They Just Showed Up
Luke 24:1-12
April 11, 2004 (Year C, Easter)

I.  The women in the story come to the tomb of Jesus out of loyalty, duty, and love.  That’s how many people end up in church on Easter morning. 

A.    The women came because it was their religious duty to prepare the body for burial – a task that had to be postponed because the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday at sundown had led to a hasty burial of the Jesus.  Perhaps some of the women who came to the tomb were merely there because they were kin to Mary, the mother of Jesus and out of family loyalty they came to help with the embalming. 

·        The same motivations bring people to church on Easter Sunday:  The sense of religious obligation.  It’s just what you are supposed to do if you are a nominal Christian.  Others come because their family loyalty demands it.  To get admission to Easter Sunday Lunch you have to pass through the gates of the Service. 

B.    Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus were there because of love.  Jesus’ mother had carried this man in her womb and carried him in her arms.  She had walked beside him to Jerusalem and through his passion.  Tender, maternal love brought the Virgin to the tomb.  Jesus had delivered Mary Magdalene from demonic possession. 

·        Like these women some come to worship this day because of a great love for Jesus for what he has done for them in the past.  They remember with fondness the love of God they felt as children growing up on church.  They recall that at some point in their lives when they were in great need they received mercy and grace to help when they called out to Jesus.

C.    Whether they came out of loyalty or duty or love they still showed up at the tomb.  And God can work with that!  The good news is that whatever brings us to this place on this day God can still work with the minimal commitment of just showing up!

II.  The one certain thing we can say about these women at the tomb is that they were NOT expecting the Resurrection.  (I can’t help but think of the Monty Python skit: “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”)

 

·        There were not expecting the odd condition that the stone was rolled away from the tomb. 

 

·        Their surprise mounted when they encountered two angels in shining garments. 

 

·        They were totally overwhelmed with the news that every fear and pain had been completely overturned and reversed and that Jesus was ALIVE!

A.    You see, I don’t think you’re really getting what’s going on here.  So, let me ‘splain the resurrection to you: 

JESUS WAS KILLED.  DEAD.

BEATEN, TORTURED, DEAD. 

THREE DAYS LATER GOD RAISED JESUS CHRIST UP FROM THE DEAD. 

A DEAD MAN BEATEN AND BATTERED BEYOND HOPE OF RECOVERY STOPPED BEING DEAD THE SUNDAY AFTER HE HAD DIED ON FRIDAY.

THE LIFELESS CORPSE OF JESUS CHANGED SO THAT ONLY THE PIERCED HANDS AND SIDE RETAINED THEIR SCARS.  HIS HEART BEGAN TO BEAT.  HIS LUNGS HEAVED FULL OF AIR.  HIS EYES OPENED.

JESUS SAT UP OUT OF HIS BURIAL SHROWD, STOOD UP, AND WALKED OUT OF THE GRAVE.

JESUS IS ALIVE. 

JESUS IS MORE ALIVE THAN ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS EVER LIVED BECAUSE DEATH HAS ABSOLUTELY NO HOLD OVER HIM AT ALL.

B.     None of us really expects that God is going to do something this wonderful and that we are going to get to be a part of it. But that’s exactly what happened to these women who just showed up on Easter morning.

Lois Cheney (no relation to the VP) in her book God Is No Fool, has a poem that sums this up:  "Once Upon a Time", 

C.    Lots of us showed up to look with nostalgia or longing or love at the tomb of Jesus.  But Jesus Christ isn’t there!  He’s “Out on the Edge calling: “Hey!”  “Hey you!”  “Over here!”

D.    For many people the Church has become like that TOMB.  It’s a place that’s dead, depressing, hopeless.  A place you may attend out of loyalty or duty or even love.  BUT WE DON’T COME EXPECTING SOMETHING WONDERFUL TO HAPPEN TO US.  BUT THE SAME POWER THAT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD IS PRESENT IN THE MIDST OF GOD’S PEOPLE TODAY!

And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1:4 (NLT)

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:11 (NIV)

III.  Do you know what the most amazing thing about the resurrection is?  THAT IT HAPPENED!  The older I get the more I understand just how outrageous Easter really is.  I’ve lived long enough now to see death claim loved ones and friends.  I’ve lived long enough now to really believe that death will claim me too, one day.  I’ve lived long enough to really HATE death. 

A.    You know what?  GOD HATES DEATH TOO!  The resurrection was God’s knockout punch to death.  The most horrible thing in the world was defeated that first Easter morning and these humble Jewish women from the armpit of the Roman Empire were there to witness it!  They just showed up!  Because of loyalty, or duty, or love they were witnesses.

B.    By just showing up they encountered the Good News and they were TRANSFORMED.  They were told Jesus is alive!  And they believed it! 

C.    They believed it so much that they breathlessly hurried back to tell the scared, quaking men who had been Jesus’ closest friends.  They boldly told the unbelieving, un-expecting disciples the truth that had changed them.  Jesus is alive!

CONCLUSION:  You might have showed up here for many reasons.  God has a purpose beyond yours.  He wants to fill you so full of JOY from believing that Jesus is risen, and Jesus is Lord, that you take the GOOD NEWS to those who haven’t bothered to show up.

He wants you to experience the same power that raised Jesus from the dead – the Holy Spirit active and potent in the church today.

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Luke 24:1-12

24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" 8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
NIV

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