It’s not usually what we say coming to Easter Sunday

This painting is by Rembrandt in 1635 tries to capture something on which the Bible is silent about the actual moment of resurrection.

Rembrandt paints the moment the guards are met by the angel descending from heaven. On the lower right there is a man also in white rising – which is obviously Jesus it’s in the direction of the angels hands. Look at what stands out is the darkness and the relief of shining light; that glow is above what we can make out are dark figures in the lower left corner, as these are the soldiers shake with fear, frozen like dead men, as the angel of the Lord comes down and the tomb opens up with the stone rolling aside. Jesus has risen from the dead.

Today we come to inspect a broken cemetery that is emptied of all it’s power, of an empty grave with the message we are told: You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:6

“ARE YOU AFRAID?” it’s Easter? That’s not usually what we say coming to Easter Sunday, and yet that was the experience of the women who go to that Tomb the first Easter Sunday. The question is what could possibly make us afraid of Jesus resurrection, as we celebrate today that Jesus has risen again that early Sunday morning?

I ask you to recall the events of the past 2 days have sunk in, as 3 women set out just after the dawn. Mark describes it this way in verses 1-2

“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.” Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb. These 3 women are part of the group that had followed Jesus about in his travels through dusty Palestine– they travelled with the disciples: Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James & Salome. We know something of their story as hard lived women, battered by the harsh realities of life who had come against the tenderness and forgiveness of Jesus.

These women were the eye witnesses to the death of Jesus as they stood by and watched as Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus in a tomb cut out of rock with the stone placed against the entrance 2 days before. It is the same group who bring the aromatic oils mixed with spices to use to set right the body of Jesus. It appears their plan hadn’t been quite fully worked out, as we read in verse 3 and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" They must have become suspicious on arriving to see the tomb already open, look at verse 4, But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

The women take the bold step forward as they long to care for Jesus (they courageously had set out after all), they take one more step into that open tomb, and their grief soon changed that first Sunday Morning. The women enter the tomb and they are surprised stepping in to see a young man in a dazzling white robe who speaks to them verse 6 "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

This was a typical tombs found in Jerusalem, which was comprised of two sections with an outer burial chamber, and an inner burial chamber where the body was laid. Where this mysterious young man in white, who we are told is an angel, a messenger from God, pronounces Jesus’ rising from the grave.

The women are met with words meant to calm them, as the angel says "Don't be alarmed," these words that seem to have little effect, as alarm is all they can feel. It is that sense of alarm that comes when the things predicted suddenly come true. It is at this very point that suddenly these women understand Jesus said he would be betrayed be killed to deal with sin & death’s final blow & he would rise again, now a chill must have run right through these women, just like the thought which makes the hair on the back of your head stand up: "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” Mark Ch 6 vs.6

Friends the tomb’s stone’s not rolled away to let Jesus out, it’s rolled away to let us see in. Jesus didn’t need a stone to be rolled away to let him out. He would soon prove that when comes to speak with his disciples, and in the coming 40 days, the stone rolled away allows us proof of what these women saw at the tomb. Jesus is no longer in that tomb, He is alive, He has conquered sin & death just like he said he would. It is right here we meet with the wonder of God to seek us out when this angel speaks again with a message for the road, as we read in verse 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, `He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' " The angel tells them to go tell the disciples the good news, and go tell the message to Peter specifically. Of poor shameful Peter, who would himself meet with Jesus to understand

that God’s mercy and love forgives what we even think is the most horrible sin, forgiven of betrayal, forgiven of the worst possible thing you have ever done in your life. The mercy of Jesus becomes clear to those who had been so blind. Know this that Jesus means that no matter how you've blown your life you can start over; just as Peter the once forsaken forgetting disciple will also face his risen Lord and be forgiven & be leader in the church. So these words from that messenger from God give them a back bone to be stiffened by their approaching reunion with the risen Jesus in Galilee.

We can’t really begin to imagine what that moment was like when it fully sank in, we’re given a clue it’s the last word in Mark 16 and it is fear. We don’t often hear much about the fear of God, and yet fear is what we are left with before our God who can make a dead body of one who had just bore the sins of the world and make him come alive again. The fear of the love of God feels like a contradiction of words. That fear that God would take that sin in your heart and forgive it; or fear as Jesus invites people to make a beeline for him telling us that God won’t treat us as out sins deserve.

Do you see God will instead meet us with his loving kindness and mercy, forgive us our sins? As we find that kind of love so alien, it makes us fear because I think we are fearful of what God might do next, like maybe forgive us and give us the fresh start on life only God can give. That’s the intimacy of the gospel, and the question is are you afraid it’s Easter.

So what is your response to the love and forgiveness of Jesus. Jesus is alive – he has risen again and has conquered sin and death, what will we go and tell about him

Lets pray...

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