The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on Easter Sunday, 1985. The title is, Be Not Amazed, and the scripture reference is the Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, verses 1 through 8. 

I want to look more closely at that paragraph that we've just heard read, and you might care to follow along. That was Mark 16 and I think you'll find it on page 886 of the Bibles in your pews. The story is familiar to us.

If it weren't, I don't suspect we'd be here on this morning, this Easter day. Yet I wonder if we could somehow get back in our minds and spirits to that first Easter and feel how different it was for those who realized this news for the very first time. It says when the Sabbath was passed, they came back to finish the business of anointing Jesus' body and completing really the burial procedure.

To do a burial in those days in the Jewish fashion was to anoint the body with oils and spices and wrap it in successive layers of linen. Sometimes it would take as many as a hundred pounds of spices to do the job properly. And it was late in the afternoon when they began that.

And the Sabbath came and no work could be done, so they left the job unfinished. Jesus was in the tomb but not properly buried. And so as soon as Sabbath was over, at the first light of day they came to finish the job.

I want you to see that they came with absolutely no expectation to find anything but the corpse, perhaps already beginning to decompose. They were worried about how they were going to get in. There was a huge stone in front of the door, and three women said, we can't move it without help.

But as they approached, they saw the stone was rolled away. What's going on here? Something has happened.

They came to the tomb, and there inside is a young man. Matthew calls Him an angel. And it says in verse 5, they were amazed.

They hadn't expected this. His first words are, do not be amazed. It's a command.

You should have expected this. But they didn't. For three years, Jesus has been telling them and all that He ever spoke to, I've come for one purpose. I've come to die.

That's what it's all about. The death of Jesus, His betrayal, His crucifixion, was not some kind of tragic mistake that caught Him unaware. Brought a premature end to a wonderful ministry.

No, no. That's what it was about. Jesus didn't come primarily to tell us how to live, although He certainly had a good deal to say on that subject. He came to die for us.

And he'd been saying that for three years. It's appointed that I go to a cross and die. But, after three days I'll rise again.

Why were they amazed? Why didn't they expect that? I'd suggest there are at least two reasons.

Neil gave us one of them last week. Everybody you see had a preconception of what Messiah was going to be. Who he was going to be, what he was going to do.

The role of Messiah was very clearly defined for them. He's going to come and overthrow oppression. He's going to liberate us.

And they thought that meant in political terms. He's going to come and there's going to be a groundswell of support. He's going to lead an army and we're going to throw off the shackles of Rome.

You can see that right up until the moment of betrayal in the garden. You remember how Peter said, I'll go with you to the death? He meant it.

So long as there's going to be a fight, I'm willing to put my life on the line. The little band of soldiers approaches and Peter whips out his sword and attacks. And Jesus says, put away your sword.

There is not going to be a fight. And it's only moments later that Peter is saying to a servant girl, I don't even know this man. You see, he didn't. He really didn't. He thought he did, but he had an idea of what Messiah was going to be and everybody else had the same idea.

He's going to be a political liberator. But Jesus didn't come to be a political liberator. He came to work a liberation in our spirit that is so much more profound, so much deeper, that nobody expected it.

He came to take off the shackles of sin and guilt and separation from God and eternal damnation. I think there's another reason why they weren't expecting it. And that is that everybody knew the teaching of the Scriptures that Messiah will live forever.

Messiah will live forever and so if this man has died he can't be Messiah we thought he was but we were wrong it's over so they went their separate ways except for the women that came back to do this work out of love to finish the burial procedure and when they saw the empty tomb they were amazed do not be amazed look what happens they go running out of the tomb they fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had come upon them they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid read on when they finally came and told the disciples gathered in the upper room look at verse 11 when Mary Magdalene told them about seeing the risen Christ she says he's alive and they won't believe it read on. He appeared to two others walking in the country on the road to Emmaus. They went back and told the others they didn't believe them.

Don't come to me and tell me about gullible fishermen who were ready to believe anything. They had absolutely no expectation of Easter morning whatsoever. They were utterly astonished.

Look at verse 14. Jesus himself appeared to the eleven as they sat at table, and He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. This is the very heart of it, friends.

This is what it's all about. Messiah does live forever. But it's not by avoiding death.

It's by embracing it, going straight through it, allowing it to do its worst, and trampling it underfoot. He won the fight not by ducking, but by taking the worst blow that Satan could give, straight in the face, and then crushing him underfoot. Praise God.

Let me put it to you this way. I don't know if you've ever thought of it this way. But if you got up this morning and you opened your newspaper and the headline said, body of Mohammed found in a cave near Jerusalem.

Do you know what the impact would be on worldwide Islam? Virtually none. Virtually none.

Oh, they'd have a new shrine to go to. But you see, there's a teaching that Mohammed was carried off into heaven without dying, and that certainly would have to be changed, but the essential content of Islam would be totally untouched. Because Islam has nothing to do with worshipping Mohammed.

In fact, if anybody bowed down in front of him and worshipped him, he would have been horrified. He probably would have had him beheaded. Mohammed said, I am a man, a prophet of God.

He points at Allah. You go follow Allah. It's not worshipping Mohammed.

If they could prove, if you read in your morning paper today that they somehow worked out indisputably that Confucius never even lived. Never even lived. Do you know what effect that would have on those few Chinese who are still trying to follow ancient Confucianism?

None. None. Because if Confucius didn't write the Analect, somebody did.

And it really doesn't matter who. Confucianism has nothing whatsoever to do with worshipping Confucius. He never claimed to be God.

Confucianism is a way of life. It's a way of doing things properly under all circumstances. If you opened up your morning paper and it said that they have conclusively proven beyond any argument that Siddhartha Gautama, the one they call the Buddha, was simply made up by somebody.

It's all fiction. Do you know what effect that would have on Buddhism? None.

None. Because if Siddhartha didn't teach the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, somebody did, and it really doesn't matter who. Buddhism is a perspective on life.

It's not worshipping Gautama. In fact, did you know that Siddhartha Gautama, all his life remained an agnostic? At best, maybe some would say an atheist.

He said the question of whether or not God exists isn't even worth discussing. You compare the great religions of the world and the teachings of the so-called great religious figures of the world. And with one exception, with one exception, you'll find that they are all pointing away from themselves.

There is God. Go follow Him. Or there is the path to righteousness.

Go follow it. With one exception. Jesus says, I am the way.

I am the truth. I am the life. Come, follow me.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father are one. If you love me, you love God.

If you follow me, you follow God. If you know me, you know God. If you hate me, you hate God.

If you reject me, you reject God. And for that they put him to death. Only he said, I'm going to give you some proof of that.

Destroy this temple, my body, and in three days I'll raise it up again. And John, who recorded that, adds the footnote, nobody had any idea what he was talking about until he did it. They thought he was talking about a physical building, the temple in Jerusalem.

He said only after the resurrection did they finally understand. Listen, we have had our share of kooks and crazies who have claimed to be God. And some of them have gotten a little following for a short while, but most folks have seen through it.

It's ridiculous. It's ludicrous. That man is God? You've got to be kidding.

With one exception. somehow it doesn't sound ludicrous when Jesus says it does it I submit to you that Jesus Christ is the world's unique example of a man who claimed to be God and acted like it and proved it on the third day he rose again if you woke up this morning and you found in your newspaper that they had discovered the dead body of Jesus in a cave near Jerusalem, Christianity would come tumbling down like a house of cards. Because that's what it is.

It is the proclamation of resurrection. Paul said, if that's not true, we're worse than liars. We've blasphemed against the Holy One, if that's not true.

But you know what? You aren't going to find that. You're not going to find that headline in your newspaper today.

Because that body of Jesus is not moldering in a grave somewhere. He went through death. He came out the other side.

He appeared to Mary. He appeared to the other women. He appeared to the two on the road to Emmaus.

He appeared to the ten in the upper room. He appeared a week later to Thomas, a special engagement because he was missing. He appeared separately to Peter, to James, to more than 500 brethren at one time.

He cooked breakfast on the beach one day. John says in many ways he showed himself with indisputable proofs. And then he ascended into heaven so that he could send the Holy Spirit so that we too could know him personally day by day.

Not just a factual record, not just a historical account, but a living relationship with a living Christ. Christianity is not a philosophy. It's not a way of life.

It's not an ethic. It's not a perspective. It's a person.

Paul said, we preach Christ. Crucified, raised, living forever. And you can know Him personally.

I trust most of you at least do. That's why you're here. If you don't know Him personally, invite Him to come into your life this day.

What a tragedy. to be here for the celebration of Christ rising from the grave and being alive right now and miss the whole point. He says, if anyone would hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to that person's life.

And I'll make my abode with him. I'll sup with him. I'll share your life.

I'll transform your life. That's what Easter is all about. The powers of death have done their worst.

But Christ, their legions, half dispersed. Let's shout of holy joy outburst. Hallelujah.

He is risen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.