1 Allen Pruitt So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. This is not the story I remember from Sunday school. No, what I remember learning is that he got killed, and they went from scared to death to shouting hallelujah! Good Friday straight into glorious Easter morning. That s what I remember. But that s not what we get. No, today we get terror and amazement. It s ironic. All this time, the disciples don t get it, and I mean the whole three years Jesus was with them. All that time, he told them, if you want to be my disciple, you ll pick up a cross and follow me. He told them, I m going to die, and I m going to be raised again.
2 And now, they finally seem to get it. There s no talk about his body being stolen from the tomb. No, a messenger, an angel is sitting there and says, He has been raised; he is not here; you ll see him back in Galilee. I think they finally seem to get it, because if that s really what happened, then terror and amazement sound like the correct response. What about you? Do you come to church looking for terror and amazement? Probably not. Probably didn t come looking for that on Easter Day! No, most of us come looking for a happy ending to a sad story. But what if Easter is not a happily ever after ending? Because what if Easter is no ending at all?
3 It s Easter, and it s April Fools Day; all in one. April Fool s has been a big deal at our house for a while now, ever since my daughter, then four years old, came walking out of the kitchen, with big tears in her eyes, saying, I cut myself! As I was about to spring into action, she then proceeded to wipe the ketchup off her hand and then said, Happy Fools Day. I am lucky that I had to get to church at about 6:30 this morning, before anybody else in my house was awake. I m lucky because I m not nearly as good at April Fool s as they are. I ll tell you, too often I have treated Easter as if it was some kind of Almighty April Fool s joke. Jesus is dead! Just kidding. April Fool s! That ain t what happened. And if it is, then it s got nothing to do with salvation or forgiveness of sins.
4 It s not that we thought Jesus was dead and then he actually turned up alive, like something out of the National Enquirer. No I reckon what happened, at least if it means anything at all, what happened is that the man died, died, dead as a doornail, and then God said, Death is not the end. And God raised him to new life. No kidding around, no pranks or jokes or tricks. Dead, dead as you ve ever been. And then alive, alive because God said so. And if that s what happened. If that s REALLY what we re talking about, then terror and amazement are exactly the right response.
5 What if that is what happened? What if the same God who made the world, gave us life, and before all that ordered the cosmos out of chaos, what if that same God said that the cross will be an instrument of salvation, not through blood, but through life after death, through resurrection, through new life coming out of every tomb? What if that s what happened? If that s what happened. If that s REALLY what we re talking about, then terror and amazement are exactly the right response. If that s what we re talking about, then we aren t talking about a happily ever after, tacked on to the end of a sad story. If that s what happened, then what we re talking about is the beginning. The beginning of every story that will ever matter from here on out.
Because if we say that Jesus is raised to die no more, if we say that the tomb remains empty, then we are saying that God is always just around the corner. 6 And if that s that s true, if resurrection is the way things happen, then that empty tomb is the beginning the beginning of every good thing you will ever do; the beginning of every story that will ever matter that empty tomb is the beginning of God coming to find you at all of your endings. And if that s true, if resurrection is the way things happen, if an empty tomb is REALLY what we are talking about, then terror and amazement are exactly the right response.