1. Void tomb

We celebrate today Easter Sunday which is one of the most important festivals of the church. Friday crucifixion of Jesus made his followers hopeless. Because they did not yet Jesus would be raised from the death and appear again before his disciples 3 days later. Then the arrival of resurrected Jesus led them to become believers authentically, who commenced to witness to Jesus as the Son of God. Thus the church was given birth and the rite of Sunday service was established.

It was at 9 o’clock in the morning when they crucified Jesus. At that time, his disciples had already run away and women alone remained around the Cross. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried in a loud voice and died. It was Joseph from Arimathea who asked Pilate for Jesus’ body and laid it in a tomb. Women could do nothing but gazing at the place where Jesus was laid. (see Matthew 27:45-50)

The following day was the Sabbath day which begins at the sunset of the Friday. Since then Jewish people must not get out of home. So they could not adequately prepare the burial of Jesus’ body. Therefore the day after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought some sweet-smelling spices to put on Jesus’ body. The entrance of the tomb was blocked with a heavy stone and they were powerless to move it. Nonetheless they went to the place of tomb where they met an angel.

Matthew described what happened there ; - There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. (Matthew 28:2)
The angel talked to them ; - The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you."(Matthew 28:5-7)
The women, afraid yet filled with joy, hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell the news, Matthew reported.

2. Meaning of the Resurrection

Each of the four Gospels gives different details about the Resurrection. However all of them point at one thing in common, that the Resurrection was a very difficult event for all to grasp correctly. Mark write ; - Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.(Mark 16:8) Then Luke reported ; - but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.(Luke 24:21) And this is by Matthew ; - When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.(Matthew 28:17) whereas John wrote ; - They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.(John 20:9)

The Resurrection was an event so incredible that even eyes witnesses became dubitative.

Nonetheless the extraordinary event changed the direction of the human history. Before Jesus died on the Cross, his disciples had run away. And, on the evening of that first day of the week, they were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews. (see John 20:19) They were feared of being arrested for relationship with Jesus by Jewish authority. But the Gospels tell that they would be totally changed by encountering resurrected and living Jesus.

They began to preach in public that Jesus was resurrected after being crucified. That way they witnessed to Jesus. Since then, any tortures or menaces could not make them keep silence. They resisted at any rate against oppression by the religious authority.

The angel said to women, ‘He has risen from the dead.’( Matthew 28:7) ‘He has risen’ here is ‘ ἐ¦Ã¦Åί¦Ñ¦Ø, (egi’ro)’ in passive voice in the original Greek text. Because it was God who raised Jesus. God raised a man who had been killed by humans!

The angel also said, ‘Jesus is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’( Matthew 28:7) ‘You’ indicates the disciples who had abandoned Jesus to escape from risk. And they should hear the message as words of forgiveness of Jesus to them. While they were not sure yet, they went to Galilee to see Jesus again. Matthew describes the last scene of the passage this way ; - Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.(Matthew 28:16-17)

When they meet Jesus after the Resurrection, they were definitively convinced that he was the Son of God. The conviction made them newborn. In other words, the manifestation of living Jesus after death generated the faith which gave birth to the church.

The angel invited them to Galilee. Galilee was the very place where Jesus chose the disciples and worked to save segregated people. Furthermore, it was the place where Jesus began the fight against formalism of Pharisees and law teachers. Galilee was also the starting point for us to seek and find a new life by meeting Jesus.

3. What the Resurrection means to us

Today’s invocation verse is Romans 10:9 ; - That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

The Resurrection is impossible to explain logically and objectively. It totally depends on our spiritual point of view. To believe or not to believe, all is for us to choose. But the choice determines our present life. If we don’t believe in the Resurrection our life ends in death. And then, the result is like what Paul said ; - If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

Such a self-indulging life must end after all. It means if we won’t believe in the Resurrection, our life is similar to that of death sentenced prisoners. In that case, upcoming death delete all hope of present life. In contrast, if we trust in resurrected Jesus, our life becomes meaningful. Because we can look for a new life beyond the horizon of death.

I present here an example of a life which overcome the death, the life of Father Damien (January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889.)Father Damien was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium. He had devoted his life to people who suffered from Hansen’s disease on the island Molokai. In Father’s time, the Kingdom of Hawaii placed a government-sanctioned medical quarantine for those patients on the Molokai island.

Father, sent to Hawaii as a missioner, knew about miserable living of people in the island and was strongly chocked. They lived in meager cottages. Besides the hospital had no bed neither doctor ! In deed, it was not a qurantine but a place similar to waiting room of death. The dead were enveloped with blanket and thrown into cavities in the earth without burial ceremony. In such a condition, they felt hopeless and abandoned themselves to alcohol abuse. They lived like animals. So Father decided to create an environment adequate for humans. He thought that humans must not live in such a way because they were loved by God.

Then he had constructed a 8 kilometers aqueduct from the reservoir to the village to provide fresh water. Because they had lacked clean water to wash their body and bandages. Then Father asked relatively resilient and young patients to work together to build a church building and houses for themselves. Since arrival of Father Damien to the island, people began to get back human feelings and dignity. It means, material amelioration of environments and, before all, Damien’s love raised them from spiritual death. They found again joy of working field for harvest, culturing flowers, breeding horses and even enjoy the music. Love created joy of living!

Literally Father Damien live among diseased persons by sitting side by side and eating from common dishes. He visited houses of those in crucial stage and treated their wounds. He disregarded the risk of contagion so that even sick people worried about Father’s health. But Damien said to them, ‘ Don’t worry, my priority is saving your soul. Even if my body would be affected by leprosy, God will give me a new and perfect one on the day of resurrection.

He was finally infected with Hansen’s disease, as they had concerned about. Nonetheless he remained calm and said, ‘I can feel much closer to you by sharing the same suffering. After 16 years of life on the island, he died at the age of 49. You might wonder how he could act so altruistically. I will say because he met resurrected Jesus and decided to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Father Damien went to his own Galilee, the island of Molokai.

Father Damien lived in 1860s, about 150 years before today. So the story of ‘the island of Molokai’ is classified in the history ? Unfortunately, ‘No.’ We find still now, in Japanese society, those who suffer from similar isolation to people of Molokai. According to a reportage by NHK**, during last year, more than 32,000 men and women were found dead by persons stranger to them. They had no family nor relatives, even nor acquaintance. It means more than 32,000 people had passed their last days without any warm relationship. Besides suicidal cases increased up to 30,000 a year. Those facts tell us that so many persons are neglected or even abandoned by society. ‘Damien’s Molokai’ exists in this modern Japan. .

Christians, are compelled to act as Father Damien did. As he said, ‘ Humans, loved by God, must not live like wild animals,’ we must serve hopelessly isolated people with love and care to get them back to real human life .

The Resurrection gives us a message with fruitful vision. If we believe in resurrected Jesus, our life becomes meaningful. Though Jesus was killed on the Cross, the Resurrection teaches us that God raised him from the death. It points at the fact that God will never leave the evil intact. And knowing that all the evil comes to end, we have courage to fight against it. And with that courage we endure any difficulties because God is always with us. We believe in God who will open a path to new life beyond death. To trust in the Resurrection is to believe that the world is ruled by supreme God. That belief gives us hope and hope empowers us to act. We are not saints like Father Damien, or Mother Teresa. But when we wish to go to our own Galilee, a new horizon opens before us. Besides, God promises us that the hope will not betray us. To conclude this lecture I quote Paul’s words ; - No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.(1 Corinthias 10:13)

* Saint Damien of Molokai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Damien
Life of Father Damien http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Damien_Father.html

** NHK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK