Easter Sunrise 2012

The Resurrection
28 ‍Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and ‍the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for ‍an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 ‍His appearance was like lightning, and ‍his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and ‍became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, ‍as he said. Come, see the place where he‍ lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, ‍he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb ‍with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus ‍met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and ‍took hold of his feet and ‍worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; ‍go and tell ‍my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” English Standard Version, 2001

We have a written record of at least three times when Jesus told the disciples that he would be delivered up, beaten and crucified. He also said that he would rise again on the third day! They never seemed to understand. After all they had seen him do, one would think they would have clung to his every word, but no, they never understood!

The two Marys must’ve heard some of those accounts when Jesus promised to return from the dead. But obviously on the Sunday morning as the sun was rising they expected to find his body where it had been placed on Friday afternoon. Matthew’s account is probably taken from their testimony. When they arrived they found an Angel sitting on the stone that should’ve blocked the entrance to the tomb. I’m not sure what an appearance like lightning looks like but I can imagine some possibilities. His clothing was white as snow.

The brave guards fainted at the very sight of the Angel. (or Angels) So when the women came on the scene, the tomb was open. That solved a problem that they had obviously been worried about — how to move the stone! And there, in the vicinity of the tomb, lay the guards whose job had been to keep the disciples from stealing the body! What an absurd idea! To think that the disciples who had run away and hidden themselves when he was crucified would then come back on the scene, overpower the guards, (who were trained soldiers) and steal his body so they could pretend he had been raised from the dead!

Well, the women were frightened. This was way more than they expected! The Angel immediately moved to help them relax. He said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, ‍as he said. Come, see the place where he‍ lay.” I suppose that little conversation caused them to calm down and relax. No, I’m sure they were still quite excited.

The Angel gave them instructions, “Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, ‍he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Immediately the women departed from the tomb. They were filled with mixed emotions, fear and great joy. They had walked to the tomb but as they left they ran!

And as if they’d not been through enough, Jesus met them on the way!

What would they have expected Jesus to say? Of course I can’t know but I have an idea that what he did say was not what they expected. The ESV says, “Greetings”, while the KJV says, “All Hail”. These are two translations of a Greek word that expresses joy, more than that, extreme joy! Remember, he had been rejected, abandoned, arrested, beaten, spat upon, dragged through the streets and crucified! He had been hung out as a common criminal and buried in a borrowed tomb. Now, having been raised from the dead to never die again he was filled with extreme joy and shared it with the first people he met!

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; ‍go and tell ‍my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” In effect, he repeated the instructions the Angel had given because they probably were too excited to remember.

What an exciting morning the two ladies had had. Now they had to go tell the disciples what they had been instructed to say. You see, the disciples also had bad memories. They didn’t remember that he would rise again on the third day. And it took them over a week to go to Galilee according to the instructions they had received.

The disciples’ reaction is encouraging to me. I often “don’t get it” the first time the Lord gives me directions. In fact, I often need two or more reminders and then I’m still slow to get the job done. Slow as they were, they were effective in their ministry because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit and were faithful to the word of God and the heavenly vision.

Let’s determine to be equally faithful and trust God’s Spirit to guide us in the future as we serve him.