MATTHEW 28:1-10

28:1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

March Madness is going to come to an end tomorrow night and some people are ready for it to end.  Some people are ready for March Madness to end because as far as they’re concerned the basketball tournament is just a lot of hype and hyperbole.  Some people are ready for March Maddness to end because they bombed out in their office pool.

When that happens all the excitement, enthusiasm and the exhilaration quickly disappear.  You might even end up feeling a little down in the dumps.  By the way, it isn’t just March Madness and the office pools that have people feeling down in the dumps these days.  It’s also the economy and the fear of unemployment as well as all the problems that we seem to be facing these days.  It makes you wonder if W.C. Fields was right.  He once said that the first thing you should do when you get up in the morning is smile. “That way you can get it over with.” These days a lot of people feel the same way a woman did when she stopped into a restaurant for lunch.  The food was good and the service was good, but that didn’t seem to matter to the woman.  After the woman finished her meal she got up to leave.  The waitress smiled and said, “Have a nice day!”  When the woman heard that she scowled and replied, “I’m sorry, but I’ve made other plans.”

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of joy out there these days.  There also wasn’t a lot of joy when the disciples woke up on Easter morning.  Let me ask you this question.  Have you ever wondered why the disciples didn’t go to the tomb with the women on Easter morning?  The answer is simple.  They didn’t go with the women to the tomb because they were off somewhere licking their wounds and feeling sorry for themselves.  You can see the disciples’ mood by look at what happened later that day on the road to Emmaus.  Two of the disciples were walking along when they met the risen Christ.  For some reason though they didn’t recognize him.  Luke tells us in his gospel that when Jesus asked them what they were talking about they stood there looking sad.  Then they told him all about the crucifixion and added, “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

Isn’t it amazing?  In just a few days all the excitement, enthusiasm and exhilaration from Palm Sunday disappeared. Now let’s compare the emotions that the disciples felt that morning with the emotions that the women experienced when they got to the tomb and saw that it was empty.  When the angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead Matthew says that they were filled with great, not just joy.  They were filled with great joy. Then as they were running to tell the disciples the good news they met the risen Christ.  As soon as he spoke to them they fell down in humble awe and worshipped him. Suddenly their hearts were overflowing with joyful alleluias.

That empty tomb changes everything.  The empty tomb is the reason why the evangelist Dwight Moody once shared these powerful words with his congregation.  He said, “One day you will read in the newspaper that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, Massachusetts is dead.  Well, don’t believe a word of it.  I will have gone up higher, that’s all. Out of this old clay tenement into a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  And at that moment, I will be more alive than I have ever been.”

That empty tomb tells you that there more to life than March Madness and Super Bowl Sunday.  There’s more to life than deadlines at work and mortgages that need to be paid.  There’s more to life than term papers to be written and deciding who you’re going to take to the senior prom.  There’s more to life than getting old and dealing with all the aches and pains that go with it.   There’s more, much more. 

So, you have to decide if you’re going to build your life around March Madness and the things of this world or whether you’re going to build your life around April Alleluias and the promise of everlasting life.  If you build your life around March Madness and the things of this world you’re eventually going to end up feeling the same way the disciples felt that morning.  You’re going to end up feeling the same way a woman felt back in 1986.  That was the year that Halley’s Comet appeared once again in the skies above the earth.  The woman was excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity to see the comet.  So, she decided to travel all the way to Peru to get a better view of the comet.  When she got there she went to the top of the Andes Mountains. Then she looked into a telescope and do you know what she said?  She shook her head and grumbled.  “That’s it? That’s all there is?  I came four thousand miles to see this crummy little fuzz ball?”

When you build your life around March Madness and the things of this world you’re eventually going to end up asking yourself the same question. That’s it?  That’s all there is? That why the risen Christ want you to build your life around those April Alleluias and the promise of eternal life.

Many years ago I decided to build my life around those April Alleluias.  Does that mean I now have a life that is free from stress and sadness and occasional suffering?  Not at all.  In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret. After my mother was killed in that terrible snow mobile accident four years ago I found myself walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  In the months that followed the accident I would like in bed at night and thing about it.  I would think and think and think and then these terrible waves of fear would wash over me. 

When would my time to die come?  What would it be like knowing that I only had a few more breaths of life left in me?  I began to understand what the comedian Woody Allen meant when he said, “I’m not afraid of death.  I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Then something wonderful happened.  As the months went by the April Alleluias began to take over and I began to experience the peace that passes all understanding.  I knew in my heart that Jesus really is the resurrection and the life and because he’s the resurrection and the life that means he’s with me in this life and when the time comes I’m going to be with him in the life to come.

Many years ago the writers for the television show Sesame Street had to deal with a very difficult situation.  It was the summer of 1981.  Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper on the children’s television show died.  The writers wondered how they were going to explain this sad reality to their 10 million viewers, most of who were under the age of six.  Child-development experts provided some specifics on what not to do.  For example they said, “Don’t say Mr. Hooper got sick and died because you don’t always die when you get sick.  Don’t say he was old because children think their parents are old.  Don’t say he went to the hospital and died because people go to the hospital all the time.”  So, after wrestling with the problem the writers came up with a scene that has been called one of the 10 most influential moments in daytime television history.  Early in the episode, Big Bird makes a silly entrance onto the set.  He comes in walking backwards with his head between his legs.  When Gordon asks why he’s walking like that Big Bird says, “Because.  Just because.”  Later in the episode Big Bird presents each adult on the show with a picture that he’s made of them.  The last picture is for Mr. Hooper.  When big Bird asks his adult friends to help him find Mr. Hooper they gently remind Big Bird that Mr. Hooper has died.  Big Bird doesn’t understand and announces that he will just wait for Mr. Hooper to come back.  The adults then tearfully explain that when someone dies, they don’t come back. Then they try to console Big Bird by telling him that they’ll always have their memories of Mr. Hooper.  Big Bird, however, gets angry and demands to know why Mr. Hooper had to die.  No one knows what to say until Gordon figures it out.  He turns to Big Bird and says, “Because.  Just because.”   At that point Big Bird seems to understand.  Then, as always, he mispronounces Mr. Hooper’s name and calls him Mr. Looper.  Maria smiles and says, “That’s Hooper, Big Bird.  Hooper.” Then in a spontaneous moment that wasn’t planned the adults and Big Bird embrace.  Big Bird’s drawing of Mr. Hooper hangs above his nest to this day.

When you build your life around those April Alleluias that there is an empty tomb and a risen Christ behind that painful, “Because. Just because.  You know Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life which means that he is with you in this life and when the times comes you will be with him in the life to come.  Now I ask you.  Isn’t that a lot better than building your life around March Madness and the things of this world?  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

April 4, 2010