Sermon for Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026: The Quick and the Dead based upon Matthew 28:1-10

​Matthew 28: 1-10 The Resurrection of Jesus (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 

Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 

​Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

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     It is almost funny to witness the fear of the guards. They remind me of those goats that seem to pass out when they get scared. One minute, they’re up, doing regular goat stuff. The next, they hear a loud sound or see a predator and topple right over, legs straight out, muscles stuck so tensed that, at least for a little while, neither fight nor flight is an option. That’s how I imagine the guards looking, stiff legged and silly, unable to intellectually or spiritually handle what is happening in front of them. These men, probably some of the same men who had gleefully participated in Jesus’ state sanctioned torture and execution, have been rendered powerless in their fear. They don’t even get to witness the glory that has overcome their violence.

     There are some people who do get to witness. They have been consistent witnesses all along, even when not being named. As Cheryl Lindsay points out in her commentary, we’ve spent a lot of the last week hearing about Judas, Peter, Barrabas, and Simone of Cyrene. The 12 disciples are mentioned as a group, as are the violent soldiers. But, there are also women whose presence is only intermittently described. Just before the Last Supper, a woman anoints Jesus with expensive ointment, preparing him for what is coming next. The next time women specifically are described in the book Matthew is after Jesus’ death. “Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (Mt. 27:55-56).” This is an acknowledgement of the care they provided Jesus before death. They, alongside a man named Joseph of Arimathea, would be the ones who would tend to his body after.

     The soldiers are at the tomb only to cause problems. There’s all manner of rumors floating around and the Roman state co-conspires with local people who are threatened by Jesus. They have grown paranoid in the wake of the destruction they have wrought and believe people will move Jesus’ body to make it look like he was raised from the dead when the conspirators were sure he could not be. Imagine having to wade past the violent people who killed your friend in order to just visit his tomb? The women, who have been tending to Jesus all along, are willing to take the risk to go to the tomb, even under threat of violence.

     Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb, and heaven and earth protect them from the soldiers. There is an earthquake, said to be from the divine power of an angelic visitor who “was like lightning and who’s clothes were white as snow...” you know, the kind of white that makes it hard to see clearly. Seeing and feeling that angel’s power is what causes the soldiers’ fainting goat impression. As Matt Skinner notes in his commentary, “Nothing is ever certain during an earthquake. Nothing is stable. Everything totters.” The soldiers totter. The women do not. The angel says what angels say in the Gospels, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” The angel invites them to look with their own eyes to see that Jesus, who had been sealed in the tomb, is no longer there.

     If you have heard this story before, it can be easy to forget that it is supposed to be strange and dramatic and basically impossible. A dead person is alive! A glowing angel has shown up wrapped in lightning, riding an earthquake! Rome, the greatest power in their understanding, has lost! That’s right! Rome, who had taken their nation, who had given them a puppet king, who breathed violence across their homeland and regularly strung up people on crosses just to show how powerful they were, that Rome had lost! Conspirators who worked with one of Jesus’ closest friends... they lost, too! Death! Death lost on that day! This is a wild and weird story meant to show us, as Matt Skinner says, “No one and nothing will obstruct what God is doing.” What God is doing will include a new assignment for the women.

     In her commentary, in describing the Marys faithfulness, says “The women take the alternative path set by Jesus, and they follow him. They follow him from town to town. They follow him to the cross. Then, they follow him to the tomb.” The angel will tell them where they should go next. “Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ ” As we would expect, they follow the new path set before them, in fear and in joy. Because how else would you feel at this unexplanable moment? They ran to tell the disciples (in this case, it’s not just the 11 remaining men of the 12... it’s a big mixed-gender group of followers).

     In the midst of their haste to do what has been asked of them, they meet Jesus along the way and they worship him. He affirms them and encourages them, saying “do not be afraid; go and tell my siblings to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” J. Andrew Overman, in his notes on Matthew, reminds us that in going to Galilee, the people are returning to their homeland as well as place where Jesus began his ministry with them. They aren’t running and hiding. They are reconnecting with the place where they first came to know Christ, and where they will begin their next steps as the new Body of Christ, guided by his Spirit.

     I read in Salt Project’s notes on today’s scripture, and they offer up the idea that Easter Sunday isn’t the end of Lent, it is the beginning of Eastertide. That is to say, Easter is best understood as a new beginning of Christ’s mission. This is a commencement that is sending out the first preachers to share the Good News that will then be shared further and further and further. There is still danger at hand. As Matt Skinner notes, those soldiers are gonna wake up, and “Rome never runs out of crosses.” The next stage of the kingdom, that unfurling into the world, doesn’t need to slow down. It needs to keep going. The poet Lucille Clifton captures the vibrancy of this moment well in her poem “spring song”:

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible

     There are powers and principalities at work trying to create a future far from the love, justice, and healing that Christ demands. Their hope is that we will be convinced that is the only future possible. They are trying to put the seal on the grave of that which threatens them- affirmations of the dignity of trans people, truth-telling of our nation’s history, reparatory actions to address racism of both the past and present, the leadership of women. May we hear the story of Christ’s resurrection and know that the seal can always be broken and that the purveyors of violence can be rendered powerless. May we be like the women and follow Christ to what we think is the end, and like them, may we come to understand that new life with Christ is just beginning.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​More information about fainting goats: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/fainting-goat.htm
Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-they-left-the-tomb/
Matt Skinner: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-281-10-14
Salt Project: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/4/6/dawn-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-easter-sunday
You can find the Lucille Clifton poem here: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/4/12/three-poems-for-easter-joyce-kilmer-marie-howe-and-lucille-clifton
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