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March 23, 2008
EASTER SUNDAY
Matthew 28:1-10The Rev. David A. Davis
“Grabbing Feet”
What do you think “fear and great joy” feels like? On that first Resurrection Morning, Mary and the Other Mary “left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy.” When the angel of the Lord stood before the shepherds who were keeping watch over their flock by night, when the glory of the Lord shone all around them, the shepherds were terrified. Oh the angel promised “good news of great joy,” but at that moment the shepherds were just scared to death. There was no “fear and great joy.” When Jesus came walking toward the disciples on the sea early one morning, when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. They thought it was a ghost. According to Matthew, “they cried out in fear.” There was no great joy. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid” and all that, but there was no joy, only fear.
The women left the tomb that morning with fear and great joy. Fear and great joy. Is it like a woman preparing for childbirth? I’m certainly not one to offer an opinion there. How about an 18 year old who arrives on the college campus for the first time on a day in late August and then watches the family car pull away a few hours later? Or what about two lovers separated by time and distance for far too long. Their planned reunion approaches and both wonder if things can still be the same. Fear and great joy. Maybe parenting offers some insight as to when those two experiences of fear and joy come together: a kindergartner getting on the school bus for the first time, a 17 year old getting a license, a child/now young adult going off to school, one who was a child just yesterday now having a child of their own. And from the parent’s perspective, fear and great joy.
Or maybe it’s just like singing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and shouting “Christ is Risen (He is Risen Indeed!), maybe it’s like singing and shouting on Easter Day while the economy shakes and banks teeter and foreclosures multiply and a war never ends and Gaza simmers and the Midwest floods and public figures fall and a church member dies and a family member is sick and a friend’s heart is broken. Fear and great joy.
The two women went to see the tomb just as dawn was breaking on the first day of the week. First there was an earthquake, and then an angel of Lord descending from heaven. The stone blocking the tomb is rolled back and the angel sits on it wearing an outfit as white as snow as bright as a bolt of lighting. The guards, forget any joy there, they were so scared they “shook and became like dead men.” From the post their atop death’s door, the angel spoke to both Marys. “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised.” The messenger invites them to take a look in the tomb and tells them to go quickly to tell the disciples. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
As they left quickly and as they ran to find the disciples, that’s when the fear and great joy kicked in. Mary and the Other Mary were on the Way, they set out from the tomb to be the first to tell, the first proclaimers of the Gospel, the first witnesses to the truth of the resurrection, the two women set out to be the first to say “He is Risen!” (He is Risen indeed). That’s when, as Matthew tells, “Suddenly, Jesus met them…” Suddenly, there along the way. Suddenly, immediately, miraculously, Jesus met them. It’s not like they came upon him along the side of the road. It’s not like they happened upon him along the way. It’s not like they were walking and talking, ambling along and Jesus drew near and went with them in an Emmaus Road kind of discernment process. This is the Risen Christ suddenly smack in the middle of the road, smack in the middle of their effort to tell the Good News, smack in the middle of their fear and great joy. That’s when and where Jesus met them.
The two came to Jesus. They came right up to him and they dropped to the ground. They took hold of his feet and they worshipped him. It’s an odd image, grabbing feet. Sure, kneeling or bowing, or even falling at his feet and saying “Lord have mercy” or “My Lord and My God” or “Rabbouni”. That makes sense. It’s not the humble, submissive act of worship that seems odd, we get that part. The two women fell at the feet of the Risen Christ to pay him homage, as it were. But they took hold of his feet. They took hold of his feet in the same way that the soldiers seized on to Jesus days earlier in the Garden. It’s the same word in the Greek. Hold on. Hold fast. Take hold of. Seize. They grabbed his feet. Amid their fear and great joy, they grabbed his feet.
If we were reading in John’s gospel, that move to grab feet could take us back to Holy Thursday and the footwashing. But John doesn’t record any foot grabbing in the resurrection story. John’s Jesus does tell Mary not to hold on to him until he has ascended to the Father. But John doesn’t tell the reader whether hers was a full embrace for dear life, or a reaching for his robe like the woman with the flow of blood, or a strong grab of the wrist like one that comes from a patient who just doesn’t want the visitor to go. Matthew points right to the feet of the Risen Christ with the two Mary’s holding on.
If we were reading in Luke’s gospel, such a scene of the two clinging to the Lord’s feet might bring back memories of the woman who was a sinner bathing Jesus’ feet with her tears. How she dried his feet with her hair and kissed his feet and anointed his feet with ointment. Jesus told anyone who would listen, anyone who complained that she had shown him such great love. “You sins are forgiven”, Jesus said to her. If the Marys’ grabbing feet were in Luke, we might assume it was all about showing the Risen Christ “a little love”. But this is Matthew, and in Matthew when Jesus was anointed there in the house of Simon the leper, the woman poured the very costly ointment from an alabaster jar all over his head, not on his feet. Here on Easter morning, the two women are grabbing his feet.
And Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Matthew’s gospel comes to it’s end rather quickly, then. This 28th chapter, the last chapter, it finishes with the Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” The Great Commission happens in Galilee. On a mountain in Galilee as the disciples went to where Jesus had directed them. “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” He tells them that in Galilee.
Galilee. His life, his witness, his ministry was in and around Galilee. In Galilee, is where Jesus went all over “teaching in synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” (Mt4:23) In Galilee, is where, as Matthew tells it, Jesus went up a mountain and sat down. “Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, those who had no voice, and many others.” They put all of them at his feet, and he cured them. And the crowd was amazed! They saw people who had no voice, rising to speak. They saw the broken being made whole. They saw the hurting start to walk. They saw the blind now beginning to see. The crowds were amazed at how all were cured right there at Jesus’ feet! That day in Galilee, when great crowds brought a press of human need right to Jesus feet, that day in Galilee, there was a kingdom of God kind of extravaganza right there at his feet.
So, according to Matthew, if you are going to grab on to the feet of the Risen Christ, you are grabbing on to the kingdom of God. It’s not an act of devotion to royalty, grabbing feet, or a submission to authority. Nor is it simply a piety that comes with being blown away by things mystical or mysterious or even unbelievable. It is holding on for dear life to the one whose life and teaching and compassion and mercy brings about the kingdom of God here and now, here in Galilee. Here in the middle of our fear and great joy.
The one who rose from the dead is the same one who welcomed the little children. The one who sits at the right hand of God is the same one who said “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The one for whom the earth shook and the temple curtain split when he died, is the same one who ate with sinners, and touched the outcast, and taught about being last in order to be first. Before he ascended into heaven, before he sat down at the throne of grace, before he offered the Great Commission complete with his promised presence, the Risen Jesus says, “Come with me to Galilee.” Which is to say, that his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his coming again, all of it is best understood right here amid the brokenness of our humanity, right here where we live and breath and have our being, somewhere between fear and great joy. That right here, smack in the middle of our lives and our life together, Christ has Risen (He has Risen Indeed).
Back in the winter, I found myself in a service of worship sitting next to our staff members Sue Ellen Page and Noel Werner. We were attending a conference at Calvin College and we were in the chapel with several hundred people listening to the preacher for the day. Near the end of the sermon he was bringing it all home with energy and conviction. He not so casually proclaimed “Christ has Risen.” To which Noel, Sue Ellen and I responded with gusto and volume, as if on cue “He Has Risen Indeed”. Well, let’s just say, no one else joined right in. We even threw the preacher off a bit. He wasn’t sure what to do. We’ve created liturgical chaos here at Nassau Church!
But think about it. Christians know the Easter acclamation when they stand at the grave! They know it when they gathering in rooms like this! But what about when the economy shakes and banks teeter and foreclosures multiply and a war never ends and Gaza simmers and the Midwest floods and public figures fall and a church member dies and a family member is sick and a friend’s heart is broken. What about then! Christ is Risen. (He is Risen Indeed!) Can you imagine such liturgical chaos in your house, at your office, in your classroom, in your life? Here in Galilee, amid our fear and great joy?
I don’t know about you, but I’m grabbing on to his feet, and I’m holding on for dear life. Because I believe in the power of resurrection life! Yes, for me and for my salvation now and forever! But I believe in God’s resurrection, life-giving, death shattering power in the here and the now. And you and I, we have to grab on, and pray and work and live….for the kingdom to come and for it to come quickly!
For Christ has Risen. He has Risen Indeed!
© 2008, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
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