postID: 7002; title: Holy Saturday
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Holy Saturday
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of thy dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Holy Saturday
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Scripture citation(s): Matthew 28:1-10
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Matthew 28:1-10
✛
Jesus's Empty Tomb
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Alleluia. Christ is risen!
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This Great Vigil of Easter is a liturgy stemming from the earliest centuries of the Church. This service itself was designed by those early Christians to do what has been done for us this evening. We are on the edge of amazement and discovery with the first witnesses of Jesus’ Resurrection. The light of the New Fire struck in the darkness, like the earthquake at the time, conveys the initiative of the sheer act of God who raised Jesus from the dead very early in the morning on the first day of the week, Sunday. The Lord grants his first appearance after his Resurrection to Mary Magdalene. The news will spread like wildfire: Jesus is alive.
Those five Old Testament prophecies, one way or another, contain the promise of what we celebrate tonight. The resurrection of Christ is the act of the God who created the heavens and the earth, and behold they were very good. When sin became so rampant it nearly destroyed the human race, God saved a remnant of man and of animals for the future with Noah and the ark. Stopping faithful Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, God provided for the once-for-all sacrifice of his own Son for our salvation. Delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt by the Exodus at the Red Sea, God prepares the way for an even greater Exodus from the bondage of sin and death. And when God commands the prophet to prophesy to the dead bones in the valley, he is giving us a glimpse of life on the other side of death and a homeland, not in earthly Israel but in the kingdom of heaven.
When we baptized new members into the Body of Christ and renewed our own baptismal promises with them, we saw that what we celebrate tonight is an on-going mystery. It reaches back to the Creation and the Flood, to Abraham and to the Exodus and Moses and the prophets, and culminates in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it also reaches forward to every generation of the Church since the first witnesses of Jesus’ Resurrection, including this new generation here tonight. When we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ’s death, incorporated into his crucified and now resurrected living body.
All this began with a group of Jesus’ friends and disciples who were terrified, grieved and demoralized by the events of the previous week. It had begun with Jesus’ triumphal entry into the Holy City. This was followed by betrayal, confusion and cowardice among the disciples, and by Jesus’ own disquieting insistence that what was happening was the will of his Father, a will which he embraced as the very purpose of his life as God’s Son. And then it did happen, beginning on Thursday: his arrest, trial, condemnation, crucifixion and death on Friday. Even the proper preparation of his body for burial had to wait a full day because it was Saturday, the Sabbath. So when, as early as possible on the next day, the third day, Sunday, the women went back to his tomb to complete their final works of love towards Jesus, they found his tomb empty. There were however angel messengers, who told them what had happened and what to do: Jesus is risen, as he said; see the place where he lay; go tell the disciples.
Many years ago, when as a college student I re-discovered my own faith in Christ, I recall thinking: This is so good, it simply has to be shared. On the basis of that encounter with the Lord, that’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since: share the good news of the risen Lord Jesus, who suffered for our sins and died for our salvation. And now we can share in his risen life.
Saint Thomas Church is a place where the mystery of Christ in his death and resurrection is brilliantly set forth in liturgy, music, teaching and, I trust, a community of faith immersed in these means of grace. May we here tonight continue this heritage of witness, so that more and more people may come to know the joy of Jesus Christ. If you here have felt this joy for yourself, then don’t be shy or tongue-tied. Share the good news in every way you can. You can make all the difference in the world.
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
