T E X T O N L Y
READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Zechariah 9:9-12
Philippians 2:5-11
St. Matthew 26:1-27:66
Grace, mercy, and peace [are yours] from God the Father and
Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Tim 1)
The Lord speaks, saying:
“for as yet they
did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead”
Mary Magdalen came to the empty tomb in unbelief. Twice. She
did not preach the first Easter Sermon to the Apostles, for there was no church
Service going on. She did bring a message though, a message that she delivered
in bewilderment and unbelief. Yes unbelief, as Jesus said, “for as yet they
did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (St John
20:9)
The Marys, there was more than one, came to the tomb seeking
a dead body. They brought spices and a change of cloths to clean up and honor,
as best they could, the apparent empty, end of the Man they called, “Teacher”.
But there is trouble. The dead body has been moved, “I do not know where they
have taken His dead Body”. They did not understand, even with the words they
spoke themselves: “I have seen the Lord.”
Of course you’ve seen the Lord, Mary, the disciples possibly
replied. We all have. We saw Him walking around and preaching. We saw Him
chatting and eating. We saw Him alive and laughing, drinking and making merry,
crying and comforting. But that is no more. No more. We thought He was the one,
but no longer. All that’s left for us is to die in the same way He did. Why did
it come to this?
We run into the tombs of our own lives, many more times than
Mary, thinking that this time there might be life. Life in the midst of death.
In the midst of paychecks and bosses that couldn’t care less, of dysfunctional
family and authority figures, of dogged steps and failed hopes and dreams. We
run to the material and find no one to fight for us, no not one.
So where is the answer? Must we today only rely on the
words, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”? How does
that encourage anyone to believe and come to church more often?
Repent. Instead of searching for the Truth, we attempt to
fill up this empty tomb in front of us, because reason says its not supposed to
be empty! We believe with our whole heart that if we can just put the Tomb back
together, the way its supposed to be, then we can get on with this life in
which death surrounds us, comfortably numb.
In that tomb we throw our trash. All the things that we
perceive as negatively impacting our life. We dump into this pit in the hopes
that the stone will be rolled back into place, and we’ll never have to deal
with them. Or maybe this is how we deal with them, honoring them, idolizing
them, in the hopes that, maybe if they go into this tomb, we won’t have to and something
good will come out of it.
Garbage from garbage is garbage. Those born of the flesh are
flesh and the flesh is always hostile towards God. So hostile, that it would
rather sit in a dark, solitary upper room for days, than to go outside and face
the light. Because that light is the light of death, of Pharisees and soldiers
issuing warrants for arrest, and God seeking vengeance for the death of His
Son.
Such is life, religion, and everything without the
Resurrection. Such are the thoughts and attempts made at conquering our lives,
without the wounds and stripes on the risen body of Christ.
You who face this world of death, what if Faith is the
answer? You who trust in your own works, do you also attempt to quench your
thirst with dry water? Do you fill your belly with air? Do you become angry at
KFC for not carrying the BigMac on their menu?
You cannot find the answer to those questions if you dismiss,
a priori, the answer that Jesus gives. And that answer is faith.
Now faith is not belief in the absence of evidence. That is
a false construct of disinformation and fake news. Faith is rational. Faith is
intelligent. We can’t blame the Marys and the Apostles for not understanding. Instead
we agonize with them and wait on the Lord to reveal His answer.
Jesus is like a man, Who having been possessed with the sins
of the world, returns to His Tomb, His “house from which He came”, and finds it
swept, cleaned, and put in order (Mt 12:43-45). The linen clothes were folded
and lying there, neat and tidy, as our Gospel told us.
After housing the Lord of Life, the tomb is now infinitely
larger on the inside, than it is on the outside and ready for other occupants.
That is sin, death, and the power of the devil, for Jesus brings with Him, not
seven others, but seven times seventy others who were dead in their sins, in
order that at the last He would seal the tomb once more, this time forever and
they never die again.
Where we want to find meaning in our works of death, Jesus
brings light and life to all who would believe. This Light and Life is brought
into focused focus when the Marys and the Apostles see. When they see the marks
in His hands and the holes in His feet. When they read like braille the stripes
of torture on His skin and when their hand reaches out to His Body and it meets
resistance, instead of apparition.
No bloodless or disembodied salvation did God accomplish. No
dead works did Jesus accomplish, that He would have to do them over and over
again. No faulty religion or empty transcendence does Jesus offer in His Body
and Blood, but the Truth. The truth about you and the truth of this
world.
In this is truth. That God was made man, suffered, was
crucified, buried, and on the Third Day rose again. And that He has ordained
that this day never end, this new day when the dead come back to life. It is in
this truth that we now turn again to face life, in the midst of death. Being
baptized, when we hear His word and believe, we will never die and even if we die,
we shall live in Him.
We cannot dismiss the fact of the Resurrection, for on it
hangs true religion and true knowledge. If Christ is not raised from the dead,
then we are still in our sin, we are still in this confounded world which
offers no solutions, no peace, and no mercy.
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me?!” (Ps 22:1)
was our psalm last Thursday. Yet, the same psalm that crushed us, that killed
us, makes us alive again with the Gospel saying:
“For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in
the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who
fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and
be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!”
(22:24-26)
The Tomb that was supposed to be for the Marys, the
Apostles, and you now evicts them and vomits you out. The grave wherein
I will lay, Jesus occupies with so much life that it cannot hold me or you.
Jesus ten-finger-death-punched a cross-shaped hole in the stomach of death. The
wicked no longer eat, but only the righteous and are satisfied.
Only those baptized into the death and resurrection of
Christ will eat and be satisfied in the great congregation, which is His Bride
the Church. The truth that the Marys and the Apostles sought among the dead, is
the living Christ offered in Word and Sacrament, Who makes the dead alive again.
The truth that you desperately chase, is the Crucified Jesus, given and shed
for the forgiveness of sins.
Here is the mercy that the world cannot produce. Here is the
peace that the world cannot give. Here is salvation, redemption, and
transcendence sought by all: God in the flesh, communing with His people on
earth.
Eat and be satisfied today. Sing out loudly all the hymns and
canticles that you fasted from, this Lententide. Rejoice in the Joy that comes
from being a redeemed child of God.
For you, who had no first fruits to offer, possess fully the
Firstfruits from the dead, Who is Christ.
You who had no reason to hope, now cling to Jesus Who
ascends to the Father and descends to His Divine Service of rich food and well
aged wine.
You who find no answers in yawning graves, have and retain
the “Yes” in Christ Jesus. Yes, death is not the end, yes suffering has an end,
yes your life has meaning, yes, Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
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