On To Galilee - Matthew 28 - April 24, 2011- Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            Someone sent me a story about a crotchety old man who lived with his wife in the back woods of Tennessee. One day, the old man fell and struck his head against a rock. When his wife found him, she was certain he was dead. There was no access to a funeral director, and it was before the practice of embalming. So she dressed the man in his suit and asked a few neighbors to help her put him in a plain box and carry him out back into a field for a burial. There was an old gatepost that was sticking up, and one of the men carrying the coffin tripped over it, and the coffin fell and crashed to the ground. Apparently, that revived the old man, and he knocked open the coffin cover, sprang up, and raised a terrible fuss. From then on, he was even more disagreeable than before, never letting his wife forget that she had arranged to put him away.

            A year later, he fell sick and died. So once more she dressed him up, put him in the box, and got neighbors to carry him out back for burial. When they got close to the gate, she barked out, 'Watch out for that gatepost! One resurrection was plenty for me!'

            One resurrection is plenty for me, too - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from that sealed tomb almost 2000 years ago. It is the most significant, beautiful event at the heart of our Christian faith. It is what makes us who we are. We are the people who believe in the resurrection. I listened once to a teacher from one of the other major faiths describe what Christians believe. He clearly wanted to do so in the most respectful, accurate way he could. He did a beautiful job summarizing the teachings of Jesus as a great prophet, and the passion and death of Jesus as a great martyr, but there he stopped. And when he asked me what I thought about it, I had to tell him that as beautiful as the presentation was, he missed the point. As important as all those things of which he spoke are - especially the death of Jesus on the cross because of our sins - all roads in Christianity lead to the empty tomb. Christians may interpret Easter different ways. But the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the hope and power that come from it, are what sets Christian faith apart from all others. Christ is Risen indeed.

            So this morning, following the lectionary, we read the Easter story as told by Matthew. Of course, the Easter story is told in all four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - and there are common elements in all of them -- the women, the guards, the angels, the opened tomb, and so on. But in addition, each of the four writers also emphasized very different aspects of the Easter story, to address his own particular concerns. That certainly is true for Matthew. It seems to me that there are two strong points Matthew wants to make, and those are what I want to focus on this morning.

            The first point he wants to make, quite clclearly, is that this really happened! Apparently, there were some people around Matthew who were saying it didn't - that the resurrection of Jesus was a hoax, or an illusion. So Matthew goes way beyond Mark, Luke and John to establish that this miracle took place: There was no other possible explanation. Matthew tells us, in the chapter before we read today, that the day after Jesus died the religious leaders went before the governor Pilate and said, 'Sir, we remember what that impostor (Jesus) said while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise again."  Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, "He has been raised from the dead," and the last deception will be worse than the first.' So, they start with this massive stone, that would take several strongmen to move anyway. Some of us have been over to Jerusalem, and seen the Garden Tomb, as they call it; and the stone sits in a great stone channel, so it could actually be moved back and forth from the tomb entrance, but it would still take several men to do it. But now it's going to be sealed for good - with mortar, or first century crazy glue, or some other permanent substance. And it's going to be guarded. No one's going to get in there.

            And so, when it happens, it takes an earthquake - the second in two days - and it takes an angel. Not just any angel, but one that looks like lightning, and is dazzling to behold. And those big, strong guards tremble and fall unconscious. And the angel sits on the stone like king of the mountain. So if the buzz around Matthew was that Jesus didn't really die, or that the disciples stole his body from the tomb and spread rumors, to that Matthew says, 'Oh no. The Jewish leaders themselves had that tomb sealed tight as a drum, and closely guarded. When that didn't work, they paid the guards to say that they had fallen asleep, and somehow slept right through the part where that big Caterpillar bulldozer came in and jarred that stone loose. No, this took nothing less than an earthquake from God and an angel like lightning. It really happened, and it was nothing human beings could have made happen.' Then, as if to cap it off, Matthew tells us that Jesus did appear briefly to the women, and they immediately knelt down and grabbed his feet. So this is Matthew's answer to the idea that maybe Jesus was just an optical illusion, or a spirit floating around. 'This was Jesus in flesh and blood, risen from the dead.'

            It's outrageous. It's ridiculous. It's unbelievable. Matthew says, 'Yup. All those things. In fact, when the disciples eventually saw Jesus, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Even with the flesh and blood evidence standing right in front of them, they still couldn't believe it.' And yet, nearly all of them went on to give their lives claiming it was the truth. And dozens, and then, hundreds, and then hundreds of thousands, and even more, have literally given their lives as martyrs to be true to this Risen Savior. And millions and millions more have found the Resurrection of Jesus to be the central truth of their lives. Are there doubts? Are there questions? Of course. Easter is unbelievable. Vet as unbelievable as it is, the faith is still alive; the resurrection is just as powerful as ever.

            We face a lot of daunting obstacles. Collectively, we see great stones, sealed and guarded, before us - poverty, violence, prejudice, greed. Individually, we see discouragement, fear, economic and personal and physical challenges, death. Matthew wants you to know that God can move the stone, and bring us to a new and exciting possibility in life. You can trust in His power. The proof is the Resurrection of Jesus, which literally and unbelievably happened.

            The second point in the Easter story that is unique in Matthew is his focus on Galilee. In fact, if we just read Matthew, we would think that the Risen Jesus never appeared in Jerusalem at all. The angel told the women at the tomb to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee; then Jesus appeared briefly to say the same thing. And people have wondered why Galilee was so important to Matthew. One obvious guess would be that that was where Matthew lived. That is possible but not likely. Others raise the idea that returning to Galilee brings Jesus full circle - he and the disciples were all Galileans. That was where his movement started. And especially coming to a mountain in Galilee. A mountain in Galilee was where Matthew showed Jesus giving his greatest teaching - what we call the Sermon on the Mount -'Blessed are the poor,' 'Love your enemies,' 'Turn the other cheek,' 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' and the Lord's Prayer. It seems quite possible that after the Resurrection Jesus met his disciples on the very mountain where he said those words.

            But there is something even more important about Galilee, I believe, and that is that it is a crossroads - a commercial center. It's not like the city of Jerusalem, where the crucifixion and resurrection took place. Jerusalem was the religious center of the Jewish nation. It was where the temple was, the high priests. People made pilgrimages there - it was, in our words, the church - the place where religious people come to worship and honor God.

            But Galilee was a commercial center. It was next to the major East-West trade route. It had important Roman cities, and worldly practices that would scandalize the high priests in Jerusalem. And pilgrims to Galilee (unlike Jerusalem which attracted basically Jewish people) came from all over, and were all kinds of races and religions and nationalities. It was a cross-section of all known people. And there, on the mountain top, where you could look down over the bustle of the world, Jesus said to his disciples, Take my message out there - Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them. If Jerusalem represented this church, where religious people meet, then Galilee represented Carousel Center (except maybe a little bit better at finishing its buildings), or the New York State Fair - where all kinds of people meet. So in Matthew, Jesus moves the Easter party out of the church into the marketplace as a gift of life and hope for the world.

            Sometimes we might wonder if Easter is already too much in the world. Easter is a cultural holiday now, where people wear Easter outfits; and hide Easter baskets, and wait for the Easter bunny, and not much of it has necessarily to do with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There have been Easter baskets in the stores that included action battle figures that probably wouldn't make you think much about the Prince of Peace. But that-is a risk God was willing to take, as long as there were faithful messengers like you and me, who would hold up the true meaning of Easter, and carry forward the truth of God's love, and the miracle and victory of the Risen Christ. This morning you and I are gathered here in Jerusalem, and it is a joyous hour together. But the Risen Lord will meet us in Galilee, because God never intended for the glorious gift of Easter hope to be used up in the church. He intended it to be a gift that would transform the world, and bring hope to those struggling and striving at the crossroads of life.

            Over the Lenten season, Jack and I have been preaching about letting go of something for Lent, so we could take something else on. We talked about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and how we can let go of our material obsessions, and take on spiritual joy. We talked about Nicodemus, and how we can let go of the same old routine, and be born anew into a great new possibility. The story of the woman at the well allowed us to think about letting go of our old prejudices, and embracing a new inclusiveness. The raising of Lazarus invited us to embrace the promise of life over death. And the Palm Sunday story invited us to exchange our comfort zones for a bold new mission of love and peace. All of these wonderful possibilities come together here in the Easter story, when Jesus invites us to leave the dark tombs of our despairs and discouragements, and to be part of the Resurrection hope, a hope sent out into the world through the human witnesses of Jesus' victory to transform this place into the vision
of the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

            That seems so far off. Sometimes it seems like death has such a grip on this world - ongoing wars, cruel diseases, young people in despair, hunger and addictions, pollution of the earth and its resources - this list can go on and on. Things that bring despair and discouragement and death to the spirit.

            Easter is God's announcement that we are not created for death - we are created for life, and if it takes shaking the very foundations of the earth, if it takes giving His own precious Son - God will bring Easter, and life will be victorious.

            On the Isle of Capri, in the Bay of Naples, there is a church that for many years joined on Easter Sunday, each family bringing a caged bird. At the conclusion of the service, they went outside, and together they shouted, "Christ is Risen," and freed the birds. And in this world where so many people feel trapped and hopeless, we have an announcement to make: God has moved the stone, and set the human spirit free. Matthew verified it every way he could think of. And now on to Galilee, where so many people are lost and hurting. They need to know what God has done.

Sometime this week, you will have an opportunity to make a choice - between adding to the
discouragement and the darkness in this world, or standing instead for life. Bringing hope; bringing -
kindness; bringing the spirit of the Risen Christ. Be that person. Be the Easter person. More and more
that way of life and hope will overtake the darkness of the world. We know that because the battle for
this world has already been fought. And Jesus rose victorious.