Matthew 28:1-10 NRSVUE
After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Please join me in the traditional Easter Greeting!
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed!
Christianity in its purest form proclaims, as Bishop Desmod Tutu of South Africa put it:
Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)
I admit that even as a Progressive Pastor who believes that science is a gift from God, I do believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead.
I believe it because I believe women…
I believe it because Governments are still in the habit of murdering those who speak out for the oppressed.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead because God had a point to prove and that point is that all manner of evil may happen for a while, but not even death can stop LOVE from loving.
And love is why God came Godself, down to earth.
I believe that Jesus came down here to tell us that we are loved.
Yes, all of us.
Yes, even the annoying ones.
Yes, even when *I’m* the annoying one.
God came down here to love us and show us what love means.
I do not believe that God the Father is an angry God who demanded a blood sacrifice for our sins in some horrific action of divine child abuse.
I believe that God knew that PURE LOVE was going to be too much for some people and that those people would choose violence in the face of LOVE.
I mean, humanity is still choosing violence. We’re not hard to predict.
But God loves the whole world so much that God was willing to come down here Godself and subject Godself to humanity’s violence.
God gave us the free will to choose between love and hate.
But God was not willing to let hate win.
Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)
So, yeah.
I believe that Jesus didn’t have to die.
Humanity chose, and is still choosing violence.
And I believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead to show us that Love Wins.
That no matter how crazy-awful life gets –
And there’s been a whole lot of awful craziness lately!
-eventually-
Love Wins.
And in those crazy-awful times where life feels like a dead end, love meets us on our way.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.
I always wonder, which other Mary.
Was it Mary the sister of Martha?
Was it Jesus’ mom, Mary?
Some other Mary?
Mary was a super popular name at the time!
So anyway, Mary and Mary got up before dawn after *the worst weekend of their lives* and went to the tomb to wash and dress Jesus’ body. Tradition says that they brought the frankincense and myrrh that the Wise Men gave Mary at Christmas…
But, on their way there the earth shook and a shiny messenger appeared (messenger is the translation of the word, Angel) and told them that Jesus was risen and showed them the empty tomb.
So Mary and Mary, of course, head right back to the upper room where they were all hiding after the execution of Jesus to share the good news!
But, on their way, they met Jesus himself, who turned their bad times into a good time…
… to borrow a phrase from Afroman.
Jesus turned their bad times into a good time.
This is how God operates.
When things are falling apart.
When times are bad.
When it looks like evil is winning.
Jesus meets us on the way.
Does Jesus literally meet us on the way… not in my experience!
But I feel like God meets us, on the way of just trying to live our lives. God meets us embodied in new friends we never expected. Friends who show up with that something-something that we didn’t even know we needed… or never expected to find.
God meets us, on the way, of just trying to live our lives, in the form of new opportunities that we didn’t think were possible. God has certainly met us on the way towards this affordable housing project! I didn’t think we could build affordable housing on this small plot of land with an asbestos riddled building, and yet… God is making it possible.
And often, just like Mary and Mary, when we meet the messenger on the way, we encounter both joy and fear.
Because turning our bad times into good times often takes some work and encounters some pushback..
And it takes intention and effort to fortify our hearts with the kind of love that is stronger hate.
The kind of love that turns the other cheek.
The kind of love that gets knocked down because love refuses to use violence against violence.
The kind of love that gets back up again and offers a hug and a blessing instead of insults.
And friends, I’ll be honest with you.
I don’t like going through bad times.
I don’t like getting knocked down.
I don’t like being called names.
And when I do, I really want to fight back.
I really want to give as good as I get.
But when we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.
When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.
When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.
God does not call us to give as good as we get… God calls us to give better than we get.
Jesus could have raised an army — Jesus had a lot of followers, some of them even had money.
Jesus could have called down fire, or flood, or plagues or whatever – like God had done before. But God had already tried that and it didn’t work.
Being mean doesn’t change people’s hearts and minds.
It just doesn’t.
So Jesus let the Roman government, and the powerful religious leaders do what they were going to do and simply showed them that no amount of violence, not even death, can keep love down.
These are scary times.
But God keeps meeting us on our way.
Throwing joy into our fear, like dunking chocolate into peanut butter.
Meeting us with compassion,
Meeting us with friendship,
Meeting us with opportunities,
Meeting our needs,
God keeps meeting us, on our way, with love.
Love is unkillable.
Love Rises.
Love wins in the end.
