Surprised By Joy

April 11, 1993

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Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10

Talk about pulling out all the stops...talk about sforzando writing---sforzando is a musical term I learned from Kathy. It means, being roughly translated, “lettin’ her rip”, no holds barred, fortissimo, with all the power you’ve got.

If you’re interested in “sforzando” writing, Matthew’s your man, AND HERE IT IS IN

HIS EASTER STORY.

Earthquake, lightning, incapacitated soldiers... the works....an angel swooping down out of the sky, a gigantic stone shoved aside like a tinker toy, guards terrified out of their wits.... sforzando. I tell you, when Matthew tells a story, he tells a story.

Of all the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, it’s Matthew’s that’s the most.....MAJESTIC. I guess that’s the word. It’s clearly the least understated, leaves the least to the imagination. What a contrast, in that sense, with John’s version.

John downplays the drama at the tomb. The whole thing is muted. In John, Mary comes alone to the Garden...it’s still pitch black. The mood of the setting for the first 10 verses is one of somberness, confusion, desolation, and depression.  Even after Mary sees the 2 angels in the tomb, things remain unclear, murky. Jesus appears, but only in veiled unrecognizable form. She assumes he’s the gardener. For several moments, indeed, until He calls her by name, she has no idea who He is. For John, the resurrection is as mysterious as it is miraculous.

How different for Matthew.... sforzando. You almost feel he deliberately decided to “go for broke” in giving us his account, and I think that’s probably right. You almost feel like he’s saying, “By golly, I’ll show you what a real miracle looks like when you’re standing in the middle of it.

SOMETHING MOMENTOUS HAPPENED OUT THERE..... let me tell you about it. Something cataclysmic, something utterly transforming. You don’t tell a story like that with picayune description. You put the gas to the floorboard and let ‘er roll.”

AND THAT’S EXACTLY HOW HE PRESENTS IT---the same way he told about the birth of Jesus amid the terror of Herod’s hostility, when the King was gunning for him....and the way he told about Simon Peter’s stammering recognition of his identity at Caesarea Philippi---straightforward and honest.....and the way he never made any bones about the cost of discipleship for the person who wanted to be a follower....

MATTHEW NEVER WAS VERY GOOD AT SUBTLETY.

He just laid it out, told it plain, let the chips fall, and then sat back and waited for you to make the right choice about it. Let’s look a little more closely this morning at this Easter story from the 1st Gospel. We’ll just let Matthew tell it...and let his majestic message hit us broadside with its power and glory.

It begins pianissimo enough. 2 women went out to the garden early in the morning, Matthew says, to see the tomb. Nothing about spices for anointment, nothing about the completion of the burial arrangements...

THERE WERE ALREADY GUARDS POSTED. They knew they couldn’t get inside. Presumably, they just went to be there, the way people still do after the death of a loved one. You know you can’t change anything; you know you can’t alter the irrevocable, but you just want to be as close as you can.

What else did those women have left? They knew He was dead. They’d seen Him die. They’d been out there on that hill when the last painful gasp was expelled from His body, and the soldiers stuck the spear in His side to make sure it was over. They’d seen it all. They weren’t dressed in Easter clothes, they were dressed in mourning clothes. The last thing they expected was a surprise.

But talk about astonishment---SFORZANDO. An earthquake shook the ground beneath their feet. Have you ever been in an earthquake? We were in a little one in Costa Rica when we lived there...just a little one, 3 point something on the Richter scale, they said...just a small one, but you better believe it’ll get you attention.

Was it the earthquake that caused the rock to move and opened the door of the tomb? If you’re a rationalist, you’ll look for some kind of explanation like that. Somebody may have suggested that possibility to Matthew, but he’ll have none of it.

This earthquake was not a workhouse, it was simply a doorbell. Its job was to announce the arrival of a rock-rolling angel. In Matthew’s text, it’s clear that it’s the angel, not the earthquake that rolled the stone away.

I always wanted to play the role of the angel in a re-enactment of the Easter story. I’ve never gotten to. Maybe some day. Matthew makes it a great part.

We think of angels as being as light and airy, but this one was powerful and tough. I mean, not only does he throw rocks around, his appearance was like lightning, Matthew says, and his clothing white as snow.... He shoved that stone off to the side and then sat on it with imperious aplomb....Boy, what you could do with a role like that.

The guards, Roman soldiers, mind you, professional militia, mind you....the guards were absolutely rendered worthless in the face of that power. They were zapped into uselessness. The symbol of imperial Roman might was frozen in its tracks. The guards might as well have been dead men before this angel.

And the women...Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James the younger? What must have been going through their minds? Can you put yourself in their place, suddenly subjected to all this battery of activity and furor? It’s a wonder they didn’t turn on their heels and run like the wind.... Maybe it happened too fast.

For before they could do much more than simply gasp at it all, the angel speaks---the first words of resurrection---directed at 2 women standing there in trembling awe.

And what he says to them, before he says anything else is this enormously soothing word of comfort: “Don’t be afraid.”

I suspect, under the circumstances, they needed to hear that. BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, BEFORE ANY MESSAGE IS DELIVERED, before any explanation is offered, before any announcement is transmitted, he makes it a special point to calm their shattered nerves.... ”Don’t be afraid.”

Now, where have we heard this before? It almost seems like a standard angelic greeting. We’re almost used to that expression on the lips of heavenly messengers...

Remember what the angel said to Mary when he came to announce that she was to have a baby? “Don’t be afraid, Mary, the Lord has found favor with thee.”

Remember what the angel said to the shepherds out in the field that cold December night? “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy.”

BIBLICAL ANGELS ARE ALWAYS TALKING LIKE THAT. Same greeting here. “Don’t be afraid.” What seems uncontrollable, overwhelming, frightening is not really so at all. To those who love the Lord the power of God is not a threat.

BUT THEN, having quieted their anxiety with consummate tact, having gotten their attention and made them wide-eyed, the angel blurts out the news. If you didn’t know before it was Matthew writing, that’s a dead giveaway.

No Johannine subtlety, no beating around the bush... He tells them straight out what has happened...“I know why you’ve come. You’re looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has been raised, as He said.”

WHAM!

Never before in human history...never before EVER. Resurrection from the dead! SFORZANDO. Then as if to punctuate the point even further, the angel turns tour guide and leads the women through the tomb to show them first-hand that it’s empty. They not only hear the news, they see it for themselves.

Stand alongside those women out there in that early morning light in the garden and see if your heart doesn’t beat a little faster.

One more task remains for the angel. After experience always comes assignment. That’s thoroughly Biblical and it’s a consistent characteristic of angelic visitation. The angel give the 2 women a specific directive. “Go quickly and tell his disciples.

He has been raised from the dead. He’s alive. He’s going ahead of you into Galilee... There you will see him.”

Has there ever been a story like that? Has there ever been a story about anything like that? No wonder Matthew wanted to pull out all the stops.

Notice how he reports the reaction of the women to all this. They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell the disciples... fear and joy....

No, that’s not quite it...fear and GREAT joy, he says. Only the joy has an intensifying adjective.

The fear is not totally erased. After all, this has been a pretty emotional few moments. BUT COMING THROUGH THE FEAR, and gaining momentum as the implications of it all swirl around in their minds, is a burgeoning sense of delirium, the “great joy” of Matthew’s phrase.....

EVERYTHING IS CHANGED NOW, the old rules don’t apply any more. He was gone, but He’s not gone, after all. We’re going to see Him again. Now, if you stopped right there, if the story ended abruptly at that point, if there were no more than that to tell, you’d have enough spiritual nourishment to take care of you for a lifetime, BUT THIS MORNING OF MIRACLES ISN’T OVER YET. There is still more.

As the women run to tell the disciples this extraordinary news, Jesus Himself appears before them. For Matthew there is no subtlety, no subterfuge, no camouflage to hide the appearance....

There is no question about who it is. His identity is transparently clear. They recognize Him immediately. And notice---I get goosebumps every time I think about it---Notice...HE GREETS THEM WITH THE ALMOST CASUAL GREETING THAT YOU WOULD GIVE A PERSON THAT YOU MET ON THE STREET:

“Chairete” is the Greek word. It carries the connotation of rejoicing, of being delighted, of being filled with gladness. “Chairete”, he says. The RSV translates it “Greetings”, but to me that sounds more like a letter from the Draft Board.

Maybe “I’m glad to see you” is closer to the flavor of what Matthew is trying to express.

All that the angel had told them was true. He WAS alive...and they knew Him, and He knew them. Their response? So instinctive, so natural, and so very appropriate. Matthew says they came to Him, took hold of His feet, that is prostrated themselves at His feet, and worshipped Him.

Already, even on the first morning of the resurrection, the Church’s understanding of just who this MAN really is, is heightened, and deepened, and broadened. No longer is He simply a Friend, a worthy Companion, an especially good Man, if he were ever just that.... Now it’s clear. The Creator of heaven and earth, the Lord God Almighty was in Him.... IS in Him, and no response short of total and complete adoration is even thinkable. They worshipped Him, with absolute theological correctness, pouring out their hearts in awe and gratitude.

Does it strike you, I wonder, the unexpectedness of this special appearance of Jesus for the benefit of these 2 particular women? It doesn’t surprise me that it was women to whom the Lord first was manifested, or who first recognized him.....

Maybe women have a greater sensitivity to matters of the spirit.... maybe a greater sensitivity to most things. I’ve finally learned that, or am starting to learn it.....

It doesn’t surprise me that in all the Gospel accounts, all four, women catch on and respond to what is happening before their slower male counterparts....

But isn’t there something unexpectedly gracious, unexpectedly lovely about this particular appearance, so soon, when the angel had just told them He would see them in Galilee. Galilee is 50 miles away.

Suddenly, though, there He is. It’s an apparently unscheduled appearance, a tacked-on serendipity, if you will, an added revelatory miracle, specifically for the benefit of these faithful, fearless women.

They’d gone to the tomb at the crack of dawn, expecting to find nothing more than a cold, lifeless body....They’d gone alone, knowing the place was guarded by rough, uncaring Roman soldiers. They’d been buffeted by earthquake, frightened by an unearthly being, thrown into a state of panic by the clamor and drama of it all...IT HAD BEEN A ROLLER COASTER OF A MORNING.

AND YET IMMEDIATELY, without hesitation, they had responded to the instructions they were given. Not once did they say, “Wait a minute now, how did this happen?” Or “Where is He now?” Or “Why can’t we see Him yet?” They simply accepted what was told them by the angel, AND ACTED ON IT.

Maybe that very attitude, that very posture helps explain why Jesus came first to them and reassured them in love even before His scheduled appearance in front of all the disciples in Galilee.

Is it, after all, resurrection that creates faith, or it is faith that makes it possible to recognize resurrection truth? Some of us still get hung up here. You don’t experience in order to believe; you believe in order to experience.

Is it mere coincidence that Jesus never appeared in any of the Gospel accounts to anyone who didn’t believe in Him? Is that an accident?

He didn’t come to Pilate, or appear before the Sanhedrin....Those soldiers who were swatted off their feet by the angel were physically present at the empty tomb. They had the best seats in the house. They were as close as you could get to being eyewitnesses, but they didn’t have a resurrection experience.

It meant nothing to them. Read on in the narrative, just into the next few verses. What mattered to them was the threat of court-martial for not doing the job they were assigned.

He came, and He comes only to those who love Him and are open to His coming. AND YOU SEE... Here it is again, as if for a double emphasis, the sforzando effect once more, pulling out all the stops. At this point, I don’t think Matthew could help himself.

EXACTLY AS BEFORE, the first word Jesus says to them, following the greeting of joy, is the repetition of that blessed angelic utterance: “Be not afraid.” It must be a part of the heavenly training....

When you sit down before this scene and open all your pores....when you let your imagination play with it, when you let the tenderness and the grandeur of it sweep over you--- these 2 faithful believers re-united with their Lord---you can almost hear being repeated echoes of the Upper Room, can’t you?

“Let not your hearts be troubled...neither let them be afraid...Because I live, ye shall live also....”

Can you imagine any more comforting words than those? “Don’t be afraid.”

Of course, they still needed to hear it. SO DO WE. They were facing a whole new vista out there...The horizon suddenly was unlimited. A gaping hole had been knocked in the sky, and they could see beyond the shadows of earth out into eternity itself.... EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT.

This little valley we call the world, this circumscribed orb we think contains all there is, is only a prelude to a realm out there so far beyond our wildest dream that our tiny minds can’t begin to wrap themselves around it. THE MAJESTY OF EASTER SHOULD INSPIRE IN US A CERTAIN KIND OF FEAR. It takes us to a neighboring height to show us a world far vaster than anything we could have ever imagined. AT ONCE WE’RE UNDER JUDGEMENT.

It doesn’t matter all that much what you do if you’re on your way to dust, and that’s the end of it. But it makes a whale of a lot of difference if you’re on your way to LIFE.

Of course we face the prospect of what lies beyond with an element of fear. But we hear from the lips of Jesus what those two women heard that first Easter morning---YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE AFRAID....You don’t have to be afraid.

If you love Him, if you trust Him, if you want what HE wants, you’ll be at home in that new land, however different it may be, because He’ll be there with you.... and it will be all right.

It’s a poor analogy, of course... any analogy alongside the scope of this would have to be, but I remember reading in J.S. Whale’s book Christian Doctrine what Joe Vance said about Beethoven.

Joe Vance regarded Beethoven as something more than just a composer. He regarded him virtually as a revelation. He said, “His music always seemed to express everything I can understand, and even to supply exhaustive conclusions in all the crucial questions of life and death.... How often I said to myself after some perfectly convincing phrase of Beethoven, ‘of course, if this is so, there is no occasion to worry.”

It comes close to expressing the heart of Matthew’s majestic resurrection emphasis. It’s the assurance Jesus brought to the 2 women running to tell the news to the disciples, and the assurance He brings to us.... “Don’t be afraid.”

Something new has happened. This is so now, and there’s no occasion to worry.

There may be trouble ahead; there may be hardship; there may be suffering, AND THERE WILL BE DEATH. But all those now are revealed for what they are: PERISHABLE COMMODITIES. What lasts is God, and God’s abiding care.

The little girl whose path from school led through a graveyard was asked if she were afraid. “No”, she said, “I just cross it to reach home.”

When you know there’s nothing to be afraid of, nothing that can touch your ultimate sense of eternal wellbeing, you can turn the world upside down. WHICH I THINK IS EXACTLY MATTHEW’S POINT. No wonder he wanted to pull out all the stops.

Now, how do you wrap up the story? I don’t think you can. This is a story that can’t be wrapped up. This story has just really gotten started. What’s 2000 years in the light of eternity?

But we look back this morning across the centuries and see the beginning of it through the florid verbiage of Matthew’s excitement. We see those 2 women, those 2 Marys, armed with confidence, fortified with assurance, and totally fearless now through the transforming experience of His presence with them... we see them running up the road to find the others, to drag them from their hiding places, and to pour out to them the miraculous story of this miraculous morning....

They don’t know it yet, those frail, weak disciples who remind us so much of ourselves, and who are still cowering like whipped dogs....They don’t know it yet, but they are just about to become the first generation of the CHURCH, and the intrepid witnesses of the risen Christ to the world.

Are you with them? Don’t be afraid. Everything is different now. Sforzando! In the name of Him who is alive forevermore, LET ‘ER RIP.