It is an experience most of us have sooner or later.
You stop into the grocery store to pick up a few items and the next thing you know the shopping cart is filled to overflowing. You pull into the checkout line and reach for the check book only to find that somehow you've used the last check and haven't put in a new set. You know your wallet is empty.
Or you get in the car and head off to that meeting that you are already just about late for when your eye is caught by a glowing low fuel light on the dash. You wonder how long ago did that come on? How far can I run on empty?
Or it is getting late and you haven't had anything to eat so you head for the refrigerator for a quick snack only to find that there is no bread in the house without mold, no cold cuts, no cheese, no yogurt, even the crackers and peanut butter supply is depleted. The cupboard is bare.
There are some things in life that we hate to find empty--bank accounts--gas tanks. As Pastors we have our own special items for that list. We hate to see the pews empty (which is no real concern on Easter morning but wait until next Sunday.)
And then there is the hospital bed. It has happened more than once that Pastor Chris or I have rushed to the hospital on the report of a member of the congregation suffering a serious accident or illness only to find when we enter the room that the bed is empty. A quick check around the room reveals no name plate, no medical chart, no personal items of any type, no indication that anyone is in this room any longer. There are only two explanations that come immediately to mind. One is too sad to consider and the other too miraculous to believe. So after an emotional moment we turn to the third option--wrong room.
That had to cross the minds of the three women in our gospel lesson for this morning. Heading for the tomb where they had witnessed Jesus being laid to rest just some 36 hours before. He had died on Friday and been taken from the cross just before sundown. They remembered the long shadows cast across the cemetery valley by the setting sun, the distant sounds of the approaching Passover and shabbat filling the air in the form of chants and prayers. They had wanted to prepare the body more fully for burial, but obedience to God's law--to remember the sabbath--required that they wait--wait until the third day. Sunday morning was the earliest they could come, when there would be enough light and no violation of proper religious order.
It is not easy for us to fully appreciate the emotion and expectations of those who came to the tomb that first Easter morning. The one thing we can be sure of is that they did not expect to find the tomb empty. And of all the explanations for it being empty the one that ultimately came to be true is the last one they would have considered. The body misplaced; the body stolen; a master plot of deception; but not under any circumstances would they have considered resurrection.
Contrary to what most modern church goers might think, Easter is not the beginning of the concept or idea of life after death. While not all Jews believe in an after life, sometime in the 200 years or so before the birth of Jesus the language of life after death became increasingly common to the Jewish vocabulary. Along with it came a more sophisticated understanding of angels, heaven and hell. You might remember that some of the questions asked of Jesus by the Pharisees focused on issues of life after death--for example, if a woman outlives several husbands in succession and then finally dies, who would her husband be in the after life?
Resurrection was not just resuscitation, jolting someone back to life or reviving them with CPR. Resurrection was seen as a future event promised by God. That was what many were waiting for--the coming kingdom of God--a future event promised at the end of all time. That is why no one expected to find the tomb empty that first Easter morning. Resurrection was a future event.
In all probability that is also how most of us view resurrection. A past historical event of 2000 years ago--Jesus rising from the dead. It is also a future expectation, the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. But for the present, the one thing we are sure of is that if we visit the cemetery we will not find the tomb empty. In saying that we declare ourselves to be in need of our own Easter experience this morning.
The purpose of Easter morning celebrated today in this place--in this church--is to invite each of us to look closely, to see that there is a light glowing that declares--empty. If we look in the places where we expect to find this Jesus we find only empty. Look in your wallet, look in your check book, look for your god in such places and you will come away empty. Look for your God in the efforts you make to live the good life, to be self fulfilled, look closely and you will see the emptiness that says he is not here. The grave places of our lives hold other things but not our Lord.
Easter is not a memorial service. Easter is not a holiday intended to be revisited once each year like the Fourth of July or Lincoln's birthday. We come not to simply offer more flowers on a grave. What happened that first Easter is that the women discovered that the resurrection was not an abstract idea for philosophical reflection nor that it was a future goal for all people of faith.
When Jesus was arrested and hung on the cross it appears that the disciples and most of Jesus' followers accepted the judgment of Rome as final for that moment. They left Jesus hanging on the cross and went their separate ways. At best their hopes turned to the promised end of time when God would establish his kingdom just as Jesus had predicted in his teachings and parables.
But the women found the tomb empty. The resurrection was a real event in the present. That meant the kingdom of God was breaking into the present. All the old ways of ordering the world and one's life were suddenly brought into serious question. Resurrection in the here and now, hope and meaning that is not limited to future possibility but breaking into the present, reshaping the present. That's what Easter is about.
The glowing light we see is the signal that the tomb is empty--Christ is risen. Notice we do not declare Christ was raised. We speak in the present tense. He is risen, not He will be raised. He is risen.
The miracle of Easter, the wonder of the resurrection, is that it proclaims a present event. And if the resurrection is a present reality, then that means the Kingdom of God is also present, already breaking in upon us. Isn't that what Jesus said, when he began his ministry he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Many thought he was talking about something yet to happen, but in reality he was speaking of the present moment.
Our lives are filled with the Easter truth that resurrection is real and present even now. Death is already losing what was once thought to be the certain victory. This past week has been witness once again to the power of new life, of resurrection reality for our lives. This past week witnessed the observance of the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the government building in Oklahoma City. The memorial that was dedicated did not so much mourn those who died as celebrate the lives they lived and invite others to consider the great gift of their lives.
This past week witnessed the first anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School. The students, families and friends who gathered to mark this day did so in a park, a place that invited them to once more focus not on the grief of death but the joy of life. The gatherings of people who come together to bring meaning and new purpose to those who have found new life in the face of tragedy.
This past week I also received an e-mail of thanks from our Lutheran Disaster Relief Agency in South Dakota reminding me that it was only three years ago this week that the floods peaked in the Dakotas and Minnesota. The e-mail expressed the continued gratitude of the people Holy Spirit and other congregations like us assisted through our special gifts to the disaster fund. There are fields planted once again--livestock being cared for--and lives beginning anew--today.
Resurrection is a present reality. It declares in the face of those moments that would seem to be only dead and meaningless that Christ gives us new life, new power, new meanings and purpose. There are still times when we wind up in the wrong place, when our faith wanders. Still times when we need little reminder lights to get our attention concerning the emptiness that threatens us. That is why we gather each week in worship. That is why we faithfully come to God's table of grace. That is why we invest our time, talents and treasures in being disciples of our Lord.
So the women went to the tomb. It was the right tomb but it was an empty tomb. The truth was more than they could have imagined. A terrifying truth. He is not here. He is risen. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.
