“The Easter Mission”

“The Easter Mission”

Text: Matthew 28:1-10

© March 23, 2008 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

Isn’t Easter awfully early this year? If you’re like most people, you’ve probably heard a dozen or more people ask that question. Well, the truth is, yes, Easter is early this year. In fact, the last time that Easter was this early was 95 years ago, in 1913. And Easter won’t be this early again for another 220 years. Easter won’t fall on March 23 again until the year 2228.

As we’re all aware, the date when Easter falls changes every year. But what not everyone is aware of is that there is actually a pattern, there is actually a system as to how the date for Easter is calculated. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring. And so the earliest that Easter can fall is only one day earlier than today. The earliest Easter can fall is on March 22. But the last time that happened was in 1818, and it won’t happen again for another 277 years, not until the year 2285.

So today really is a rather remarkable day. But on this Easter, like we do every year on Easter, we listen to the story in the Bible about what happened there on that Sunday morning so long ago: about how some women went to Jesus’ grave early that day; how they found an angel there; how the angel told them that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, that God has raised him from the dead; and how if they went out and announced that good news to others, in time they would see Jesus for themselves. But even though most of us are familiar with that story, even though most of us know the Easter story practically by heart, quite often we’re still left to wonder: what exactly does it all mean?

It’s like one day a certain man went to the race track. And he noticed that there was a priest making the sign of the cross over a particular horse. And in the next race, that horse won. And so the man watched this happen several times. The priest would go up to a different horse before each race and make the sign of the cross over it; and sure enough, each time that horse came in first.

So finally that man decided to take advantage of what he saw going on. So before the next race he noticed what horse the priest had made the sign of the cross over, and he ran to the betting window and wagered all the money he had on that horse. He then went back to his seat and watched as the gates opened and the horses took off. But as the horses were rounding the final bend, all of a sudden the horse that that man had bet on collapsed and fell over dead.

So the man ran up to the priest and asked him what had gone wrong. The priest said, “You Protestants! The problem with you is that you don’t know the difference between a blessing and the last rites!”

Like that man at the race track, there are also times in our lives when we see things but we end up drawing some rather mistaken conclusions about what it is that we’re seeing. For example, as we look at the Bible, as we look today at what the Gospel of Matthew says to us about what took place there on that first Easter morning, there are many people who misinterpret – perhaps quite unintentionally – but they misinterpret what the Bible is saying.

In particular, I think how many people misinterpret the Easter story is summed up in the refrain of a hymn that some of you might be familiar with, a hymn titled “He Lives.” Listen to the refrain of that song: “He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, he lives, salvation to impart! (And pay special attention to this part:) You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.”

All that might sound nice and pleasant and good and wonderful. But that’s not what the story in the Gospel of Matthew is saying happened on Easter morning. The Gospel of Matthew is not saying that when the women went to the tomb, they got a warm fuzzy feeling in their hearts. The Gospel of Matthew is not saying that the Jesus who lived and breathed and died on a cross was suddenly transformed on Easter morning into a good feeling that his followers could carry around inside them. To think that is to misinterpret what the Bible is saying.

No, what the Gospel of Matthew says – and what the other Gospel writers say as well – is that on that first Easter morning something far more wonderful, something far more amazing happened. You see, what the Gospel of Matthew says – and what the other Gospel writers say as well – is that on that first Easter morning Jesus, who had died on the cross on Good Friday and who had been buried in the tomb that same day, was raised from the dead. And when the Gospel writers say “raised from the dead,” they don’t mean that Jesus emerged from the grave simply as some kind of a spirit, as some kind of a disembodied soul. No, when the Gospel writers say “raised from the dead,” they mean that not only was Jesus’ soul raised from the dead, but that his body was raised from the dead as well. And so the message that we find in the New Testament is that if we put our trust in Jesus, then just as God raised Jesus from the dead and clothed him with a new body that will never die again, so also one day God will do the same thing for us.

The problem, though, is that many people just don’t see why the Easter message about the resurrection is so important. The problem is that many people just assume that when you die, your soul automatically leaps out of your body and goes up to heaven to live with God forever and ever. In other words, many people just take it for granted that when you die, some part of you automatically lives forever and ever – that that’s just the way it works, that God owes it to us.

Back in 1989 they had the funeral service for Zita, the last empress of Austria. After the funeral procession made its way through the streets of Vienna, with thousands of mourners lining the way, they arrived at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. And when they got to the church, a traditional ceremony took place. The empress’s chief of staff marched up the steps of the church, took his cane, and began beating on the closed doors as he yelled out, “Open these doors for Zita, Empress of Austria, Princess of the House of Hapsburg, Mother of Kings.” But in response, there was nothing but silence. For a second time, the chief of staff pounded on the doors and called out the same words. But again, nothing but silence. Finally, the chief of staff gently knocked on the door with his hand and said, “Please admit the earthly remains of Zita, a poor sinner who desires the mercy of God.” Immediately the doors were flung open, and the funeral service proceeded.[1]

The good news of Easter is not that God has to open the doors to eternal life for us. The good news of Easter is not that we automatically live on forever when we die. No, the good news of Easter is that if we put our trust in Jesus, then the day will come when God will give us the greatest gift imaginable. If we put our trust in Jesus, then the day will come when God will fling open the doors and will raise us up, just like God raised up Jesus on that first Easter morning. The day will come when God will raise us up – body and soul – to live forever and ever. That – that is the good news of Easter.

And so that means that when we go forth from this place today, we have a mission. We have a mission because what we do with our lives matters. What we do with our lives – what we do with our bodies and with our souls right here, right now, in this lifetime – matters. Because if we want to live with Jesus in the future, we need to live with Jesus in our lives today and every day.