Colesville United Methodist Church
Pastor Victor Sawyer
SERMON: Good News From The Graveyard
Easter Day April 16, 2006
Graveyards are not usually a place of hope or joy. If you are
feeling bad or depressed, the last place you would consider going is to
the graveyard. The great scientific discoveries that have done so
much to change our daily living have been made in all kinds of places
and under all kinds of circumstances; but to my knowledge nothing of
significance has ever been discovered in a graveyard. The great
battles of history have been fought in all kinds of places – on
land and on sea, in the air and on the plains, on mountains and in
valleys, in great cities and humble villages; but no great battles have
been fought in graveyards. With the possible exception of the
Gettysburg Address no great speeches have been made in
graveyards.
If you ever want to see something of significance the last place that
you would look is a graveyard. Graveyards after all are for
dead people and as we all know dead people do not speak. And if they
ever did, most of us would not stay around long enough to hear much of
what they have to say. Easter changed that! Easter is about the
Good News that comes out of a graveyard. Easter, the most significant
event in the history of the world in 2000 years comes out of a
graveyard, out of a borrowed tomb, of all places.
Easter, with all of the joy and all of the hopes that it brings, was set in a graveyard.
If the fact that all of this Good News out of a graveyard seems
strange, let me remind you that Christianity is a strange faith. To
begin with we say that a God who is great beyond our understanding
loves us so much that to save us this God became one of us.
And if that sounds strange listen to this: We say that God not only
became a man, but he became a poor man. He was born in a stable
to poor parents in one of the smallest countries of the world, in one
of the smallest villages of the world. When he was born the angels sang
not to the high priest and the religious leaders but to lowly shepherds.
And if that sounds strange, listen to this! We believe that God, being
born a man associated with fishermen, tax collectors,
prostitutes, and all kinds of what we would call low class,
middle class, upper class, all kinds of sinners.
And if that sounds strange listen to this! We say that this God who
became a man rode into Jerusalem as a king, on a donkey, not on a
horse, not on a chariot, but on a donkey, and he was greeted not with
trumpets but with palms. Whoever heard of a king riding a donkey,
without armed soldiers, without royal robes, without blasting trumpets.
And if that sounds strange, listen to this! We say that he could
have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set him free,
but he did not. Instead he allowed himself to be beaten and bruised and
judged in the kangaroo courts of ancient Palestine, and then to
be crucified between two thieves, like one of the worst criminals.
And if that sounds strange, listen to this! This same Jesus, who opened
blinded eyes, and cut loose stammering tongues, who healed the sick and
raised the dead, who stilled the storm and calmed the raging sea said
that it would be Calvary with all of its pain and shame, that would
glorify and exalt him. It was this same Jesus who said:
And I if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”.
So then when you consider how strange the Christian faith is it is not
strange that the Good News it has for the world comes from a graveyard.
What is this Good News that comes out of a graveyard?
Well the first thing that the angel at the tomb told the women:
The angel saw them weeping, the angel saw that they were afraid,
and the angel said “Fear not”.
We have become very fearful these days. We lock ourselves with the
regular lock and the dead bolt and the chain across the door. We
are prisoners in our own homes, and when we go out the fear of
the violence of the streets holds our minds captive and keeps our
spirits bound. We have forgotten that God’s Word tells us
to “Fear not”.
If God is for us who can be against us? Therefore we need fear no
power, no force, no opposition, no angel, no demon, no principality, no
height and no depth; nothing present and nothing to come. Fear not. We
are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves us.
The second statement the angel makes to the women were: He is not here; for he is risen.
And that is certainly Good News.
Our Lord was lied about, but lies could not hold him down. He is risen.
Our Lord was hated, but hate could not hold him down. He is risen.
His opponents were jealous of him, but jealousy could not hold him down. He is risen.
He was persecuted, but persecution couldn’t hold him down. He is risen.
In the end he was killed, but not even death could hold him down. He is risen.
He was buried in the grave, but the grave couldn’t hold him down. He is risen.
He went down into hell, and confronted the powers of darkness, but hell
and the powers of darkness could not hold him down. He is risen.
Because he lives…
Then third the angel said to the women, Tell his disciples that he is risen…
You say that nothing of significance ever happened in a graveyard? I
say unto you that the greatest discovery was not when the atom was
split, or when we learned to channel the power of electricity. It
did not take place in a school or in a lab.
Our greatest discovery took place when a few women went to a graveyard
to anoint the dead body of a good man and discovered a living Lord with
a glorified body and with the keys to hell and death and life and
eternity in His hands.
The greatest battle that mankind ever fought was not at Waterloo,
Gettysburg, Hiroshima, or Baghdad. The greatest battle was fought in a
lonely graveyard when Jesus Christ took on death, and hell and all the
demonic forces of the underground.
The Good news that I have come to announce to you is that Jesus won.
That’s why he is king of kings and lord of lords. That is
why we can sing Crown Him with many crowns.
The greatest pronouncement that was ever made to humankind did not
originate at the United Nations or in the Oval Office at the White
House. It came rather from a graveyard when the angel of the Lord spoke
to several women and said Fear not; I know that you seek….
And so from a lonely graveyard comes a message that still gladdens the
hearts of people everywhere who hear it- He lives! He lives! Glory
Hallelujah! He lives!
