EASTER
MORNING
April
16, 2017
MATTHEW
28:9
Why
He Went Out the Back Way
In
the name of the Father and of the ☩
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
There
was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from
heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
MATTHEW
28:2
It
is strange that Jesus sent His angel to kick down the front door of
the tomb. It would have made more sense if Jesus did it. Indeed some
of the art on social media this morning has Jesus walking up steps
and presumably out the front door. But Matthew makes no mention of
this grand departure from the tomb. Jesus seemed to go out the back
way. And instead we get an angel. He’s
glorious, to be sure, but he’s
not Jesus.
But
Jesus gives this faithful messenger the tremendous honor of being the
first creature on the face of the earth to announce that the tomb is
already empty:
“Do
not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was
crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and
see the place where He lay.”
MATTHEW
28:5-6
Along
with being the very first Easter well-wisher, his other task was to
allow humans to see the evidence of the impossible: life from death.
And since humans can’t get
in the back way, he rolled the stone out of the front way.
And
one of the great miracles of Easter is that the women believed before
they saw Jesus—with fear and joy they began running to tell the
disciples what the angel had said. And then they saw Him. And He
talked to them:
“Do
not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they
will see Me.”
MATTHEW
28:10
Again
Jesus continues this pattern of hearing about the resurrection
second-hand (“Go to Galilee”) and then later seeing Jesus in the
flesh (“There you will see Me”). So why make the disciples wait
to see Him?
Because
He wants His disciples to trust His words because His words create
fear and joy in the hearts of His women and men. His word that He is
alive makes us alive.
And
so on first day of the week Jesus went out the back way (through
solid rock!), sent angels to tell what had happened, and then found
His people and talked directly to them.
It
is the same for us. First He speaks to us, and then shows Himself to
us later. For the women the time between the Word and the seeing was
minutes; for most of us the time is years. But in the end you will
see Him with your own eyes. So on the day Jesus calls you home or if
today turns out to be the day when Jesus returns, it will be your
Easter morning!
For
even the Son of Man did not to be served, but to serve, and to give
His life as a ransom for many. Alleluia! Amen!
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