There they will see me

First Scripture Lesson: Matthew 27: 62-66, page 33
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what the impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘he has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.”
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.”
So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
Second Scripture Lesson: Matthew 28: 1-10, page 33
After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightening, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Sermon
Our first scripture lesson has helped me to see something I’ve never really thought of before – that the Pharisees gathered before Pilate worried that the disciples would go and steal the body, and then tell everyone that Christ had risen from the dead, bringing credibility to Jesus’ claims that “after three days I will rise again.”
It amazes me that the Pharisees were worried about that – as though convincing people that Jesus had risen from the dead were so simple.
Today is the most important day of the Christian Calendar as today we celebrate Christ’s victory over death, but today also brings with it one of the most challenging faith claims Christianity has to offer.
Any rational person can read through the Gospels and see that Christ was a wise teacher worthy of admiration, worthy even for so many of the great thinkers of human history to follow. Thomas Jefferson is known to have admired Christ and his teachings, and taking several copies of the Bible he cut out the teachings of Christ he most admired, threw out the parts of the story he couldn’t believe and made for himself what today is known as the Jefferson Bible – a version which of course leaves out the resurrection.
The Pharisees were worried though – worried that if people heard about an empty tomb that “the last deception would be worse than the first” so Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” They were all worried that people would believe he had risen from the dead, but I’ve never been in a church where people were so easily convinced.
There are parts of the Apostle’s Creed that some just don’t say – some have trouble with the part about “I believe in the holy catholic church,” afraid that they are confessing faith in the Roman Catholic Church, which actually isn’t true – catholic here is just another world for universal; the other difficult part of the creed being, “he descended into hell, on the third day he rose again from the dead.”
If you can’t say it, you can’t say it. There’s integrity in that. But if you can’t say it, if you can’t believe it, I’m afraid you’re missing out on something that can change your life.
I know it’s hard to believe that good triumphs over evil – that Christ has won the ultimate victory over death – that the tomb is not the end but the beginning – the grave transformed to a womb of new life. We live in a world where it sometimes seems as though it just can’t be true.
I read the paper. I know what it’s like out there. A year later, oil still haunts the gulf. The families who lost a loved one when the Deepwater Horizon offshore platform exploded still have a hole in their hearts and not enough money in their pockets to pay the bills, while BP, Halliburton, Transocean, and Cameron International sue each other over who has the most blood on their hands.
A full 2/3rds of high school graduates can’t find a job, while only about 2/3rds of recent college graduates can – and as if this lack of jobs weren’t sad enough, young people out of work, I think we all know someone with plenty of experience, plenty of skill, who is without the opportunity to use the gifts that God has given them to support themselves and their family.
And here it is – just a couple days past Earth Day. Not that I did anything special, but how does Capitol Hill celebrate conservation, reducing waste, and recycling – they bring back Styrofoam to the cafeteria.
Maybe not as big a deal as the other two – but you can just substitute drone attacks, mounting national debt, reducing Medicare, three ongoing wars, struggling to escape Guantanamo Bay, – when it comes to Capitol Hill there’s something for everybody to be depressed about. Taking into account the world as it is – empty tomb or no empty tomb – it’s not hard to go through life believing that nothing is getting better, sin is winning, and the only thing to do is enjoy life as much as we can because the end is coming and there’s nothing we can do about it.
In a way, that’s what the women were thinking. He’s gone, but we can still pay our respect at least. We can still go to see the tomb.
But he wasn’t there, and on the way to tell the disciples who weren’t expecting him to really rise from the dead either – if the disciples did they weren’t doing anything about it – so on their way to tell the disciples that the tomb was empty the women saw him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. And then Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
There they will see me, he said.
It was Thursday morning. Our daughter Lily’s teacher at the King’s Daughter’s school, our own Ellen Ludwig, invited us to the Easter Egg hunt. Lily was with me and wouldn’t let me put her down so she went the whole hunt with an empty basket. A tiny little girl named Angel noticed – took all the eggs from her basket and put them into Lily’s.
There they will see me, he said.
“Twelve steps weren’t nearly enough for Richard Remus, but maybe 10 million will do,” I read on the front page of the paper last week. “Remus, a former methamphetamine addict, wanted to show his friends who were addicted to meth how much he cared for them. So he started walking.” “If I can walk 5,000 miles in the hopes of helping one person, what can you do with a little hope?” Remus has scrawled on a yellow rain jacket draped over his backpack. He walked through our town just last Wednesday.
There they will see me, he said.
But what’s more is that last week, next week, and the week after that, in the old building our church owns across from the library there will be between 130 and 200 children who will receive afterschool care thanks to the Boys and Girls Club, and should the teachers there suspect that there won’t be any food on the table over the weekend then they’ll send food home in that child’s backpack.
And just last Friday at least a hundred people who might have gone without lunch if it weren’t for the members of our church who were willing to cook – because of them a whole crowd ate a good free meal at the People’s Table right across the street like they can every Tuesday night and every Friday at 11:30 absolutely free.
There they will see me, he said.
If you haven’t seen him – if you haven’t seen him alive and among us – still transforming this old world that so badly needs his healing grace – then open your eyes – don’t be afraid – come to the table and hear the words that will transform our world, our community, and your heart – take and eat – this is my body broken for you.
There they will see me, he said.
Thanks be to God, there they will see me.
Amen.