Title: “Resurrection of the Empty Tomb”
Contents
“The Resurrection of the Empty Tomb”
April 12, 2009
Easter Sunday
Mark 16:1-8
[1] When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, went
I bought spices to anoint Jesus.
[2] So, on the first day of the seventh, at dawn, when the sun had just risen, he went to the tomb.
[3] They said, "Who will roll the stone for us out of the mouth of the tomb?" and said to each other.
[4] But when he lifted his eyes, he saw that the stone had already been rolled. The stone was huge.
[5] The women went into the tomb and were astonished to see a young man dressed in white sitting to the right.
[6] He said to the women. "Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified, but he is alive. He is not here. See, where he was buried.
[7] So go, and tell his disciples and Peter, He will go before them to Galilee, and they will see him there, just as he said to them.”
[8] They ran out and fled from the tomb. They trembled and lost their minds. They were afraid, so they didn't say anything to anyone.
One.
The meaning of the Exodus event is that the crushed life was freed by God to live in a new world. The most original God event of the Hebrews is the Exodus from Egypt. All the laws, standards of life, and holidays of the Hebrews belong to the liberation event and God who liberated them. The repetition of praise and memory of this liberation event is the essence of Hebrew faith education, that is, Judaism.
Then, what is the most original event of God for Christians?
It is the event in which God raised Jesus from the dead. This is the Christian faith in the resurrection.
From this resurrection faith, Christianity begins. So, the first Christian holiday was Easter, not Christmas.
As we celebrate Easter today, I hope that it will be a time to reflect on the meaning of resurrection for us Christians.
I am currently teaching Christian-related subjects at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Hanshin University.
90% of the students in this class are non-religious students. They took this course because it was a compulsory subject, but in fact, they had a very bad feeling about Christianity. Of course, the Christian Church seems to have contributed to this. Many students understood Christianity to be a very selfish and irrational religion. However, as the lecture progressed, misunderstandings about Christianity gradually disappeared, and I came to understand that the problem of Christianity that is revealed in modern society is not a problem of Christianity itself, but a problem caused by the modern Christian church. In particular, when introducing the things that Jesus did when he came to this earth, many students who had a bad preconceived notion about Christianity were amazed at the life of Jesus and expressed their respect.
If we look back at what Jesus did in those days 2,000 years ago, he healed the sick and cast out demons, a world where the poor and rich live without discrimination, a world where men and women live equally, love each other and love each other without mine or yours. He wanted to form a dining community where people can share happily and peacefully.
As a human being, Jesus was truly a wonderful man. He was a teacher of wisdom and a teacher who suggested new indicators of life.
2.
However, Jesus, who was showing a life of liberation, was put to death by such an unconventional act. In any case, he was sentenced to death and died while fighting against the seemingly unjust religious and state powers. He was a great teacher, but he eventually died.
Here, students ask questions. So, isn't he a failed revolutionary after all?
Yes, that's right. From a human point of view, Jesus is a failed revolutionary.
Then the question comes again. Then we ask why, even after Jesus died, the forces that followed him did not disappear, but rather, Christianity as a world religion was born.
How would you answer this question? The teacher you followed and believed in did not achieve anything in the end, did not destroy the temple power in Jerusalem, and did not destroy the colonial rule of Rome. Why do we have Jesus, who died on the cross, as our Lord?
This is the starting point of the original God event of Christians.
From here, we enter the realm of mystery that goes beyond the lecture of objective events.
Christians are those who confess that God did not allow Jesus to end in death, but raised Jesus from the dead.
So let me ask you one more thing here.
Hebrews are people who have the experience of being freed and saved from the Egyptian oppression and contempt that suppressed their lives. So, to them, the Exodus from Egypt is the liberation event of their lives. This is a huge event.
But what does it have to do with my life that Jesus died and rose again?
This is the key.
Even if Jesus died a hundred times and rose again, it may not matter to some people. So, from here on, you will face a limitation in the university lecture hall where you cannot enter into the mystery of faith just by listening to and respecting Jesus.
The question is, wouldn't the resurrection of Jesus be a joy and celebration only when that respectable Jesus died and rose again and the event has something to do with my life?
3.
When Jesus was killed, many living followers of Jesus lost hope and were scattered. The new world that Jesus lived and showed, a life of equality, freedom and love, after all, it is not in this world, ah! Now, I walked down the path of despair, saying that my life had no hope.
Just like back then, isn't the weight of despair of 'death' a force that suppresses our lives today?
The world makes you give up saying that there is no point in doing so. And he threatens to be kicked out of the world if he rushes forward. That is why it makes them give up on even the most beautiful calling.
In fact, we live in this world and suffer from the fear of death.
If you lose money you will die, if you don't study, you will die, if you lose heart, you will die, if your lofty tower collapses, you will die, if you lose popularity, you will die, if you divorce, you will die, if you are fired from your job, you will die ... We are heartbroken and despairing in life because it is likely that an event that has come to us will lead us to death. To come to you with the feeling that everything will end without any hope, that is the fear of death.
4. The Empty Tomb, Galilee Resurrection
But is death really the end? Resurrection is the event that destroyed our thinking that death was the end of everything. God has shown us that death is not the end. That is the resurrection of Jesus.
So now he tells you to get out of that fear of death. The greatest threat Satan can make is to kill him. However, what is the use of that threat if you die and come back to life? In other words, through the resurrection, Satan's threats become completely useless and disappear.
Now we know that we live even if we die. So now, without being threatened with death, they are enjoying the joy of resurrection in advance. The threat of death is now nothing more than a “trick”. Because we know that death is not the end.
Jesus died and rose again.
Resurrection is the resurrection of the dead. But if we just think that the dead have risen from the dead, then Jesus is not the only person in the Bible. In John 11, Lazarus is described as a man who died and rose again. However, the resurrection of Jesus is completely different from the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus, who was resurrected from the dead, looked the same as before and lived in the same house and with the same family members.
But the resurrection of Jesus is quite different.
One.
First, they looked different. The Bible says that the disciples did not recognize the resurrected Jesus. Mark 16:12, Luke 24:16
Jesus was resurrected in a completely different form than people expected.
What is an estimate? Isn't that an extension of what we have experienced in the past? In that way, Jesus overturned our past thinking and judgment. This is completely different from the resurrection of Lazarus.
The resurrection story continues to tell a story completely different from our expectations.
2.
Disappointing people's expectations is also reflected in the story of the empty tomb at Easter.
At a time when all the direct disciples who were shouting and fighting over who was higher and boasting who was closer to Jesus were all fleeing and missing, a man named Joseph of Arimathea, a silent follower of Jesus, boldly asks Pilate to release the body of Jesus. Then, the body of Jesus is placed in an empty tomb prepared in advance in his own household, in our case, in a cemetery.
What's more, the day of Easter is even more unexpected. The female disciples went to the tomb at dawn to apply incense for a daily funeral. These women must have been deeply grieved over the loss of a loved one. But when they arrived at the tomb, there was no body of Jesus, and a young man in white sat down and said, Mark 16:6 “He is not here.”
The resurrection of Jesus is a field that exceeds our expectations. The resurrection of Jesus is a paradoxical event that first proves his resurrection by the empty tomb. Like the praises of Philippians 2, Jesus emptied himself as the tomb was emptied and became a being filled with God. He became God by emptying himself.
3.
And the scene of that empty tomb calls us to the scene of a new event. The Bible refers to it as ‘Galilee’. The Gospels all tell us to go to Galilee to meet the event of Jesus' resurrection.
Jerusalem is home to a high and splendid temple. It is the center of the bond. It is a place where you can be treated like a person if you somehow enter this place. But this is a place where sides are divided, deceived and masked. A place shady with intrigue, intimidation and killing. This is the place that kills all dreamers. This is where the world teaches that everything is like this.
But where is Galilee?
Galilee was the place where the new kingdom was being talked about. A place to dream of a new life. Even if they slept in the cold and ate rough food, it was a place where they shared food, cared for each other, and prayed for peace.
So, the disciples would have quickly understood the meaning of the story of meeting again in Galilee. When asked to meet in Galilee, the disciples said, “Yes, it’s not over!!” you would have thought For those who gave up on all their dreams, and said that it would be the end if they died, no matter how hard they try, Galilee is a place where the dreams of heaven are cherished. A place to talk about expectations and hopes. A place to dance and sing shoulder to shoulder.
That's right. It's not the end.
This is the mystery of resurrection faith. Christians are those who dream and walk in this realm of mystery. He is the one who tells the world that death is not the end. These are the people who tell their children a beautiful calling. This is where the Christian Church begins.