Easter according to Matthew's gospel

Easter Sunday (Matthew 28: 1-10; Acts 10; 34-43)

 

I wonder what we see when we look at our world this Easter Sunday morning.

Perhaps we see a world in which on the global political stage the war in Ukraine continues, and the Israeli Police attack Muslim worshippers at the Al Asqa mosque, causing attacks of retaliation on Israeli citizens. In our own country we see the jailing of a man for murdering his partner’s daughter, Lola James; and a young woman, Bethanie Booth has died of sepsis at just 24. And in our own lives I know some of us are facing questions about our health; families are struggling with the cost of living rises; and mental ill health and grief touch almost all of us. Although signs of Spring are all around us, we also face the signs of climate change, endangering the life of our world.

 

There is a lot we might feel sorrowful about. And so we come seeking hope on this Easter Sunday.

 

 

Matthew tells us that 2 women set off to see the tomb of Jesus as the first day of the week – Sunday, to us – was dawning. Confusingly, they are both called Mary – but one is identified as Mary Magdalene. I love the fact that there is a place for Mary Magdalene in this story: she is not a relative of Jesus – not his mother or his sister; she is not one of the 12 closest disciples – not one of the chosen men. Mary Magdalen is someone who has reason to be grateful to Jesus for saving her, and someone who has followed Jesus, sharing in his ministry and witnessing his crucifixion and death and the placing of his body in the tomb on the Friday.

 

She must have thought that first Easter Sunday morning that the world was a very dark place indeed – after all she had seen. Jesus was dead and his broken body had been placed in a tomb. She and the other Mary set off that morning to see the tomb.

Matthew doesn’t say anything about why they are going or what they are feeling; but it feels to me like a visit to confirm what they had seen on the Friday – a chance to grieve quietly at the tomb of Jesus and let the painful truth of Jesus’ death sink in.

 

If there’s room for Mary Magdalene on that Easter Sunday visit to the tomb, I think there’s room for us. All that we have seen might weigh our hearts down with grief too – and our steps might feel heavy as we come to the place where Jesus was laid.

 

But come, with Mary Magdalene,  and see…

Against every expectation, there is a great earthquake – and an angel of the Lord descends from heaven, looking like lightning and with clothing white as snow. The angel rolls back the stone and sits on it. The guards shake and become like dead men – but the angel makes it clear that Jesus, who they are looking for – is not dead – he has been raised.

The angel invites them to see the place where he lay – and then send them to the disciples to tell them they will see Jesus in Galilee. As they go, they see Jesus for themselves – they take hold of his feet and worship him, and Jesus sends them to tell those Jesus calls ‘my brothers’ to go to Galilee and there they will see Jesus too.

 

There is such a lot to see and it runs absolutely counter to all that Mary, all that we have seen so far. Jesus knows pain and distress and grief and fear as we do. Jesus has even gone through death – in surely the worst imaginable way, by crucifixion – but on Easter Sunday morning we see that death is not the end, Jesus is alive – the women see him, hear him, touch him..

 

We often speak of the joy of Easter – but maybe when we hear the story again a better word for what we feel is delighted relief. 

The angel rolls away the heavy stone of all the grief we have known so far – and he sits on it. It is done with; there is new life for Jesus and for all of us.

 

Caryl Micklem, a URC minister and writer of hymns, wrote a hymn with the chorus OR

As we just sang in Caryl Micklem’s hymn:

 

“Chase, chase your gloom and grief away and welcome hope instead 

For Jesus Christ is risen today and death itself is dead”

 

Death itself is death. This Easter we acknowledge the reality of death and despair – it is not that we do not see or will not see these things in our world – but we also acknowledge the greater reality, that death does not have the final victory.

 

Christian Aid campaign for all that promotes life, especially for the world’s most vulnerable. 

They have recently been reminding people of this quote from Desmond Tutu, who of course fought the evil of apartheid in South Africa for many years:

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”.

 

This Easter, where we have seen the darkness of death and suffering, may we also know the light and hope of eternal life.

 

And as the reading from Acts makes clear, if we know the delighted relief of Easter, we have a task to witness to it, to spread to everyone we meet the message that God’s love, shown in Jesus, cannot be snuffed out by any earthly force. No matter how dark the darkness, God’s people witness to the light and joy of knowing that Jesus lives to offer love and forgiveness to all.

I’m going to finish with a few words by an Australian writer, Cheryl Lawrie :

'Today we find ourselves in a world where the inevitable no longer seems sure,
and we wonder what else is made possible
because of the resurrection: what walls will be broken and what darkness will be destroyed; what death will be shown for what it is: the possibility for love to come again.'

May God make it so. Amen.