"Why Seek Ye The Living Among the Dead" (Luke 24:5)

The setting was a garden outside Jerusalem.  Not the one known as Gethsemane which just two days prior had become the focal point of eternity and the reason to rejoice for all generations.  To the layman in the streets of Jerusalem those scenes would have been entirely unknown at this point.  It would take time for the incredible details to become known.  But on this day and in this moment the crescendo to the song of all eternity would soon be heard.  Heavenly choirs must have stood ready with trembling hands and streaming eyes as a woman slowly wound her way through this hillside garden.  The irony in all this is that while the details of that most important event in Gethsemane had been carried out in profound and reverent privacy, what followed shortly thereafter could not have been more public or more widespread. 

The events of the past two days would come to be remembered in utmost reverence, awestruck wonder and awful infamy.  The great Alpha and Omega had become a spectacle in the house of his friends.  The king had been mocked and spit upon by his own subjects.  The Lion had been publicly humiliated, undergone the most ludicrous of trials and been condemned to death in the most blasphemous act this world has ever known.  On the same streets which had rung with shouts of “Hosanna” as the Redeemer made his triumphant debut in the city He would shortly make holy, taunting and jeering crowds had most recently watched him heft his own cross to Golgotha.  The fatigue of the recent events, the agony of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas, the flogging, the crown of thorns, to say nothing of the very human emotions of fear and abandonment must of swirled through his anguished mind as he looked up the hill ahead of him. 

Whether out of necessity or because of the impatience of the Roman executioners walking beside the Savior in this moment a man from the crowd, Simon of Cyrene, was ordered to carry the cross on behalf of the Master.  I confess that I have thought at length about Simon.  I have wondered who he was and what his life entailed.  I have wondered whether he found himself in this crowd because he could not comprehend the awful reality that his Lord was being crucified or if he was one of the taunting and spitting blasphemers.  How did this moment impact the remainder of his own path.  I confess also that I have felt envious of Simon.  This man is the sole person who was given the privilege of carrying the cross of the Savior in his moment of need.  To give some meager offering of support in this moment of dire reality.

Then finally the moment came.  The top of the hill was reached, the cross was thrust on the ground and the haunting sound of a hammer striking nails rang through the air.  At last the Son of Man had been delivered into the hands of men.  At last the solitary journey to Atonement was coming to a close.  This moment coupled with the agony of Gethsemane serves as the purest, most transcendent, most unequivocally triumphant demonstration of divine love a perfect Father could manifest.  His perfect Son had been placed upon the altar and offered as the ransom for sins he had never committed.  He had paid the price for debts he had never owed.  He had healed wounds he never inflicted.  He had mended hearts he had never broken.  At last it was finished.  At last he could go home.  

All of these thoughts must have filled the mind of the woman now reaching her destination on that spring morning in Jerusalem.  Not only did she struggle with her own pain and sadness from losing her friend and leader in such a horrific manner but she must have also been wrestling with the lips of every other disciple: “Where do we go from here?”  But as she reached the tomb she must have begun to weep harder.  After all these wicked men had subjected her Savior to, after all he had done for them, could they not even let his body rest in peace?  How cruel and unjust must they have been to desecrate His body by stealing it and leaving the tomb door open.  It must have been with equal parts confusion, desperation and dejection that this good woman sank to the ground outside the tomb door and began to weep. 

Just then, she heard a voice behind her.  “Why weepest thou?” this person asked.  Could they not see?  Could this newcomer, whom she assumed to be the gardener, not understand that if there had been any hope left in her heart it had been snuffed out?  Her Master had been humiliated, betrayed and crucified and now, to add insult to injury, his body had been stolen and she had no way of knowing where it might be.  In what must have been an appeal to the humanity of the person behind her if not his faith, she said “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”  The response to that statement surely must not have been what Mary was expecting. 

What came next may have made her begin to wonder, to think back to what her Lord had alluded to while he was alive, but the reality of what it implied was simply too fantastic to dwell upon.  Such a thing was impossible.  “Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here for he is risen.”  Then she turned.  “Mary” he said.  The tears of sorrow turned instantly to tears of relief, joy and astonishment.  It was Him.  It was the Savior of the World.  The impossible had become reality.  “Rabboni” came the reverent adulation. 

What an incredible moment that must have been to witness.  What an incredible truth that is for each of us.  What an unfathomable future this scene gives every son and daughter of God, without exception.  That is a message worth running for.  Worth running to tell Peter, to tell the apostles, to tell ancient Israel, to tell our own families and friends, to tell the sinner and the downtrodden, to tell the souls living in spirit prison on either side of the veil, to tell kings and rulers, to tell rich and poor, to tell every generation, to tell every nation, kindred, tongue and people, to tell the world.

Brothers and sisters, I give my personal witness of the reality of what we celebrate on this day, a truth which becomes more sacred and more personal to me with every passing day.  The tomb is empty and because it is our souls, our lives and our eternity may be filled.  That reality, the reality of the Son of God which even the grave could not hold, is the bedrock for every good deed, wholesome pursuit and hopeful tomorrow in our lives.  With the angelic sentinels outside an empty tomb in Jerusalem I ask each of you “Why seek ye the living among the dead?”  He lives.  He knows us perfectly and he stands ready to forgive and exalt with nail-scarred hands eternally outstretched towards us.

“He is risen!  He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst his three days’ prison

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered, man is free.

Christ has won the victory.”

Of this truth I leave my solemn and heartfelt witness, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.