Twenty-eight years ago during Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, the San Francisco Giants were playing the Oakland As in Candlestick Park when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook the Bay area for fifteen seconds. It was the strongest quake felt there since the 1906 quake that set the city ablaze.
Unlike the hurricanes and tornadoes, earthquakes have no early warning system. They strike quickly, violently jarring and tossing everything upside down. Foundations collapse, gas lines explode, freeways buckle. And fear persists as aftershocks continue to make your surroundings tremble and shake. Everything you know is upended and thrown into uncertainty.
The Scripture tells us that, on this holy morning, when the women go to see the tomb, “suddenly there was a great earthquake.” It’s a detail that we only hear in Matthew’s account of the resurrection.
In Matthew’s gospel, earthquakes – σεισμός (seismos) – signal God’s presence. He uses the same word when Jesus and the disciples are at sea and a great tempest swamps their boat with waves. And he uses it again, at the crucifixion when the earth shook and the rocks split and the Roman centurion keeping watch over Jesus confessed Jesus was God’s Son.
Matthew, more than any of the other Gospel writers, writes to convey to us the power and magnitude of Jesus as Messiah, the one anointed, or chosen, by God to save God’s people.
When we proclaim, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”
we proclaim God’s presence in the face of tumult and chaos.
We proclaim God’s power over death and destruction.
We proclaim God’s promise of new life, realized in faith.
And, like the women at the tomb that morning, we rejoice!
But, if we are honest, in the midst of the joy that this Good News brings, fear lingers.
It’s understandable.
Anytime we face change of this magnitude, there is fear.
We are afraid to believe what we have witnessed because it changes everything. Against the brokenness and selfishness that we see in the world, God commands love. Against the rumble of bombs, God commands peace. Against the poverty of the world where we hunger and thirst, God gives us bread and wine and commands us to eat and drink “in remembrance of me.”
And against all of our fear and uncertainty, Jesus repeatedly tells the disciples, and us,
“Do not be afraid.”
We miss this in the English translation, but what is said is really, “Stop being afraid and never be afraid again.”
God has come into the world in the person of Jesus and in God’s perfect love for us, there is no fear.
Although more devastating events have been recorded on television and in social media since then, the 1989 quake was the first time in the U.S. that an earthquake was broadcast live, and for many, it was one of the first times when we, collectively, saw the world as we know it, change first-hand, in real-time.
For the people who expect a savior to come as a king who would strong arm their enemies,
for the people who saw Christ crucified and watched from a distance as Jesus breathed his last upon the cross,
for the people who sit at dawn wondering what would happen next, the resurrection changes everything.
The Good News this Easter morning is that every time we experience seismic changes, the kinds of changes that change everything we think to be true, God accompanies us and tells us, “Stop being afraid and never be afraid again.”
Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again! Alleluia!
Let us pray…
Holy and loving God,
Thank you for coming to us in the person of your Son Jesus and for your life-changing love that expels all fear and triumphs over death.
Teach us to trust fully in You and surrender our fears.
Strengthened by your Spirit, lead us to tell others the Good News that Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment