*THE WORD IN SCRIPTURE      Matthew 28:1-10    Randy Kemper

 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ² 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. ³ His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. ⁴ For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.⁶ He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he^[a] lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,^[b] and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”  ⁸ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ 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.”

 Leader: A Word of God that is still speaking,

ALL: Thanks be to God.

THE MESSAGE: Why am I here? (He is not here; he has been raised.)

                                                                                          Pastor Donna Goltry

 Why am I here? Why are you here today? That’s the question of Easter.

 Why do we come every year to hear the Easter Story, again and again?

 Here’s a few possible reasons.

 Because it is comforting? Does it give you a sense of comfort that there is more beyond mortal life? When our bodies wear out, or are injured and can no longer sustain us, do we turn to the reassuring words of the Easter story, that death is not the end?

Or, maybe the reason is simpler. Tradition. Because you grew up in the church or hung around its edges, and, so, you know the story of Easter. It is familiar. You like to hear it, again and again? Once a year, we come together to hear the Easter story.

Or, maybe it is a different reason entirely. God’s love. Do you see in the death of God’s Son, Jesus, as the ultimate gift of God’s love? Sounds odd unless we dig deeper to understand this meaning. God so loved us, he did the unfathomable. He sent his son, Jesus, who taught the way of love. This rubbed the powerful wrong and challenged those who wanted to control others. God allowed this hatred  to play out—in its most gruesome way in the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet the hatred backfired. In mysterious ways we never fully understand, death could not hold Jesus. He rose!

His dearest followers went to the tomb and found it empty. When they encountered him, at first they did not recognize him. They thought he was the gardener or an angel. But when he spoke to them, they knew he was Jesus, in some mysterious way.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall never die?

Linger on that last phrase: that whoever believes in him shall never die. I want that kind of assurance. What about you?

Why are you here? Why am I here? We will think more about this later.

For now, let’s redirect our gaze upon those who were at the tomb on the first Easter morning. Why were they there, and what did it matter?

The gospels tell us the first to come to the tomb on Easter morning was Mary Magdalene. In John’s gospel, she comes alone, sees the tomb is open, then runs back to tell Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. She steps back and allows Simon Peter to go in first, followed by the disciple whom Jesus loved. Then Peter and the disciple returned to where they were staying.

Mary Magdalene stays outside the tomb, crying. An angel asks her, why are you crying? She answers, because they have taken away my Lord, thinking someone had removed his remains from the tomb.

Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but thought he was the gardener, until he spoke. As soon as Jesus speaks to her saying, “Mary, why are you crying?” she recognizes his voice. But Jesus warns her not to touch him as he has not yet gone up to the Father. And he instructs her to go back to the followers and tell what she has seen. And she does.

Each of the gospels provide some unique details. In Matthew, Mary Magdalene comes not alone, but with another Mary, maybe Jesus’ mother? In Mark, it was the mother of James and a woman named Salome who accompany her. In Luke, Mary the mother of James, plus a woman named Johanna and unnamed women were with Mary Magdalene.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the women encounter an angel who tells them not to be afraid. Jesus has been raised from the dead. They are given this message: Go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee where they will meet Jesus. There is no accounting of men at the tomb in Matthew and Mark. But in Luke, Peter, upon hearing the news from the women that the tomb is empty, runs to check it out himself, and returns, amazed at what he had seen.

This sketch of the gospels tells what the followers of Jesus encountered on Easter morning. But it does not address why the people went to the tomb.

What was it about Jesus that drew them, possibly at peril for their own lives to visit his tomb? Since he had been crucified as an enemy of the powerful, were they possibly risking their reputations and maybe even their lives to go to care for Jesus’ body after his death.

Here are some ideas that may explain why they were there, at the tomb:

They had been captivated by the way of living Jesus taught. Love God. Love their neighbors. The source of this way of life came from their Jewish faith, but somehow Jesus made the message come alive in a new and fresh way. They wanted this kind of life. Did they wonder, what could they do to sustain it?

In Jesus’ eyes, they had seen themselves as someone who mattered. They weren’t just cogs in the wheel of life. They were children of God. Beloved by God. When Jesus, their teacher, was taken from them, their life had been shattered. They went to his grave to mourn him and mourn their shattered lives. Were they wondering, would they still matter?

Or, as simpler reason. They loved Jesus and came to give him proper burial rites. That was what one did for someone whom they had loved. Pay him the proper respect he deserved. Even today, much of our funeral rites are based on this reason – to show respect. In doing so, we acknowledge how deeply this person mattered to us.

Possible reasons the women were at the tomb?

• Wanting to continue to follow the way of living Jesus taught
• Wanting to continue seeing themselves as someone who mattered
• Mourning the loss of someone dear to them and paying proper respect.

I challenge you to think. Are those still valid reasons for us to come to the empty tomb this morning? WHY ARE WE HERE? Could it be?

• Wanting to continue to follow the way of living Jesus taught. Is this the life you want? I want? Something to ponder.
  • And to consider what this means for each day after Easter. How do we walk closer to God, living as Jesus taught?
• Wanting to see ourselves as someone who matters? Jesus did. The women at the tomb understood this. Do we? We are all of us, of all colors and stripes and ways of seeing the world, important in Jesus’ eyes. Does this resonate with you as a deeper reason why you are here today?

Take these thoughts with you today. Keep them in your heart as you come to communion, to break bread with Christ and share in the blood of his salvation.

A story in the Los Angeles Times[1] captured so much of the love of the way of Christ.

A 14-year old Ukrainian Jewish girl who was saved from death in 1941 by a loving family. Zhanna, along with 15,000 others were being marched to their death by Nazis. Her escape points to the difference love can make in the life of a person and the world. To love like Jesus.

As Zhanna was trudging toward the ravine, clutching 5 sheets of piano music under her coat, for she was a piano prodigy, her father bribed a guard with a gold watch. She escaped into the crowd of onlookers, ran back to Kharkiv, knocking on the door of a classmate whose family she knew to be kind, hoping they would be let in. The mother opened the door, whisked her to safety in the cellar, saving Zhanna.

For several weeks, at peril for their own lives, the family harbored her. Knowing they could not keep her hidden forever, they gave Zhanna a new identity as an orphan, a new name and saw that she was safely sheltered in an orphanage. There she was heard playing the piano, and it was her ticket to surviving the war. She was sent to entertain German soldiers. She said, “she was hiding in the spotlight.”

After the war, Zhanna came to the United States and led a good life. Years later, her story was told in a memoir by her grandson, Hiding in the Spotlight.

Marina, a Ukrainian living in the US, had also grown up in Kharkiv, but did not know about the Holocast and the Drobitsky Yar tragedy of her hometown because it was purged from “Soviet-era school books.” In 2013 she read Zhanna’s story. Then she began searching for who had helped her survive.

Short ending to the story: Eighty years later, Marina, repeating the loving actions of the family that saved Zhanna, helped 18-year old Alex Bogancha, the grandson of the family who harbored Zhanna, escape the Ukrainian War and come to the US. Alex said, “I never believed in destiny, but after this situation, I’ve changed my mind.”

Eighty years is a long time, but this is a story of love in action like Christ taught, echoed by the witness of the women at the tomb. It is a story of each person being important.

On this Easter morning, I don’t know where you have the opportunity to show love to someone, perhaps even someone you don’t even know or is different from you. But maybe, this is a compelling reason you have been drawn here on Easter Sunday. To pay forward the love of Christ to someone whose path you will cross? If so, will you be echoing the witness of the women at the tomb who followed the way of love like Jesus taught and spread the message of his resurrection so many years ago. AMEN.

[1] Kailyn Brown, Los Angeles Times, “His family saved a girl from Nazis. That changed this Ukrainian refugee’s ‘destiny’” April 4, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-04-04/ukrainian-refugees-family-helped-save-girls-from-holocaust