An Easter Message - Mary and the Other Mary (Matthew 28:1-10)

Below is the text and recording of the message I preached on Easter morning at Rimersburg Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday, April 9.

Matthew 28:1-10 [Contemporary English Version]

The Sabbath was over, and it was almost daybreak on Sunday when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Suddenly a strong earthquake struck, and the Lord’s angel came down from heaven. He rolled away the stone and sat on it. The angel looked as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards shook from fear and fell down, as though they were dead.

The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was nailed to a cross. He isn’t here! God has raised him to life, just as Jesus said he would. Come, see the place where his body was lying. Now hurry! Tell his disciples he has been raised to life and is on his way to Galilee. Go there, and you will see him. This is what I came to tell you.”

The women were frightened and yet very happy, as they hurried from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and greeted them. They went near him, held on to his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid! Tell my followers to go to Galilee. They will see me there.”

Mary and the Other Mary

You know, it’s interesting; sometimes the strangest things can pass through your mind at the oddest times. For example, this past Friday, when I was thinking about the passage that we just looked at and after I read that “the Sabbath was over, and it was almost daybreak on Sunday when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb [Matthew 28:1, CEV],” do you know what I started to think about? I started to think about that old television show from, I think, the eighties called Newhart and particularly about those three brothers who owned the café right next to the Stratford Inn. 

Now, if you remember the series you know exactly who I’m talking about, the “Anything for a Buck” guys. But if you’ve forgotten about the show, let me tell you what I’m talking about. Newhart was a situation comedy in which Bob Newhart owned a hotel, well it was really more like a “bed and breakfast” kind of place. And on the program, there were these three really dirty and scraggly guys who were almost always together. Now they were brothers and only one talked. And every time they came into a room, the one who talked would always, and I mean always, say the same thing. He’d say, “I’m Larry, and this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl.” Now that’s what he’d say. And I’ve got to tell you, when I read, “Mary...and the other Mary,” bang, I was right back at the Stratford.

And you know, when it comes to the resurrection, well, I think the women are often seen as a little bit like those two guys. In other words, I think most people who know the story would say that they have a secondary role at best. I mean, with angels coming down and guards freezing up and of course Christ himself passing by, often the women kind of get lost in the shuffle. And although they may not rise, or probably better drop to the level of Daryl and the other Daryl, as we think about what we might learn from Jesus being raised from the dead, I believe in the minds of a lot of folks, Mary and the other Mary are pretty close.

But you know, I think that’s a real shame, and I’ll tell you why. In my opinion, not only did those women play a central role in the story itself, they also carried a message that can absolutely change our lives, if we let it. You see, when we really pay attention to what those two women did and consider what they became, I think we’re going to find a source of hope and peace we may never have known before. 

You see, when we take a good, hard look at those two women, I think we’re going to recognize that, first, they really became the first witnesses to the resurrection, didn’t they? In other words, they became the first human beings to tell others about something that absolutely changed the world: that through the power of the Almighty God, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. I mean, just think about what Matthew wrote. After they’d come to the tomb and after the stone was rolled away and after the guards were frozen in their tracks literally, the angel said to them,

Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was nailed to a cross. He isn’t here! God has raised him to life, just as Jesus said he would. Come, see the place where his body was lying. Now hurry! Tell his disciples he has been raised to life and is on his way to Galilee. Go there, and you will see him. This is what I came to tell you. [Matthew 28:5a-7, CEV] 

Now that’s what the angel said.

And do you remember what those two women did? Again, according to Matthew, “the women were frightened and yet very happy, as they hurried from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples.” [Matthew 28:8, CEV] Now, I’ve got to tell you, reading this gives me chills. You see, they did exactly what the angel told them to do. And man, this is important, because when they ran and told Peter and James and John and all the rest exactly what had happened, they were doing a whole lot more than just passing on information. They were sharing a message that is at the very heart of the gospel, the good news. My gosh, they were bearing witness to the most important event in human history, and I’ll tell you why. The resurrection isn’t just about an empty tomb or a dead body that came back to life; that had been done. It’s not even a happy ending to the story that had taken a dark turn, no, it’s a whole lot more than that. You see, it’s God giving his stamp of approval on everything that Jesus said and everything that he did during his life. But it’s even more than that. It’s a reminder that just like Christ was raised from the dead, take it to the bank, one day so will we. It’s like the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life. Just as we will die because of Adam, we will be raised to life because of Christ. Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us. But we must each wait our turn. Christ was the first to be raised to life, and his people will be raised to life when he returns. [1 Corinthians 15:20-23, CEV]

Now that’s what Paul wrote, and I’ll tell you, if that doesn’t give you hope as you live in the present and look to the future, I don’t know what will. You see, regardless of what happens in our world and regardless of what happens in our lives, right here and right now, we can say that after we die, God will raise us to new life, to eternal life. Man, we can shout it from the rooftops with absolute confidence. Why? Because that’s exactly what he did with his son and our savior. Jesus was the first one who was raised, but we know others will follow. And I’m telling you, that’s what Easter’s all about and that’s the message the two Marys carried to the disciples. You see, they were the first witnesses to the resurrection; that’s the first thing those women became.

But that’s not all. Second, they also became genuine agents of reconciliation. In other words, they also let those disciples know that in spite of their past failures, in spite of their prior weaknesses, my goodness, in spite of the fact that, on a scale from one to ten, as loyal followers of Christ, the twelve probably earned something like a two, Jesus hadn’t given them up. You see, that was also part of the message of those women. 

But to understand how radical this was, I think it’s important to remember that by the end of his time here on earth, Jesus had twelve followers left, and do you remember what happened to them? One betrayed him. One denied him. And the rest ran away. I mean, if you were applying to be a disciple, this is not the kind of stuff you’d put on a resume. And because of that, I think we’d all agree that given what had happened, Jesus had every right to be a little ticked by the faith of his closest so-called followers. I know I’d be. And yet, when he met those women as they were on their mission, do you remember what Jesus said? According to Matthew, “Then Jesus said, ‘Don’t be afraid! Tell my followers to go to Galilee. They will see me there.’” [Matthew 28:10, CEV] “Tell my followers.” Now personally, I find that amazing. In spite of the fact that they’d been pretty much wash outs as disciples, Jesus still called them his followers, and that was something else those women were told to share. 

And I’ll tell you, we need to hear that message too. I mean, we need to hear that no matter what we did in the past, no matter how many times we’ve disappointed the folks around us or how many examples of our own failures people can throw up to us, Christ still sees us as his followers, as his brothers and sisters and is always ready to welcome us back when we return to the fold. You see, the Apostle Paul was right when he wrote that “nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!” [Romans 8:39b, CEV]; therefore, we’re just going to have to live with the fact that God loves us. He loves us when we’re good and sitting in church on Easter morning but he also loves when we’re at our worst on Monday afternoon. I’m telling you, we need to hear that, because right there we can find peace as we live in the present. You see, they were agents of reconciliation, and that’s the second thing the Marys were.

Now in a few minutes, the service will be over, and we’ll be back to the same old, same old. But you know, as we all leave church this Easter morning, the one day we most clearly focus our attention on the resurrection of Jesus, along with the guards and the angel and of course the risen Christ, let’s also spend a little time thinking those two women, and I’m talking about Mary and the other Mary. I mean, let’s remember how they were the very first witnesses to the resurrection and how they were both agents of reconciliation. You see, right now, let’s all decide that we’re going to claim this, because I’ll tell you, if we do, starting today we’ll have a new sense of hope as we look into the future and a new feeling of peace as we live in the present. And you know, I don’t have to watch an old rerun of Newhart to know that.