It's Our Story Too

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
March 27, 2005

It’s Our Story Too
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 28:1-10

The disciples remained hidden in the shadows
in fear for their own lives.
Peter had barely escaped capture,
surely the Roman guards must be looking for all of them.
Their only hope was to blend in with the crowds of pilgrims
who would be leaving town at the end of
the Festival of Unleavened bread
and sneak out of the city.

But the women who were with the men
weren’t thinking at all about escaping.
No, they were focused on what they knew they needed to do.
Their teacher was dead
and his body lay in a tomb without having had any of the
rites and rituals that a body must have.
Their teacher’s body needed to be cleaned,
anointed with myrrh and nard, and wrapped properly.
The law required it, and their love for him demanded it.

No sooner had their beloved teacher’s body been taken down
from that horrible cross on Friday, when the sun set
and the Sabbath began and they could do nothing.
Throughout the Sabbath the women thought of only one thing:
at first light on Sunday morning, they would make their way to the tomb
to anoint and prepare the teacher’s body.


And on so on that morning, the first day of the week,
when everyone else was thinking about returning home,
going back to work, and resuming their routines,
the women prepared their spices and ointments
and headed to the tomb, to the place where
Joseph of Arimathea had so gently laid the body.

Mary Magdalene organized the women and the work.
The other women had grown to admire her
for her faith and her strength.
As she followed Jesus mile after mile, month after month,
rumors about her swirled like eddies in the desert:
that she was a harlot, a prostitute, a woman of loose morals;
that she was Jesus’ special companion;
that she’d even had a child by Jesus.
The women wondered how people could be so petty, so nasty,
so willing to believe whatever they heard,
so quick to spread malicious gossip.
They knew the gossip all came from envy,
envy from those who didn’t have Mary Magdalene’s strength,
Mary Magdalene’s faith,
or Mary Magdalene’s grace.

The women walked briskly in the darkness.
It wasn’t far to the tomb, and just ahead
they could see the outline of the rock just off in the dim light.
Two Roman soldiers stood guard on either side of the tomb.
While the sight of the soldiers might have frightened the others,
Mary Magdalene thought to herself,
“Good, now we will have help to roll away the stone.”

Just then, the ground shook beneath them.
Earthquakes were a fact of life in this part of the world;
most of the time the ground just trembled for a few seconds.
But as the ground shook, the women could see the stone rolling away
from the entrance to the tomb, and as the stone rolled away,
the two guards collapsed, their legs buckling underneath them.
They went down in a deafening clatter of shields, swords,
spears and helmets clanging and banging
in the quiet of the early morning.

The sunlight began to break over the horizon
and the first beams settled on the top of the large stone
that had covered the entrance to the tomb.
And there he sat, peacefully, quietly,
an angel, a messenger from the Lord God.
The women were prepared for soldiers;
they were even prepared for earthquakes,
but they were not prepared for a heavenly messenger.
They stopped in their tracks, frozen with fear.

The angel spoke gently to the women,
“Do not be afraid....
I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here...
for he has been raised, as he said.
Come, see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
‘He has been raised from the dead,
and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee.
There you will see him’
This is my message for you.” (Matt. 28:5-7)

They heard the words, but they were too frightened to speak,
“He is not here....”
Then where was he?
“He has been raised”
Raised by whom?
Raised how?
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee?
Galilee!? That’s a three day journey – why there?

Their eyes scoured every inch of the tomb;
there was no trace of their Lord.
Confused more than afraid, they turned back to the angel
but when they looked at the rock where he had been sitting
they found he was gone.

The sun continued to rise in the sky,
its gentle fingers of warmth and light reaching out to touch
all of God’s creation, awakening the earth:
the plants, the animals, the people.
The women looked at each other,
unable to speak, unable to move.
And then Mary Magdalene turned and began to run.
She dropped her spices as she ran down the road
that led back into the city.
As fast as her legs carried her, her mind raced faster:
Could it be true?
Could her teacher be alive?
Could he really have been raised from the dead?
The tomb was empty,
“He is not here...”

She ran blindly, her mind spinning,
so completely caught up in what she had just seen and heard
that she almost ran into him.
He was right in the middle of the road,
The sun was behind him so all she saw at first was the form
but then he saw the face… his face.

“Greetings”
That was all he said,
just, “greetings”.
But it was enough.
Her legs gave way and she collapsed at his feet.
“Do not be afraid;
go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee
and there they will see me.”
And he was gone.

They did as Jesus told them; they told Peter and the others.
And then the 11 went to Galilee as they had been directed,
accompanied by the women: Mary Magdalene, Joanna
Mary the mother of James and Joses,
and others who had walked with Jesus
before that awful day.
And there Jesus appeared to them.
The one who was dead was now alive;
Not a ghost, but alive,
He had vanquished death.
The words of the prophet had come true:
“Arise, shine, for your light has come
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples
but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will appear over you.
…Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and rejoice.”
(Isaiah 60:1-5)


We eagerly await this story each year,
the story of the empty tomb,
the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
We can’t wait to celebrate Easter with shouts of “He is Risen!”
and hymns of resurrection and rebirth.
We fill our churches with lilies and breathe deeply
as they fill our Sanctuary with the scent of spring and new life.
Our children hunt for eggs,
which for millennia have been a sign of rebirth and new life.
I am so glad Alishba asked me that question last week
about how the date for Easter is picked:
the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox,
because it gave me the opportunity to reflect on
how appropriate it is that Easter falls
shortly after the beginning of Spring,
the season of rebirth.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is alive!
The one who was dead is alive!
Death could not hold him.
The tomb could not hold him.
Nothing could hold him.
He is risen, risen to new life.

The story of his resurrection is not just Mary Magdalene’s story,
not just Peter’s story,
not just Cleopas’s story, not just Thomas’s story;
It is our story, for God raised Jesus for you and me.
Raised him to give us new life;
Raised him so we would know God’s grace and love through him.
In his resurrection we are reborn.
It is springtime: the old ways have passed,
and a new life has begun.

God raised Jesus from the dead for all his children,
everywhere, of every color and language and nation,
As we heard Peter say, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation anyone who fears him
and does what is right is acceptable to him.
You know the message he sent to the people of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ…”
Preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
preaching peace in Jesus Christ.
Not preaching adherence to orthodoxy,
Not preaching adherence to rituals or practices;
but preaching peace in Jesus Christ.

Eugene Peterson has written that faithful Christians are not
“fussy moralists who cluck our tongues about the world going to hell;
we simply praise God that he is with us [in Jesus Christ];
we are not pious pretenders, self-righteously condemning
those who don’t live according to our standards;
we are simply robust witnesses to the God who is our help,
[to the God who raised Jesus from the dead]”
In Christ’s resurrection we have been given life anew.
We have been reconciled to God,
all our sins forgiven;
the bond between God and all his children,
is forged in the love that is Jesus Christ,
and it cannot be broken.
We have no fear, only hope and joy
....we...have been ‘born anew in living hope’
not through [Christ’s] death, but through his resurrection.
(1 Peter 1:3)

What a gift God has given us!
Grace upon grace upon grace!

But how easy it is to overlook the grace and focus
on the chocolate bunnies;
How easy it is to overlook Christ’s presence
and focus on the fragrant leg of lamb roasting in the oven;
How easy it is to forget the forgiveness
and enjoy a day off from work.
It is so easy to put Jesus back in the tomb
and roll the stone back at the end of the day,
as we set our alarm clocks and turn off our lights.

We are the ones who give Christ life
we give him life when we follow him,
when we obey him,
when we live our lives according to his teachings.
And Jesus’ message is simple, his teachings are so basic:
Do you remember what he told his disciples
as they were gathered in that Upper Room on the night of his betrayal:
“it is by your love for one another
that you will be known as my disciples.”
Love for one another,
love for all God’s children,
Love that goes beyond political boundaries,
beyond skin color,
beyond language,
love that shows no partiality.
If it shows any partiality at all it is for the poor, the elderly,
the sick, those who are imprisoned by fear or poverty.
And we show that love not just in what we do at church,
but in every part of our lives: in our homes, our workplaces,
our schools,
even in how we set our government policies.

Jesus set the standard high,
so high that he told us that loving only those
with whom we feel comfortable,
only those with whom we agree on matters is not good enough.
That’s too easy.
The living Jesus expects more from us:
he expects us to love those who we think of as enemies,
those we think hate us.
Christ’s love transcends ethnicity, politics, denominations
geographic borders.
It is radical love:
we are not to fight with our enemy
we are not to gossip about our enemy,
we are not even to drag our enemy into court and sue him.
We are to go to our enemy and wash his feet.
When we do that we give life to Jesus Christ.

This is the message of Easter,
the message of the Resurrection,
the reason why the angel at the Tomb said to the women,
“He is not here...”
For Christ is here, alive and in this world
whenever and wherever we live according to his word,
according to his teachings.

Our Lord is alive, alive and in our lives here and now
resurrected through God’s love for us
resurrected to give us life,
to teach us, prod us, challenge us, push us,
forgive us, and love us.

Our Lord is risen,
risen to give us life.
Alleluia!!