Christ the Victor: Easter Sermon Mark 16: 1-8

This is it, my friends. For the past six weeks, we have been talking about the last 24 hours of Jesus life, ending with his crucifixion on Good Friday. We have sat together, yesterday, exploring his death and reflecting on where our hope comes from in the midst of the seeming defeat of the day after, Saturday, when we join the disciples in asking what our lives are like now that Jesus is truly gone. But now we have arrived at the day of all days, the highest day on our Christian calendar - Easter Sunday, when we proclaim that death does not have the final word and that Jesus is victorious!

Jesus died around three o’clock in the afternoon on Friday. As the Sabbath was about to start at sundown, in a mere three hours, no one had time to properly prepare Jesus for burial. Instead, Joseph of Aramathea, a member of the Sanhediran, volunteered to give Jesus’ followers a place to lay the body of the one whom they loved. He and Nichodemus, brought over 100 pounds of precious oils and salts to prepare the body, but simply left them to be applied until after the celebration of the Sabbath.

Sunday morning, at the breaking of dawn, three of the women who had followed Jesus approached the tomb with more spices. They intended to give their Lord the proper burial he deserved. No one else had dared to visit the tomb over the Sabbath - Pilate had went as far as to post a guard in front of it at the prompting of the Jewish leaders to make sure that Jesus’ followers did not try to come and steal his body in order to claim that he had risen. The eleven were in hiding, fearing their own arrest and sorely disappointed themselves for abandoning Jesus in his time of need, just as he had predicted.

But the women were brave as they went to honor Jesus memory that morning in the best way that they knew how - by burying him properly. So Mary the mother of James, Mary Magedline, and Salome took their spices and went to the grave. As they approached they started to wonder who would roll away the heavy stone for them. But a surprise awaited them at the tomb that morning as the sun rose in the sky - the stone had already been rolled away. A stone too heavy for one or two grown men to roll on their own was aside and a young man, in a white robe, a messenger from God, was there and told them that Jesus has been raised and that he had been raised! Just as Jesus predicted!

They were commanded to go and tell the disciples, telling them that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. They would have to leave their place of hiding in Jerusalem and follow Jesus, once again. But instead the women did not tell anyone, because they were afraid.

Each of the four gospels tells the story slightly differently, but they share one central tenant in common - the idea that Jesus had been raised from the dead was unbelievable to those who heard it. Even to those who experienced the empty tomb with their own eyes and heard the messenger from God. Jesus had told them time and time again that this would be the case - that the grave would not even be able to hold him three days, but they still did not believe it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that possibly the most important story in the gospels spoke of this unbelief. Because there are times in my life that I don’t understand the Resurrection either. Times when I struggle with the empty tomb because I did not see it with my own eyes; times when I have to remember that even those who saw the tomb had doubts.

But that is part of our faith story as well, isn’t it? Even in the midst of unbelief we are beckoned to believe the unbelievable, because we worship a God who does not simply do what we expect or what we want or even what we are able and willing to believe. We worship a God who is bigger then our expectations! We worship a God who is found in the midst of the absurd and through that absurdity transforms people! Praise God! We only need to look as far as the disciples to see this transformation in the face of doubt - even though the disciples initially wrestled in their own way with their guilt and then their disbelief that Jesus was alive, they went on to leave their place of hiding in the upper room and proclaim Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so boldly that they were willing to die for it - and most of them did. They were compelled to tell the story! And that leads me to ask, on this celebration day, if we, too, are compelled to go and tell the story! The story of who Jesus is in our lives and what the cross and empty tomb means in our lives. Are we willing to be unlike those whom we have studied the past several weeks, who were silent out of fear - the Sanhediran members who knew that those in their group were doing the wrong thing, the disciples that fled from Gesthme, Peter who denied Jesus three times, Pilate going with the crowds instead of what he thought was right, the people in the crowd who joined the cry to crucify Jesus and let Barrbas go, even if it wasn’t what they believed. Are we willing to stand up and boldly proclaim our story with Jesus, even if we don’t have it all figured out, even if we do not believe every little detail. Are we willing to share our story, Easter people!

At the Good Friday service this week, I asked the following question - why are you here? Why are you at this service? Now I ask you the same question today. Why are you here, this Easter morning? Are you here because Jesus’ resurrection means something to you! Then share your experience with Christ the Victor with others! For the past five weeks at Mainesburg we have been having a Spiritual Direction group, where we re-discovered that our stories matter. It is how we can share our faith with others. Its not about having a list of facts about Jesus straight or presenting a good argument. It’s about sharing our stories of faith, even in the midst of unbelief.

I may have doubts, friends, but at the end of the day, the cross and empty tomb mean something to me. The empty tomb may not be as easy to portray in a picture or on a piece of jewelry, but it is just as important to our faith as the cross, for they go hand in hand. With the empty tomb, Jesus conquered death so we can say, “death where is your victory, O’ death where is your sting?” The empty tomb gives us hope, even in the midst of hopeless situations. It is why we can sing, as we have time and time again through this Lenten season that “we have a hope in Jesus that all things will be well in the Lord!” The empty tomb proclaims into the darkness that God has victory over the powers of evil and sin and all that separates us from God. Does that excite you? How do you embrace that and make it a reality in your lives?

I can remember the first time the idea that Jesus conquered the grave truly excited me. One of the first concerts I ever remember going to as a whole family was to see Carman. Now I’m not sure if Carman even still performs any more, but he was a Christian pop singer in the early 90s. My dad used to play his cassette, yes cassette, tapes for us in the car when we traveled. Carman performed at the Bryce Jordan Center when we were little and sang a song that I had heard time and time agin. I don’t remember the title, or even all of the words, but the song captured Jesus’ agony on the cross and final breath, followed by Satan’s celebration that Jesus had died. The arena went almost completely dark as the voice of Satan rejoiced. But then slowly, and softly at first, before gaining momentum and volume the Rocky music started to play signifying Jesus rising from the grave. The lights came back on and you could hear Satan howl in the pain of defeat as Jesus conquered death and the grave. For himself. For you. And for me. It caused my spine to tingle. Jesus conquered it all for you and for me! The arena started to cheer and praise God! And in that moment I understood that Jesus meant so much more then just the cross, for Jesus showed his love for us on the cross, and showed his power and our ability to have eternal life with the empty tomb.

Friends, is that good news for you? If it is, would you please share it? Not in a pushy way, but in a way that is you telling your story, your experience. For God gave humanity an uncontinable gift with the empty tomb, but we still must choose it. We must choose to let go of being slaves to sin and death. And there are those that we know, those whom we love and care for, who do not even know that they have a choice. Why would you keep that good news from them? We are forgiven and offered a priceless gift. What a message to share! Because of that we truly have a hope in Jesus. In the words of Frederick Buechner, a theologian, “Resurrection means the worst things in life will never last.”

Brothers and sisters, we are a Resurrection people! We gather in community week after week to remind each other that the worst things in life will not last and we have a hope that sometimes doesn’t seem to make sense and sometimes seems absurd, but we believe it in anyway. In fact, our faith stands on it. Even when we doubt, even when we do not understand, we gather as a statement that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ matter and that on this day, the third day, all of the injustice in the world and power of hell, were defeated We gather together to live out our faith, and transform lives with our service and message. I can think of nothing else so exciting. I can think of nothing else that has transformed the world in such a powerful way. My hope and prayer, today, is that it excites you to be part of that story as well. Amen.