Matthew 28:1-10
Okay, I don't just let the car drive itself. I do have to keep my eyes on the road. Cruise control doesn't mean I get to excuse myself from driving- I still have to be alert and ready for any changes on the highway.
Easter can be both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing of course because Jesus defeated the powers of death and arose on that Sunday morning long ago. But it's also a curse, because it comes at the end of a long week and we are just plumb tired.
But maybe what really makes Easter a curse is that we've done it so many times. We sing the same songs and preach the same sermons year after year. I don't know about others, but there have been moments when I feel that this has all be done before. Ressurrection is so first century.
It's easy to go on cruise control when it comes to Easter. But I wonder if doing that means we miss what might be going on in the story. I wonder if we miss how this old story is not so old in reality. Maybe in reading this story again, we will see where new life is springing up in our own lives.
The gospel text today has a lot going on, but I want to focus on one group of characters: the women. If you want an example of what it means to live without hope, it has to be the two Marys. These women had a close relationship with Jesus and believed that this guy was special. Then he ends up getting killed. They come to the tomb on Sunday morning without any hope. Another idealist is killed. Cynicism wins again.
I think back to my time in Clinical Pastoral Education. I remember meeting a young man who lost one leg in an accident. I would spend time in his room where he would say very little to me. His face was one not simply of sadness, but one of profound grief. He was only 21. He had a future ahead of him. But the future was now more cloudy and his face told me had little hope.
That is what these women felt. There are times in our lives when we feel that there is no hope that things will change. No hope that someone will get better; no hope that you will get that job; no hope that a loved one will quit drinking.
And then, there's an earthquake, and an angel appears saying that Jesus is no longer at the tomb but alive. I have to believe the Marys thought it was a joke. But if they thought that, they didn't think it for very long. Matthew says the left with fear and great joy. As they run to tell their friends the good news, they meet Jesus, alive and well. Where there was no hope, there was now hope.
The message of Easter is one of hope, but it starts in a place where there is no hope. It starts in the way things are in the world. If someone is dead, they kinda stay dead.
But hope has a different agenda. It can bring life where there was no life and healing where there was sickness. It reminds us that God is there with us, even when we feel abandoned. Hope is there even when everything is tell us that there is no hope.
As you go to your faith communities this Sunday, please don't operate on cruise control. Read the Easter story again and think about the two Marys. Think about the disciples or the guards. Read the story again and pay attention. Think about hopelessness. Think about helplessness. Think about love. Think about hope. Think about it all and believe the good news that Jesus is alive and well.
Christ is Risen!
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