Bible Passage: Matthew 28:1-10
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: April 5, 2026

Bulliten -Easter Sunday

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I had occasion to be in the funeral home across the street a few days ago.  While inside, I noticed something.  I noticed that they have a lot of Kleenex.  Everywhere you look, Kleenex.  You’re never more than a few feet from a box.  Why is that?  Because funeral homes have a higher than average number of people enter who are battling a cold or sinus issues?  Of course not!  It’s because they have a higher than average number of people enter who are sad.  Oftentimes, people who are really sad!  People who are dealing with the loss of a loved one.  The sadness is sometimes compounded by the fact their loved one died an untimely, unexpected death.  There’s going to be tears.  Lots of them.  So there needs to be Kleenex.  Lots of them.

Before us today is the event that changes all that.  It is the event in history that can dry the tears of the mourning.  It is the event that makes graveyards places of hope and even joy!  What is the event?  It is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!  Don’t believe its power?  Look no further than our text!  In it we will meet some women who went to a graveyard, heard the news that Jesus had risen, and then…They Left the Graveyard Rejoicing!

We first meet the women early on Easter Sunday morning.  They are up at dawn.  They have work to do.  They are heading out to the graveyard to finish preparing Jesus’ body for burial.  They had only just started Friday and they had to stop because the Sabbath Day was starting.  So the plan was to head back out to the tomb on Sunday and finish the job.  They grabbed the spices, and maybe a handful of Kleenex, and started for the graveyard.

As they go, the earth beneath their feet shakes.  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.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. (v. 2-4)  It’s almost as if the earth heaved and convulsed as it had to “give one back,”  the way Jonah’s fish heaved and convulsed when it vomited him out on the third day!

The angel speaks to the women.  Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. (v. 5)  It is interesting that the angel says, Jesus, who was crucified.  The point is being driven home.  “I know why you’re here.  You’re looking for crucified Jesus.  You’re looking for dead Jesus.”  Now the news that made the earth shake!  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. (v. 6)  He’s alive again!  It all happened exactly as Jesus had said it would!  Why did we ever doubt!  For good measure, the angel invites them to peek into the empty tomb.  Come and see. (v. 6)  No cadaver here!  But now, the world must know!  Starting with the disciples.  Go, quickly tell his disciples…(v. 7)

The women hurried away from the tomb, with fear and great joy. (v. 8)  They left the graveyard rejoicing!  They didn’t even need their Kleenexes!  Not because they have “happy memories” of Jesus.  Not because they “will always have Jesus in their hearts.”  Not because they believe in some diffuse, metaphysical “rising” of Jesus.  They left rejoicing because the crucified Jesus is now the risen Jesus!  They are rejoicing because the tomb where his body was is now empty!  They are rejoicing because “dead Jesus” is now “living Jesus”!  And just when you think their morning can’t get any better, it does!  Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”  Their faith is blessed with sight.  Then and there they hold the very first Easter worship service.  They approached, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. (v. 9)  No organ.  No trumpets.  No lilies.  Just pure adoration.

Again, the command to “tell.”  Go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee and there they will see me. (v. 10)  And the women did!  They told the disciples.  And the disciples then made a career out of telling this story.  Across history this story has leaped like wildfire from soul to soul to soul.  Jesus wanted this news proclaimed.  Because he wants us to be able to leave funeral homes and graveyards rejoicing.

And so we tell each other this news.   We tell it to each other in funeral homes and graveyards.  When we face death, and we all must at some point, we tell THIS story!  We tell each other about Jesus, who was crucified.  Crucified on a bloody, beautiful cross to pay for sin and remove the “sting” of death.  We tell each other about Jesus, risen from the dead, the Victor over death, and the Giver of that victory to all who believe those two words used in our text to describe Jesus:  CRUCIFIED and RISEN.  It is this truth alone that enables us to leave the funeral home or the cemetery rejoicing.

Have you ever laughed in a funeral home?  I have.  Not inappropriately or disrespectfully.  But the laugh of one who feels joy.  The laugh that is born of thinking about a loved one who is now with the risen and ascended Jesus in heaven, a loved one whose body will rise again, a loved one we will see again!  The incredulous laugh, the unlikely joy, of those who have what Peter calls in his first letter “a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) because we have a living Lord.

I was out at a graveyard last Saturday.  We committed a sister in Christ to the earth “in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.”  And when the committal rite was over, we sang.  And it wasn’t a doleful dirge that we sniffled into our Kleenexes.  We sang a doxology to our God, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  Praise him all creatures here below.  Praise him above you heavenly hosts!  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”  Then you know what we did?  We left the graveyard rejoicing!  Because Jesus lives!

Amen.