~ Easter Day ~
Readings: Acts 10:34-43 | Colossians 3:1-4 | Matthew 28:1-10
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
“After the Sabbath” is more than just a marker of time. Of course, after Saturday comes Sunday. Just as after April 4 comes April 5. However, the wording here suggests much more than the passage of a single day. The word can mean evening when the sun goes down. However, it also has the sense of “after a long time, at length.” At length, after the Sabbath, after the generations of God commanding a Sabbath for His people, He had said again and again,
8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
(Exodus 20:8-11)
What had the Sabbath benefited them up to that point? Because of sin, it was the cause of much strife between God and His people. From their time in the wilderness, when they couldn’t trust God enough to leave off searching for manna on the seventh day (Exodus 16:27-30), to the time of Amos, when they people with greedy hearts waited out the strictures of the Sabbath: “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances” (Amos 8:5)
Thanks be to God that the Sabbath, which was made for man, would come to a better end than all this. By the time our Lord came in the flesh, the Sabbath had become nothing more than a weapon to be used against His people. Questions of what work was acceptable, how far one could walk, or even if you could rescue from danger had dominated the discussion. Forgotten was the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” What is it that truly sanctifies an unclean people, of unclean lips, and unclean hearts? The Word of God and His atoning sacrifices. The people were to rest from their labors that they might ponder the blessed work that the Lord had done.
After all such Sabbaths, the Lord Jesus put Himself under the Sabbath. He at last kept the Sabbath without sin for His entire human life. He also bore the wrath incurred by all the people for their unbelief and unholy living. Just as in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, resting on the seventh, so now the Son of God had finished His sacrificial work upon the cross beginning the restoration of that creation…and rested on the seventh day. A true holiness of the Word and the works of God was made complete by His suffering, death, and burial for sinner’s gain.
Peter Chrysologus, a bishop of Ravenna in the 5th century wrote of this: “’In the evening of the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week.’ The sabbath rejoices that it now has a subservient effect. Under the yoke of the law the sabbath had become smugly apathetic and alienated from life-giving power. Through the primacy of the Lord’s Day the sabbath is now wonderfully awakened to works of divine power. To paraphrase the Lord: Is it not permitted to heal the sick on the sabbath, to give aid to the afflicted, sight to the blind and life to the dead?”[1]
This is the import of Jesus’ final word from the cross, recorded in John 19:30: “It is finished.” The judgment has been carried out upon God’s only-begotten Son, and this is such tremendous news that even the creation echoes the life-bestowing news:
2And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
The creation itself was rocked, because it had been under the power of death and Satan for so long. That reign had been shattered with Christ rising from the dead. The wages of sin had been paid in full! The captivity of death was proven overcome by a Man! God has visited His people, and this mighty victory means the end of unchallenged darkness.
When the angel appeared, the guards living in darkness became what the end of the first creation is: dead men. The message was of triumph over the manner of the first creation. It is dying constantly because of wickedness. In this old creation, we only find death and alienation from God.
5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
Yet, the message of the angel to the women is much different! “Do not be afraid” –these are words of absolution, reconciliation between God and man. Do not be afraid means that the terror of Mount Sinai has been removed: “Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.” (Exodus 19:18)
They could see the place where He did lay dead. This was where it had been said, “God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law.” (Galatians 4:4-5) The Law had done its work. But He is no longer there. He has risen! Now is not the time for mourning and despair; it is the time when dawn breaks on a new creation! When the sun rose on that day, it was the first to shine upon the new creation of God.
These women are the first witnesses to that new creation! That’s why it’s so important that they announce to His other disciples that the present order of this decaying world is coming to an end! Christ is risen, as He said! Death is not so permanent as it would seem!
8So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
The ending of the age of the Sabbath was brand new. It broke in as light into the darkness. Yet followers of Christ, those who believe in Him, will encounter a tension between the old creation and the new. There is fear but there is also great joy. The new creation has broken into the old, and we can see both. We are still in the weakness of our flesh, and we still benefit from discipline. But the weight of keeping the Law without fault is not on us. In Christ, the new has come!
St. Paul writes of how we are to distinguish between the age of the Sabbaths and the new creation in Christ in Colossians 2:
8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross...
20If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
The truly new life will spring from Christ, and God will make it happen, even as the old creation awaits its renewal.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is Risen indeed. Alleluia)
[1] “Matthew 28:1” Simonetti, Manlio, ed. Matthew 14-28. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002.
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