Easter Sermon 2025
Luke 24:1-12
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women [who had followed
Jesus] took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone
rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the
Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that
gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 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? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he
was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of
sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”Then, they remembered
his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to
all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the
others with them who told this to the apostles.But they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 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.
Introduction:
Easter is a little different in the Moravian Church than other Protestant
denominations. In fact, it is a little different for Moravians in North Carolina than
other parts of the country. In most churches, the 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. worship service
on Easter is the highlight of the church year, and pastors try to give their most
rousing sermon. But you may have noticed that many people in our congregation,
including members of the choir, and even the pastors, are unusually sleepy this
morning. The bands began making their rounds about 2 a.m. to call people to
worship. Folks were in the kitchens preparing a breakfast that was served at 4 a.m. for
the bands and others. All kinds of volunteers spent the early morning preparing to
receive thousands of worshipers in Salem Square and God’s Acre. And at 6 a.m.,
while the nearly full moon was shining overhead, the liturgist proclaimed that the
Lord is Risen! Thousands of people professed their faith and watched the sun rising
from its night-curtained slumber. It is such a wonderful experience, especially for
those who were able to join in the Holy Week services leading up to Easter.
1I grew up in a small Moravian congregation, Hope Moravian near Clemmons. We had
our God’s Acre service at 10 a.m. instead of sunrise because most of our band also
played in the band in Salem. It was a little odd to have the sunrise service at 10:00, but
since our service was later in the morning, there were always lots of children there.
Many of them were in new Easter outfits and were happy to be outside walking
around instead of sitting in a pew. Of course, most of them had already enjoyed their
Easter baskets with chocolate eggs and gifts. One year my nephew got one of those
talking children’s books. It was Winnie the Pooh. And when the pastor shouted out
“The Lord is Risen!”
we heard the reply “That’s what Tiggers do best.” 30 years later,
we still remind Billy of that humorous moment amid a solemn celebration. That story
is a reminder that children are part of the kingdom of God even though they may not
understand everything going on. Now each Easter, Billy and his wife come to Hope
Church. They stand near the graves of Billy’s mother and father and with tears in their
eyes proclaim their faith in Christ. Because that’s what Moravians do best.
This is what is beautiful and challenging about Easter Sunday. It is time of celebration
and flowers and Hosannas and Hallelujahs, but also grief and tears and memory of
those who are resting in Christ’s presence. It is also a time of family reunions and
fellowship. I’ve known people who are confused as to why we Moravians gather in
the cemetery to celebrate Easter since Easter is about new life. When we gather on
God’s Acre on Easter we are worshiping with the whole church, not just those of us
who still walk on earth. It is among the company the saints who from their labor rest,
that we should proclaim the good news of Christ’s victory. If we cannot profess our
faith among the graves of those who have gone before us, then we probably should
not confess our faith anywhere. A day will come when we will join those who have
gone before and others will shout The Lord is Risen Indeed!
Joseph of Arimathea
In our gospel lesson for this morning, we hear Luke’s version of the first Easter. Just
prior to our assigned text, Luke gave a brief account of the burial of Jesus in the tomb
of a Pharisee named Joseph of Arimathea. We heard that story on Friday evening in
our lovefeast. Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin, but he believed in
Jesus. He asked permission of Pilate to bury Jesus with dignity, but since the Sabbath
was upon them, there was not time to prepare the body with spices. Nicodemus, we
are told, provided spices, but the work of preparing the body had to wait. Normally
the preparations would have been done by female members of the deceased’s family,
2but Jesus died a long way from home. Joseph of Arimathea was taking a great risk to
take the body of a man who had been condemned as an insurrectionist by the
Sanhedrin, the council that Joseph himself was a member of. He had Jesus laid in his
tomb and sealed the entrance with a stone.
The women disciples of Jesus, who had remained faithful throughout the ordeal on
Friday, followed Joseph and saw where he was buried. They observed the Sabbath rest
in secret while grieving for the teacher they loved. Since it was the Sabbath, they could
not prepare food or do anything to distract themselves. That sat in grief and tried to
comfort one another. Before daybreak on Sunday after the crucifixion they took the
spices they had, they went back to the garden to the tomb of Joseph.
The Women
The four gospels disagree over how many women went to anoint the body of Jesus.
All say that Mary Magdalene was one of them, but each gospel lists different names of
the companions. One of the reasons we can accept the gospels as trustworthy and
authentic accounts is this kind of discrepancy. People rarely remember the details of
an event in the same way. Luke wrote his gospel more than 40 years after Jesus’ death,
and it’s not surprising that the story he heard was a little different from what the other
Gospel writers had heard. All four of the gospels agree on the important point that
the women who came to the tomb had traveled with Jesus from Galilee. They had left
their families and supported Jesus on his journey. Now they were far from their
homes and had just lost a friend they loved. They were numb with grief, but even in
grief there was work to do. The final acts of love and care.
The women went early in the morning before dawn or the gloaming. Many of us rose
before dawn today to play in the band or process quietly with the crowd in the
gloaming to God’s Acre. We do this each year in imitation of the women. But unlike
us, Mary and the others were not going to proclaim faith in the resurrection. They
were expecting to find Jesus’ wounded body wrapped in white cloth lying forsaken
and alone on the cold ground. They were expecting to do the final act of love that so
many women in the world have done since before the dawn of civilization. They were
going to treat the broken body of Jesus with dignity and tenderness, clean off the
blood, anoint it with spices, and say their final good-byes.
Darkness into light
3The sun was not yet up when they found the garden. The dim light and morning mists
must have made the scene quite eerie as they approached the tomb and saw that it had
been opened. As the light grew, they peered into the darkness and saw nothing but
the winding sheet lying there. To their horror and confusion, there was no body to
anoint. Before they had a chance to voice their fear that someone, perhaps one of the
Roman soldiers, had stolen Jesus’ body, they were startled by a dazzling light that did
not come from the sun.
Two men were standing with them. Two men they did not know. Two men dressed in
white. Two men whose faces shone brighter than their clothes. It is when the
darkness is strongest that the light shines most clearly. These two men were obviously
not human. They were divine messengers who revealed themselves to the women to
reassure them that no one had desecrated the tomb or stolen a body. As most humans
do when they encounter angels, the women fell on the ground in fear. When our eyes
are accustomed to the sepulchral gloom of grief, the light hurts, and we at first want
to flee back to the darkness.
The Living among the Dead
The message the angels brought shocked the women even more than their blazing
faces. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” We can only imagine the
reaction of the women to that question. It must have felt like these strange men were
mocking them in their grief. The reason we have graveyards, cemeteries, God’s Acres,
necropolises, catacombs, mausoleums, and other sacred places for burial is to remove
the dead from the living. We want to remember the dead, but at a safe distance.
The women were confused by the question because they were not seeking the living
among the dead; they were seeking the earthly remains of someone they loved. So the
angels clarified their question by telling them that Jesus was not there because God
had raised from the dead. Do not seek for him in the tomb. His Sabbath rest in the
grave had ended sometime in the night.
Jesus had awakened from the last sleep and rose from his final resting place. No one
had seen him do it. No one had heard him. There were no special effects – no
dramatic lightening or thunder or earthquakes. There were no loud screams as when a
baby passes from the darkness of the womb into the light of the world. Silently, how
silently the wondrous gift of resurrection, of rebirth was given. He is Risen!
Son of Man
4Since they were still confused and confounded, the angels reminded them that Jesus
had said that the Son of Man would rise on the third day. Before they started their
walk to Jerusalem with Jesus, he had told them what would happen. Only then did the
women remembered his words. Suddenly, it dawned on them that Jesus was the Son
of Man he had taught them about. He hadn’t been talking in parables and metaphors
when he said that the Son of Man who had to die and come back to life. The rabbi
they had learned from, the Messiah they had followed, the Lord they had obeyed was
the Son of Man whom God raised from the death.
And just when it was becoming clear to them who Jesus really was, the angels were
gone. Only the women remained as witnesses. Why are we seeking the living among
the dead, they asked each other. We need to step out of the gloom of the tomb into
the light. Why seek the living among the dead, the angels asked the women – and us.
An Idle Tale?
The male disciples of Jesus also had a rough Sabbath. They had left everything they
knew, even their careers and fishing boats, to follow Jesus to Jerusalem. They had
walked beside his donkey as he rode into Jerusalem. They had seen him overturn the
tables of the moneychangers in the Temple and oppose the malice of the priests and
lawyers. They had shared the Last Supper and heard his final teachings, but without
really understanding what he was saying.
They fled when he was arrested and hid while he was put on trial. They had cowered
in fear as he had been flogged. Unlike the women, they had not followed Jesus on his
last steps up to Golgotha or heard his words from the cross. They had not gone with
Joseph to bury his body. The male disciples had spent the Sabbath in fear, confusion,
grief, and shame. Especially Peter who had denied three times that he knew who Jesus
was. Their hopes and dreams were shattered. They had trouble even looking each
other in the face.
They did not go with the women to the tomb. Dealing with the dead was women’s
work. We don’t know if the women had left breakfast on the table for the men when
they went out, but the men did not leave the house when the sun rose. They sat
wondering what to do. Should they go back to Galilee and see if they could go back to
being fishermen?
And then Mary Magdalene and the other women came back from Joseph’s garden
telling an unbelievable tale about an empty tomb and angels. It was truly unbelievable.
5The dead do not get up and leave their beds. Angels don’t appear to ordinary people.
The men assumed the women were dreaming and seeing things in the dark. They had
gotten lost and went to the wrong tomb. This was just all wishful thinking. Grief had
addled the women’s brains, the disciples thought. This was an idle tale for children,
not a story for grown ups. The disciples were thinking that the past months with Jesus
had been a dream that had turned into a nightmare. Now it was time to wake up to
the harsh reality that the world is a cold and lonely place, and there ain’t no Messiahs
or Saviors.
Us
I have a feeling that some of you know what it was like for the both the women and
the men that morning. I’ve had many people tell me that they have had wonderful,
life-changing spiritual experiences that their friends and family dismissed as idle tales.
Be we also know what it is like to grow old and lose our sense of wonder and our
belief in the miraculous. Like the words of an old Supertramp sang, we were taught
how to be sensible, logical, dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical. We think that is
what it means to be grown up. We lose our sense of wonder and the hope for better
days. A danger with coming to church on Easter year after year is that we can forget
how amazing this story is. We shout out the Lord is Risen indeed, but too often our
hearts remain dead and our backs bowed by the weight of our cares.
Conclusion
The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen, indeed! My prayer for all of us this Easter is
that this is not an idle tale for us, but that is the story that gives meaning to life. I pray
that this story that the women brought to the disciples renews our sense of hope and
joy and purpose. Rather than seeking the living among the dead, let us go forth into
the world with our faces blazing with light so that all may know the good news. Our
redeemer lives and life is beautiful and there is hope even during dark times.
