Good morning and welcome to our celebration of Easter, the most important day in the history of humanity, the day when Jesus Christ rose from the grave, defeated the power of death, and secured for us eternal life. Christians all over the world begin their celebration this day by loudly proclaiming some variation of the word “Hallelujah!” which means “Praise the Lord!” So, I invite you now to say it with me—“Hallelujah!”
It's a powerfully moving thing to think about churches all over the world in nearly every tongue celebrating Easter in their own unique way. But not every celebration turns out the way we hoped. A few years ago, the editors at Relevant magazine asked readers to send them stories of Easter disasters at their churches.
A young man named Chris Pochiba told how his church began their Easter sunrise service a few years ago with a re-enactment of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Chris played the part of Jesus on the cross. He was positioned on a large cross at the top of a hill. On cue, he was supposed to be lowered from the cross into the arms of a man playing the part of a Roman soldier. Unfortunately, the Roman soldier did not catch him in time, and Chris dropped to the ground and rolled all the way down the hill.
As he wrote, “Once I reached the bottom I had to be dragged off like a dead deer by a Roman soldier and a shepherd.” (1)
When I read this story, I thought how embarrassing it would be to cause this much commotion on such a holy day. On the other hand, you read the account of that first Easter Sunday morning from the Gospel of Matthew and you begin to see that there is nothing subtle or dignified about Jesus’ death and resurrection from the grave. It is loud and chaotic and, at the same time, quite exciting. Everybody’s confused. Everybody is asking themselves—should we be scared? Overjoyed? What is going on? And that’s another reason why I believe every word of this story of Christ’s resurrection is true. You can’t make this stuff up.
Our passage begins, “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 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. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
“The angel said to the women, ‘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. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” Now I have told you.’
“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’”
Author Gretchen Ronnevik posted to Twitter a conversation she had with her five-year-old son Bjorn one Sunday morning.
Bjorn asked, “What are we doing at church today?”
Gretchen said, “We get to worship Jesus, who died for our sins.”
Bjorn responded, “But I heard he’s fine now. He’s not dead anymore.” (2)
That’s the incredible truth of Easter. That’s why we begin this day by proclaiming “Hallelujah!” Jesus is fine now. He’s not dead anymore.
Just 10 verses capture for us the totally unexpected, earth-shaking, life-changing power and promise of Jesus’ resurrection. And I don’t want any of us to leave here today the same people we were when we walked through these doors. We need to experience Jesus’ resurrection as if we were witnesses to it, as if it were happening this very morning. Every person who experienced Jesus’ resurrection exhibited a permanently changed life afterwards. They were not the same people. Their attitudes, their priorities, the focus of their lives changed radically because they witnessed the risen Christ. And if we truly understand the power and the promise of Jesus’ resurrection, then we will be permanently changed by it too.
For starters, Jesus’ resurrection turns our grief into joy. Through Jesus, our greatest enemy, death, has been swallowed up in victory. (I Corinthians 15: 54) Our bodies may die, but our souls will rise to eternal life because Jesus gave his life as a ransom for us and defeated the power of death. We no longer live in fear of death and decay, and we do not grieve as those who have no hope (I Thessalonians 4:13). Our grief is tempered with joy because we know that God is faithful to His promise that one day He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death nor mourning nor crying nor pain (Revelation 21:4). And we are called to live in the assurance of God’s promises now, to live joyfully now, to live as children of the resurrection now. Not just on Easter Sunday, but every day of our lives until the day when those promises are finally and joyfully fulfilled.
In the Philippines, there is a beautiful Easter morning tradition in which groups of men and woman make two separate processions through the streets. One procession is made up of the men and boys following an image of Christ as they head toward the church. The other procession consists of the women and girls following an image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, cloaked in a black veil to signify that she is in mourning over the death of her son.
When the two processions meet at the church doors, the girls, who are dressed as Easter angels, remove Mary’s black veil, signifying that her grief has turned to joy when she sees Jesus alive again. And at this point, the Easter celebration begins. (3) Death has been defeated by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. It holds no power over us anymore. It’s time to remove the mourning veil. Jesus’ resurrection has turned our grief into joy.
Jesus’ resurrection has also turned our separation into reconciliation with God. That’s the second promise we receive through his life. Remember that when Jesus was dying on the cross, only the women and the beloved disciple John were with him. All the other disciples ran away. So when the angel told the women to go quickly and tell the disciples that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee, what were they expecting? Were they afraid that Jesus would condemn them? That he would punish them for abandoning him?
If so, they didn’t worry for long. As the women ran from the tomb, Jesus suddenly appeared to them and said, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers . . . Those aren’t words of condemnation. Those are words of grace. Even though the other disciples had abandoned him, Jesus still called them brothers and assured the women there was no reason to fear. As John 3:17 tells us, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
In 2014, a woman named Therese Helker submitted an essay on the subject, “Love or fear: which motivates us more?” for a competition called The Great American Think-Off. She wrote about how her abusive father sent her and her siblings to live in separate orphanages after the death of their mother. Her childhood and teen years were painful times, and she grew angry and distrustful of others.
Therese’s college roommate was a Christian who tried to share her faith with her, but Therese wasn’t interested. She writes that one night she sat on a hill near the college and had a conversation with God. In her essay, she says, “. . . I didn’t confess my sins and I didn’t ask Jesus into my heart. Instead, I blasted God with all my anger, made sure I cursed, and dared God to make a—difference in my life. The myriad responses God could have had makes my head spin.”
Therese doesn’t say what she was expecting. She may have expected condemnation or punishment. Or maybe she expected silence from an empty universe. What she didn’t expect was to be overwhelmed by the love of God. Therese hadn’t cried since the night when, at age seven, she was sent off to live in an orphanage among strangers. But that night on the hillside she wept for two hours, just sitting in amazement at the love God had for her. Today, Therese Helker is a Lutheran pastor and hospice chaplain. (4)
Jesus certainly had good reason to reject or condemn his disciples after his resurrection. But he had died specifically so that his blood would be the final sacrifice that covered over our separation from God. (Colossians 1:19-20) His death healed our separation and restored our relationship with God.
And the final thing we learn from the Easter story is that Jesus’ resurrection is not the end, but the beginning of a whole new story. This isn’t like an old Western movie where all the good guys ride off into the sunset together. Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of a new life for his followers. It is the beginning of a new calling, to go make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is the beginning of a new adventure in living as Jesus would live in our families and communities and schools and workplaces. And if we are followers of Jesus Christ, that is our new story too.
I’d like to close with a story that illustrates to me what this resurrection life looks like. It’s the story of a young man who was dead spiritually but came alive thanks to the grace of Jesus Christ.
Casey Diaz was just a teenager when he became the leader of the Rockwood Street Locos, a street gang in Los Angeles. After years of vandalism, robbery and violence, Casey was arrested and sentenced to thirteen years in prison for second degree murder and 52 counts of armed robbery. In prison, he became a shot-caller. Do you know about the shot-caller? The shot-caller marks people for life or death behind the prison walls. Casey could randomly pick any other inmate in the prison and mark him for death, and someone in Casey’s crew would kill them.
When the warden discovered that Casey was a shot-caller, he sent him to solitary confinement. Inmates in solitary had almost no contact with other human beings. But one day, Casey heard a woman’s voice outside his cell. She asked if she could speak to the young man in solitary confinement. The guard told the woman not to waste her time with him.
She answered, “Jesus came for him too.”
Then she spoke to Casey from the other side of the steel door, “I’m going to pray for you. But there’s something else I want to tell you: Jesus is going to use you . . . every time I’m here, I’m going to come by and remind you that Jesus is going to use you.”
A year later, Casey was lying in his cot when he had a vision of Jesus carrying his cross up the hill to Golgotha, and just before he was crucified on it, he looked at Casey and said, “I’m doing this for you.”
Casey fell to his knees on the floor of his cell and began praying, confessing his sins. He began weeping. He called for a prison chaplain. The chaplain explained that Casey had just experienced salvation through Jesus, and he gave him a Bible. He began reading his Bible for hours each day. And when he was finally released into the general prison population, Casey began telling other inmates about his new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. Other inmates targeted him for beatings because he had lost his power as a shot-caller. But he no longer cared. All he cared about was ministering to his fellow inmates and sharing the message of Jesus with them.
After completing his prison term, Casey opened a small business, and to the amazement of everyone who knew him in his prior life, became a pastor. Before he became a follower of Jesus, Casey gained respect by marking others for death. Now he spreads the message of new life in Jesus Christ. (5)
It’s important to note that after Jesus’ resurrection, his followers endured persecution, imprisonment and death in order to spread the message of his life to the ends of the earth. They were so certain that this obscure carpenter from Galilee was the Messiah sent from God that they staked their lives on it. What about us? Can we remain neutral? Will we leave here the same people we were when we came in this morning? I pray that when we leave here today, our lives will be marked by the joy, reconciliation and courage that flows from the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
1. Twitter March 24, 2016. Cited in “10 Hilarious and True Easter Disasters” Relevant magazine, March 25, 2016, https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/10-hilarious-and-true-easter-disasters/.
2. Gretchen Ronnevik @garonnevik, Twitter, August 9, 2012.
3. “How Easter is Celebrated in Countries Around the World” by Jennifer Stasak February 25, 2022. https://www.wycliffe.org/blog/featured/how-easter-is-celebrated-in-countries-around-the-world.
4. “Love motivates us more” by Therese Helker, https://www.kulcher.org/texts-of-the-final-four-essays-from-the-2014-think-off/.
5. Casey Diaz is the author of The Shot Caller: A Latino Gangbanger’s Miraculous Escape from a Life of Violence to a New Life in Christ (Thomas Nelson). “I Marked People for Death. Jesus Marked Me for Life” by Casey Diaz, Christianity Today, April 22, 2019 https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/may/casey-diaz-shot-caller-marked-people-death-gang-leader.html.