Sunday, March 27, 2005
Easter Sunday
Matthew 28:1-2 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.
HE IS RISEN!
The earth began to rumble, tremble, and shake. A fiery figure came streaking across the sky ... down to the garden. A young man dressed in a brilliant, shining white robe advances to the grave as the Roman soldiers cower in fright, spread-eagled on their faces ... shaking.
Nor have those legionnaires misjudged the strength of this single shining soldier of the heavenly host, for with a flick of the wrist he sends the great round rock rolling from its slot at the mouth of the tomb until ... some distance away ... it topples to the ground with a heavy thud. And then, he calmly walks to the stone and seats himself upon it. He is plainly unimpressed by the wax remains of the seal of Tiberius Augustus Caesar ...
This stone, the great stone so recently lodged securely in the mouth of the grave in the garden, this stone has a mouth of its own as it speaks the same startling fact that the angel would later announce: "He is not here. He is risen. The grave is empty."
The grave in the garden had been empty when the angel rolled the stone from its mouth. Empty ever since, in the darkness before dawn the soul of Jesus re-entered His undecayed body and the limbs stirred, and the heart again began beating. His body was raised, restored to life and glorified. That was when Jesus left the sepulcher, of course. The angel rolled away the stone, not to let the Risen Christ out, but to reveal that He was already gone. The grave could not hold Him for death could not hold Him.
The resurrection from the dead -- that's what we celebrate today. Jesus physically returned to life from the dead. That's what the angel told the women; that's what the women told the disciples; and that's what the disciples saw for themselves when Jesus showed Himself to them; that's what the apostles' believed, taught, and died confessing. That's why the original Greek of the creed named in honor of the apostles says,
"I believe in the resurrection of the flesh."
It was the physical body of Jesus the crucified Christ that returned to life from death on the first Easter morning. That's what we confess and that's what we look forward to at the great resurrection on the Last Day. When, as Jesus Himself said, "the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth" (John 5:28-29).
He has promised, "Because I live, you will live also" (John 14:19). We count on His word. He has the power to do what He says He will. His resurrection certifies that for all time. 