As an English Literature major, I always had a deep love of reading. Despite the fact that I often lament there is not enough time to read all of the books I want, I often find myself returning to my beloved stories over and over again, especially when I need the comfort of knowing what happens in the end. In our church life together, I think returning to these Easter stories year after year is one of the most beautiful things about our lectionary cycle, especially when we know how the Easter story ends, when we know that the story doesn’t end with death and the tomb of Good Friday. With each re-reading, the story becomes even more engrained in our being, until it becomes something that we carry with us not just through the week, but throughout our whole lives, this reminder that death doesn’t have the final word.
Now, the Easter story from Matthew is full of so much awe and wonder! There are earthquakes and angels sitting on tombstones, and Jesus’ appearance to the Marys along the road. It is a story that has become embodied throughout Christian history because if it weren’t for these women, Paul and the others would have nothing to tell about later. There are so many important points here that in my Seminary class on the Gospels, I kept missing the mark on my writing assignments because I would lose sight of the big themes as I became engrossed with the little details that make this story so powerful. Yes, the story of the Resurrection is important, and I want to pay attention to how the authors describe these stories because that matters too!
Like the fact that there is a great earthquake, signaling God’s power to control nature, something that we’ve seen before when Jesus calms the storm, and the descent of the angel who rolls the stone away only to sit on it. I can see that all playing out as if it is a movie. The women didn’t just walk to the tomb and find it empty, but were met along the way with all of these signs about the power of God, a foreshadowing of the empty tomb to come. “Then the angel spoke, addressing the women: “Don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus the crucified, who is no longer here. Jesus has been raised, exactly as it was foretold. Come and see the burial place” (Matthew 28: 5-6). We hear the women be told “Don’t be afraid,” the signature phrase any time God’s power is about to be shown in seemingly unbelievable ways. We hear the angel tell of the one who they are coming to see, the one who has been raised and is no longer here. “Don’t be afraid” are the same words that Mary is told at the annunciation of Jesus’ birth, just as the shepherds of the field were invited to come and see; it is a full circle of his birth, life, death, and resurrection.
And, we are told that the women “hurried away from the tomb with awe and great joy and ran to carry the good news to the disciples” (Matthew 28: 8). This story testifies to the women’s witness of the empty tomb and their encounter with the angel. Personally, I prefer this version to the ending of Mark where the women leave without saying anything because they were afraid. This story, the one in Matthew, is centered on the women’s experience with the empty tomb and later with the Risen Christ on the roadway (Matthew 28: 9). We forget that without their witness, Paul and the other writers wouldn’t be able to tell the same stories. The testimonies of these women are not dismissed, and we don’t hear that their witness needed to be verified by the male disciples, but instead they are entrusted to share this good news with the others. They are called to witness to the fact that the one who was dead is alive!
In his sharing of “Shalom,” “Peace” with them, they know that this is the one for whom they went looking. It is a continuation of Christ’s promise that is it his peace that he leaves with them, retold through the experience of these women on the roadway. He greets them with peace, knowing that they will be startled, but reminding them that he is not some stranger on the roadway but is the one for whom they cared so deeply. It is another way for his disciples to know that it was really him; to see that the Empire and death did not win that day. And, I think it was important to Jesus that he brought his disciples peace and didn’t just leave them in grief and confusion. Like at the Last Supper, Jesus probably could have told the women just about anything, but instead he begins with peace.
So, I’m honestly amazed by how these women are able to respond to the situation because I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty scared if I went to visit my loved ones grave and I realized that they weren’t there anymore. Not to mention the fact that I have never experienced an earthquake, so I would probably be overwhelmed just by that piece. And then to see the angel sitting on top of the stone just seems like the icing on the cake that would make me think that this has to be a dream stemming from my grief. But the women run away with joy and awe ready and eager to go tell the other disciples what they have seen. The one who was dead is not here, but he has been raised! They run with joy to share this good news; how great a witness is that! Even if they were scared or confused, they still ran with joy and awe.
So we hear this story, or at least similar versions of this story, every year at Easter to remind us that the one who was dead is not here, but has been raised. That in his death and resurrection, Christ is ushering a new reign where death and evil do not have the last word, even if it feels like that when we look around us. It is a story that we hear over and over again to remind us that our hope is grounded in this one, the one who has been raised, what he has done and what he is still to do. We hear this story, not because there aren’t other stories for us to read, but because this story is foundational to who we are as Christians. We are a people who believe that Christ truly died and was raised, in a way that wraps all of human suffering and brokenness into the wounded arms of Christ. We are reminded that Christ bears his scars too, for the act that he did for the sake of the whole world. A love so vast that it is hard for us to even imagine until Christ meets us on the roadway in our own lives.
So, today’s story is a reminder that we do not have to fear the empty tomb. That the tomb’s emptiness is a promise of new life. That it is a reason to run with awe and joy instead of fear and trembling because we witness the power of God. Today isn’t about trying to figure out logically how the Resurrection looked or what it was like exactly, but it is about leaning into the stories, the promises, that we hear over and over, year after year, until they reside in our hearts as promises that we can turn back to time and time again. It is why Easter, like Christmas, isn’t just a day, but a season. A season of new life, of hope grounded in what God is continuing to do for the sake of the world. It isn’t something that we celebrate for an hour and move on from, but it is something that we are invited to dwell in for longer, as we see the empty tomb and feel the earthquake and look to the scars of the Risen Christ for the promises of what lies ahead. A journey that we set out on today accompanied by Christ’s “Shalom.”