He is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
We believe in a risen savior, once crucified, dead and buried. We believe that He rose again, as the Scriptures foretold. We believe that He appeared to His disciples and many others before ascending to heaven where He sits at God’s right hand. We believe this crucified, dead-yet-risen Savior is Jesus the Christ and that He did all these things that we might be reconciled to God and have eternal life in heaven. We are so very blessed to be able to celebrate this day the life-giving resurrection of Jesus our Lord. What great Good News for the world! It is most definitely a day to rejoice!
Yet not everyone rejoices this day. There are those who do not yet know the good news. Some have yet to hear the good news, some have heard and turned away, some have heard but do not accept. It is like the parable of the sower – sometimes the Good news falls on the rocky ground of those who refuse to listen. Sometimes the good news falls on the shallow soil of those whose faith springs up quickly but has no roots and soon dies off. Sometimes the good news falls on the decent ground of a potential believer, but is choked out by the weeds of anger or judgmentalism, of war, envy, strife, oppression, or blatant trickery. That was as true on that first Easter morning as it is today. The trickery then was more blatant. It wasn’t couched in terms of political correctness or culturally accepted norms. That first Easter, it was an out and out plot.
Our first Scripture reading this morning tells of this plot: the posting of the guards so that Jesus’ disciples couldn’t steal His body and claim He was raised from the dead. Those same religious leaders who had plotted to kill Jesus conspired with Pontius Pilate once again to ensure the end of the trouble Jesus had caused for their religious power and prestige. As it says in verses 62-63, they gathered with Pilate, reminded him of the claim of resurrection after three days, and implied that the disciples were dishonest enough to try to trick the people into believing that Jesus rose again. As the Scriptures say, these conspirators thought that such a deception would be “worst than the first,” meaning the supposed deception that Jesus was (and is) the Messiah. Of course we know this is no deception, but the religious leaders of the day thought it mere trickery.
It is interesting to realize that the disciples all hid away, mourning and frightened while the Pharisees felt the urgent need to actively plot against the fulfillment of the prophecy. While they refused to accept Jesus as Messiah and Son of God while He lived, they seem to have had stronger faith that He could potentially rise again then did the disciples. In an odd twist to the story, the Pharisees actually are conspiring to prevent any successful conspiracy by the disciples, who had no plans for such a thing.
So the Pharisees plotted to make sure no one could steal Jesus’ body. Joseph of Arimathea had removed the small rocks that held the tombstone on a hill above the entry. When these stones were removed, gravity rolled the stone into place, closing the tomb. It was no easy feat to reopen a closed tomb – it would take several strong men and the tools of the day to move the stone back up the hill. It would have been unbelievably foolish to have closed the tomb if there had been a plan to steal the body. Even so, this great stone was not enough to satisfy the Pharisees – they had the guards seal the tomb. Sealing a tomb meant putting a string or rope across it attached to two clay tablets mounted on the stone walls outside the tomb. This would indicate show if anyone tried to get in – or out. But even that wasn’t enough for these suspicious men. These conspirators posted guards around the clock during the time that Jesus was laid in the tomb. The guards were there to provide a third layer of protection beyond the stone and the seal so Jesus’ body could not be stolen and a rumor circulated that He was risen. For such a thing to happen would spell disaster for the Pharisees as it would prove that Jesus was who He claimed to be and that they were wrong. The Pharisees’ plot would have worked, too, except for one thing: they were trying to outwit not humans but God.
The guards were posted there all night, yet when the women went to the tomb, the whole earth shook as an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. The presence of the guards reinforces the story of the resurrection – Scripture tells us, “And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.” The Pharisees had provided additional witnesses who would have been able to attest to the fact that the stone had not been moved before the angel appeared. And so their carefully laid plot begins to thin, working against them instead of in their favor.
The angel spoke to the women, telling them to see for themselves that the Lord, whom they sought, was not in the tomb but was risen from the dead. He then told the women to go and tell the other disciples. And the plot against the truth of the Resurrection thinned a bit more. There were now additional witnesses who had a word directly from an angel confirming what they’d been told would happen had come to pass: the Lord was risen.
The women headed off to do as they’d been instructed by the angel, after all, if God sends a message with an angel, it is best to follow instructions! Before they even got to the disciples to tell what they had seen and heard, yet further proof of the miraculous Resurrection was before their eyes. The women saw Jesus Himself –and He spoke to them. When they would have stayed and worshipped, He told them to go and tell. Not just tell of His Resurrection, but tell the others that He would be meeting up with them in Galilee, confirming what the angel had said. And the plot thins some more. After all, it would be one thing for a bunch of women to come back from the tomb with a story of an angel and the disappearance of the body of the Lord, but here He was – in the flesh – speaking to them and offering future opportunities to prove He lived. He was telling them there would be more meetings with more people, offering additional proof, as well.
Well, about this time, some of the guards went to the city to report what they had seen and heard, to report that Jesus was risen from the dead and that, despite their presence through the night and their assurance that no one had stolen the body, still it was gone. “And, oh yes, there was this angel who appeared….” Can you imagine the irritation and dismay of the conspirators at this point? Not only had they chosen the wrong horse in this race, they had provided extra proof of their mistake by plotting to avoid any possibility that Jesus’ body would be gone from that grave. They made their own lies less believable by having tried to prove their case, by trying to protect their power and authority. It must have been quite a scene when the priests and elders met and tried to figure out what to do.
That was not enough to teach them the Truth, however. They still missed the message, even when presented with eyewitness accounts of the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Instead of bowing down to God, repenting of their ways, humbling themselves, and begging forgiveness, they tried to cover themselves yet again. A new plot was hatched to bribe the guards to say that the disciples came while the guards slept and stole the body. The very ones who were supposed to be religious leaders, upstanding in every way, were bribing others to lie on their behalf. And it was not a cheap bribe, either. Scripture says it was a “large sum of money.” Even the original Greek does not specify the sum, but logic tells us it must have truly been a great deal of money. These were Roman soldiers. Failure at their duty would be no small matter – it was actually punishable by death. Despite what the religious leaders assured them, no Jewish leader was in a position to protect them should the governor learn of their failure at their job. And not only had they failed, they were being bribed to lie and say they had fallen asleep while on duty. Such a lie would have cost dearly. The soldiers took the money and did as they were told, but that didn’t help in the end as Jesus continued to appear to believers and even to non-believers as well.
So in plotting to rid themselves of Jesus, the Pharisees and teachers of the law had conspired with the Roman government to put a man to death, had made sure to prove He was really dead in an effort to be certain they were rid of Him and to discourage the people. They had sealed His tomb and posted guards so that the body couldn’t be stolen. It was an elaborate plot that thickened in complexity but thinned in effectiveness with each passing event. Each thing they did to rid themselves of this Jesus and to prove He was really gone backfired and caused them more trouble, cost them more of their ill-gotten wealth. Each thing they did to strengthen their power and authority diminished it. The plot thinned and thinned with each story being told, each Resurrection appearance of Jesus, each soul converted to Christianity as the Word spread.
We, like the women, are called to tell the Truth to those who do not yet believe. We are called to share the stories, especially the story of Christ’s death and Resurrection. We have been granted the additional support of the plot of the religious leaders as proof of exactly what they were trying to disprove: that Jesus died and rose again. And each time we share the story, each time we celebrate the Resurrection, each time we point to the evidence recorded in Scripture that people were actively trying to disprove the Resurrection and failed miserably, we help thin the plot a little more. As Christianity spreads and people come to believe in the Truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, the plot continues to thin.
Scripture promises us that eventually the plot will have thinned to nothing and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But until that day, let us continue to thin the plot by celebrating the most amazing event in all of history: the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Let us continue to thin the plot against Him by telling the stories and singing the songs, by reading the Scriptures and sharing them with others. Let us continue to thin the plot by believing and defending our belief in the literal rising of our Lord from the dead. For He is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia. Amen.