Do you believe the Easter hype? Well, we know at first from our readings this morning that the disciples did not believe all the Easter hype that Christ had indeed risen, even though he told them that that was going to happen. They mourned on Good Friday. Just like we know how to mourn what died, we know how to rejoice on resurrection Easter Sunday. But very few of us know how to live in the tension of Saturday.
The disciples themselves probably didn’t know how to live in the tension of Saturday. It is that space between death and resurrection, loss and hope, abrupt endings and new beginnings. That’s where so much of life is actually lived. What you might be thinking. What? What did she just say? What do you mean? Well, let me explain and refresh your memory of what happened on Good Friday, even though it wasn’t very long ago.
Matthew 15:33 when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. Matthew 27:51 Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to bottom, and earth shook and the rocks were split. The scriptures say that the sky went black, the earth shook. That means an earthquake rock split, opening the temple veil. Now you realize that the temple veil, years ago in the Bible, if you weren’t a priest, you could not go past that. That was a sacred area. And you as a regular old person, could not go past that. So that veil was ripped in half. What was that saying? That was saying, hey, anybody could be in here.
I can’t imagine the chaos, can you? Of the day that God stopped breathing. Matthew continues in verses 52 through 53, the tombs were open and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Coming out of the tomb after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many there, wow. There were even dead saints that came back to life and appeared to people in Jerusalem. That was craziness. Can you imagine if we had an earthquake and all of a sudden in a cemetery, people were coming out? It must have seemed like the. The entire world was turned upside down. Utter chaos.
And then came Saturday. After all the chaos, Jerusalem rested on the Sabbath according to the commandments. Think about all the weeping, the bleeding, the shaking, and then nothing. Silence. Even the Gospels are silenced about that day. As if all creation gave one big sigh. I would imagine the question on the minds of every disciple that Saturday morning was, are they coming for us next?
God could have died on any day of the week, but he chose Friday. He chose to add in the Sabbath, day of rest, in between the death and the resurrection. It’s in that delicate, quiet, non chaotic space between Friday and Sunday where faith is tested just like it is in today’s world. We cannot rest when we don’t understand. The disciples as well as us are thinking, can we be still when our hearts are shattered? Can we worship? How many times haven’t we felt that way in our daily lives? But yes we can.
Because that very unique Saturday in Scripture reminds us that God is always at work, even when we can’t see it, even if everything around us seems to be coming apart at the seams. We can find our rest in God. Because Saturday, that in between, is never the end of the story. Friday paid it, Sunday proved it. Hope seemed buried on the cross, but God’s love is stronger. He didn’t run from death. He walked into death so we could walk out of it.
When they laid him in the tomb, they thought it was over. But three days later, the resurrection, Christ’s death and resurrection is God’s receipt paid in full. The grave tried to hold him, but it couldn’t hold the one who holds all things. What looked like Earth’s worst moment became heaven’s greatest victory. Death had the final word. The devil thought he had won. But Jesus rewrote the ending. And today the empty tomb is not whispering, it’s shouting. He is risen. Because he lives, our past can be forgiven, our present can be transformed, and our future can be secured.
This is not just hope for some day. This is the power for today. So what must we do? Not admire, not analyze, respond, open the door, trust the Savior, receive his forgiveness and surrender our lives. Because Friday paid it and Sunday proved it in our daily prayers. We need to thank Jesus that he died for our death so we can live our life the cross paid for our sin, and the resurrection proves our victory. We open our hearts and invite Jesus into our lives, helping us to turn from our sin and acknowledge his forgiveness.
So do you believe the Easter hype? Resurrection Sunday reminds us of something that we need to hear and believe, not just at Easter time. Because there are some areas in our life that feel buried. Dreams like they feel like they will never happen. Relationships that feel like they’re all but over. Hope that feels like it ran out.
The resurrection is not just about what was, it’s about what’s possible. God just doesn’t restore. He makes things new. Some things in our lives, they don’t just fade, they die. And if we’re honest, we’ve already accepted it. We’ve already made peace with the idea that it’s over. But what if it’s not? What if what you thought was the end was actually the place God was about to begin again? What if what looks like, like the end might be the beginning of something new, something good?
Because resurrection is a reminder that God still brings dead things back to life. And not always the way we expect it, not always the way that it used to be, but maybe in a brand new way. Maybe the question is not what we lost, but what is God trying to bring back to life in us, in me. Because with God, it doesn’t always mean done.
We hear things like, I’m a sinner, saved by grace. We hear the teachings of the church fathers who believe themselves to be wretched, poor, helpless sinners that are not worthy of God’s love. That may be what they believe about themselves, but that is not what God believes about us. That’s not what the Gospel says. There may be some Christians waiting for death to set them free from sin.
So here’s a question for us. If death is what ultimately sets us free from sin and joins us in union with God, then what saves us? Death or Jesus? The Bible I read and the Bible we read makes it pretty clear that Jesus is the Savior. So that means we need to stop waiting for death to send us to heaven and start living like Jesus. Jesus brought heaven to earth. If we’re in Christ, the Spirit of God lives in us. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom from everything we’ve ever done as a result of being born into God’s family. We have freedom from every temptation that still tries to redefine, reidentify it.
As a result of death and resurrection of Jesus, we’ve been given a blood transfusion and we now bear the image of the Holy God. So do you believe the Easter Harp? Today is a moment when we get to choose to believe the message of the resurrection. That Jesus died and rose. The moment that we live in our faith. To tell ourselves in him is life. And living the rest of our life in him is what this life was intended for. Amen.
