Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
To draw you further into the reality of the resurrection, imagine that you are sitting on the bench inside Christ’s tomb. As you peer out the opening of the tomb, you see three women approaching: Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ devoted followers and a financial supporter of Jesus’ ministry; another Mary, who is the mother of James; and finally Salome.
As you gaze, you see the shock and fear on their faces when they see that the tomb is opened. They bend down and peer inside to see you. Yes, you, dress in holy, divine, white.
Now, before your mind even goes there, you are not the resurrected Jesus. He does not even show up in this resurrection story from Mark. Sure, he shows up in Matthew, Luke, and John, but not here. Nor, are you an angel as you might assume, white garb and all.
Rather, you are a young man.
Sorry women, you are a young man this morning.
You are just a simple, young man who was given a simple task: to give a message to the women who arrive. Not a lot is known about you except one thing: you have changed.
Had the women been present at Jesus’ arrest, they would have recognized you. You were a follower of Jesus toward the end of his ministry.
In fact, you make your notable appearance at the very moment Jesus was arrested. You appeared during the chaos of Jesus yelling at the soldiers and priests while someone else screamed that their ear had been cut off.
You were one of the last to flee, to run away, to abandon Jesus, all while the soldiers grabbed at your heals. One soldier was quick enough to grab the linen cloth that you had tied earlier around your waste for the hot day’s work.
You were the young man who was stripped naked in front of everyone, and fled.
And, that image pretty much describes quite a lot about your life with God: running away, naked.
It is one of everyone’s worst nightmares: to be standing in front of a crowd, naked. Except that for you, it was not just a bad dream.
When stripped naked, everyone can see your faults and inadequacies. And, so you run.
Everyone can see your scars; the reminders of your disturbing past exposed. And, so you run.
They were somehow able to take your bravery and turn it into cowardice, with just one swipe of the hand. They have exposed your real self, the self that you do not let anyone else see, the self that only God knows. Still, you try to run away.
Being naked before God, I have to admit, is just as terrifying as a crowd of people. It is so terrifying that some would rather not expose themselves to even God and search for some way to run away. Either they pretend that God is a distant God who cannot see them in the first place, or they deny God altogether. In thinking this way, they fool themselves into thinking that they have adequately covered themselves from anyone’s eyes.
What they never allow themselves to have a chance to understand is that there is something freeing about being naked before the Lord.
No longer do you have to run away.
No longer do you have to work so hard to hide, or deny who you are or what you have done.
You no longer have to paint on a face that is different than your own. You no longer have to act happy when you are devastated, or act courageous when you are terrified, or act smart when you are utterly lost and confused.
When you are naked before the Lord, you are finally free to be you, warts and all.
The Psalmist said expresses it the best in Psalm 139
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
You may have been stripped naked before the Lord, but you were not left behind.
You may have a mixed past, but that does not mean that you do not have a future.
You may have forgotten your purpose, but that does not mean that God does not have a task that is yours.
You may have gone down to the grave, but when you went down it was with Jesus.
He was at your side.
He was the light in your darkness.
He was the cleanser of the dirtiest parts of your life.
When you looked in the mirror and only saw an ugly face staring back, Jesus saw you as beautiful. God does not create junk after-all.
He was the voice that reminded you that you are a child of God; you are not forgotten; you are wonderfully made.
He was the one who clothed you, covering you with himself. You have put on Christ and now share in the gleaming whiteness of his grace.
You may have gone to the grave, but you rise up again with a heavenly message because your life is not done. No, your life has just started. You have a new life, and the first step in that new life is to talk to these three women.
You kindly peer into their fearful eyes and say, "Do not be scared; I know that you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, right over there is the place they laid him. Now go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."
As they run away, fear mixed with hope still dripping from their faces, you exit the tomb. It is a new day. It is a new opportunity. It is a new life with the Lord.
The women turned left on the road, toward the disciples, but you turn right and head to Galilee. Jesus is there after-all.
With every mother-in-law who is too sick to serve, he is there to raise her up.
With every paralyzed person who cannot move forward in life, he is there to raise them up.
With every tax collector or cripple or sinner who have all been pushed into the dirt of loneliness on side of town, he is there to lift them by the hand, and give them a new shot at life.
He is out there, and you step out from the tomb to be a part of it.
You want your hands to serve while you sing the song, “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
You want your feet to walk to the beat of, “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
You want your voice to sing at every moment, “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
He is risen, and so are you.
When people look at you, they will say, “Boy, I tell you, now that is someone who is like dough. They have risen.”
They will say, “Boy, that is someone who is like the carjack of life. Everything about them raises others up.”
They will say, “That one right there, that is someone who actually cares that I am low. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that one before. They look a lot like Jesus, because it is only Jesus who can rise up from the depths like that!”
So, go forth from here!
Jesus is waiting for you out there, O people of the risen life!
Jesus Christ is risen, and so are you!
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