John 20:1-10
Have you ever been to visit someone’s grave? Sometimes they are marked by small headstones, others are extravagant constructions - remember the escape scenes from the Sound of Music when they hide in the graveyard?
In 1
st century Palestine, if you could afford it, you would have a tomb prepared for you. It seems that Jesus’ body had been rescued by a rich benefactor and placed in one of these tombs. Imagine yourself checking it out before it was used. You would have stepped down into a dip in the hillside and through a doorway into a room that had been quarried out of the rock. This new grave would have been roughly square with niches like shelves hewn out of the stone on three sides.
The practice was to wrap the body in cloths and lay them on the shelf of a tomb. About a year or so later, people would come back and find just the bones left - which they would gather up and put in a chest called an ossuary. This would then be placed in another niche further back in the tomb.
There were various ways of blocking off the entrance the most elaborate of which would be a massive rolling stone, about the diameter of a man’s height, which would sit in a groove and would be rolled over the entrance to the tomb. These were relatively rare because of the expense.
So they would have taken Jesus’ body, partially prepared for burial, wrapped in linen grave clothes, and laid it on one of the shelves. They couldn’t complete the burial preparations because the Passover was about to start.
The authorities were worried that someone would steal the body and claim a resurrection (it had been Lazarus’ return from the dead which had kicked off a lot of this trouble in the first place) so they instructed the huge stone to be rolled across the entrance and guarded.
Many of us will have lost a friend or relative to an untimely death. So you can imagine what it feels like in the days immediately afterwards. That painful, unreal, time-between-times when sinister murky loss begins to congeal deep inside. The disciples and friends of Jesus had given their lives to following this charismatic, inspirational personality who was going to bring in the kingdom of God and change the world. And now, all of a sudden, he was dead, and buried.
Anger, doubt, grief, denial, sadness, despair.
All the emotions of loss were in Mary’s heart on Sunday morning as she nervously makes her way back up the hill to the tomb. She must have been a courageous woman to risk setting off to face her worst nightmare again, never mind the danger of being associated with Jesus. As she walked up the hill she was expecting to see some Temple guards lolling against the stone, mocking her as she asked for them to roll it back for her.
Instead, Matthew’s account describes them turning up to see the stone already rolled back and an angel sitting on top of it with the guards collapsed on the ground, scared to death, almost literally. I can picture the angel with arms folded and legs crossed and a triumphant smile on his face, waiting.
Eventually Peter arrives on the scene, huffing and puffing from an undignified scrabble up the hill.
He walks into the tomb to see some dirty, blood-soaked clothes lying on the shelf.
I wonder how long it took for the truth to slowly sink in. The stone hadn’t been rolled away in order to let Jesus out. It had been moved to let them see in. The body had gone. Jesus was risen. Some cosmic power had resurrected him from death into a new life, into a new body that wasn’t constrained by cold stone walls, that didn’t to be clothed like us.
What
did he leave behind? Just some old clothes with the marks of earth and death. God’s resurrection power took him out of broken humanity and into perfected eternity.
This is the aftermath of an explosion of love.
God’s love for you, each of you, yes, you, is so great, so unconditional, so all-encompassing that rather than let you suffer the consequences of turning away from him he reaches out to you with His love.
He shows his love in Jesus’ brutal human death paying the price for our sin.
He shows his love in resurrection power which gives new life.
Last Friday - God shows his love when Jesus, his Son gives up his life for you. Jesus experienced the torment of cosmic separation from this incredible love so as to take the penalty for your sin and mine.
Easter Sunday - the power of that love resurrects Jesus to a new life and eternal life, a life into which you are invited if only you too will believe in him and his love for you.
1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
To know true and ultimate forgiveness is a truly life-giving experience. Through God’s love for us, our sin is forgiven and we can be made clean and whole again.
But here’s the thing: the fallout from sin - the memories, the implications, the feelings of shame – it sometimes continues to haunt us even though we know God's justice has been satisfied. I have confessed my sins. I have trusted in His promise to forgive. The issue of my forgiveness is settled thanks to what Jesus Christ has done for me. But what do I do with the wasted years, the stubborn scars, and the torn shreds of my life that are the result of my own sins or the sins of others against me?
The answer: Jesus’ clothes were left with the gambling soldiers, we leave our clothes at the cross. His burial clothes were left in the tomb. We leave our burial clothes, the detritus from our lives of sin, we leave them in the tomb.
When the stone is rolled away – what do we see?
Our broken body – no - simply the remnant garments.
This is where I want to give you the opportunity to do something symbolic but practical to make this a little more real in your life. You can carry out the same exercise in your own way at home.
Some of you have come prepared with an item of clothing which can represent something of the fallout of sin your life. It can represent the shame, the damage done, the wounds and scars, the addictions.
We are going to give you an opportunity to bring these items of clothing to the front and leave them at the foot of the cross – because his love is sufficiently immense to take all our past and all our pain.
He can redeem all that – even turn it to good.
And we will “redeem” these clothes by taking them to a place where they can be really useful for others (St George’s Crypt). Whatever the detritus and damage from your life, God has the power to redeem your life and make good come from it. Once you have surrendered your life to God he can, in his power and majesty make a beautiful thing again, he can, in his grace take the broken and restore goodness in some miraculous way.
Here’s an example. I am going to leave a cap. Reasons? (1) I have too many caps. (2) It symbolises my headstrong nature. I know that I am headstrong and that some of the paths down which I have led people over the years have caused pain and loss. I am so grateful to God that he loves me despite the things my headstrong has had me do.
I have said sorry and repented but some of the damage has been done and I will take this opportunity to leave it in the tomb rather than continue to wear it on my head.
Thankyou Lord for your love, even for me.
This can be your prayer,
“Thank you for your love. I am sorry for what I have done, I repent of my sin and I want to leave all the damage and hurt from my sin in the grave for you to redeem as you see fit. I surrender all my life to you, wholly, completely and unconditionally. Thank you for the resurrection, thank you for new life.”
Leave behind the old, walk out in new life. Having experienced the God’s love for you, full of His Holy Spirit of God and ready to start a new life with Him.
A Prayer for Easter Sunday
God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.