"A great earthquake"-Sermon for Easter Sunday, Matthew 28:1-10
Our story of the first Easter morning this year comes to us from the Gospel of Matthew. And, the story, in Matthew’s telling, begins with, of all things, an earthquake. Now, earthquakes are surely rolling around in our consciousness right now, following the devastating events in Turkey and Syria earlier this year. The shifting of plates in the earth’s crust are powerful beyond words and can be utterly devastating…and in the case of Turkey and Syria that is surely an understatement. Our prayers have been and remain with those suffering, and I am grateful for all the generosity our congregation has shared with those most impacted. But, metaphorically or spiritually speaking, the power of God to shake the ground under us, if you will, to break open barriers that keep good and Godly things locked away can be devastatingly good and utterly life-giving. I think we might agree that there is much in this world that needs to be torn down and destroyed. That there are powers and principalities of darkness that seek to control and manipulate the world’s resources and even human lives to their own ends that need to be dismantled. That there are systems of inequality and injustice that disconnect and separate one person from another that need to be torn down. And the utter destruction of such expressions of sin and death in our lives and world, through Jesus’ glorious resurrection, is the very point and purpose of Easter.
To this end, the earthquake on the first Easter morning that brakes open the cave like tomb, in which Jesus’ body was placed following his death on the cross, points us to life and not death…to the unimaginable power of God…working in time and space…working in our present experience…to destroy all that seeks to hold us in bondage…all that seeks to diminish the lives we live…keep us small…hold us back…beginning with the destruction of death itself…our most ancient foe. For what is revealed when Jesus’ tomb is broken open by the power of God’s love is not the lifeless body of another dead person, crushed by the insidious evil that so often holds sway in our world. Instead, what is revealed…is nothing. The tomb is entirely empty. For, in Jesus’ resurrection, death becomes no thing. It’s very existence…its power over any life, just beginning with Jesus…is utterly destroyed…shaken till nothing is left behind. And, in the absence of death…everlasting, eternal, forever life…in the very light of God’s love…is all that is left behind…for all those suffering now…for those we love and no longer see…for you…even for me.
And, I think it is so important to note that such earth shaking and remaking power is wrought by God…the very destruction of sin and death…for you, for me, for all…not because we earned such grace, not because we do or do not deserve it, not because of what one has or has not accomplished in a life lived…but because God loves us. God loves everything God has made and has called all of creation, including each of us, good. God loves every bit of us…from head to toe…and Jesus’ resurrection at Easter promises us that God will not lose anything that God loves and has made.
I heard a sermon illustration recently shared first by the Archbishop of York that mirrors one of my own experiences. His story involved his son…mine my daughter Amelia when she was about 6. So, my wife has family in England and about every 4 years or so we head over the pond to visit them. And, one of our favorite things to do while there is to go hiking in the Lake District…for Tolkien fans like me…it is a magical, shire-like place. And, my most favorite hike of all runs from the village of Ambleside to the village of Trout Beck. The hike takes you over Wans Fell, fell being the English word for peak, with spectacular 360-degree views of villages and glacial lakes all around. And, after the decent, the hike ends at a pub called the “Mortal Man”. One of the great things about hiking in the Lake District is that they almost always end at a pub! That’s a picture on the screen of me standing in front of the Mortal Man.
Well after one such hike…as we were basking in a glorious day in the garden behind the pub with pint in hand, surrounded by friends, regaling tales of the hiking adventure behind us…Amelia, again my daughter who was about 6, asked to go to the bathroom. So, I pointed her in the right direction and immediately got back to basking. Well, she was gone for some time…but I wasn’t really paying attention to the time if honest…when another one of the children in our group ran up feverishly to tell us that Amelia was locked in the bathroom and couldn’t get out. So, I put down my pint and rushed to the bathroom myself. And, as I arrived, I, indeed, discovered by daughter locked in a small restroom and understandably totally breaking down. She was crying and scared. She was trying desperately to get out…but couldn’t slide the lock open. I tried to figured it out from the outside with no success. All the while Ashley, my wife, and I were trying to sooth her from the other side of the door. We were telling her it would be okay, that locks got stuck all the time, that we would get her out. We told her to take some deep breaths and not to worry…that we would get help…for surely the publican who ran the Mortal Man could figure it out. Though listening to us, she continued to be really scared. So, one of us then ran to get someone who worked there…and a gentleman quickly came and began to fidget with the lock and tried to calmly give Amelia instructions of what to do from her side…but after about 15 minutes of trying we were no further along. There was no unlocking that very old door.
I looked at the man working there and he looked at me and we knew what had to happen next. The door was going to have to be broken open for her to get out…and time was of the essence as Amelia was almost in a frenzy, on the other side…and, honestly, I was becoming scared for her. So, we told Amelia to stand next to the toilet, or loo as the call it in England, which was as far from the door as possible and told her to face away from the door, close her eyes, and put her hands over her face. Once she told us she was in position, the two of us kicked the door in. It shook and took several hard kicks…as sometimes old things are better made than new things…and the Mortal Man is an ancient sort of place. So, after the third or fourth hard kick, the door splintered at the lock sending wood shards in all directions. And, with the door then broken open, Amelia turned and ran to us, as we did to her, and she melted into our arms. I was never so glad to hold my daughter…reunited…and it felt so nice! That which had stood between us was destroyed, nothing left to keep us a part, and loved filled that tiny space.
Now, I was sorry to break something in such a magical place that I love so much. And, though the Mortal Man would not accept any payment to fix the door from this very mortal man…I did leave a nice tip! And, after the tears were dried and the adrenaline began to fade…basking in the garden was resurrected. In John’s Gospel it is noted that Jesus’s tomb was in a garden. And, it was almost like the kingdom of God that was broken open at the first Easter had come to the garden we shared behind the Mortal Man connected one to another, with that which had stood between us, utterly removed.
Friends, this is what that earthquake that broke open Jesus’ empty tomb is intended to point us to…that the unimaginable power of God, in Jesus’ glorious resurrection, has shaken death to its core till nothing of it is left. God has kicked in the door and broken to utter pieces the barrier of sin and death…such that nothing is left to stand between us and life everlasting. At Easter, God has destroyed everything that stands between us and the eternal arms of love…God’s own arms…as Christ runs to us and we to him that we might melt into each another’s arms…zero degrees of separation…love filling every space in which we find ourselves…entirely wrapped up together.
And, please note, I didn’t say to Amelia as she stood scared to death behind that locked door, “How’d you get yourself into this predicament. I’ll leave you there to think about it until you figure it out.” Or, say, “Clearly you did this to yourself, so solve your own problem.” Or, say, “I’ll get you out of there only if you promise to make better decisions moving forward…or only if you promise to obey me and be a perfect, sweet child moving forward.” Nothing like that. I love Amelia to the moon and back, and I would become an earthquake myself to break down how many doors that might stand between her and me…just because I love her…the one I helped create…just because I love her.
And the same is entirely true, but even more so, of God’s love for us. Simply because God loves us and everything God has made entirely, at the first Easter, God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ…trampling down death and utterly destroying the power of sin…such that in the fullness of time…at the hour of our death or the moment of Jesus’ return…nothing will stand between us…zero degrees of separation…nothing will keep us from melting into the arms of love…love alone filling every space we find ourselves in…from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.