Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 27 – April 1981

 

Good Morning!

 

Easter Sermon by Rev. A.I. de Graaf on Matthew 28:9-10a

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:1-10

Psalter Hymnal: 52; 356; 233; 229; 361

 

When we BEGAN to read the story of Matthew 28, it looked for a moment as if we were in for a lot of fireworks. But do you remember that the LORD said to ELIJAH: Go to Mt.Sinai and I will show myself to you….!? There he stands with bated breath: What will the Lord put on show now?

First — like here — there is a terrible earthquake. But no — the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then the flame of fire comes — that after all is an angel, but no, He is not so much in THAT, either. Soldiers became like dead men, we read… But was the Lord so much in THAT?

Later the rascals — just for a handful of money, will try to make the whole thing look ridiculous: Just a grave robbery, what’s the sweat? The women see the angel, too, and he passes on a message to them: “You look for Jesus? He is not here, He arose from the dead. Didn’t He tell you?” HE IS NOT HERE — the angel says — very good, but now it sounds a bit negative. The women had come to tend to him… now the place is empty. “Come and see where He USED to lay” the angel said. “USED TO”…. yes, but now aren’t they too late? And then the angel says: Go tell Jesus’ disciples that if they want to see Him, they had better pack their suitcases and travel up a day or so to Galilee.

Well, it is great news. You don’t see angels everyday. But it is no wonder that the joy of the women, as they run away from that open grave back to Jerusalem is mixed very much with fear. Maybe we should read fear in the sense of bewilderment. What are they to think of it all……? It’s all so unreal….. After all, they had seen Him die. That’s what they saw. Horribly and cruelly He died.

Death towers in our world as the most inescapable of all enemies of man. Not all people have a painful sick bed. Not all men are poor or hungry. Not all persons meet with accidental death, but all must die. Did you see that big advertisement in the paper telling us to drive carefully over these holidays? Did you see that terrible BLACK advertisement of the black clothed men carrying away a man in his BLACK coffin? “He drove away from it all this Easter”.

Yes, it hit me like a sledgehammer. I have walked in such black processions too often. I hate the sight of these men in black. They are so big in our world. How can we get away from their awful spell? Well, the Risen Lord Jesus knows that for death we need more than an angel.

We need more than an angel enthusiastically telling a story, sitting on a roll-away stone. Jesus knows: They need more than a message: “Pack up and go to Galilee….” And so, suddenly — but then QUIETLY there He is. He appears not with earthquake or fire or wind, but He comes with a simple greeting which we could, in this context, best translate with: “Good morning” or “Good Day to you”. “Good morning”, Jesus says, as if nothing had happened…! As if he had been out for a day or so. Out? Out cold you mean… FAR, FAR out…! The wounds of the nails still tell THAT story in His hands and His feet. To make it a GOOD morning — to make it a GOOD day to them and to us all, a day of pure joy and gladness…. He had to be at the mercy of worse than black-clad bearers He had to be at the mercy of the prince of Darkness Himself. He was executed under the terrible tribunal of God….. For your and my way of making our days evil days. But He did all that to save us. And Here He is with His greeting: Good morning…. Good day to you……!

He makes it a day of pure joy. He came to rob death of its power and to make it from a wall into a gateway, from a full-stop into a comma. He is proving it with His own resurrection body to which our own body one day will be fully alike. No wonder He can say it: Good morning….. GOOD day to you. This is the day I, Your Lord have made, now what else can you do, even with tears in your eyes, than to rejoice and be glad in it? He came to rob death of its power not only AFTER THIS LIFE, but He gives life here on earth. HERE the men in black don’t keep the power, because He walked this earth already as you and I will, walk the NEW earth.

He made it Good day…. For he does no half work. Therefore even our OLD DAY is not JUST full of weakness and sickness as Philip Adams wrote, but it becomes an age with open windows to Jerusalem. And to be young — with Jesus in the power of His living Spirit is to get a new beginning no matter what has happened and no matter what your predicament.

So He says “Be not afraid”…… Careful? Yes! Obedient? Sure! But NOT afraid. He can say that because four days before that He had been so afraid Himself that He sweat blood and prayed the Father to let the cup pass. It was your cup and mine. Now we need no longer fear. In all He sends us He will be along.

When He went through the blackness of that fear He came back here to say: “Good morning” to the likes of you and me. Shalom…… peace with God He gives when you believe in Him. What other peace do you need? He gives the hope of everlasting life. What other hope can match that? There is no more fear of what men can do to you, even mad-men, or powerful men, because you need never more be scared of God. Good morning, said He, fear not; and the women who fell at His feet felt real legs, real flesh-and-blood feet….! That is what made that day so good: He stood in the middle of it, His feet on our earth; He was gloriously alive.

And so He stands in your life and in mine. He stands more massively and powerfully than the black bearers. They can carry me away from my money, yes, even carry me away from my wife, my children for a while (FOR A WHILE…..). But they can’t carry me from my God. Never.

Have a good look at death? He asks? It cannot get you away from God any more. It became just a door. It changed from an old and tainted life to a new one. It changed from a divided existence to an united one that serves only God. The death-wall became a door; I came through it and look at Me ― He says. I’ll get YOU through it, too. When the prince of life says: “GOOD DAY”, that is the end of night.

Then it IS day. And we the children of that day look ahead to the great moment we shall see this Jesus back again, feet and all….. to hear Him say again: Good morning: Morning has broken.

The children of this day, who have this hope in them, go and say, “Good Morning” back to this Lord. [And He has so arranged it that they may do that around this white table.] They may sing the song of Him for Whom the doors opened and Who now opens the doors for us who are His. Hallelujah.

Amen.