Easter—From Fear to Witness: Christ's Resurrection and His Living Presence Among Us
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the women went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Every year on this joyous occasion and in this season of victory, we hear these accounts of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead drawn from eyewitness testimony. It can be easy for us who hear these accounts year in and year out to gloss over how these first eyewitnesses to our Lord’s rising from the dead must have felt. Imagine you go to the grave of your loved one. You saw them buried six feet under just a few days ago. You walk to the site expecting freshly laid sod and a clean grave stone. But what you see is a hole, their coffin yanked out of the ground and open, and that coffin empty.
Imagine the sorrow. Imagine the shock. These women had been with the Lord throughout His ministry. They saw Him suffer and die. They saw Him laid in the tomb. And when they come on that first day of the week to care for the dead body of their Lord Jesus, what they witness at first must have been a nightmare. A heavy drop of the stomach. A massive lump in the throat. Where is our Lord?!?
At this point, they see one of the angels present looking like a young man. He tells them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” But they still trembled and were astonished and ecstatic. “They fled…they said nothing to anyone…they were afraid.”
Mary Magdalene ran and came to Peter and John, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” This seemed like idle tells when the women told the disciples. Peter and John looked. They saw the empty tomb. They saw the linen clothes in which the Lord’s body had been wrapped. And they went away.
Mary stays behind. Weeping. The two angels sitting where Jesus’ body had lain ask her why she is weeping. She says, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Mary loves the Lord she stayed by Him through everything that had taken place. And now He is gone and she doesn’t even know where His body is. Then a man she thought was the gardener said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” It is at this moment that our Lord calls her by name and she recognizes Him. The body of her risen Lord is visible to her. He is standing before her very eyes.
This first appearance is not to Pilate or the Chief Priests or even the eleven apostles. Christ appears first to the alarmed, trembling, afraid, sorrowful, and lowly. He appears in humility to give peace and consolation to those who love Him and desire to see Him.
When He appears to Mary, He says to her, Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” And then He shows Himself to the rest of the women as well, saying, “Rejoice!” “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
Our world and even many Christians today look around and see a world much like the tomb of our Lord looked to the women. Empty. Devoid of Christ and His work. Someone might walk off the street into this room and think that this is just a bunch of people hanging out in a funeral home chapel, dressed nice, with a lot of decorations, listening to some guy give a speech, then eating some odd looking bread, and drinking some wine, but that’s it.
But we do not come to an empty tomb. We do not come to perform empty rituals and ceremonies. We come to the living Christ. Calling each of us by name. Showing Himself to us in ways that we can hear Him, touch Him, and even taste Him.
Our Lord is not taken away—He is given. You children who will partake of the Holy Supper for the first time this day. You who have received this meal week in and week out. And even you who are not partaking of this Holy Supper yet. You see the same risen body of our Lord here. The same body standing before Mary Magdalene gently calling her by name and giving her the comfort of His victory over death.
Where is Jesus? “Where two or three are gathered…there am I among them.” “Whoever hears you hears Me.” “Take, eat. This is My body…Take, drink. This is My blood. Do this in remembrance of Me.” And this remembrance in the Holy Supper is not a remembering of someone who is absent. When it comes to God, remembrance is physical presence and blessing. He says, “In every place where I cause My Name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.” God is not absent—He is risen and present, and His risen body is given into your hands and your mouths. And your living Lord and Savior gives You eternal life. He delivers it directly into your body. And by the gift of Himself, He seals your fate. He will raise you up on the Last Day.
When you feel alarmed, when you tremble, when you are afraid to even speak. When you doubt. Your Lord is standing right there in front of you to be grasped. For you to grab hold of Him, cling to Him, and to never let go. Standing there in His Word, His Body, His Blood.
Hear these words from St. John Chrysostom, telling us from Holy Scripture why we have no reason to live in fear and trembling and sorrow of unbelief as if our Lord were taken away from us. He says, “Let us then return from the [Communion] table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil; thinking on our Head [Christ] and on the love that He has shown for us.… Our Lord says: “I feed you with My own flesh, desiring that you all be nobly born, and holding forth good hopes for your future.… I have willed to become your Brother. For your sake, I shared in flesh and blood, and, in turn, I give you the flesh and the blood by which I became your kinsman.” This blood causes the image of our King to be fresh within us. It produces beauty unspeakable and prevents the nobleness of our souls from wasting away.… It nourishes our souls and works in them a mighty power. This blood, if rightly taken, drives away devils, and keeps them far from us, while it calls the angels and the Lord of angels to us. For wherever they see the Lord’s blood, devils flee, and angels run together.
This blood poured forth and washed all the world clean. St. Paul uttered many wise sayings concerning it in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This blood cleansed the secret place and the Holy of Holies. And if the type of this blood had such great power in the temple of the Hebrews, and in the midst of Egypt, when smeared on the doorposts, much more the reality! The type sanctified the golden altar. Without it [the blood of the sacrifices], the high priest dared not enter into the secret place. It even consecrated priests. It cleansed sins [in the Old Testament].
But if the blood [of the sacrifices] was but a type and had such power, if death so shuddered at the shadow, tell me how would it not have dreaded the very reality? The blood [of Christ] is the salvation of our souls. By it, the soul is washed, is beautiful, and is inflamed! This blood causes our understanding to be more bright than fire and our soul more beaming than gold. This blood was poured forth and opened heaven.”
The women came afraid, confused, trembling. They left as witnesses. We do not come to an empty tomb—we come to a living Lord, who still speaks our names, feeds us with His body and blood, and says: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell.” Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let us pray. O true Victor, Lord Jesus Christ, who have mightily overcome hell, death, sin, and the devil, and on the third day truly rose from the dead, and allowed Yourself first to be proclaimed to the sorrowful women through the proclamation of Your angel so that all afflicted hearts may thereby learn to seek and obtain salvation, grace, and blessing from You as the only Helper and Comforter. Thus, we poor ones, with distressed hearts and consciences, also call to You today and ask that, by the power of Your gracious resurrection, You would have mercy upon us and strengthen and revive us with the light of living faith in the midst of every trial. For You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true, God, now and forever. Amen.
