March 23, 2008
Easter
Sermon Title: “Two Marys”
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Dr.
Delivered on March 23, 2008
Two Marys
Have you ever done something that you really didn’t want to do and didn’t really enjoy doing it while you did it, but deep down knew you needed to do it? I’m sure we can all think of examples of this in our life. It may be as simple as taking out the trash, mowing the grass, or doing some kind of chore around the house when you didn’t feel like it. Or it may be something like going to Aunt Bertha’s for Thanksgiving or Christmas when you’d much rather have stayed home. Or it could be something like when you went to a nursing home to visit someone who doesn’t remember who you are any more, or to a funeral home to comfort someone who is grieving, just because you knew you should, even though you would have preferred not to.
We all have stories like those; stories where we’re called to interrupt our schedules and routines for the sake of something, or someone else. We do things that we really don’t want to do, and we don’t enjoy doing them while we’re doing them, but we do them just because something inside is saying, “You ought to go…”
I suspect Mary Magdalene and the “other Mary” had that kind of experience many years ago in the account we read this morning. Matthew says, “After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” My guess is those two women really didn’t want to go, but they went, because they felt like they needed to.
Because we know the story so well, we sometimes forget that they weren’t headed to the tomb early on that first Easter morning giddy with excitement because they were going to a sunrise service to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, I noticed something this year for the very first time as I studied Matthew’s account of the resurrection. You know, one of the basic principles interpreting scripture is that you’re supposed to read the Bible and listen to each writer’s specific voice. What I noticed this time is that in Matthew’s gospel, which we read this morning, the two women aren’t going to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body for burial as Mark and Luke says they were. Matthew says, “early on the first day of the week….they went to see the tomb.” They didn’t go expecting to see Jesus rise from the dead, they went to continue the death vigil – today it would be like you or me, after the death of a loved one, going back out to the cemetery to make sure the flowers haven’t blown over or something.
So that morning in the predawn darkness as Mary and Mary walked toward Jesus’ grave they weren’t thinking lovely religious thoughts or glorious Easter morning thoughts. I suspect both women climbed out of bed that morning dreading going, but something told them they needed to go. I imagine them walking slower and slower as they drew closer to the tomb, almost to the point where they were barely moving. They wanted to remember Jesus as he was—strong, full-of life, compassionate, and caring. They didn’t want to think of him cold, dead, and stiff inside the harsh tomb.
Yes, I believe the two Marys woke up early on that first Easter Sunday with the “I know I ought to go, but really wish I didn’t have to,” kind of feeling. I believe they went out of a mixture of duty and devotion because at some point they had encountered Jesus, and nothing was ever the same after that.
If the truth be told, what you and I are doing right now might be one of those “I don’t want to go, but I know I should” kind of moments.” It’s awfully early. Some of us are usually still asleep at this time on a Sunday morning. I know I’m normally sitting in the warmth of my kitchen right about now, drinking hot coffee and eating freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Among even strong, practicing Christians, I’ve discovered there are clearly two camps: the “I’d never miss a sunrise service group,” and the “I can’t believe you people got up so early group.” And that’s okay…after all, it’s been said there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord!” And those who wake up and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning!” I’m suspecting most of us here are the former, not the latter
I say all this about the reasons behind the two Marys’ journey to “see the tomb” that first Easter morning to simply get us thinking about the reasons why we came out so early on this frosty morning. Why did you come? Did someone in your family insist you come? Did you have a job you had to do? Did you feel sorry for me because of all those emails I sent out this week? There are probably as many different reasons why we are here as there are people. Why did you come? And what were you expecting to find when you got here?
Matthew’s statement that the women went to “see the tomb” reminds me of a common thought I have when reading scripture; namely that I could’ve written it better. Do you know what I mean? If I were writing this story I would’ve said that even though the two Marys knew Jesus had been crucified, dead and buried, they went to the tomb early that day anyway. Why? Because “they remembered his words and they knew he would be raised – they hoped against all hope, etc…..”
I would have made them icons of faith and used their story as a lesson to folks like you and me that we should never give up and always have their faith because faith like that is rewarded. Doesn’t that make sense to you?
Instead Matthew has the women go to “see the tomb,” and once there they get frightened and have to be reminded of Jesus words (note the “as he said” in verse 6). They had no faith at all that he would be alive, and they didn’t even remember his words.
And yet it was these two women – they of little faith and remembrance – who WERE the lucky ones who got to see the angel and experience the earthquake and even see and worship the Lord himself. It wasn’t Peter, or John, or James. It was the two Marys!
Why? Clearly it wasn’t because they had greater faith than the others. Clearly it wasn’t because they were better Bible scholars than the others.
Well, despite Matthew, Mark, Luke and John botching an opportunity to really inspire us or give us a lesson here (ha ha) I do believe there is a takeaway from the account we read this morning. And that takeaway is my hunch about why the women were the first witnesses to the resurrection.
I believe these two women were rewarded because they “kept on keeping on.” It was these same two women who Matthew mentions as being present at Jesus’ death on the cross, even after all his disciples had fled (Matt. 27:55). In fact, Matthew goes to great lengths to make this clear. If you look back you’ll see the same elements in the story of Jesus’ death as at the burial. At his death in Matthew’s account there is an earthquake, and a terrified guard who says, “Surely this man was God’s Son.” And then the camera pans to the women standing there. Then at the tomb you have the women, the earthquake, the guards who are shaking with fear and become as dead men, and the angel’s pronouncement “he has been raised from the dead.”
What I’m trying to say is that in the last weeks and days of Jesus life, as he moved from the cheering throng on Palm Sunday, to the handful of disciples at the Lord’s supper, to his movement in the garden from eleven, to three, to just him; as believers fell away right and left because all hope seemed gone, a couple of women held on. No, apparently they didn’t think he’d really come back to life, but they kept on coming to attend to him…even in death. It is that kind of faithful persistence that God rewards. They represent each one of us who persist – who keep on believing despite the set-backs, despite the laughter, jeers, or even indifference of others who don’t believe. We just keep on coming…watching…and waiting. We wouldn’t think of abandoning Him.
And you know what? Some day when we least expect it, we will see the Lord. That’s the message of Easter. Don’t be afraid, God’s new world has begun, and although your faith may ebb and flow over the years you must continue to be faithful – we must persist, we must “keep on keeping on” out of duty and devotion to Him. And as we do, someday, somewhere, we will see the Lord.
And so the message of the two Marys this morning for us, I believe, is “keep on keeping on.” Don’t give up. Keep on moving down the path, even if you feel, at times, like you’re walking towards a grave. Why? Because the good news of Easter, the good news we proclaim this morning, is the grave is empty – he is risen. Everything has changed. Amen.