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Pastor Tom Johnson, April 17, 2022
When Joseph of Arimathea takes Jesus’ dead body to the tomb, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other unnamed women follow. The women see where Jesus was buried and how his body was laid. They go back to Jerusalem to prepare spices and ointments. Early the next morning—just when the horizon started to glow with the promise of the rising Sun—the women make their way to the tomb where Jesus lay. They are courageous in the face of death and in the face of the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb. They boldly go to find Jesus’ body among the dead. They find that the stone has been rolled away. They go into the tomb where they last saw the corpse wrapped in a linen cloth. But the body is no longer there. The women are perplexed—they are trying to understand what had happened.
It’s in that moment of profound bewilderment two angels appear in dazzling clothes. The word dazzling here is based on the New Testament word for lightning. They are dressed in blinding light. This brings terror to the women who must shield their faces and eyes…and buckle to the ground. The angels’ first word is a rhetorical question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Literally, the question is, “Why do you seek the Living One among the dead ones?” The angels know why. Their question is meant to stir their memory. It is meant to stir their hearts with the rollicking truth of the resurrection. God sends his angels to intercept those who are lost in a graveyard. They are God’s messengers sent to redirect their futile pursuit of the Lord of Life in a place of death.
The angels are blessèd riddlers. Their sense of humor is rooted in the irony of devoted women desperate to find a cadaver in a morgue when they should be going to the neonatal unit. For Jesus is the firstborn of the dead! What on earth are you doing, dear women? Don’t you remember what Jesus said—that he must suffer, be crucified and on the third day rise again from the dead? Your foolishness will be met with unsurpassable joy. We are not laughing at you but laughing with you—because soon you will get the punchline of life and the Living One! The defeat of sin, death, and the devil is not just glorious—it is hilarious. The angels are the jesters in this story. In the words of one theologian (Charles Campbell), “They are riddlers who bring truth. They melt the solidity of the old age that is dying. They call us into an unsettling new creation that is being born.”
The angels have the advantage of being objective spectators and perfect servants of God. They can stand back and clearly see the big picture. And from how the angels ask this question, I think they find it amusing. It certainly brings them joy. They know the women are in for a beautiful and life-transforming surprise. In other words, the angels help the women and us see our own foolishness so that we can receive the surprising grace of God.
We are invited to ask ourselves, “Why do we look for life in places of death?” Why do we keep going back to the graveyards of this world when we will never find the life-giving spirit of God there? Why do we keep going down paths that lead to dead-ends? Why do we pursue things that will never give us sustained happiness? The angels know that we will find no solace in the graveyards of this world. As Scripture says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). The angels’ rhetorical question stirs our minds. Their wit stirs our spirits. We gain perspective for our spiritual journey. Their riddle awakens us to a greater and more glorious reality. They call us to remember Jesus’ plan to suffer, die, and on the third day rise again. Resurrection was God’s punchline all along!
God sends these angels to graciously redirect us. God calls us to join our resurrected Lord on a different road—the road that leads to life everlasting. Like the women staring into the empty tomb, the only hope we have in the face of the heartbreaking reality of death is resurrection. Jesus is truly the Living One among the dead! He lives to bring hope to the hopeless. He is the source of life among the sad reality of death. He is raised from the dead so that death itself no longer has the final word. Resurrection is the final Word! The risen Christ is the answer to the riddle of life in the midst of perplexing death. For you, for me, and for the whole world…Jesus the Living One—the one who lives.
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.
He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
(“I Know that My Redeemer Lives,” LSB 461, vv. 1, 5, & 7)
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
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