There is NO STONE!

Luke 24: 1-12

The Empty Tomb by Ghislaine Howard

On November 22nd 1718, British officer Lieutenant Robert Maynard  -who was financed by the Virginia colony- located and engaged the pirate ship he had been charged with hunting down.

The vessel belonged to Edward Teach. 

Teach was not the most successful pirate in history. 

The pirate Henry Every accrued enough wealth to retire from piracy, although his whereabouts went unknown and his final days are unaccounted for. 

Bartholomew Roberts was estimated to have taken five times the plunder of Teach, through acts of piracy, but his legacy is also shadowed by that of Edward Teach, a pirate captain better known as Blackbeard. 

Blackbeard has been portrayed as a tyrannical monster, but most historical accounts corroborate that his image was exaggerated greatly, because his intention was to be as much a legend as a man. 

But on November 22nd 1718, when the smoke cleared, Lieutenant Maynard stood victorious. 

Teach and Maynard
in combat

He sent Blackbeard’s surviving crew members here to Williamsburg to be tried for piracy but Blackbeard was not among them. 

As many tell it, Lieutenant Maynard personally defeated Blackbeard in battle, but many claimed that the body was thrown into the ocean, where it swam circles around the vessel before disappearing into the ocean depths. 

To this day, legends of his ghost are told by sailors, and his story is told and retold in literature, movies, and music. 

All this because Lieutenant Maynard allowed Blackbeard’s body to disappear into the sea, where the legend of Blackbeard lives on. 

Lieutenant Maynard may have won the battle, but I would argue that Blackbeard won the war. 

Maynard only defeated the man Edward Teach, but the legend of Blackbeard lives on to this day, undefeated. 

The strongest military empires, even those who have no equal, have one weakness; 

Enemies who cannot be defeated by death. 

This is why in Matthew’s account, he describes how Pilate assigned a guard to the tomb. 

Pilate wants to ensure that  the body of Jesus remains in that tomb, preserving the power Rome holds over all people throughout the empire, the power and authority to take life.

And the women from Galilee in Luke’s Gospel are equally concerned about the presence of that dead body. 

No different than any of us today, they need to see the body, to grieve over the body, and to come to terms with the death of the man. 

Today we encourage this experience as the way we begin the process of grieving, especially under tragic circumstances when shock has set in. 

And these women are certainly in shock.

They have either directly witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus or at least heard the tale.

The desecration of his body and the humiliation that he had experienced is still fresh in their minds. 

The body was, most likely, rushed off to the tomb, given the timing, if not for the sake of purification laws, for the sake of ensuring that religious and Roman order is restored to the territory. 

So they were certainly in a rush to ensure Jesus is given the proper respect and to attempt to reconcile the humiliation of his death by offering a proper burial. 

Gathering up the right ointments and spices, expensive investments that were considered important for ensuring the purification of the body. 

And on top of it all, there’s a need to see his body. 

To really and truly know that he is gone. 

To begin their time of grief. 

Certainly, they are all grieving. 

This was to be the Messiah, the hope of not only Israel, but if they had believed what Jesus said, the hope of the world. 

And as the sun descended that Friday, they had taken that hope and chalked it up as a missed opportunity. 

Just another in a long line of false Messiah’s. 

Other’s had claimed the title as well. 

Other’s had suffered the same or similar fates, but of course, this time they were certain that he was the One!

So they rush to the tomb, Messiah or not, they loved him dearly and knew he was deserving of the proper respects. 

Messiah or not, he was a man of God, full of love, full of grace, full of mercy. 

Perhaps not the King they believed he was, but without a doubt, he was a priest and he was a prophet. 

The Empty Tomb by Bertrand Bahuet

Today, the sight that is marked as the location of the tomb where Jesus was buried, remains a popular destination for pilgrims who travel to the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the site that houses the supposed location of Jesus’ crucifixion and his tomb. 

If you visit this site and you don’t get there early enough, you can wait all day in line just to enter into the tomb. 

The flow of traffic from the line that snakes around the aedicula - or shrine -  is controlled by a Greek orthodox priest. 

The priest’s duties are simple. He sits inside the small structure, tells those in line when they can enter, and then tells them when their time is up. 

Inside you can take pictures, touch the stone that surrounds the tomb, leave flowers, mementos, and prayers. 

But when the priest tells you to leave, that’s it. 

As you can imagine, this is the site of the most frequent debates, scuffles, and yes, even fist fights. 

Ironically, etched above the tomb in Greek are the words we heard today in the gospel,

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? HE IS NOT HERE!”

During my own trip, a member of our group got into a staring match that descended into a scolding match between the priest and this particular traveler as they were told that their time was up. 

Another from our group was scolded as well when they informed this particular member of our group they didn’t miss anything, 

They said they had it on good authority that he wasn’t in there. 

When I entered the location marked as the tomb of Jesus, I found myself overwhelmed by what I found. 

It was nothing more than an empty space, filled with icons, flowers, candles, prayers, and an array of other items attempting to make that empty space filled with our own perception of what holy actually looks like. 

It was ironic, quite the reverse of what we hear in Luke’s Gospel today. 

Because there’s nothing in the tomb but burial shrouds, and the things they brought to make that space holy, we don’t even know what they did with them.

The empty tomb is a shock. 

It is a shock to the women who fear that the body has been further desecrated, and it is equally shocking to the empire and religious authorities who want Jesus buried and gone. 

All parties want this event behind them, over, so they can move on.

This story is meant to be an emotional roller coaster and the greatest tragedy for a modern audience is that we know how it ends

… or do we?

As they approach the tomb two messengers just pop up, out of nowhere, and share some very “matter of fact” insights. 

Resurrection of Christ 

and Women at the Tomb

By Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli

In a nutshell, 

“Yep, he’s not in there.”

and 

“He told you this was going to happen, remember?!”

The women from Galilee don’t come to the realization because these two messengers are attesting to witnessing it. 

They come to the realization because Jesus told them this was going to happen, these two  messengers are just reminding them of his words, his promise. 

There is no hardened proof, no fingerprint dusting, no black light test, no DNA samples, they are just reminded of HIS words and in that moment…they believe. 

This is at the center of a core Lutheran theological concept. 

By NO power of our own can we come to believe, it is by the words of the Christ that the light bulb shines brightly above our heads. 

And that light bulb is not an idea, it is FAITH in HOPE!

It is the hope that sends Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, and all the women back to the apostles, probably in hysterics, sharing the news that the promise is real. 

It is the hope that draws Peter off his butt, sprinting to the tomb. 

It is the hope that draws Peter into the tomb to investigate. 

And it is the hope that leaves Peter dumbfounded, pondering just what has taken place, what he has witnessed, and what -very well- may not have been an end at all. 

Because the story is not over, it has not ended. 

The story is still taking place right now and no, we don’t know how it ends. 

We are not given a clear picture or description, there is no certainty regarding what the end will look like. 

It is just a promise, an assurance, given through the Christ to us. 

That is the hope we cling to at the font, at the table, in the assurance we receive in the forgiveness of sins, and most of all in our final breaths. 

~

This past week, I felt like I had the Easter sermon pegged down until Tuesday morning when I flipped on the news. 

The attacks in Brussels, while tragic, are no longer isolated unique events. 

These attacks have become all too common and those are just the ones we hear reported,

while daily terror attacks in Africa and the Middle East go largely unnoticed. 

All morning I listened to the the talking heads, heads of state, contributing terrorism, state department, and military experts all ask the same question. 

How do we respond?

In the story we heard today, the very empire who inflicted the act of violence that was meant to silence and intimidate the entire world, submitting any and all who would question their authority, 

Find THEMSELVES asking the very same question; How do we respond?

Because sisters and brothers, how can you respond when the very means of intimidation is ironically lifted up as a symbol of love and triumph?

How can you respond when the tomb meant to bury the man, Jesus, is not strong enough to hold the Messiah, THE Christ?

And while Matthew’s account places a guard at the tomb, the guard doesn’t matter. 

Because it wasn’t the body of a man that they feared, it was the symbol of the Truth, 

Holy Week Sketch by J.R. Howley

And no guard, no stone, not even an army can contain a Truth so ironic and so revolutionary that it will assimilate the very empire that attempted to silence the Truth.

The symbol that uses the Roman empire to be the means by which the Christ transforms the world, even beyond Rome’s own borders. 

Maybe not the defeat that Rome, the Apostles, or the Sanhedrin imagined.

But in the history of the world, there has never been a single person who has done what Jesus the Christ does in this moment. 

If we are to believe 

-and I mean really and truly buy into the promise we receive in the words of Jesus the Christ- 

we receive a power that surpasses that of any empire, any government, any terrorist, any fear that can be incited against us. 

Because in that moment the stone is removed from EVERY tomb. 

The stone of death is removed and the very power it holds over us , 

A power which many have, would, and will continue to attempt to harness.

But they will fail if we truly have confidence that the stone has been removed. 

The stone of fear

The stone of anger

The stone of hate

The stone that we still fear will hold us in our own tombs at our final breaths. 

Because in the Easter promise we are assured 

That the sword no longer has the final say

and the tomb is nothing but an empty shell.

So I guess in the face of the events of this past week alongside the message we hear in the Word we are given from today’s gospel, 

There is only one response that I can give. 

The Christ has risen and He has promised that I no longer have to fear that stone. 

Alleluia. 

Christus Victor 

Mosaic from the Chapel of the Archbishop, Ravenna