The Hidden Glory in the Savior’s Triumph

EASTER SUNDAY 2007

Rev. Steven D. Spencer

Matthew 28:1-10

CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED, Alleluia! Listen to the report and pay attention to the story so that your hearts may be filled with undiluted joy and your souls with unmixed gladness. St. Matthew reports it in chapter 28, beginning at verse 1:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were SO afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee: there they will see me.”

Could there be a day more glorious than this? Perhaps, maybe the first day of creation was more glorious, when God simply spoke and created time and space and all matter out of nothing more than His words! Or maybe the fourth day of creation the day God just by speaking created the sun, the moon, and the stars and flung them into the positions and courses that they hold to this very day? Were those days more glorious than this one? No! A thousand times no! For as glorious as were the days of creation and the day on which the sun and moon and stars were made, creation and everything in it will one day collapse and be changed by God with no more effort than taking speaking a word. But this day! This day will shine forever and stand forever in its glory and supreme importance.

What about the Last Day, the day when Christ shall come again with all the saints and angels, the day on which all will face the judgment seat of God Is that day more glorious than this one? No! Again, a thousand times no! For apart from this day, that day would not be glorious at all to us. Apart from this day, the Last Day would be filled with indescribable fear and terror. The fear that we would hear the voice of God say: “Depart from me, you cursed, to that place of dread prepared for the devil and all his angels.” No, this day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, is by far the most glorious day of all time and eternity. CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! May you love and treasure this day for your highest good as a day more glorious than your birthday, your wedding day, the day of the birth of your child, even the day of your death and your own entrance into glory. All through Lent we have been looking for the glory hidden on the cross. And now on this day, that glory of the cross, that glory on and in the cross, reaches its unsurpassed climax.

But notice yet again what we have noticed all through Lent. Every step of the way in Lent there was glory. But it was glory that was hidden. And even today, this most glorious day of all days in eternity, the glory of Christ is hidden. Did you catch it in St. Matthew’s report? Who appears as glorious in that report? It isn’t Jesus! It’s an angel. The angel descends from heaven, knocks open the grave, and sits on the stone that covered its opening. Where is Jesus? He has already done His great works, and He has done them hidden from sight. On Easter Sunday His body and soul were reunited in the grave. No one saw it. On Easter Sunday as St. Peter reports in his epistle, the risen Christ descended into hell and proclaimed there His great victory over sin, death, and hell. No one on earth heard the shrieks of rage and the impotent howlings of the devil that day. It was hidden. Then, before the angel came down from heaven, Jesus came out of the grave while the stone was yet firmly fixed at its entry. But again, the glory was hidden. The only one that appears glorious in St. Matthew’s report is the angel who rolled away the stone. His appearance was like lightning, and his face, white as snow. The visible effect of that visible angel was glorious too. Those tough soldiers who knew how to stare death in the face were no match for the glory of the angel. Stunned and terrified, they fell to the ground like dead men.

When the women arrive at the tomb, the soldiers have apparently recovered and have already run into the city to report to the chief priests. But the angel, so glorious in appearance, is still there. He speaks to the women who had come expecting to anoint the dead body of Jesus and by this means finish the funeral that had been left unfinished on Good Friday. But to their amazement, the stone has been rolled away. And there in the tomb, is only the angel who frightens them also by his glorious appearance. His message, however, is far more glorious than his appearance. “Go in and look,” he tells them. “See, He is not here in the house of the dead. He has risen, just as He said he would. Go and tell the disciples. He will see them in Galilee, just as he said he would!”

But isn’t that a bit of a disappointment? Don’t we want to see Jesus, the risen Jesus, on this most glorious day? Don’t we want Him to be looking even more glorious than the angel? Don’t we want to see Him robed in splendor? With his face shining like the sun and his garments white as the light? Don’t we want to see Him looking the way He will look on the Last Day and the way John saw Him and recorded Him the opening chapter of the book of Revelation? Shouldn’t our sight of Him on this most glorious day match the glory of the event?  The answer is no!

We see His glory on Easter Sunday in the way He shows that glory to the women at the tomb. After they ran from the tomb at the command of the angel, Jesus appears to them. And how does He appear? With His glory hidden! Oh, thank God for that! For if the appearance of an angel in glory caused the soldiers to fall down as dead men and filled even the hearts of the women with fear, what, then, would become of us if we would see Jesus in all His resurrection glory? Would we not freeze in terror and die of fright right on the spot? What joy would there be for sinners then like us? But no! This day is a day of joy and gladness for the soul. And this is because Jesus, on this day, still hides His glory. For unlike us mere mortals, He has no need to put His best on display and make sure that everyone is impressed by His might and His majesty. He doesn’t want to intimidate us by that kind of appearing. There will be a day for his appearance in majesty and glory, the Last Day. But not today! Not on Easter Sunday.

So even on Easter Sunday, He hides His glory. He appears to the women in the same humble form that they knew and loved during the preceding three years. How different their reaction to His appearance than the reaction to the angel’s appearance. There’s no dread, no fear, no terror, no running. Well, yes running! They run to Him, not away from Him. They fall down before Him in worship and adoration. Filled with joy that cannot be concealed, they hold Him by His feet. How they must have soaked the ground with their tears of gladness! For He is risen! He is risen indeed! He has not come to terrify but to comfort. The work He finished on Good Friday is truly finished. All sin has been paid for, covered in His blood. And now is the great day to proclaim the glory of His victory.

And the glory is hidden, hidden in His words. In two short sentences, He sums up the whole glory of Lent, the whole glory of Easter, the whole glory of the Gospel. He tells the women. “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Don’t be afraid! What a beautiful summary of our Easter joy and of the whole of the Gospel. Without Good Friday and Easter Sunday—for the two cannot and should not ever be separated for fear of missing the point of both of them. For without Good Friday we would have nothing in this life but fear. Fallen with Adam and Eve in the Garden, we were separated from God by our sin. Death was our lot in this life, and hell, our future in the next. But Jesus died for our sin. He did exactly what God said He would do in the very prophesy about Him in the Garden. He went into battle for us on the cross. And there His heal was pierced but the head of serpent was crushed. He won! Easter Sunday is the proof of it, He rose VICTORIOUS over death. He paid the price for our sin. Don’t be Afraid; He conquered hell. Don’t be afraid; He has triumphed over the grave. Don’t be afraid He has triumphed over death. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" We have victory through Christ Jesus our Lord, Alleluia!

But how can I know that for sure, for my conscience still condemns me, and temptations still gnaw and nag me? Listen to Jesus’ second sentence to the women: “Go and tell my brothers!” He calls the disciples His brothers! All they did in the Garden of Gethsemane was sleep even after He warned them that they should watch and pray. All they did was run away at the first opportunity, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. And Peter denied knowing Jesus with oaths and curses in the courtyard of the high priest’s palace when a servant girl accused him of being a follower of Jesus. They certainly don’t deserve to be called His brothers, do they? No! And yet that’s exactly the point. That’s exactly the glory of Lent and of Easter. The disciples don’t deserve it, and neither do you. For you are no better than them! Their sins are gone, and your sins are gone as well.

“Don’t be afraid!” For behold the glory of Easter! Jesus died. But now He has risen and will never die again! We are redeemed! We are reconciled! Our sin is gone! Hell is conquered! The grave is destroyed! For Jesus Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed Alleluia! And He calls you, brothers. In Jesus Name, AMEN!