mel Blanc? You may not recognize the name but I’m sure most of us have heard this person. He was known as the man of a thousand voices. He’s the voice behind all of those luney tune characters: Bug’s Bunny, Elmer Fud and Porky Pig. How many of you know those guys? Yeah, we’re cultured. Do you remember how Porky Pig would come at the end of each cartoon – what did he say? “Ba dee, ba dee, ba dee, ba dee, that’s all folks!” A few years ago, he died and guess what they put on his tombstone? “That’s all folks.” I have a question: when you break your last breath here on earth, is that all there is? Because of Easter the answer is: “No!” Break out of your boxes. For freedom Christ has set you free. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!