Go (Easter Sunrise Sermon)

 “Go”

Matthew 28:1-20

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

3/31/24

Easter Sunrise 2024

 

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’

“This is my message for you.”

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

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

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

¹¹While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹²After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, ¹³telling them, “You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Judeans to this day.

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (NRSV)

 

         If Mark’s gospel ends more abruptly than the other canonical gospels, Matthew’s gospel comes in a close second.

Matthew follows his resurrection account with two vignettes. In the first, the guards report what they saw to the chief priests. In the second, Jesus makes his lone resurrection appearance to the eleven remaining disciples, during which he gives the Great Commission. Turn the page, and you’re in Mark’s gospel.

         In Matthew, as in Mark, there’s no reflection on the resurrection. Jesus doesn’t eat fish as he does in Luke, nor does he give Peter, the three-time denier, a chance to reaffirm his love and commitment, as he does in John.

In Matthew, the angel says to the women, Go to Galilee. Jesus will meet you and the others there. The angel’s command to Go sends the women and the disciples to Jesus who, himself says, Go. Go into all the world and make disciples.

         The Go spoken by the angel and the Go spoken by the resurrected Christ echo the Go that God says to Abram in Genesis 12. And Go means to pick up wherever some apparently-dead-end story has left off and keep following wherever the path of grace may lead. Go, because God calls you to go. Go, because God can be trusted. Go, because God is leading us deeper into relationship with God, with each other, and with the Creation.

         Make disciples, says Jesus. And there’s really only one way to do that faithfully. To make disciples, one must learn to live as a disciple because discipleship is less the words we say than the lives we live. So, disciples are made not by reciting catechisms but by emulating actions of the heart. Disciples are made not by imposing doctrine but by inviting participation in lives of trust, compassion, justice, and peacemaking.

         The two stories that follow Matthew’s resurrection account also set up an instructive contrast. In the first, the guards are justifiably afraid for their lives. All they could say, that their commanding officers would believe, was that the earth shook, a ghost appeared, and they fell asleep on duty. So, they sneak over to the chief priests and tell them the story first.

We got you, say the priests. Tell your superior officers that you fell asleep, and Jesus’ disciples stole the body. Here, if you take this money and promise to tell this story, we will make sure you don’t get crucified yourselves.

And that’s where that version of the story stops—with a logical, plausible, and comfortable dead end. Just sweep it under the rug and go back to the way things were.

In the second account, Jesus appears briefly to the disciples to say, in effect, The story is not over. In fact, it’s just beginning. And now, you are my hands and feet, so keep going. Keep doing what I’ve modeled for you. Keep living through love. Keep welcoming people into community—especially those whom no one else welcomes. Keep helping those who cannot help themselves. And wherever the work of discipleship takes you, just go.

Discipleship has brought us out here this morning where the sky is brightening, the birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the pollen is driving many of us crazy, and life in all its overwhelming beauty and tragedy is happening around us as we speak.

This moment, though, is but a respite on a journey. We’re here not to end, and certainly not to complete anything. We’re here to be reminded that none of us have the final word on anything. “All authority in heaven and on earth” belong to the risen Christ. As his disciples, our purpose is always bigger than our own communities, always beyond the walls of any building, because, as Jesus says in Matthew 25, true discipleship happens out here, among “the least of these my brothers and sisters.”

Maybe the operative word for Easter isn’t He is risen! so much as it is, Go!

Think about it:

It was resurrection faith that sent Abram and Sarai on their way when God said Go.

It was resurrection faith that gave Joseph strength to overcome his brothers’ betrayal, then to forgive them and welcome them into Egypt.

It was resurrection faith that sent Moses back to Egypt for his Hebrew family, and resurrection faith that helped him to guide them through the wilderness.

It was resurrection faith that turned David from an adulterer and a murderer into a poet and a leader.

It was resurrection faith that gave Mary and Joseph the courage to parent their remarkable child.

It was resurrection faith that made Peter, James, and John bold enough to drop their nets and follow Jesus.

It was resurrection faith that gave Jesus of Nazareth the will to reject selfishness and fear during his temptation and, then, to Go and live a life that was truly divine.

And the resurrection on Easter actually follows all of those witnessing events and reveals itself as the authority behind all that is faithful, forgiving, loving, and real in this world. Resurrection is the cycle of beginnings, endings, and new beginnings. Resurrection is everything in every given moment that gives us courage and hope to keep Going.

At Easter, Jesus meets us, again—wherever our Galilee may be—and reminds us that there is no end that is not also, in some way, a revitalizing new beginning. And he sends us out, as disciples to make disciples, as ones who are being redeemed to live as signs God’s redeeming grace in the world.

And it is through our new and renewing resurrection faith that, on the authority of the risen Christ, we embrace his call to Go, to be disciples and to make disciples, in this world, right now, and to do that with his humility, gratitude, generosity, joy, and love.