Matthew 28:1-10 (Easter Sunday)
St. John, Galveston 4/5/26
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    Today is a happy and glorious day as we celebrate our Lord’s victory over death and the grave. As the Scriptures boldly proclaim, “death has been swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

“The three sad days have quickly sped,
Christ rises glorious from the dead.”

“He broke the age bound chains of hell;
The bars from heaven’s high portal fell.
Let hymns of praise His triumph tell. 
Alleluia!”
    
    “The three sad days have quickly sped.” The two Marys who went to the tomb that first Easter morning likely didn’t see things that way though.  They weren’t joyous and happy when they went to Jesus’ tomb. No, the last three days had nearly crushed their spirits. Their faith was under attack. They went there expecting to find the lifeless body of Jesus. In fact, Mark tells us that they had taken oils and spices with them to the tomb, which means they were planning on carrying out a Jewish burial custom, the anointing of the body of the deceased.

    “The three sad days have quickly sped,” but as the women arrived at the tomb, it seemed to them that those days would never end. Their situation reminds me of a line from the famous ballad about the Edmond Fitzgerald, the Iron Ore ship that sunk many years ago on Lake Superior. “Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn minutes into hours?”    .

    What was likely going through the women’s minds that morning was the troublesome sights and sounds of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. On Thursday, Jesus had been betrayed by one of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot. He was then passed around between Roman authorities until He was finally brought to Pontius Pilate, before whom He would stand trial for blasphemy. The charge itself raise a question. What did the Romans care about blasphemy anyway?, especially when it involved the God of Israel? Well, frankly nothing! In the case against Jesus, they were simply interested in keeping the peace and preventing riots in the streets.

    Jesus’ trial was a mockery of the Roman judicial system. There were no proper witnesses presented against Him. No defense was offered on Jesus behalf. And, perhaps worst of all, the trial took place in the middle of the night, under the cover of darkness, as it were. Pontius Pilate, in a last effort to set Jesus free, invoked a long standing custom, offering the people an opportunity to select a prisoner to be pardoned. The people though didn’t choose Jesus. No, they chose Barabbas, a known murderer and insurrectionist. Their choice of Barabbas though says volumes about the Gospel, the guilty one goes free, while the Innocent One is sentenced and put to death.

    On Good Friday, the women witnessed an even more direct attack on their faith. Jesus was mocked and spit upon and beaten. A crown of thorns was shoved down on His head. He was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the cross that He would soon be nailed to and crucified on. People ridiculed Him and shouted insults at Him. “If you are the King of the Jews (they said), come down from the cross and save Yourself.”

    Jesus was in an awful state, bearing as He was the sins of the whole world in His body. What He had become, that is, the sin of the world, made it necessary for the Father to turn His back on Him. “My God, My God (Jesus said), why have you forsaken Me.”

    These were the sights and sounds that were seemingly etched into the women’s minds as they approached the tomb that first Easter morning. They were woeful sights and sounds, even desperate. It strikes me that there is a bit of a parallel, for us to take note of this morning, between the two Mary’s and you and me. Oh, it’s not that we need ever question Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, or wonder if Jesus’ crucifixion was God’s final word. No, Jesus did rise on Easter Sunday morning. He is alive and ruling both heaven and earth even now. Still, like the two Marys, we come sometimes into the presence of God facing our own trials and tribulations. We seek His grace, His good news, and yet, sometimes we wonder if the days in which we struggle will ever pass. “Where does the love of God go when the waves turn the minutes into hours?”  

    On our part, the temptation is to question just how much God is in control of the world in which we live. For the two Marys, Good Friday seemed like a complete and total victory of evil over good. For us, the things we see and hear in the world can lead us to the same conclusion, again, that evil is winning the day in our very midst. From a Christian viewpoint, a few headlines caught my eye this past week. In Canada, the House of Commons passed a bill that will go on to the Senate, that makes it illegal to quote certain passages of the Bible in public. In Finland, the Lutheran Church has been convicted of hate speech for maintaining the Biblical account of creation, particularly as it relates to human sexuality. One last bit of news troubled me a great deal. A recent study found that 50% of Pastors leave the Pastoral office within their first 5 years. By ten years, that number jumps up to 80%.
    Many of you came here today with all sorts of issues and struggles weighing on your hearts and minds. Again, in that sense you’re a lot like the two Marys who went to Jesus’ tomb that morning. We have, of course, gathered this morning to celebrate Easter. God’s message to us, to you, is the same as it was to the women who came to the tomb that first Easter morning. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.”

    Your faith, my friends, is in the Living Lord. As much as we might ring our hands over various things that we see and hear in the world, God remains in control. For sure, “His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts,” but in Christ crucified and risen, God has won the victory over sin, death, and the grave. 
“Lives again our glorious King!
Where, O death, is now they sting?
Once He died our souls to save;
Where thy victory, O grave?”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +