What He Didn't See

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
April 8, 2007: Easter Sunday

What He Didn’t See
Acts 10:34-43
Luke 24:1-12

The women watched from a distance
as Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body down from the cross.
He laid the body gently on the ground
and wrapped Jesus in a clean linen cloth.
Joseph then picked up the body effortlessly,
as though it was weightless,
and carried it a short distance
to what looked like the mouth of a cave.

Mary Magdalene and the other women
knew that this was Joseph’s own tomb,
one he had had hewn from the rock for himself and his family.
Joseph was an important man,
a Councilor in the Sanhedrin,
a leader in the Temple,
but he had also been a follower of Jesus,
and they knew that he was
as overcome with grief as they were.
They looked on as Joseph carefully laid
Jesus’ body inside the tomb
and then, in the long shadows of sunset,
watched as he and another man –
it looked like Nicodemus --
rolled a large stone across the opening.

The women noted the landmarks
so that they could find this spot again.
They still had work to do to anoint the body with myrrh,
and other fragrant spices and ointments,
as was the custom,
but with the sunset came the beginning of the Sabbath,
and the Commandment was clear
that they would have to wait
until the first light on Sunday morning
before they could return.
They walked away, slowly, quietly,
their hearts overwhelmed with emotion.

On the morning after the Sabbath,
Sunday, the first day of the week,
they returned to the tomb
even before the first, red rays of the sun
had begun to inch over the hills to the east.
The women had work to do
and they were determined to get on with it.

As they approached the tomb,
they could not help but notice,
even in the darkness:
the mouth of the cave was open,
the large stone that had been set in place
by Joseph and Nicodemus
had been rolled to the side.
They looked at one another in silence,
each of them wondering,
each of them fearing.
The approached the tomb cautiously, silently, carefully.
Each went through the opening into the tomb,
and as soon as their eyes adjusted to the darkness,
their worst fears were confirmed:
the body of their beloved Teacher,
their master,
their Lord, was gone.
Gone!
Only the linens remained
outlining the body that had been placed there so carefully,
so lovingly Friday evening

Who could have done such a thing?
Why would anyone have taken Jesus?
Hadn’t Pilate even gone so far
as to have had the tomb sealed
and guarded against just such a thing?

“Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’
He is not here, but has been raised.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners
and be crucified,
and on the third day rise again?’”
(Luke 24:4ff)

Even in their fear, they remembered Jesus’ words.
But as they looked at one another they realized
that the two men who had appeared so suddenly,
had disappeared just as quickly;
the tomb was once again empty and dark.

They climbed out, and quickly returned to where the eleven
were staying, where they had been hiding since Friday,
behind locked doors.
They told the group what they had seen
and what they had heard.
“…But those words seemed to [the men] an idle tale,
[so much nonsense]
and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up, and ran to the tomb,
stooping, and looking in,
he saw the linen cloths by themselves,”
… (Luke 24:11ff)
His jaw dropped as he looked into the void.
All he saw was emptiness,
darkness.
Nothing. Nothing.
Just the burial cloths;
Nothing.

The sun began to climb in the sky,
flooding the garden all around him in light,
but Peter’s eyes saw nothing but darkness,
nothing but emptiness,
nothing but death.

Had the women really seen something, or someone?
And what did those words mean:
"Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has been raised.”

Why hadn’t he paid better attention to Jesus’ words
while he was still alive, still with them?!
Surely his teacher must have told them something,
something, that would help him figure this all out.
But his mind was blank.

He turned from the tomb,
alone in the stillness of the early morning.
Hadn’t Jesus said something about
the Son of Man dying and then rising on the third day?
What had he said?
What were the words?
Remember, Peter, Remember!

“After they kill the Son of Man,
on the third day, he will rise again”
(Luke 18:33)
Yes, he remembered, now.
Those were the words Jesus had spoken.
Spoken not once,
not twice,
but three different times!
The last time not even two weeks ago.

But even as he remembered,
his face flushed red as shame overwhelmed him.
He recalled the first time Jesus had said those words,
how he pulled Jesus aside away from the others
and rebuked him, “God forbid it Lord!
This must never happen to you.”
Jesus’ response was immediate and angry:
“You are a stumbling block to me,
for you are setting your mind not on divine things,
but on human things.”
(Matthew 16:22)

How many times had he been just that:
a stumbling block to his Lord?
How many times had he shown himself to be so clumsy,
so faithless, so weak?
How many times had he tried Jesus’ patience?
How many times had his Teacher looked to him for leadership
only to find him lacking?
How many times had he failed his Lord?

He thought back to the Passover meal
just three days before:
Hadn’t the Teacher acted differently?
Why hadn’t he noticed?
He only now thought about what Jesus had said that night
as he held up the Passover bread,
the unleavened bread,
“This is my body, which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)
And then when Jesus took the fourth cup,
after all the Hallel Psalms had been sung
and said, “This cup that is poured out for you
is the new covenant in my blood.” (L22:20)
What had he meant?
And when they got to the garden after dinner
why had he not been able to stay awake?
Why had he let the wine and the late hour get the better of him?

Hadn’t his Teacher, his rabbi, his Master, His Lord
looked him squarely in the eye and told him
that that very night he would deny Jesus?
Deny him, say he didn’t even know the man!
Not once, not twice, but three separate times.
And hadn’t his Teacher been right?

Some rock!
he felt like so much loose stone,
not even gravel, but pebbles to be kicked,
scattered by the wind,
washed away by the rain.

The only course left for him was to return north
back to the his life as a fisherman.
Perhaps there, on the waters, he could hide his shame
and forget, forget.
And so, Peter headed back to the others,
back to the locked room, the closed door,
back to hiding until they could safely slip away
from the city mixed in with crowds.


What Peter saw as he looked into the tomb
was death, emptiness,
despair, hopelessness.
What he didn’t see in that tomb was light:
Light that was his in the Resurrection.
What he didn’t see in that tomb was hope:
Hope that was his in the Resurrection,
What he didn’t see in that tomb was new life:
New life that was his in the Resurrection.
What he didn’t see was redemption and salvation:
Redemption and salvation that were his in the Resurrection.

Through Christ’s resurrection,
Peter would no longer be the stumbling, impetuous,
temperamental fisherman he had been.
All that was in the past now,
even if he didn’t see it.
In Christ’s resurrection, Peter was reborn,
reborn to be all those things Jesus had called him to be,
to do all those things Jesus had called him to do.

He would be the rock on which the church was built;
He would be a fisher of men and women.
He would have his mind set on divine things
rather than things of the world.
He would be fearlessly faithful,
confident, no stumbling block to himself or to Christ.

As he peered into the darkness and saw such emptiness,
he could not see that soon
he would be standing before a crowd saying,
“God raised Jesus up, having freed him from death,
because it was impossible for him to be held in its power….
Let the entire House of Israel know with certainty that God
has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah.”
(Acts 2)

The Peter who had looked into the tomb with such anguish,
and the Peter Luke tells us about as he continues the story
just a few pages later in the Acts of the Apostles
seem like two different men, and they are:
for that was the promise given Peter in the Resurrection.

And that is our promise, too,
for Peter’s story is in so many ways our story, too.
Who doesn’t struggle and stumble with faith?
Who doesn’t have his or her mind focused too firmly
and too frequently on the things of this world?

But in Christ’s resurrection we too have been given new life:
In Christ’s resurrection we have been reconciled to God,
all our sins forgiven,
and graced with the promise of life eternal.

Peter helps us to see through the darkness,
to see the light,
to understand that we have been given
“ a new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
and into an inheritance that is imperishable…”
(1 Peter 1:3)
“an inheritance that is imperishable”

But God did not raise Jesus from the dead,
just so we could sing out Alleluia and shout out,
“He is Risen!” on Easter Sunday.
Easter is not about bunnies and baskets and bonnets.

God raised Jesus for us to follow him,
to follow him as fearlessly as Peter,
each of us willing to step over the gunwale of the boat in faith,
our eyes fixed firmly on the Risen Christ;
each of us willing to take the word out,
not to convert,
for that is what God does through the Spirit,
but to share the good news of God’s love,
God’s mercy, God’s goodness.
Each of us in our own way
working to feed Christ’s sheep,
tend Christ’s lambs.
Each of us a piece of the foundation of the church,
the Body of Christ, built in the name of Jesus Christ.
To follow as Peter did, in action and discipline,
with our minds no longer set on the things of this world,
but on the things of God.

This is the message of Easter:
the new life that is ours in the Resurrection,
the reason why the angels at the Tomb said to the women,
“He is not here...”.

It is Easter!
Rejoice in the empty cross!
Rejoice that God raised Jesus,
our Lord and Savior!
Raised him for you and for me,
Raised him to give us life,
Raised him to give us hope,
Raised him that we need never walk in darkness,

Hear the words of the Psalmist:
“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!...
The Lord is God and he has given us light.”
(Psalm 118)
For Christ is risen!
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!!
AMEN