I have to say that sometimes I think this is how we live our lives. We want to experience the love and joy and peace of God, and we want to experience the fullness of life and the power of God working in our lives but often all we seem to experience are sealed tombs. Our lives are littered with broken dreams and unmet expectation. Our failures and pain and sin all seem so final, so for many of us when we get up in the morning all we expect to find is another tomb – another dead end – another problem that seems to have no answer and as the problems keep piling up life begins to feel futile. I think this is how the women felt as they made their way to the tomb, but the futility and finality of a sealed tomb is not what they found. As they made their way to the garden where Jesus had been buried there was an earthquake and when they arrive at the grave they don’t see the giant rock sealing the tomb because that rock had been rolled away and an angel of the Lord was sitting on top of that rock and he told them that not only was the tomb empty, but Jesus was alive. With an open tomb and an empty grave and a risen savior - everything changes.
Think about what all of this meant for these women. On a very personal level it meant that their relationship with Jesus could continue. If Jesus was alive then they would get to see him and hear him and hold on to him again – a relationship that just moments before seemed forever finished could now be restored. The same was true for Peter and the rest of the disciples, an open grave and a risen Jesus meant that the door was open for them to experience forgiveness and a new life. Remember that just a few days earlier Peter had promised to follow Jesus to the end – but then he failed, he denied that he even knew Jesus. All the disciples failed to stay awake with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and they failed to stand by him in his time of need and they failed to walk with him as he carried a cross. They all failed and when Jesus died they assumed that their sin was final and that the end of their relationship with Jesus would forever be marked with failure. When Jesus was laid in the tomb there was no opportunity for forgiveness, but if Jesus were alive then they could seek forgiveness and they could receive his mercy and love. With an open tomb and an empty grave and a risen Jesus there is the potential for forgiveness and the possibility of a new life with Jesus.
The open tomb and empty grave and risen savior changed everything for the disciples and it changes everything for us today. The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t just mean that there is life after death, the resurrection doesn’t just open the door to heaven (which is does – thanks be to God) but it also opens the door to a new – full and abundant life here and now. The resurrection of Jesus tells us that the power of God’s love can fill us today and everyday if we will let it, and if all of this is true – if the tomb is open and the grave is empty and Jesus is alive and if we can experience the love and grace and power of this risen savior in our lives everyday then of all the people in the world we should be people of great joy. If the resurrection of Jesus brings the power and the love of God to our hearts and lives then of all the people in the world we should be known as people who know how to celebrate.
So let me ask you, is that how we are known? When people think about the church today or when they look at our lives as followers of Jesus is the word celebration or joy the first word that comes to their mind? I’m not sure many people look at the church today and say to themselves, wow, those people sure do know how to party, and honestly, we need to do something about that. We need to learn how to truly celebrate Jesus because it is that celebration of Jesus that changed the disciples’ lives and it was celebration that changed the world. Let me say that again… it is the celebration of Jesus that changed the disciples’ lives and it was that celebration which changed the world.
Think about it – the power that changed the world wasn’t knowledge or intellect, it wasn’t great reasoning or the power of persuasion, it wasn’t even brute force and physical strength – the power that changed the worlds was joy. Celebrating Jesus and his resurrection is what changed the lives of the disciples and it was the changed lives of the disciples that changed our world so celebrating Jesus and his resurrection is what has made the greatest impact on our world and I believe this is still true. If we want to experience a profound change in our own lives and know more of the fullness of God’s love and grace and peace then we need to learn how to celebrate Jesus, and if we want to change the world around us and make it a better place, a place where God’s grace is experienced by others and where God’s kingdom and justice and love shape all of life then maybe we need to stop trying to teach people about Jesus and learn how to throw a party. It is celebration that changes people and it is joy that changes our world so let’s learn from this resurrection story what it means to truly celebrate.
Celebration that changes us and the world around us doesn’t come when we simply smile and pretend that things are going well, and true celebration doesn’t come when our emotions are whipped up into a frenzy at a pep-rally. True celebration comes from obedience to God, that’s what we see in the resurrection story When the women go to the tomb that morning there is no celebration, in fact they have absolutely no joy. Even after the earthquake opens up the grave and the women see that the stone has been rolled away they still aren’t celebrating, now they are just filled with fear, so what is it that brings them joy? Look at Matthew 28:6b-8.
Joy doesn’t come until after the women leave the tomb – which means that they firstentered the tomb – which means that they were obedient to the direction given to them by the angel. The women went in to the tomb to see the place where Jesus had been laid after he died and they saw for themselves that Jesus wasn’t there. The joy comes when the women obey the instruction of the angel to come and see. Celebration comes through obedience. We see the joy of the women increase as they continue to follow the word of God by going and telling Jesus’ disciples what they had seen. It says that as they were going they were filled with great joy and then it is as they are going, it is as they are being obedient to God that they finally encounter the risen Jesus and can really celebrate. So the key to experiencing the kind of celebration that will change our hearts and lives comes when like these women we are faithful and obedient to God. In his book the Celebration of Disciple, Richard Foster says, in our spiritual life only one thing will produce genuine joy and that is obedience. To experience genuine celebration, obedience must work itself into the ordinary fabric of our daily lives.
While joy comes when we are faithful to God in all kinds of ways, real celebration comes when we are obedient to the resurrection day command of the angel to come and see. While the women were invited to come into the tomb and see the place where the body of Jesus was to suppose to be, we are being invited to come close to God and see that we are loved and forgiven. Today we are being invited to come to God and not just see but grab hold of his love for us and when we do this, it fills us with joy. When we come to God and experience his presence and power and love then we will be able to do nothing but celebrate.
The invitation of the angel is still being offered. God is calling all of us to come to him and experience his love and it doesn’t matter who we are, or where we’ve been in life, and it doesn’t matter what we have done or what doubts and fears and sin we still struggle with, all of us are being invited to come close to God and see, or experience, his love and grace and if we will come to Jesus and accept the forgiveness he offers, then our lives will change and we will begin to celebrate the fullness of our faith and life and love.
So celebration begins when we are faithful and obedient and come to God and see his love for us, but celebration and joy continues as we are obedient to the second resurrection day commands to go and tell others about God’s love and grace and power. In the resurrection story from Matthew the command to go and tell isn’t given once but twice. The women are told by the angel to go & tell Jesus disciples that he is going ahead of them - Matthew 28:7
Then Jesus tells the women again to go & tell his brothers that they are to go to Galilee - Matthew 28:10
What I like about these commands to go and tell is that Jesus isn’t sending the women to the ends of the earth or even to go to strangers with this good news, God is simply sending them home. God sends them back to their brothers and sisters, their families and friends and their hometown. What God is saying here is that celebration needs to be shared first and foremost in our homes, with our family and friends and our own community. Are we willing to celebrate life and faith and love with those closest to us? It sounds so easy and wonderful but I’m not sure celebrating comes naturally for many of us and with all the problems we see around us celebration can be hard so we may have to work at it, we may have to actually practice celebrating. I want to encourage you this week to set aside some time to celebrate with your family. Set aside a night to eat together, play games together, watch a movie together, go to the park together – do something together this week to simply celebrate the gift of family and friends and then make this an ongoing discipline. Every week find time to celebrate together as a family or with your spouse or with some friends.
After we get good at celebrating with our family and friends we need to extend that celebration to others. This is how we most effectively share the love of God and change the world, by learning how to truly celebrate with others. This summer we are planning on hosting a party for our new neighbors at the Beaver Townhouses where we can simply share the love of Jesus, and every summer we try to celebrate Jesus with children through our VBS. Our goal at VBS isn’t to tell children about Jesus as much as it is to celebrate Jesus and have some fun through the week trusting that through the fun and through our celebration - children will experience the power of God and the love of Jesus.
If you haven’t found it in the bulletin yet, there are some next steps that we can take with us to help apply this discipline of celebration to our lives. We can learn how to celebrate by looking at the beauty of God’s creation and loving those God has placed in our lives and spend some time every day laughing at ourselves. With all the problems we experience in our lives and in our world we are going to have to practice celebrating life and faith but once this celebration becomes natural for us, our lives will be changed and then through us the world will begin to change.
So I invite you today to celebrate Jesus. If all you can see in your life is a sealed tomb, if all you can see is a dead end and the hopelessness and despair that broken dreams have caused then take a step of faith and come to the risen Jesus and see his power and the love he has just for you. And then if you really want to experience the joy of Jesus, go out today and celebrate life and love and faith and family and friends.
Celebrate the risen Jesus today, accept God’s invitation to come and see and then let us together follow the instruction of Jesus to go and tell others about God’s amazing love and as we do may the joy of the Lord to be our strength and may the celebration of God’s people change our world.
