Come and See
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | April 9, 2023
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Read Matthew 28:1 – 10 (NIV)
Today is Resurrection Sunday. The Lenten journey has come to an end. And those words that Jesus said as He hung on that cross at Calvary feel more poignant than ever, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
But let me just say that far from being the end… today really represents the beginning… the beginning of resurrection life for those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior… the beginning of the promise of life more abundantly which Jesus told us was the reason why He came (see John 10:10) … the beginning of us moving forward to fulfill Christ’s command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (see Matthew 28:19).
And as we look at our New Testament lesson for today, we are taken back in time to where this new beginning started… and for our time together this morning, I want to extend the invitation to COME AND SEE.
Now, there can be little doubt that we are living in some truly chaotic and confusing times…
But when we look at our New Testament lesson for this morning, we can find hope for these uncertain days in which we find ourselves.
We can find hope in the promise of the Resurrection.
We can find hope because the same Jesus who conquered death and promised eternal life back then is the same Jesus who has promised to be with us always… even to the end of the age… and that includes all of the challenging and difficult times we are facing right now.
So, as we look at the text, we find the story of two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who went to look at the tomb… Other accounts of this event which are found in the Gospels of Mark and Luke indicate that the women went to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus’ body… but Matthew simply says the women went to ‘look’ at the tomb.
Which might lead one to question what they were hoping to see…
Well, if we take a peak back at the previous chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we find the account of Joseph of Arimathea asking permission from Pilate to take Jesus’ body… which he then laid in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.
Joseph than rolled a large stone over the entrance to the tomb and went away. And in verse 61 of Matthew 27, we find these words, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.”
They had been watching from a distance when Jesus was crucified and the curtain to the temple was torn in two. And they were there… watching when Joseph laid Jesus’ body in the tomb. And they were still there watching as Joseph put the stone across the entrance.
Now the Scriptures are silent as to the point in time when the two Mary’s actually left… but we do know that a somewhere between their leaving and returning… the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate to get permission to secure the tomb… just in case.
They claimed they wanted to ensure that none of Jesus’ followers snuck in and took the body so they could try to fabricate the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
But just perhaps, as some scholars suggest, the chief priests and the Pharisees had taken Jesus’ resurrection claims even more seriously than the disciples had… and so they made what was actually a futile attempt to keep Jesus in the tomb… all in an effort to prevent Him from rising from the dead.
But little did they know… there was not a stone, a seal, a guard, or even a full army that could have kept Jesus from rising…
And that brings us back to our text … when the women arrived to look at the tomb… there was a violent earthquake and an angel of the Lord came and rolled the stone away… not to let Jesus out of the tomb… but to allow the women to COME AND SEE that He was not there.
Now, according to the text, the guards who had been placed there… either to keep Jesus from getting out of the tomb or to keep His followers from getting into the tomb… the text says that these guards were so afraid… they became like dead men. They were basically scared to death and who wouldn’t be?
Just imagine, you’re at your assigned post of duty when suddenly there is an earthquake and then an angelic being described as having an appearance like lightning and clothes as white as snow seems to come out of nowhere… rolling away the stone that you had been commanded to watch… a stone that had been sealed to prevent tampering… a stone that was now no longer in the position where it was supposed to be… how will you explain that to your superiors?
Is it any wonder that the guards were afraid?
Now, apparently saying nothing to the guards… the angel of the Lord assured the women that there was nothing for them to fear… similar to the angel who had appeared to the shepherds back when Jesus was born… this angel had also come bearing good news.
The angel told the women that there was nothing for them to fear... and that he knew what they had come looking for…
The angel knew that they had come looking for Jesus… they had seen Him be crucified… they had watched as He was laid in the tomb... and they had come back to “look” … as if they needed to be sure that they had actually seen what had happened to Jesus.
But then the angel reminded them of what it was that they should have been expecting to find in the first place… that Jesus was not there in that tomb because He had risen… just like He said He would.
And then to assuage any lingering doubts or fears they may have had; the angel told the women to COME AND SEE… look for yourselves… look at the place where you watched Joseph lay Jesus’ body… look at the place that is now empty… COME AND SEE.
And that is when the angel of the Lord gave the women an assignment. He gave them their marching orders, so to speak… to take a message to the disciples who had chosen to stay back… sheltering in place behind closed doors.
The angel instructed the women to tell the disciples, “He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.”
And as the women went on their way… with what the scriptures describe as mixed emotions of both fear and joy… something remarkable happened…
The text tells us that Jesus met the women right there… literally stopping them in their tracks… and He echoed the words of the angel, telling the women, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Jesus was basically extending an invitation to the disciples by way of the women to COME AND SEE… come to Galilee and there you will see me…
It is an invitation that Jesus continues to extend to us, even to this day.
COME AND SEE… come to the border where asylum seekers are looking for a place of refuge… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the libraries and bookstores where people come in search of the truth about the past as well as the present… with the hope of creating a better future for everyone… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the classrooms where students show up with a desire to learn and teachers arrive with the intention of teaching… and they all bring with them the hope and expectation that they will live to do it all again another day… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the statehouses and halls of Congress where agendas that once were hidden are clearly being exposed by the light… and yes, even there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the homeless shelters where men, women, and children, are seeking safety and security… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the hunger cupboards and soup kitchens where your neighbors who are hungry and thirsty are looking for food and drink… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the hospitals where those who are hurting and sick are praying that someone will come to look after them… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the prisons where people who have been written off as hopeless are often simply left hoping that someone will come visit… and there you will see me.
COME AND SEE… come to the margins where those who have been cast aside as the last, the least, and the lost are looking for someone to show them even a little kindness and compassion… and there you will see me.
When those women went to that tomb to “look” … what they saw as well as what they heard spurred them into action.
And in much the same way, Jesus calls us away from our places of comfort and complacency to COME AND SEE… and be spurred into action… remembering those words He spoke to the disciples, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
Jesus’ invitation to COME AND SEE reminds us that we have been blessed to be a blessing… that the gifts that we have been given are meant to be shared… that the good news we have heard is meant to be spread… that the love He has commanded us to have for one another requires action…
It is an opportunity for us to invite others to COME AND SEE as well.
And on this Resurrection Sunday, let me suggest that there is even more to the invitation that Jesus extends to us… it is also an invitation to COME AND SEE the cross… the cross that once loomed large as the emblem of suffering and shame but that now stands empty…
The cross… that because of Jesus’ death, burial, and most of all His resurrection is now a symbol of the promise and hope of everlasting life. Jesus invites us to COME AND SEE and says to us… look up… and there you will see me.
So, with that thought in mind, let us stand now and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: My Faith Looks Up to Thee #576.
