Power fascinates us.
The powers of nature both terrify us and intrigue us. Tsunamis, storms, lightning, hurricanes, the devastation of a tornado, the movement of glaciers. These and other events remind us that we humans are no match for nature’s power.
But these are not the only powers that threaten to overwhelm us.
The advent of technology has unleashed new realizations of how limited we are as human beings. AI now harbors the potential for power that we can’t really comprehend. We really have no idea what it’s capable of, let alone what it may be capable of a few years from now. The more we study science, the more we realize that we have barely touched the surface of what the human brain can do, or what we know about space, the ocean, and what lies at the center of the earth.
Every new discovery both thrills and chills us because we barely can fathom the powers that lie beyond our comprehension and abilities as human beings. It’s no wonder then that we find it both intriguing and terrifying to think about the reality of the resurrection!
It’s often simpler for us to say, well that can’t be really true. There must be some other explanation. That’s likely what the first disciples said too…until they experienced Jesus face to face for themselves. When faced with the truth of the impossible, our minds may struggle to get a grip, but in the end, we can’t do anything but become humbled by our limited knowledge and power in the face of the vastness of God.
Resurrection! It’s what we celebrate today on Easter Sunday! It’s the cornerstone theology of the Christian faith! It’s why we are here worshipping today! And yet, we continue to struggle with wanting to keep Jesus nailed to the cross or buried in the tomb, where it makes more sense to us that he must be.
It feels so very “outlandish” and “impossible” to imagine the truth of the resurrection, doesn’t it? And yet, here he is –in the person of the Holy Spirit, among us today, asking us to put our trust in him, and in his power of resurrection hope!
Resurrection is the ultimate “power” play!
The resurrection itself is clearly enough to knock our socks off and have us shaking our heads in near disbelief, but that’s not the only thing the women encounter that resurrection day at the tomb. You see… God not only resurrected Jesus but “broke him out” of the tomb where they had laid him, moved a giant rock boulder out of the way with a snap of a finger to clear the way for Jesus’ miracle. That alone must have been a feat worth watching!
Picture it!
In those days, tombs were not the “graveyards” that we picture today: nicely engraved stones with sealed coffins underneath. A tomb in Jesus’ day was a cave-like enclosure carved out of rock. Inside the small room was a slab where one would lay the body of the one to be entombed. Then a large boulder-size rock would be rolled over the entryway to seal it tightly.
After a period of time the body would decay leaving only the bones. These would then typically be put into an ossuary, a stone “bone box.” Members of a family would be placed inside of the family ossuary, which could hold the bones sometimes of an entire family several generations back.
The stone sealing the cave-like tomb of Jesus would have been extremely heavy and would require several men to seal. In fact, the Romans used an extra heavy rock for this important grave. They didn’t want anyone to get in and try to steal the body, claiming resurrection. We know from scripture that Jesus’ tomb was sealed, and that guards were in fact stationed outside of the tomb so that no one could try to come and open it up.
Little did they know or understand that the power of God could lift that boulder like a feather from a goose! Nothing stands in the way of God’s victory. Nothing stands in the way of God’s salvation plan!
Now we learn that early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James came to the tomb to anoint the body with oils and spices. They worried as they went about who might open the tomb for them to do this ritual. They knew that the stone was impossibly heavy and large. Yet when they arrived, the stone had already been rolled back! Sitting inside the tomb, they saw a man in a white robe sitting on the right side of the slab. And Jesus missing!
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that would be pretty surprising! Terrifying! Shocking! Mind-blowing! Alarming! Worrying! All of the above!
The power alone that it would have taken to roll back that boulder was already of freaky magnitude. Then there was the issue of the missing body! And if that wasn’t enough, there was this messenger in white, an angel we learn, telling them that Jesus has been raised!
It must have sounded like something out of a Nancy Drew novel: “Terror at the Tomb!”
The women fled fast! They high tailed it out of there! Our scriptural translation today tells us that the women were seized with terror and amazement. But those words don’t even come close to the descriptiveness of the original language!
They were “ekthambeisthe!” Awe-struck! To the level of wide-eyed wonder! It confused and befuddled them to the extent that they were experiencing rapture-like amazement! Their minds were in shock! They were bewildered and afraid. They trembled, shook with fear, and at the same time experienced a kind of trance-like, transcendent feeling of ecstasy. They both felt fear at the situation but at the same time the feeling that this was an “out of body” God moment! It took their breath away. That’s how exhilarating and terrifying their experience was all at the same time!
To witness to God’s power, the kind of resurrection power, was enough to take your breath away! They were amazed!
We know too that the guards, who had witnessed the power of God move that rock, fell to the ground shivering in shock, that’s how terrified they were too!
In fact, anyone who has encountered a God revelation in their lives has experienced at least a sliver of what these women must have experienced that day at the tomb. It was a phenomenal experience.
Perhaps at that moment, they realized what Jesus had been saying all along. Perhaps they were too in shock to think anything at that moment. At first, they said nothing. They must have thought that everyone would think they had lost their minds! Or perhaps it took awhile for them to calm down and process what they had just experienced. But things would move quickly from that time on. Soon all of that would change, as Jesus would reveal himself to them, to his disciples, and to others, all before his ascension.
Today, we too continue to be awe-struck at the power and miracle of God. We too continue to try to wrap our heads around the truth of the resurrection, something so amazing and out of this world, that we have trouble comprehending it.
And indeed, God never meant for this to be something we can comprehend. For the very reason that we cannot comprehend it, it remains a mystery of the power of God! For the very reason that we cannot comprehend it, it requires of us to cultivate instead our “faith.”
We believe in the resurrection on faith and faith alone.
Only when we are confronted, truly confronted by the presence and power of God, in that moment when wonder and awe take over, and a feeling that we simply cannot put into words, that’s when we know that what we learn from the gospels is true. Truth resides in putting our faith in a God that lies so far beyond our capability to understand, that we simply bow our heads and stand in awe. That’s the reality of faith. That’s the truth of the power and presence of God!
This Easter, as we contemplate all that we know that we don’t know, allow your mind and heart to embrace and marinate in the truth of the resurrection. Allow your faith to kick in and your heart to soar with joy. For he is risen.
He is risen indeed.
He is risen.
“He is risen indeed!”