What Should We Make of the Empty Tomb? An Easter Sermon

 

Mark 16:1-8

Our Easter Gospel this morning is rather sparse. The author of Mark’s Gospel is characteristically simple and direct. Three women go to anoint the body of Jesus, but find his tomb empty. A young man in a white robe—presumably an angel—tells them, “He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”

Periodically, some historian or archeologist looking for their fifteen minutes of fame will present some new, ground-breaking, research or discovery that promises to uncover new light on Jesus and shake the foundations of the Christian faith. For instance back in 2007 there was a book published called The Jesus Family Tomb. There was also a tie-in documentary film produced by Hollywood director James Cameron. What the book and film claim is that archeologist have uncovered the remains of Jesus resting in a family tomb. Needless to say, although the book and film made an awful lot of money, they did not change the course of world history. The overwhelming majority of scholars did not find the discovery to be authentic or very significant. The main argument for the tomb’s validity rested on the fact that the names on the ossuaries coincide with biblical figures, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were all rather common names at the time. The clincher is that it isn’t even entirely certain that the inscription on the tomb even says Jesus! 

While the claims of opportunist scholars seem to disappear as quickly as they are made, the proclamation about the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus persists. Here we are gathered together two-thousand years later in a far off land to celebrate and recount these remarkable events. 

The resurrection of Jesus is the meaning of the Church’s existence, and the empty tomb is the foundation of our faith. Saint Paul writes, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor 15:14). So how can we be sure that Jesus’ grave really was empty and what does it mean for us that it was?

Here are four solid reasons why the story of the empty tomb can be trusted.

First, the earliest reference to the empty tomb was written by Saint Paul less than thirty years after Jesus’ death. Paul also claims to be indebted to even earlier sources. He writes, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). 

The Apostles first proclaimed the resurrection in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was arrested, put on trial, and crucified. They preached boldly to the very ones who handed Jesus over to be killed. Why didn’t their critics simply point people to Jesus’ tomb? If Jesus was still in his tomb, the only thing necessary to bring the whole early Christian movement to a grinding halt would be to produce his body. The record and preaching of Jesus’ resurrection and the empty tomb were simply too close to the actual events to be effectively fabricated.

Secondly, the earliest critics of Christianity admit that the tomb was indeed empty. There does not appear to be any dispute on this matter. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the chief priest spread a rumor that Jesus’ disciples stole his body. Why would they risk discrediting themselves by inventing such a rumor if it wasn’t true?

Third, all four gospels name the first and primary witnesses of the resurrection as women. Why is this significant? Both the Jewish and Roman culture of the time had a rather low opinion of the reliability of women (they were wrong about this!). The testimony of a female witness was not considered admissible in court. So let me ask you, if you were going to make up a story and try to make it as believable as possible, would you base so much of your testimony on witnesses considered completely unreliable? Probably not! The most obvious explanation why women play such a large role in the account is because that is the way it actually happened! 

 

The fourth reason is that the alternative theories simply don’t hold water. One popular theory says that Jesus actually survived his crucifixion and escaped his tomb. This is just plain silly when you consider the manner of his torture and death. The Roman’s knew how to execute criminals! Besides, even if he did somehow revive, Jesus would have been in very serious condition and hardly likely to be mistaken for a victorious savior!

 Some claim that his disciples stole the body and made up the story of the resurrection, but would the Apostles be willing to suffer persecution and martyrdom for a lie? Others claim that a third party took Jesus’ body and hid it away, and the Apostles mistakenly concluded that he was raised. If not one of Jesus’ disciples, who would this individual or group be? What exactly would be the motive here? I also need not point out that while this may offer an explanation for the empty tomb it does nothing to explain the Apostle’s eye witness testimony of meeting the resurrected Christ. 

All of these alternatives are rather weak. As the noted legal scholar Sir Norman Anderson said, “The empty tomb forms a veritable rock on which all rationalistic theories of the resurrection dash themselves in vain.”

 

The case for the empty tomb is pretty strong, but what does it mean?Here are just a few of its implications. 

First, It means just as the angel said, that Christ has been raised! Jesus rose bodily from the dead. Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day were eagerly awaiting the Kingdom of God and the age to come when all things would be put right. They expected at that time that there would be a general resurrection of the dead. No one expected it to happen this way, but Jesus was raised first as a kind of first fruit of the things to come. A new creation had burst forth right in the midst of the old one. Jesus’ resurrection is a confirmation that God is indeed making all things new. 

 

Secondly, it means that Christ has conquered sin and death. Jesus took the sin of the entire world upon himself on the cross. He paid the penalty for sin which is death thus fulfilling the justice of God. The grave, however, was not able to contain him and he broke the bounds of death and rose victorious. Having conquered death, he has made a way for all who put their trust in him. Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of life beyond death. 

Third, it means that Jesus is Lord. In raising Jesus from the grave God powerfully confirmed the truth of what Jesus taught. We rejected him but God has accepted him. The resurrection proclaims to all the world that Jesus is the Christ, the king of kings, Lord of Lords, and son of God. Again Saint Paul writes, “[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

Finally, Jesus was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). Just as Jesus was our representative in bearing the penalty of sin, he is also our representative in receiving the blessing of God. We are accepted by God through Christ and share in his victory through faith. This means that we have been forgiven our sins and given the power to live righteously and courageously.   

In our gospel reading today the women all run away terrified, and Mark says that they told no one about the things that they saw. This seems like a puzzling and unsatisfying ending, but it is compatible with the rest of Mark’s Gospel. Everyone abandoned Jesus in his time of need because they were overcome with fear. Although the women stood by him faithfully during his crucifixion, now it is their time to flee in fear. It is only after Jesus appears to them that they are able to receive forgiveness and the courage to be his witnesses in the world.

Do you believe that Christ has risen? What will you do with the truth you have received? Will you keep it to yourself, out of fear, telling no one? The resurrection is good news for the entire world. It is the proclamation that the Kingdom of God is among us, death is defeated, the king is seated on his throne, and sins are forgiven. Receive the love of God in your risen savior. He has gone out ahead of us with reconciliation for the world. Go, tell the world and follow him in his mission.

The Journey to Emmaus by Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), Bishop of Durham

 Luke 24:13-35 

An excerpt from  The revelation of the risen Lord 

by Brooke Foss Westcott

If now we endeavor to gather into a brief compass the abiding lesson of this second recorded appearance of the Risen Christ, we may, I think, say truly that it conveys to us a lively sense of the way in which the Lord is the life of all history. Not in startling visitations or great deliverances only, but in the still, gentle, currents of life He is working His good pleasure. Not in a few scattered predictions, but in all the Scriptures we find the things concerning Him.

Above all it shows to us how the great mystery of suffering and death is the condition for the conquest of evil and not the declaration of the triumph of evil. If that is, it was in accordance with the will of God, that the Christ should suffer and so enter into His glory, and if we can be enabled to see this necessity and see also the noble issues which flow from it, then we can understand how the same necessity must in due measure be laid upon His brethren.

And Those who have had the courage to look upon the whole state of the world and of humanity, who have watched the slow agonies of a last illness, who have felt the awful silence when the breath long feebly drawn comes no more, who have looked upon the cold marble features which hardly recall their loved one, will know that we need such light in the darkness of the inevitable future.

It is most false—false to experience and false to the Gospel—to deny or to extenuate the reality and the bitterness of grief and pain. And it is not surprising that clear thinkers, who are—nevertheless—deaf to the voice of the Risen Christ, maintain that this checkered world must have been made by a Being imperfect either in goodness or in power. But, thanks be to God, Christ has reconciled in His own Person the contradictions of life, and proved once for all that through these comes at last the perfect fulfilment of the Father’s wisdom, and of the Father’s love.

But this history of the journey to Emmaus carries with it other and more personal teachings. It brings before us how Christ, the Risen Christ, in a special sense draws near to each one of us severally: how He adds Himself to the two or three gathered together in His name: how He journeys with us: how He enlightens our reason and fires our affections: how He abides under the shelter of our dwellings: how at some supreme moment, it may be, He allows us to see, with the eyes of the spirit, a brief vision of His majesty.

For that which was enacted on the evening of the first Lord’s Day has been fulfilled, and is fulfilled no less surely and tenderly through the experience of all believers. Christ draws near to us now, as to those unknown wayfarers, with purposes of love.

Christ draws near to us when in the sacred intercourse of friendship we speak of our highest hopes and of our greatest sorrows, when we dare to throw off the veil of conventional irony, and talk openly of that which we know to lie deepest in our nature.

Christ draws near to us at the sad season when He seems to have been finally taken away, if we are not ashamed to confess, in the apparent disappointment of our hopes, that we are still His disciples.

Christ draws near to us when at some solemn appeal we pause on our journey, and stand in wondering sorrow perhaps, not knowing what answer to give to an unexpected and importunate questioner whose words touch us to the quick.

Christ draws near to us at the very crisis when we strive to give distinctness to our misgivings and to our difficulties. He asks us to speak freely to Him, and accepts the most imperfect confession of a sincere faith as the basis of His tender discipline.

Christ draws near to us when humbly and honestly we ponder His word. The study is difficult, far more difficult than we commonly suppose but also more fruitful.  He illuminates the dark places, and through a better understanding of the letter guides us to a warmer sympathy with the spirit.

Christ draws near to us when we take gladly the reproof which reveals to us our ignorance and our coldness, and resolutely strive to retain in our company the Teacher who by sharp methods has made us better able to see the Truth.

Christ draws near to us when we are bidden to draw near to Him at His Holy Table, and there gives us back with His blessing the offerings which we have brought to Him.

So Christ draws near to us, or at least He waits to draw near to us, in the manifold changes of our mortal life, near to us as we go in and go out in the fulfilment of our common duties, near to us when we are reassembled in our homes, near to us in the time of trial and in the hour of death.

The journey to Emmaus is indeed both in its apparent sadness and in its final joy an allegory of many a life. We traverse our appointed path with a sense of a void unfilled, of hopes unsatisfied, of promises withdrawn. The words of encouragement which come to us, often from strange sources, are not sufficient to bring back the assurance which we have lost. Yet happy are we if we open our griefs to Him who indeed knows them better than ourselves, if we keep Him by our side, if we constrain Him to abide with us.

Happy if at the end, when the day is far spent, and darkness is closing round, we are allowed to see for one moment the fullness of the Divine presence which has been with us all along, half cloud and half light. But happier, and thrice happy, if when our hearts first burn within us, while life is still fresh and the way is still open, as One speaks to us in silent whisperings of reproof and discipline, speaks to us in the ever-living record of the Bible, we recognize the source of the spiritual fire.

This we may do nay, rather, if our faith be a reality, this we must do and so feel that there has dawned upon us from the Easter Day a splendor over which no night can fall. 

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What is Love? A Maundy Thursday Sermon

 Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Psalm 116:1, 10-17

Listen to these lyrics of popular songs,
“All you need is love”

“What the World needs now is Love sweet love”

 “Love is the answer”

If popular songs are any indication of a culture’s belief and values, we are a culture convinced of Love’s preeminence. Love is the most transcendent experience a human being can have. Of all things in this world love seems nearest to divine. Indeed scripture itself teaches us, “God is Love” and today in our gospel lesson Jesus tells us, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” But here is a question: What is love?

In our culture, love is at risk of becoming a sentimental platitude without any real depth. Love is often so closely associated with feeling and emotion as to be almost narcissistic, as if the main reason we should love other people is the enjoyment it gives us.

Part of the problem is that our English word can be rather broadly interpreted. One uses the same word to say, “I love my mother, I love my wife, or I love peanut butter chocolate Easter eggs, but each of these uses actually express something quite different. 

Greek has four different words for what we call love. The first is Storge which is affection or fondness through familiarity. We sometimes use the word “like” in these instances, but when the feelings are stronger we say love. The second is Philia as Philadelphia “the city brotherly love.” This is the love of friendship. The third is Eros which is romantic love, the love of husband and wife. Finally there is agape which is sometimes translated as charity. This is the generous, unconditional, self-sacrificial, love that God has for us.

This is also the word Jesus uses when he commands us to love one another. This kind of love is more than sentiment—although it can certainly have feelings of tenderness and warmth associated with it—more than anything this love is an action. This is why Jesus can command it of us.

The command to love one another is in itself not a new one. The Old Testament law commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Here, however, Jesus makes the command more specific. He adds, “As I have loved you.” 

He is our pattern and example and we are called to be imitators of him. He demonstrates for us the true meaning of love. Jesus does more than merely utter platitudes. He shows in a concrete way through his actions what true love is. As the letter of 1 John says, ‘let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.’ This is precisely what Jesus did in tying a towel around his waste and stooping to wash the feet of his disciples.

This is the action not of a master, but of a slave. Christ is here performing the most menial task. He is not afraid to take the despised position because Love is humble. It does not seek its own good but the good of the other. Just this Sunday we read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians where we are instructed to have the mind of Christ, who although he was in the form of God, emptied himself and took the form of a servant. What more fitting illustration of the self-sacrificial love of Christ can there be than this?

He rose from the table and set aside his cloak and took up a towel, just as he had set aside the power and splendor of his divinity to clothe himself in our human nature. As the Early church father Severian wrote,

“He who wraps the heavens in clouds wrapped round himself a towel; he who pours the water into the rivers and pools tipped some water into a basin. And he before whom every knee bends in heaven and on earth and under the earth, knelt to wash the feet of his disciples.”

It is this kind of humility, sacrifice, and selflessness that characterized the whole of Jesus’ life and finds its consummation in his suffering and death. His whole life is like broken bread and wine poured out for the life of the world and the glory of his father.

Jesus knew that his hour was coming. Our text says, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.’ This could mean simply that Jesus kept on loving his disciples until the end of his life, but we know that his love for us endured beyond the hour of his death and that neither death nor life can separate us from his love.

 It can also mean that he loved them to the uttermost, or that he loved them with every drop of his being. Jesus himself said, ‘Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’

This is the kind of love that Jesus calls us to have. Christ calls us to do more than fulfill the law in loving our neighbor as ourselves; he challenges us to go deeper, to love God and our neighbor more than our own life. Can you imagine what a community of people who loved like that can accomplish? This is the kind of love—the radical self-giving—that will make the world stand up and take notice. Such love is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and Sisters, let us love one another as he has loved us.