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  I've always been intrigued by the question of just when the Resurrection of Jesus took place. 

After the Sabbath - Matthew 28: 1-10 - March 23, 2008 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            I've always been intrigued by the question of just when the Resurrection of Jesus took place. For one thing, as we know, Easter Sunday is a movable day. Some years it's after the buds of spring are well on their way, and, as it happens this year, other years it sneaks up on you in the middle of winter. When is the real Easter?

            But I'm talking a little more specifically - when on that holy weekend did the Resurrection take place? And that's where we run into the second obstacle - the whole idea of 'the third day.' "On the third day he arose from the dead ... ' we say in the Apostles' Creed. Other times, the Bible says, "after three days. The problem is, as we measure things, the third day after Friday is not Sunday - it's Monday. Obviously, people in the Bible counted days differently.

            But what caught my thinking as I read the Easter story this year was the very first phrase in Matthew 28: 1- "after the Sabbath." Those are words I always just read over before. But then I got thinking about them. You might think that since the Sabbath was such a holy time in the Bible, the Resurrection of Jesus - the holiest event in our faith ­would take place on the Sabbath. But the Bible says it took place after the Sabbath. Maybe that's an important detail. The Sabbath, we know, plays a significant role in the Good Friday story. Matthew 27 tells us that after Jesus died he was taken down from the cross and hastily buried on Friday evening ... " The Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday. That means that when Jesus was buried, the Sabbath had begun, and that means that the proper anointing and preparation of his body for burial could not take place.

            The men who followed Jesus didn't seem too concerned about that. But the women were obsessed with it. Jesus had been buried without the proper funeral anointing. And how could they accomplish this now that he was in the tomb with a heavy stone blocking the way? And, to make matters even more frustrating there wasn't even a thing they could do about it until the end of the Sabbath. So, first thing Sunday morning, after the Sabbath, they ran off to the tomb with their spices and their ointments. And we know when they arrived, the tomb was empty. At some point between sundown Saturday, and early morning Sunday, Jesus rose. Was it the moment the sun went down? Was it just before they arrived? No one knows.

            Maybe I'm going to exaggerate the significance of this to make a point this morning (but then, I'm a preacher - that's what we do.) In the Bible, the Sabbath is the end of the week. God created the world in six days, and then rested on the seventh. That's how the Sabbath was begun - it is the end of God's week of work. And there are many people who think of Easter that way - it belongs at the end of the story. Jesus was raised from the dead, so Easter has to do with heaven - the end goal of our lives.

            One Sunday School teacher asked her class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale to sell every1hing I own, and gave all the money to the poor, would I get to heaven?" and the whole class said NO. So she said, "If I clean the church every day, mow the church lawn, and spend all my time helping people, would I get to heaven'?"            

            And that's where a lot of people place the Easter story. It's a story about what happens after you die. I'll never argue with that. Jesus defeated the power of death, said the apostle Paul and others. Easter is our assurance that the doors of heaven have been opened; that blessed loved ones are part of a communion of saints that are never far from us, and that Jesus has prepared a place for us in that house of many rooms - for a Sabbath that will know no end. That's a big part of our Easter faith that we celebrate today.

            But it's not the only part. Because Jesus wasn't raised on the Sabbath at the end of the story. Jesus was raised after the Sabbath at the dawning of the new day when the work of the next week was beginning. Maybe that's supposed to teach us that Easter isn't the end of the story - it's the beginning of the story - or better yet, right in the midst of the story. And the Victory of Jesus isn't something that we just realize when we go to our final reward. Maybe Easter is God's gift right smack-dab in the middle of everyday life - as if it is meant to make a difference every moment and every hour of your daily life, wherever you are. On that Holy Saturday after Jesus died, while people slept restlessly or soundly - the Risen Christ was walking around! When they got up the next day, after the Sabbath, most people did what they would do every week after the Sabbath - they went to the well for water; they sharpened their tools for the week ahead; they tended to their children; they fed their livestock, and they put flour in the bowls - not knowing that the world had changed. Christ was Risen! God's new chapter was begun.

            Of course we rejoice in the hope of heaven; but I wonder if we need to spend much more time talking about the Easter difference in our lives right now. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, said, "The Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime." Think about that! Easter is all around us - in every leaf, every sunset. Another writer, whose name is Anonymous, wrote, "The great Easter truth is not that we are able to live newly after death - that is not the great thing - but that we are to be new here and now by the power of the resurrection; not so much that we are to live forever, but that we are, and may, live nobly now... "

            That is what I believe it means to follow a Savior who was raised from the tomb after the Sabbath, at the dawning of a new week - to be the Lord of our lives every day, wherever we are.

            Let me share a couple stories about what that means. Matt Barnes writes about a lady he encountered often on the sidewalk near his work: "The flower lady was smiling," he wrote, "her wrinkled old face alive with joy. On impulse I picked out a flower. "You look happy this morning," I said. "Why not?" (she replied), "Everything is good." She was dressed so shabbily and seemed so frail that her reply startled me. "You wear your troubles well." (I said. She responded,) "When Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, that was the worst day for the whole world. Then three days later - Easter. So when I get troubles, I've learned to wait three days." Then Barnes concludes, "Her words still follow me whenever I think I have troubles.  ‘Wait three days.'"  That's living by the power of Easter in your everyday circumstances.

            Or the story of Barbara, a woman I met a few years back. She was frustrated at work, because rumors of a shutdown had brought a fearful attitude to the store, and people were growing sullen, distrustful and unfriendly. It seemed to Barbara that the negativity was becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the customers seemed to catch on to the depressed atmosphere. So Barbara prayed, and the Lord gave her a plan of action. It began with prayer for each person she worked with. Then it moved to small gifts and anonymous notes of encouragement. Then she planned some events outside of the workplace, and began to talk in encouraging fashion to her co-workers. Over time, the climate seemed to change, and to reflect some hope and joy. People became friends.

            And you might say, "Well, that's just everyday stuff." And that's exactly right.

That's where Easter belongs.

            Certainly part of the Easter tradition is to come to church. We are so happy to see such a big crowd here this morning. But I'm more interested in what happens tomorrow. This is our Sabbath, and it is important to be here. But Jesus was raised 'after the Sabbath.' And if Easter is going to matter at all, it will blossom at your house this week, in your neighborhood, at your school, in your office or classroom or wherever you spend the big share of your life. God will take care of the after-death part. You and I are the Easter messengers of here and now. If Christ is alive, then we are changed. And people will see hope in us; peace around us; love from us. And that's how many of them will know that all of this matters.

            One of my favorite Bible stories is about the day Moses had a shiny face. It seems he had been up on the mountaintop talking with God, and when he came down his face shone. He had to put a veil on it, so people could look at him. I don't know how literally we are supposed to take that story. But I've met people whose faces shone - I would call them Easter people. When you were around them, you just knew that they had been with God. There are many people like that in this church - it's one of the reasons this is such

a great place. Barbara's workplace was changed because she brought a shining face to work. And Easter, if we truly let the Risen Christ shine through us, can make that kind of difference in your life, and that can make a difference in your world.

            It's a painful world right now, isn't it? It's painful to watch so many people struggling, so many leaders falling, the five-year anniversary of a very difficult war, the displacement of so many innocent people, the ongoing agony of racism, and so much more. We're here this morning because something has happened in the midst of that. Christ is Risen! That makes all the difference. Despite all the darkness, God is victorious. His plan is unfolding. He is working hard in the details of life to bring hope and grace. And the more shining witnesses there are, the closer that Easter hope is to being fully realized.