"Just as He Told You"
The Resurrection of Our Lord
Easter Day
April 12, 2009
Mark 16:1-8
It was an emotional day for Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and
Salome. But we are emotional beings. Events like those that occurred
to them affect us emotionally. When it comes to our interacting with
God, every person is a slave to their emotions.
The three women who went to the tomb evidence this. The most striking
thing that shows us this is how the Resurrection account ends: they go
away from the Good News spoken by the angel and away from the empty
tomb *fleeing because they were seized with trembling and
astonishment! They leave and say nothing to anyone because they’re
afraid!*
The Good News of Easter is that fear is conquered. But these women are
so emotionally wrapped up in themselves that they’re in fear rather
than joy.
It’s important for us to know that this is not the difference between
emotion and reason. Their reason was getting them no farther than
their feelings. It made sense that Jesus’ lifeless body would be in
the tomb—He had died.
It’s also important to know that emotions and reason aren’t bad.
They’re not wrong. They’re even good and useful. God gave them both to
us and we should make use of them and even enjoy them. But what
occurred at the tomb shows us that we can’t rely on them. What Jesus
has told us is what we must rely on. It’s emotion and reason versus
fact. It’s what makes sense or seems to be the case against what Jesus
has said to us.
We don’t hear much about these women in the Gospel accounts. But we
know that they were with Jesus through a lot of His Ministry. They and
the disciples had been through a lot emotionally in the previous week
as well as the three years of Ministry of Christ. This event on Sunday
morning was kind of the topper. No wonder they were afraid. They
didn’t know what was going on. The disciples were hiding out, that’s
how afraid they were. All of them were overwhelmed.
We can empathize with them considering what all they had gone through,
can’t we? But this response is exactly the sort of emotional response
they had. The Resurrection account contrasts our emotional, and even
logical, response to who Jesus is and what He did with the fact of who
He is and what He did. We identify with the women and the disciples
and empathize with them. But in our emotion, and even logic, we end up
excusing them. We, after all, probably would have reacted in the same
way.
How about Jesus? What had He gone through? If anyone had gone through
an emotional whirlwind it was Jesus. What He had experienced with His
agony and suffering was enough to bring Him to despair. In the Garden
of Gethsemane He was distressed to the point of death. But His
response and actions were never emotionally or rationally driven. They
were always humbly and obediently driven. Thy will be done was His
prayer to His Heavenly Father. What His Father said would happen would
be what would happen, and Jesus was content to accept that.
When the women got to the tomb they didn’t find Jesus. The angel who
was there spoke to them of what Jesus Himself had said. He had told
His disciples on a number of occasions what would happen. Now the
message at the empty tomb was that of a reminder that every one of
those things had indeed happened.
We know this. The women should have known it. The disciples should
have known it. But they didn’t know it. Rather, they didn’t believe
it. They were wrapped up in their emotional fear, in their rational
acceptance of what they saw. The simple alternative was what Jesus had
told them.
When the women got to the tomb on that Sunday morning they saw that
things weren’t the way they expected them to be. Instead of having to
find someone to help move the stone, the stone was already moved. When
they went into the tomb they were alarmed at this other-worldly being
sitting there. No Jesus. What was going on? Why wasn’t Jesus there?
Could their first thought be, Wait, He’s not here, He told us He
wouldn’t be, He’s alive!? No, it couldn’t be because that would depart
from what their emotions and reason told them. It couldn’t be because
that would have meant that they had actually believed the word of
Jesus. It couldn’t be because they were afraid.
What is the antidote to fear? The Word of Christ. In this instance the
word of Christ was spoken by His representative, the angel. Do not be
afraid, he said. I know why you’re here. You’re here because you
didn’t believe what He had said. You’re here because you saw that He
was buried here and you don’t believe that His death on the cross was
not the end but the beginning.
Their emotions and reason got them nowhere when it came to salvation.
Emotion and reason brought them to the tomb, again, expecting Jesus’
lifeless body to be there. They fled from the tomb in the same way,
emotionally in a whirl about all that had happened and what the angel
had now said to them.
So the question for you today is this: What does it mean what Jesus
has said? Will you go away from here today relying on your feelings
and what seems logical? Or will you go away believing the impossible?
Will you walk away from here not caving in to what the world says and
what your emotions and reason tell you to listen to? Will you wonder
about God’s love and care for you when you’re struggling?
When the world scoffs at you because you believe that you are hopeless
without Christ’s forgiveness for you, will you listen to the world and
wrap yourself in the security blanket of good feelings about yourself;
that you don’t need Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, and the
forgiveness of all of your sins? If you suddenly find yourself facing
mortality earlier than you expected because they’ve found a tumor on
your lung, will you resist comfort from God’s perfect healing in
heaven because you want to cling to life on this earth with all your
might?
You will find yourself in life, daily even, going through all kinds of
emotions as those women did two thousand years ago at the empty tomb.
You may go through the challenges in life in fear as they did. But
remember that your emotions aren’t going to bring you peace or lasting
comfort. They won’t take away your sins and they can’t save you. Your
intellect and reason and all the evidence in the world won’t solve all
of your problems. What you do have is what those women had. What you
have been given is exactly what they were given moments after the
event that changed the world and that can change your life: the Word
of Christ. What He has told you is what you have, no matter what
you’re going through.
I won’t try to prove to you today that Jesus rose from the dead. It’s
the very last thing I will attempt to do. What I will do is what the
angel did. What Jesus Himself did. What I will do is what the apostle
Paul in the epistle reading for today did: state the Resurrection as
fact. You don’t need to go around and prove that Jesus rose from the
dead anymore than you need to go seeking proof for it. Reason, and
certainly your emotions, will tell you the opposite! Simply listen to
what your Lord has told you. Simply tell others who He is and what He
did. That He died and that He rose. He did this for them even as He
has done it for you. People will have strong emotional and rational
reactions. But you? You know it’s true—just as He told you. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.net
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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