Urgent Easter (Luke 24:1-12)
Written by Pastor Fausel   
 Grace, mercy and peace … and especially Easter Joy … be yours today in the name of our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. …

Have you ever thought of Easter as “Urgent?”  Urgent, like calling for immediate action or attention? … A desire for something to be done quickly??  ASAP?

No matter which Gospel account we read… “Urgent” would be a good way to describe the actions that took place on the first day of the week after Good Friday … that day we now call Sunday, or for the biblical Jews, the first day of the week following their Sabbath.

Jewish law prevented any work being done on the Sabbath, especially preparing a dead body.  So, following Jesus’ hasty burial on Good Friday before Sundown … the women were prevented by Law from touching Jesus’ body until after the Sabbath.

So at first light, stone or no stone, Roman Guard or no Roman guard, the women are urgently going about their task of doing what would have normally been done on Friday, but time then didn’t allow.

And again … they are Urgent.   Perhaps they thought they could get the Roman guard to open the tomb for them while they did what their traditions required, and then get them to seal it up again.  We don’t know; none of the Evangelists speak to that issue.


What we DO know is when the women arrive at the tomb, the stone that blocked and sealed the entrance was rolled away, and the Roman Guard was nowhere to be seen.  Discovering this, the first thing Luke reports is that the women enter the tomb to find the body missing. 

Then, Luke lets us see what’s going on in their heads … They were wondering about why the Body was not there.  God then intervenes by having angel messengers appear … who interpret what they are wondering about.

The body has not been removed.  It’s not been stolen or moved to another site.   The Body has been made alive … And the Angels remind the women of Jesus’ words which had anticipated this actual event …  His being raised from the dead on the third day.

Now, what happens to their task-oriented urgency?? … It goes in another direction.   They hurry, Urgently, back to tell the disciples what had just been told and shown to them …

Let’s ignore the disciples’ reaction to that news for the moment.  We’ll come back to that.

But let’s just consider all that happened within probably less than an hour’s time in the lives of these women.  They had gone from deep despair, gloom and fear … to ecstatic joy.

Through the angels, they had been entrusted by God with the brightest jewel of the Gospel … the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead.  And why had they been entrusted with that jewel?  
Wouldn’t be great if we could say it was because they had expected Jesus to rise, as He had said?... and so they’d gone to the tomb to see it for themselves?

But no, that’s not why they went, was it?  They went thinking about death, not life.  A corpse, not a risen savior.  

So, think about it…  what was the source of their urgency?   Why didn’t they just sleep in?  A dead corpse wouldn’t care if they came at 6am or 10:30. 

Why risk surprising the Roman Guard in the semi-dark?  And why not make the effort to recruit a couple of men to help them move the stone if necessary?   Why this dying need run to the tomb at first light??     Why not let the sun get up a bit, to make their job in a dark cave of a tomb a bit easier??

Luke doesn’t come out and tell us, does he?   You can check the other evangelists’ accounts but they are all silent about the reason for their Urgency as well.

But we CAN tell why; we do KNOW why, don’t we?  Even though these women think Jesus is dead… they still love Him….

You still love those who have gone before you into heaven, don’t you?

These women saw this embalming of Jesus’ body as their final opportunity to express their love.  It was urgent for them because it was part of their grieving.  The body had already suffered a full day in the tomb without their ministrations … and so, in their minds, there was no time to lose.

For them, this wasn’t some sort of necessary chore … like maybe fixing the breakfast … This was a solemn act of devotion.  An act of devotion which came from their hearts.  An act of love.   THAT drove their urgency …

We might even imagine that they’d slept little that night.   There were no alarm clocks back then to get you up before the sun.   We might well imagine they stayed up a good part of the night waiting for the first sign of magenta to appear in the east… the faintest stars to start fading from sight.  Time to gather their supplies and each other before heading for the tomb.

And so it was Love that drove their Urgency … into the pale light of morning.  Love mixed with the terrible grief of having to had had to witness the cruel death suffered by this one they loved.

And so with all that as setting … can you start to imagine the reversal of their feelings when the sights and the words of the angel finally sunk in … that Jesus was not dead … He was alive??

The one they loved … was still with them!!  They could imagine seeing Him again.  The could have HIM explain this miracle that had just occurred. 

It was unbelievable!   Which was the Disciples’ reaction to their news. … Peter and John, also, as we know from his account … both went to the tomb.   It was so hard to believe the news, they felt that they had to check out the story for themselves.

But in all this … notice one thing … the urgency of the women going to the tomb… starts on Easter morning … and it doesn’t stop.   There is an urgency to go and tell His disciples  … we see another urgency in the second half of Luke 24 as we hear about Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus ...and their Urgency to go running all the way back to Jerusalem to share the news.

And this urgency continues on into the New Testament … an urgency to share the Easter Message before the Night comes … the Night when no one can work.

Why is it all so urgent?  Ah.  Remember what we discovered about the women’s urgency to get to the tomb?  It was an urgency motivated by love.  Love compelled them to make haste … to go and do what the Sabbath rest had prevented them from doing.   To express their love for their Lord.

But now, even though death had been swallowed up by life, the motivation is the same.   It was Love that drove the women to go and tell the disciples.  Love for Jesus, and love for His disciples.   Love that drove the two Emmaus Disciples to run all the way back from Emmaus to Jerusalem … once again for the sake of others who loved Jesus.

It would be Love that later would bring Jesus to stand in their midst even though the doors were locked.

God’s love for them.  God’s love for us.   That’s what fuels the fire of urgency even now … today.  And just like then … there are two reasons today for our urgency.

The first is simply the urgency of Easter … that Jesus had died as the sacrifice for the sin of mankind …He had taken on the role of scapegoat for the entire human race. … so that on the Cross, He suffered the temporal and eternal punishment we deserved for our sins and our sinfulness.

His resurrection on Easter is God’s proof to us that not only was Jesus sacrifice sufficient for the task … but also, His resurrection from the dead is now the assurance of our own resurrection from the dead.   That death itself now has been conquered once and for all.

There is a sense of urgency inherent in that message … that brightest jewel of the Gospel … that that message of God’s Love and forgiveness and grace should be shared with all those to who it may apply.   Which is:  every living person on this earth.

We know all about that urgency.  We’ve heard the account of Jesus telling His disciples, and us, before ascending into heaven… as you are going, make disciples, by baptizing and teaching.   Teaching what?   The urgent Easter Message.

And yet … there is another reason for the urgency that comes through this Easter account.  And that urgency is this:  That the God of the universe is urgent to have a real and personal and loving relationship with you as an individual.

In other words … the news about Jesus death for your sins and His rising again on Easter … are bits of information… Facts that you might have the tendency to just pigeon-hole, to file away for those times when you might feel you need to recall them.  

Times like when death strikes near.   When the doctor visit has an unfortunate outcome … when there is a loss of any kind … when despair tries to rule your heart.

But the love that drove the women to the tomb was not about filed away information.  In fact the Angels had to unfile some of that information for them so that they could make sense of what had happened on Easter morning.

We know what really drove them…   They had developed a real and personal and loving relationship with an alive, flesh-and-blood Jesus.  And that kind of personal relationship with God in Christ is what Easter is really all about.

God Himself removed the wall, the wall of your sin, which would otherwise stand between you and Him.  AND God destroyed the curse of death that would have tragically ended whatever relationship you and He may have garnered here on earth …

One way to picture it is that Easter brings us, relationship wise, back to those days in the Garden of Eden when God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
 
Nothing anymore stands between you and God …. neither now … nor in eternity.  Though we still may sin … it’s as if God erases those sins from His memory as soon as they are written.  

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, when the book of life is opened:  There’s your name, with all your sins erased! 

And so, as that has been accomplished, there is an urgency on God’s part to have that personal, loving relationship with you NOW.  And He’s not waiting for you to take the initiative to start it.  He’s already done so.

The Cross and the Open tomb, you might say, were God’s first steps.  Your being born and baptized were the next.  God took the initative  to make you part of His family … His son or daughter … with an inheritance in heaven.  He opened the channel to hear your prayers … He gave you His Holy Spirit so you could understand His Words.

He gave you His church.   He gave it to you … not so you could just practice religion, but so that He could nurture that loving relationship He desires Urgently to have with you..

Make no mistake, church is NOT about practicing religion … it exists so that God can develop a relationship with you … so He can draw you into a more and more intimate, loving relationship with Himself.

And, as we have been saying, He is the one who is urgent about it,   even more urgent than the women were to get to the tomb that first Easter morning! 

If that urgency about your relationship with God is not what you’ve been experiencing in your life … if you haven’t sensed God urgently seeking to have that kind of relationship with you … look again at the events and circumstances that led to your being here this morning.  God sometimes is yelling at us through those things … just to get our attention.

So, if looking at the empty Cross and the vacant tomb this Easter have touched your heart in a new way, give thanks to Him and continue to seek Him where He may be found.   He will be sure to meet you there.

The empty cross and the vacant tomb are solid proofs that God loves you, personally.   Again, not so you can just store those facts away … but so that you can see those facts, His Love, in everything that happens in your life today, tomorrow and forever.

God is love.  And He wants you Urgently to know that.

In Him.   Amen.    
 

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