Matthew 28:11-15 - The Reality of Easter Determines Everything - April 17, 2022

While you might think that the celebration and observance of Easter is pretty simple and straightforward for all Christians, if there is one day, one truth, one confession, one faith that the devil would like to steal from us – it’s this one: the resurrection of our Savior. He tries to drag us into one of two ditches regarding Easter. First, he tempts us to trivialize Easter, leading us to make it all about bunnies and breakfasts and family gatherings and Cadbury Eggs – like the unbelieving world does. (Which, speaking of Cadbury Eggs, can we all agree that they’re disgusting? That they should each come with a certificate for a free cavity?) If that’s what Easter is all about – then we’d be better off not celebrating it at all – because then Easter is meaningless. If he can’t lead us to trivialize Easter, then he’d like to lead us into the ditch of “spiritualizing” Easter; that is, to believe that Jesus didn’t really, physically rise from the dead – but that he instead lives on through his teachings and the warm, fuzzy feelings we have about him in our hearts. If that’s all that Easter is about, again, we’d be better off not celebrating it at all – because if the essence of Easter is either trivial or merely “spiritual” then we are still doomed to live short, miserable, meaningless lives on this earth and then to suffer forever in hell. In our midweek Lenten services this year we considered what you might call adversarial or hostile witnesses of Jesus’ Passion – witnesses who were at best indifferent and at worst hostile to Jesus – and yet their testimony all agreed: Jesus is the Son of God. This morning we will consider some further adversarial, hostile testimony – testimony which proves the reality of Easter once and for all. We will consider the testimony of the very men who were most responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion: the chief priests.

Has it ever struck you as odd that the universal symbol of Christianity is not an empty tomb but an ugly instrument of execution: the cross? But that’s the way it should be. We rightly hang crosses in our churches and homes and around our necks and point to Good Friday as the day on which Jesus won the victory over sin, death and the devil once and for all. But if the story ended there, no one could be sure; no one could know whether God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice or not. Without the resurrection, Jesus was simply swallowed up by death – just like every other human from the beginning of time. Without the resurrection, everyone – both believers and unbelievers – who have died are suffering in hell forever – and so will we. If there is no hope for eternity – what point is there to this life? What difference does it make if you try your best to be good or just indulge every desire of your sinful heart? If this world is all there is, then we’d be better off living by the mantra: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32). The resurrection is what gives life meaning; without it, life is empty, hopeless and pointless. It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything – everything now and eternally – hinges on whether Jesus actually rose from the dead or not. And this is why the devil has worked so hard through skeptics and critics to undermine the reality of the resurrection.

Now, you might wonder why sinful humans would go along with the devil’s lie. Well, judging by the reaction of the chief priests, there are two reasons – as far as I can tell. The chief priests fabricated and paid for a lie to be spread on Easter Sunday to protect their position and power and to quiet the nagging voice of conscience which told them that they really murdered the Son of God. They concocted what is called “stolen-body” theory: that is, that Jesus’ disciples stole his body so that they could then hatch the myth of a risen Savior. But there are many other lies out there. There’s the theory that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, that he just passed out and was revived in the cool of Joseph’s tomb (the so-called “swoon” theory) – although how he survived having a spear thrust through his side and how he made it out of the sealed and guarded tomb is still a mystery. There’s the theory that the resurrection is just the product of a mass hallucination or delusion on the part of the disciples (kind of like the mass delusion that is spreading in our own society – in which a biological man can actually be a woman). But probably my favorite is that Jesus had a twin brother who remained in hiding until after Jesus’ death on the cross. Then he emerged into public, claiming to be Jesus – miraculously risen from the dead. We may be tempted to laugh at these ridiculous theories, but here’s the thing, these lies are dangerous, not because they can destroy the truth (you can call a man a woman until you pass out – that doesn’t make it true) – but because they can make us doubt the truth and undermine our faith. In other words, if you hear a lie often enough – you can become convinced that it is true.

But all of the various lies about the resurrection have one extremely important point in common: they all acknowledge that on Easter morning, Joseph’s tomb was empty. Isn’t that strange? Wouldn’t it have been more effective to just prove that Jesus’ body was never missing, but that it was still lying there, stone cold dead, the whole time? But no one – from the chief priests to modern-day skeptics – have ever made this argument. For good reason: there is a mountain of historical evidence that Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb was empty on Easter morning.

1) First, if the chief priests really thought that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body – don’t you think that they would have told the soldiers “Go find them. Go find his body!” Instead of “here’s a bribe, now go tell people that’s what happened.” It doesn’t make any sense. They knew what had really happened. 2) Second, remember the disciples on Good Friday? They were fearless followers, right? Followers who would let nothing stop them from following Jesus. Nope. They were scaredy cats. They ran away at the first hint of danger. They hid in a locked room for three days out of fear (John 20:19). They were hardly the type of men to storm a sealed tomb guarded by Roman soldiers. 3) Third, if Jesus didn’t rise, how do you explain the extraordinary change that came over the disciples – that in less than a day they went from sniveling cowards to bold confessors? History has proven that people will die for a lie; history has also proven that no one will die for something they know to be a lie (especially a lie of their own making) – and history tells us that all but one of the twelve apostles died for their confession. Something changed, something transformed those men – and it could hardly be anything less than the most important reality of Easter: the empty tomb proves that Jesus really rose from the dead and truly is the Son of God. 4) Fourth, what happened in Jerusalem 50 days after Easter – Pentecost, the mass conversion of 3000 people – could have taken place only if Joseph’s tomb was empty. Otherwise, the chief priests could have simply snuffed Christianity out in it’s infancy by making the short trip over to the tomb and unveiling exhibit A: Jesus’ corpse. They didn’t do this, however, because they knew the reality: the tomb was empty.

The chief priests had spread a lie – a lie that has been repeated among the Jews until this day; a lie that critics of every age have picked up and modified in order to protect their positions and power; to deal with their fear of God’s judgment. But no matter how many times or how many variations of the lie is told – it can’t change the reality: the tomb was empty.

You might be wondering why I spent so much time detailing the evidence of a truth that you already know and believe and confess. Because this central reality of Easter – the empty tomb – determines everything! The empty tomb means that Easter isn’t trivial; it isn’t really about bunnies or brunches or family gatherings or Cadbury Eggs – don’t get me wrong; go ahead and enjoy them (well, except the Cadbury Eggs), but don’t let them distract you from the real meaning of Easter. The reality of the resurrection means that Easter isn’t merely “spiritual;” that Jesus only lives on through his teachings or in the warm, fuzzy feelings we have about him in our hearts – it means that he is living and reigning over all things at God’s right hand (Ephesians 1:21) and is really present wherever two or three are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20). The resurrection means that when a sinful man forgives your sins here on earth – they are forgiven in heaven (Matthew 18:18). It means that through the washing of water and the Word little James there is really saved; he is really a child of God (Andrew and Kristen – you can take great comfort in this; it means that the almighty God loves James even more than you do!). It means that when we come to this altar to receive bread and wine it really is the body and blood of Jesus – given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26-29). It means that there is nothing truer and more important to teach to our children – children like little James – than the saving gospel of Christ crucified and risen. The empty tomb means that all of Scripture is trustworthy – from its testimony regarding the origin of the universe to its prophecies regarding the end of time. The empty tomb means that we don’t have to muddle around in the murky relativism of our modern culture in which men are women and women are men; constantly wondering what is true and what is false – because we know that everything God tells us in here is 100% true.

Most importantly, the empty tomb means that God has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as sufficient to pay not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world (Romans 4:25; 1 John 2:2). The empty tomb means that the devil can’t accuse us anymore (Revelation 12:10) – because all of the evidence against us has been erased (Colossians 2:14). The empty tomb means that death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54) – which means that your loved ones who died in the faith are not really dead and that when you and I face death ourselves, we should fear it as little as we fear falling asleep. It means that one day Jesus will return and raise you and me and all the dead to life and take believers with him to paradise (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The empty tomb gives meaning to each and every day – because every day is not only evidence of God’s boundless grace but another opportunity for us to live for the one who lived, died and rose again for us (2 Corinthians 5:15). In other words, the empty tomb determines everything for us – both in this life and the next.

It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? All the chief priests wanted to do was kill Jesus and then keep him dead. They spent a lot of time, money, and effort to do so by bribing some soldiers to spread their lie. But what did they wind up doing instead? Proving beyond all doubt the central truth, the basic reality of Easter. What is that reality? The tomb was empty. What does that mean? Say it with me: Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.