Easter Sunday - Back to the Beginning

Matthew 28:1-10

That first Easter was unlike any that came afterwards. The followers were scattered, on the run, hiding. The minute the sabbath ended on Saturday night, some of them would have been rushing on the roads back to their hometowns, fleeing Jerusalem, afraid of getting found by the Roman soldiers and arrested as compatriots of Jesus, as rebels against Rome. All four Gospels tells us that the women stayed, and they were first at the tomb, but the others were nowhere to be found. And I’m not going to disparage them, their fear was genuine, and the arrest of one would likely have led to the arrest of the others. The women might be overlooked by the soldiers, but not the men, who would have faced the same interrogation and then crucifixion as Jesus. And so they stayed away, they didn’t gather, as they would in the years following, to celebrate that Jesus who died was now raised. Every year after that, the followers of Jesus would come together as a community and proclaim the glory of God with one voice, and eat from one bread and drink from one cup together, singing Alleluias and greeting stranger and friend alike with the words, Christ has risen! But not that first Easter. That first Easter was different.

Until now. This is the hardest Easter of the church since that first one. Yes, there have been wars, where congregations in certain cities or certain countries would not have been able to gather, but this is the first time in history when the global church, around the world, has not come together––to be in our congregations, in our buildings, side-by-side with fellow Christians, raising one voice and greeting stranger and friend. We are, like Jesus’ followers on that very first Easter, dispersed––spread out, out-of-touch with one another, literally–– desperate for Good News. 

And so this year, the story of Jesus’ resurrection appearance to those very first disciples resonates more deeply than ever. We know the isolation, we know the fear, we know the uncertainty, and we want, more than anything, to believe that Christ’s promise to be with us always is true.

Did you notice the last thing that Jesus says to the women who have found him? “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” 

It’s a kind of a throw-away verse. Most people focus on the second half of the sentence, that the disciples will see Jesus. And this very important––the disciples will see Jesus, no longer dead, but risen. What a glorious thing––this is why we are gathered today!

But what is also important, particularly for us today, is where the disciples will see Jesus. In Galilee. Galilee is where it all began. Matthew is actually directing the readers to go back to the beginning of the Gospel and read it all again. And when we do, we find that it was in Galilee that the disciples Peter and Andrew first met Jesus. Remember that? They were fishermen, who lived next to the sea of Galilee, and Jesus came and found them with their boats, and called them to be with him.

And now Jesus tells the women that he’s going back to where it started, back to their hometown, where the disciples had probably fled already, to meet them all there. He wasn’t abandoning them, or turning his back on them, as they did to him. And he wasn’t asking them to come the empty tomb, or to the Temple in Jerusalem. Instead, he was going to be with them, to reconnect with them, to show himself as the Lord of Life at their homes.

At their homes.

I think that this Easter has more than one thing in common with that very first Easter. Just as the disciples could not go to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to be reunited with the risen Lord, we cannot go to church. And so, just the risen Lord went to Galilee, to the disciples’ homes to be with them, Jesus Christ comes to be with us. In our homes.

This is the message that we have always proclaimed, that Jesus is with us always. That there is no place too humble for Jesus to go, that there is no person whom Jesus will reject, but this year, it takes on new meaning. Like the first disciples, we are met by the risen Jesus in places we least expect. Not in a glorious sanctuary, with dozens of lilies, and shining white paraments, crowded with family and friends, but in our homes. With floors that probably need vacuuming, and shelves that need dusting, and driveways that might still need shovelling. Whether you are dressed in your fancy Easter clothes, or you are still in your pajamas, you are being met by the risen Jesus who is not ashamed to be at your table, however messy it might be. You are being met by the risen Jesus who brings new life wherever he goes, who brings resurrection to your home.

This is what the disciples discovered that very first Easter and what we celebrate today––that Jesus is risen, that death is not the end, and that God is always with us.

We will remember this Easter for the rest of our lives, as the year we could not go to church. But my prayer to God is that you will also remember it as the Easter that you experienced that Christ came to you, in your homes, where you are. And that even though you are all apart from one another, that you know that God gathers you together with one another, and with the whole Christian church, in the new life of the resurrected Christ. My prayer is that this Easter you experience that there truly is nothing, not death, and not even this quarantined life, that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our risen Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.