Easter Sunday: April 24, 2011
We’ve heard a lot about earthquakes in recent weeks and months: in New Zealand and Japan. The destruction has been devastating! Almost every hour of the day an earthquake shakes the ground where someone lives. These quakes are usually less than 5.0 magnitude- so small a person might not ever feel them but they are happening just the same.
The US government has a cool website that tracks earthquakes around the world in real-time. Earthquake Website Yesterday a 6.9 magnitude quake hit the Solomon Islands and a 6.0 quake hit Japan, 100 miles ESE of Honshu. Just this morning two small quakes shook Alaska and another in the British Islands. At the bottom of the webpage is a button you can click on that says, “Did you feel it?” You can go in and report what you felt and compare your experience of the tremor with what others in your area felt.
Imagine for a moment our gospel text for this Easter morning, as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb where Jesus had been laid two days earlier, an earthquake shook the ground on which they were standing. We don’t get many earthquakes in Ohio but I do remember one when I was in late elementary school. I was at my cousin’s house on a Saturday afternoon and the shelves in her room started rattling. It only lasted about ten seconds or so but it sure seemed a lot longer. Her dad ran up to her room and asked us, “Did you feel that?” The report was that it was a 5.0 earthquake that shook southern Mansfield. It was eery and strange, I wouldn’t say scary because no damage was done, but at the very least it got our attention.
St. Matthew says that the earthquake that shook the ground near Jesus‘ tomb was caused, not by seismic activity, but by the presence of an angel coming down from heaven right to that very spot. The rumbling, no doubt, came from the stone that sealed the tomb as it was being rolled away. The angel then sat on that stone and addressed the two Marys. The guards standing by, whose only job it was to make sure that Jesus did not leave the tomb somehow or that robbers wouldn’t steal his body, fell to the ground in fear. Matthew says they looked like dead men! Perhaps because the women were in grief and shock over the death of their beloved Jesus, they didn’t seem phased at all by the earth shaking underneath them. The angel told them not to be afraid- he knew what they were doing there- who they were looking for and he gave them the news that Jesus was no longer there. The One that the women had served and loved, the One whom they watched be beaten and spit upon, the One who had taught them and made them feel like they mattered, the One who was crucified on that torture device of a cross. . . He . . . was. . . not. . . there. He has been raised, the angel said. Just like he told you he would be and he is going ahead of you to Galilee where you will find him.
Matthew doesn’t give us many details about how the women received this message. Did they have questions for the angel? Did they almost faint from what they were witnessing? Did they worry that no one would believe them if they reported what they saw? We don’t know. . . what we do know is that the two Marys ran back with fear AND great joy to tell Jesus‘ disciples what they had learned. They took the angel’s advice and trusted that Jesus would indeed meet them where he said he would.
On the sprint back to where the disciples were the women were met on the road by none other than Jesus! Imagine their surprise! This was turning out to be quite an eventful day- first an earthquake, then an angel and now Jesus- alive and well and right in front of them! He reiterates what the angel has already said, “Tell my disciples to meet me in Galilee; there they will see me.” The women fell at Jesus‘ feet and worshipped their Lord. We can only imagine their relief and utter joy as they once again kneel at Jesus’ feet.
As a community of believers, we have just made another journey through Lent with all of its disciplines, to Palm Sunday with the Hosannas to the King of kings and then on to the Last Supper, the footwashing, the new commandment to love one another, the stripping and beating of Jesus, and the hanging on the cross to die. Like that button on the earthquake website asks, so I ask you, “Did you feel it?” Did you feel anything? Did it shake you to hear about Judas betraying Jesus for 30 coins? Did it make you tremble to hear Peter deny him three times? Was it like a punch in the gut as you heard those words, “Oh my people, Oh my church, what more could I have done for you?” As the tomb was sealed did you notice anything different about yourself? Did you feel it?
And today as the two Marys receive the good news of Christ’s resurrection, where we learn that what seemed like the end was only just the beginning, did you hear the promise? Or were you too frightened by the earthquake to hear the ultimate in good news? The angel said it: Go, he will meet you there! You will see him there! And then Jesus says it too: Go! Tell them! Meet me there and you will see me!
Friends, Jesus wants nothing more than to meet you and me wherever we are! Jesus meets each of us here this morning! Death no longer has the last word for us who believe! The stone is rolled away and he is loose in the world! Not even death can keep our Lord away from us! He meets us in the bread and wine- his body and blood; he meets us in water and word of baptism; he meets us at the front door of this place and right there in your seat! He meets you wherever you happen to be going, wherever you are in any given moment. He will meet you at work, he will meet you on vacation, he will meet you at the hospital, or in the grocery store or on a mission trip, or at a ballgame. Jesus has promised to go ahead of us. . . don’t worry, he says, I will meet you there, there you will see me! This is the joy-filled good news of Christ’s resurrection from the dead; this is the message of Easter! Wherever you find yourself, where ever that place is, Jesus will meet you there! He is risen! Amen!
Image Credit: Chinese Artist He Qi "Empty Tomb"
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