It seems that in Jerusalem almost everybody (or was it
everybody?) thought that Jesus’s death on the cross was the end of the story
for him. This is true for his enemies as
well as his friends and disciples. The
joke for the day on Good Friday was that this poor worm of a man had believed
that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Everybody thought it was funny that Jesus had
such an exalted opinion of himself, when it was obvious that he couldn’t
possibly be the Son of God. If he were
the Son of God, then he never would have let those kinds of things happen to
him. Certainly the Son of God couldn’t
die—and in such an ignoble way too. This
is how his enemies thought of him.
The disciples might have had similar thoughts in their
heads. Most of them did not stick around
to see Jesus crucified. The Gospels don’t
tell us what they were doing elsewhere.
They couldn’t stand to be in the same place as Jesus, either because
they were so disappointed in him—they thought that he was the Christ—or they
were scared. Probably it was both. There were a few who stayed by the cross and
watched until the end, but they weren’t expecting Jesus to come back to
life. The women who came to Jesus’s tomb
on Easter morning were carrying the things that were necessary to complete his
burial in a proper way because there hadn’t been time on Friday afternoon. These women and the rest of the disciples
thought that Jesus’s death was the end of the story.
Our reading this evening from Matthew about what happened on
Saturday of Holy Week shows that the Jewish authorities thought the same way. There wasn’t a ghost of a chance that he
could come back to life. What they were
concerned about was fraud. They were
worried that his disciples might steal his body and then tell everybody that
Jesus rose from the dead. This is the
unexpected way that the tomb ended up being made secure. It was guarded by Jesus’s enemies. They had a vested interest to make sure the
tomb was secure. And yet, Jesus rose
from the dead and there was no body to be found on Easter morning. Unintentionally these guards became witnesses
that Jesus left the tomb by himself and was not carried away by his disciples.
Death being the end of the story is what has given murderers
the courage necessary to commit their crimes.
With the very first murder and ever after, death has been looked at as
one of the options available to solve a problem. Cain killed Abel to get rid of
him. When Abel was dead he thought that
his problem was solved. But Abel’s blood
cried to God from the ground. What Cain
thought was over and done with was not over and done with.
The same is true with the Jewish authorities who, more than
anyone else, were responsible for Jesus’s death. They thought that by killing Jesus, they
could solve a problem. Their problem was
Jesus upsetting the status quo—flipping the money changer’s tables in the
temple, exposing the wickedness of the church bureaucrats, creating believers
with strong convictions instead of just going along with the church machinery
and pay their dues. The church leaders’
bread and butter were at stake. Plus,
they just hated this man who would not go along with their corruption and
hypocrisy. By killing Jesus they thought
that life could go back to normal.
And so it was that on this Sabbath the Jewish leaders were quite
content. They won. They had to work pretty hard to get the
sentence of death imposed upon Jesus.
They had to twist Pilate’s arm.
But they managed to carry it off.
Now it was time to mop up what was left: make the tomb secure so that
his disciples can’t perpetuate this problem that Jesus created.
The Scriptures don’t tell us how these leaders felt once the
reports of people seeing and speaking with the resurrected Jesus started to
roll in. Up to that point no murder
victim had ever come back to life. That
was supposed to be the end of the story.
Now it wasn’t? The sinking
feeling of dread must have gripped them.
The Scriptures don’t tell us about that, but they do seem to
indicate that at least some of these officials were present on the day of
Pentecost, about fifty days after Easter.
St. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaches on that wonderful day
and he tells this crowd of Jews that they had crucified the Lord of Glory. They had murdered their God, and now he’s
back.
The amazing thing, though, is that Jesus had loved his
enemies. Not only did he not desire the
death of these wicked people, he was prepared to bless them. He had already served them, by ransoming them
on the cross while they had hated him so deeply. When St. Peter showed them that they were guilty
of murdering not just a man—which is bad enough—but even the Son of God, they
were terrified. But they are met with a
kind word in response to their question, “What should we do?” St. Peter said to them, “Repent and be
baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Here we have another thing that is totally unexpected. First they thought that all their problems
would be solved with the death of the person that they hated. That didn’t turn out. Then what they and everyone else would expect
to happen when they are called to account—namely, that they should be punished—doesn’t
happen. Instead, God opens his heart to
them, big and wide, as though they are prodigal sons whom he had been waiting
for for so long. God kills the fatted calf and celebrates, because these people
who were murderers of his Son and his enemies, have been reconciled to himself
through the blood of Jesus.
Good application of all of this can be made directly also to
us today. The reason why we sin is
mysterious. Sin has a power that is
beyond our reason. But one thing that we
can’t help but think is that the sins we commit won’t come back to haunt
us. Here I am speaking of us Christians. Subconsciously we think that the skeletons
will stay in the closet. If this is true
of Christians, then how much more true is it of those who aren’t Christians?
The reason why we don’t think that these things will come
back to haunt us is because we don’t believe that Jesus will come to judge the
living and the dead. Since we are
Christians it seems like this shouldn’t happen.
But we are not very dissimilar to the disciples who had thought that Jesus’s
story was over and that Jesus was not going to come back to life. They thought this even though Jesus had
explicitly told them what was going to happen.
Just as Jesus had told them, so also he has told us about his second
coming. Jesus says that when that time
comes all will be resurrected and judged.
Those who have done good will enter into the resurrection of life and
those who have done evil will enter into the resurrection of death.
The reason why the people on Holy Saturday did not think
that Jesus was going to rise from the dead is because it had never happened
before. Since it had never happened
before, and all murder victims had stayed dead, they thought that that was what
was going to happen here too. The final
judgment has not happened yet and since a good deal of time has passed since
Jesus ascended into heaven many people think that it will never happen. But just as some of those Jewish leaders
might have been disturbed by reports of Jesus’s rising, so also some are
disturbed by the promise of Jesus’s coming.
But just as St. Peter was sent to preach to these murderers
on Pentecost, so also I have been sent to you.
If you are afraid of God’s judgment for how you have lived your life,
then I can tell you that Jesus suffered and died for you to earn the
forgiveness of sins for you and to make you righteous.
If you are not afraid, then I say that this message is not
for you. If you refuse Jesus’s mercy,
then you are no different than those Jewish leaders who refused to repent and
went on hating Jesus and his disciples.
I recommend that you continue to believe that death is the end of the
story. That way you will at least have
some measure of peace now in this earthly life, because you will have no peace
in the next.
But you who are not too proud to count yourself among
sinners—you who are not too proud to count yourself as being a murderer, an
adulterer, a thief, and a breaker of all the rest of the commandments—there is
a good word for you. It’s not my word,
but God’s Word. God has loved you. He redeemed you in his Son Jesus. He has sent Christians to you with the Word
and the Holy Spirit, so that from them you can learn the knowledge that you
otherwise couldn’t know and certainly wouldn’t expect—that you wil be judged,
but you are forgiven in Jesus.
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