The Good Morning

The Resurrection

April 20, 2014

Matthew 28:9

The Good Morning!

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Good morning! He says it like it's any other morning. But it isn't. It's the good morning. It's the good morning just as last Friday was the good Friday. It's the morning that makes all other mornings possible. Without that good morning every other morning would be pointless and doomed.

But He greets the ladies coming from His vacant tomb with such an ordinary greeting, “Good morning!” The response to this ordinary hello is extraordinary and entirely proper. They came to Him, bowed down and touched His feet, and worshiped Him.

They worshiped their God and Savior. Since He was standing there and saying, “Good morning,” to them, they knew that the Man standing before them is their promised Savior from death. He had been dead, but He had returned from the dead and was breathing and talking and standing before them. They reached out to Him and their fingers touched His warm living toes. He was no ghost or spirit. He was their Man who had conquered the cold of Death with His own death.

II.

For us “Good morning!” doesn't seem quite adequate. This is the Morning that began the proclamation to the World that past Friday had changed the World, just as Jesus said it would.

But Jesus' ordinary greeting reminds us, perhaps, that that is how He mostly works. Ordinary words to ordinary people that cause extraordinary changes that are usually hidden under (once again) ordinary appearances.

So these ordinary women departed from the presence of Jesus and spoke extraordinary words—He is not in the tomb—to ordinary men.

III.

And we do the same. We are here in the presence of Jesus. We gather around Him in Preaching and Food. And we depart from His presence as old Simeon sings,

Lord, now You let Your servant

depart in peace according to Your word.

For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

which You have prepared

before the face of all people,

a light to lighten the Gentiles

and the glory of Your people Israel.

How extraordinary and proper to sing as you depart from the real presence of Christ. Let us depart with peace and joy. Let us go and speak extraordinary words to ordinary brothers and sisters and father and mothers and sons and daughters.

Christ sent these beloved daughters of His not to strangers, but to their fellow Christians and relatives. Let us bring the reality and comfort of His rising from death to ordinary ears of our ordinary loved ones.

This afternoon at 4 o'clock I suggest that you along with anyone else in your household turn to the Word of God and read of the events along the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Meditate on these events and ask along with Jesus what things happened on these most holy days.

Jesus will return today or perhaps this night to take us home. But if He delays and you find yourself awake in the Monday morning light, it will still truly be—for the sake of our Savior's death and the resurrection that proclaims Death's defeat—a Good Morning!

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.