Luke 24:1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is Risen! Jesus Christ is Risen Today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwonder what it must have been like for the soldiers who were there, at that\nvery moment, the moment when the stone was removed, the very moment, Jesus\nwalked out of the tomb; and I wonder what it must have been like that moment\nwhen the women saw the angels, when any of the followers of Jesus first set their\neyes on the resurrected Jesus. Can you imagine? (And) It all began in a place and\nat a time much like this, early in the morning out on a hillside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nguards were standing their watch and then there was a kind of earthquake (or\nsomething) that opened the tomb. This was not a good thing for these soldiers. But\nthey knew their responsible; they needed to make sure that nothing happened to\nthe body. Their first concern was to roll back the stone and reseal the tomb. But\nthen, things became different again, Jesus (the dead man) was no longer in the\ntomb; what now; what could they possibly do; who would believe their report? Someone\nmay believe an earthquake opened the tomb, but who would believe that Jesus was\nrisen from the dead? They were hardened soldiers, but fear overtook them; not\njust the fear of failing to protect the grave site, not just the fear that they\nwould be punished by their commanders when the tomb was found empty. The superstitions\nof idolatry were all they knew, and the dead, when they walked out of their\ntombs, were more than their courage could handle. We don\u2019t know if the soldiers\nsaw all that the women saw, but the woman were met at the tomb by men in\ndazzling clothes; angels by our understanding; the soldiers may have faced these\nangels as well. An enemy they could stand against, but none of them, none of us\n(for that matter) could stand against a couple angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nthe soldiers were no match for the resurrected Jesus and God\u2019s angels, it\nshould come as no surprise to us that the women were also terrified. So, my wondering,\nas to what it would have been like to have been there at the time of Jesus\u2019\nresurrection, could be answered in a couple ways. Thinking of how the soldiers\nand women reacted to the resurrection, I don\u2019t doubt that I too would have been\nafraid and that, in itself, I would not have liked. And yet, it would have been\nwonderful to have been there, it would not<\/strong>\nhave been as easy as I once thought, but well worth it. But, only after seeing\nthe resurrected Jesus, himself, and confirming that it was indeed him, and allowing\nthe time for the pounding in my chest to slow down, only then would it have\nfelt good, would the joy have lifted me beyond my grief and my fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\nnow it is all good! We can look out to the sunrise and we can feel some of the\njoy felt by the women. It was near sunrise or just after, that all this first\ntook place. Thankfully we are not as burdened by the events of Jesus\u2019\nsuffering; we are blessed with the knowledge that all that had happened was for\nour good; we\u2019ve been given the knowledge that Jesus lived, suffered, died and\nwas raised from the dead for us. We now know that \u201cdeath\u201d had no power over\nJesus and because of this, we know that we do not need to worry about death\nourselves. We know that Death has no real power over us; it can take this life\naway from us, but it cannot take us away from the life Jesus has prepared for us.\nLook at that view (even with the clouds it is beautiful.) The soldiers and\nwomen experienced the resurrection in such a place. As with all of us, this\nexperience colored the way they saw life and the world. When the shock of the\nresurrection sunk in fully, when the women realized that there was no more\nreason to grieve, the day must have become for the women a wonderful day; the\nview from the hillside a wonder to behold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying\nto move away from the theological significance of Jesus\u2019 life, death and\nresurrection; trying to move away from the impact of all that Jesus had done,\nall that he had made possible for us, Easter has opened up, for all of us, an\nopportunity to experience God\u2019s love, experience joy and the wonder of God\u2019s\ncreation. Today is a day to be happy, to celebrate. God has changed everything\nfor us, by raising Jesus; the greens are greener, the blues are bluer, life itself\nis more enjoyable. The Law, while always important, is no longer the standard,\nby which we will be judged. Jesus\u2019 life and sacrifice have become the standard\nby which we are to be judged. The resurrection has, in many ways, become God\u2019s\nstamp of approval, for Jesus\u2019 sacrifice, for our very own lives. Looking at the\nresurrected Jesus, we know that God has forgiven us, and that God will likewise\nraise us to new life in God\u2019s kingdom. Life cannot do anything to us that can\ntake away this new look at life and our joy. Over the past few weeks I\u2019ve presided\nover and attended five funerals. In each instance it has been, the acceptance\nof the resurrection of our Lord, that has helped the mourners to turn their\ngrief for a lost loved one, into an understanding that their grief is in effect\ntheir loss, that their loved one is at peace living the promise of the\nresurrection. Celebrate this Easter day, praise the Lord for his wonderful gifts\nof forgiveness and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing\nwhat I now know, I think being at the tomb as the angels opened it and released\nJesus from death, raising him to new life, I would have loved to have been\nthere. Knowing what I now know there would be no reason to be afraid. I could\nsimply react with joy and praise the Lord. If I may borrow a line from a well-known\nhymn, \u201cChrist the Lord has risen today, let us rejoice and be glad in it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luke 24:1-12 He is Risen! Jesus Christ is Risen Today! I wonder what it must have been like for the soldiers who were there, at that very moment, the moment when the stone was removed, the very moment, Jesus walked out of the tomb; and I wonder what it must Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}