Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Angels are a particular, specific piece of creation. Angels
are not “created” when a person dies, regardless of what the movies say. Angels
are angels and people are people, both in life and in death, as unique from
each other as cats and catfish. While angels are somewhat mysterious, their
very name tells us much about them. Angel means “messenger.” That is their
primary duty: they serve as heavenly messengers to deliver a specific message
from God to people. Sometimes it’s a word of warning, sometimes it’s a word of
blessing, sometimes it’s a word of encouragement. Perhaps the most famous
angelic appearances center around the Nativity, when an unnamed angel appears
to Zechariah, foretelling the birth of John, when Gabriel appears to Mary, proclaiming
the birth of Jesus, and then the angels that spoke to the shepherds on the
Bethlehem hillside about the birth of Jesus, finally joined by an angelic choir
breaking into song, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on
earth.”
Angels appear in some of the most unique and powerful
narratives that we find in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, but I submit
that no angelic moment is more powerful that the first Easter morning, the day
Christ rose from the grave and an angel appeared, God-sent to be the first
messenger of Jesus’ resurrection.
St. Matthew tells us that this angel was welcomed with an
earthquake. Perhaps creation itself was welcoming the heavenly messenger;
perhaps creation was rejoicing that the Word made flesh, through whom
everything was made that was made, the Word was again living and active. The
darkness is gone; the Light is come. Regardless the reason why the earthquake,
we know the angel had a specific task before he could deliver a message. He was
to roll away the stone. Don’t misunderstand this. The angel wasn’t there to
free Jesus from the grave, as though Jesus needed an angelic strong-man to
escape His tomb-prison. The angel rolled the stone away so Mary Magdaline, and
the other Mary (probably the mother of James and John, since she was also
mentioned as having followed along when Jesus was taken to be buried), and the
guards (when they woke up), and James and John, and you and me and every other
person, believing or not believing, could see and know that He was not there. Then,
and only then, would the angel become the messenger of the news that Jesus was alive,
risen, as He said.
“As He said.” That’s what a messenger does. He delivers what
has been told to him. If you had to summarize this early, angelic Easter
sermon, it would be with those three words. In saying this, the angel defers to
Jesus Himself. It’s as if the angel was saying, “Listen! You don’t have to
believe me. Believe Him – the same one who called Lazarus from the grave, who
declared Himself to be the resurrection and the life, who said He must go to
Jerusalem and be delivered into the hands of men, and that they would kill him,
and then promised that He would die and three days later be raised. Believe His
Word, His promises. They are trustworthy and true. And, if you don’t believe
me, if you don’t believe His own words, then look – see for yourself. He isn’t
here. He has risen as He said.”
It is no small thing that this takes place very early on the
first day of the week. Matthew calls it the day after Sabbath. We would call it
Sunday. Sunday is when creation began in Genesis; it came to completion on
Sabbath, what we call Saturday, and on that 7th day, God rested. With
the resurrection, when else would you expect a new creation to begin, a new
heaven and a new earth to be opened, the dawning of a new life in Christ but at
the beginning of a new week? The old week, the old creation, the old adam is completely
redeemed and reconciled through the blood of Jesus. “It is finished,” remember?
He didn’t mean His life; Jesus meant God’s plan of salvation. Jesus’ life for
the lives of the world; Jesus’ death substituting for the eternal death of all
mankind; Jesus’ holiness in exchange for the sins of the world. All of it: “it
is finished.” And on the 7th day, Christ rested in the tomb from His
work of redemption. As is the week, as is God’s plan of salvation. Resurrection
Day begins a new week; it’s the dawning of a new creation, an 8th day of creation,
if you will. Resurrection ushers in a new beginning; it gives new life. He who
was dead is alive. He who was buried is raised. He who was restrained cannot be
contained any longer – not by creation, not by a stone, not by a grave, not by
death. He has risen!
This heavenly messenger gets our attention. Easy to
understand why – after all, his appearance was like lightening and his clothes
shone like snow. Our imagination fills in the blanks left by the words of the
text. But don’t overlook another and different kind of messenger on that first
Easter. Here is an Easter riddle for you: this messenger has a mouth, but it
remains silent; it proclaims the Resurrection, speaking without words. What is
it? It’s the tomb, the place where Jesus was laid to rest three days earlier
with a stone stamped with Pilate’s mark and a guard posted to prevent anyone
from stealing Jesus’ body. The tomb was silent Friday, Saturday, and into
Sunday, a soundless witness to Jesus’ vicarious death. But early in the
morning, with the stone rolled from its mouth, the grave began proclaiming, an
inanimate messenger of the resurrection with its mouth open wide, declaring
clearly and loudly that Jesus is risen.
The reason the empty grave is such a powerful witness is
this: the empty grave is evidence that God the Father accepted His Son’s
atoning payment for the sins of the world. Had the grave been left closed, we
would have been left wondering, is it really finished? Is there
something left for me to do? Or is faith in the resurrection nothing but a
waste of hope? Had the grave remained sealed, the question would have remained,
“Was Jesus really God-in-flesh, Emmanuel, the Savior-Messiah, or was He merely
an imposter, a liar among liars?” The open grave answers all such questions. It
speaks and shows clearly that “it is finished.” Sin, conquered. Death,
destroyed. The grave, now but a temporary place for a seventh-day rest for all
of God’s people through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Easter angel and the empty tomb continue to speak to us
this resurrection morning, showing us and telling us that the message is true
and the promises of God, enwrapped in the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus, are true. “It is finished!” Christ is risen, as He said, and He has gone
before us.
On Easter day, it is easy to get caught up in the romance of
the day and forget that simple promise: He has gone before us. Now, in the
context of the reading, the angel means that Jesus has gone to Galilee and the
disciples will find Him there. Before His ascension, He will appear to the
twelve disciples and hundreds more as eye-witness proof of the resurrection,
demonstrating the angel and the grave were telling the truth. But, for us in
the 21st century, “He has gone before us,” carries a second meaning.
These words stand as a promise that we too, when Christ returns, will have our
own resurrection day into eternity. On the day of the great resurrection, when
the trumpets sound, the dead in Christ will be raised, whole and holy, entering
into the new heavens and the new earth, the fulfillment of the new creation
that we experience now, but dimly.
Years ago, a preacher began his Easter message with the
usual proclamation, “Christ is risen.” The congregation responded, “He is
risen, indeed! Alleluia” Then, he added this phrase: “We are risen. We are
risen, indeed! Alleluia!” It was his way of reminding us that the promise of
the resurrection is ours, now, already, not just some day. That’s what
it means, that our lives are hidden in Christ, that our resurrections are
hidden in His, as well. So today, as you go about your day, with family meals
and friendly get togethers, when someone welcomes you with the greeting “Christ
is risen, He is risen indeed,” reply back with “We are risen, we are risen,
indeed,” also.
And when you do, you are a modern-day angel, proclaiming
what was proclaimed on the first Easter, saying what was spoken by the angel
and the grave: Christ is risen, as He said, and in Him, we are risen, too.
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
We are risen! We are risen, indeed! Alleluia!
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