It is Hidden Even in the Savior’s Triumph
Date: April 20, 2025
Passage: Matthew 28:1-10
Pastor Horton
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Listen to the angelic report, see Jesus alive through the gospel, and let your hearts be filled with joy! A few verses from Matthew: “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.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.”
Could there be a more glorious day than this? What could compare? Maybe that first day of creation, when God simply spoke and created time and space and all matter out of nothing? Or, maybe the fourth day was more glorious, that day on which God, just by his Word, created the sun, the moon, and the stars and flung them into the vast universe with their positions and courses that they hold to this very day? Was that day more glorious? Well, no! A thousand times no! For as glorious as that was, such actions for God were as easy as you taking off an Easter coat on this chilly morning and throwing it down on the pew! Ah, but this day! This day will shine forever and ever in its glory and in its importance. Now wait, what about the Last Day, the day when Christ will come again with all the saints and angels, the day on which all will rise from the dead and face the judgment seat of God? Is that day more glorious than this one? Oh, no! Again, a thousand times no! For if not for this day, that future day would not be glorious to us at all. If not for Jesus’ resurrection, that Last Day would only be filled with horror and terror unimaginable as we stood before God’s proclamation of condemnation. No, this day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, is by far the most glorious day in all of time and in all of eternity.
May you grow to love and treasure this day as the greatest day – a day more glorious than your birthday, your wedding day, the day of your child’s birth, and even than that of your own entrance into heavenly glory. All through Lent we have been looking for the glory hidden on the cross. And now on this day, that glory reaches a pinnacle!
And yet, even on this most glorious of days, the glory of Christ remains hidden. Did you catch it? Who appears as glorious in the gospel lesson? It isn’t Jesus! It’s an angel. The angel descends from heaven, knocks open the grave, and sits on the stone. Where is Jesus? He has already done his great works hidden from sight! On Easter Sunday his body and soul were reunited in the grave. No one saw it. On Easter Sunday, as St. Peter reports in his epistle, the risen Christ descended into hell and proclaimed there his great victory over sin, death, and Satan. No one on earth heard the shrieks of rage and the vain howlings of the devils that day. That glory was hidden.
The only one that appears glorious in Matthew’s gospel is the angel who rolled away the stone. His appearance was like lightning, and his face, white as snow. And the glory of the angel made an impression! Those tough soldiers who knew how to stare death in the face were no match for the glory of the angel. Stunned and terrified, they fell to the ground like dead men. When the women arrive at the tomb, the soldiers have apparently recovered and run into the city to report to the chief priests. The angel is still there, but it is his message that is far more glorious than his appearance. “Go in and look,” he tells them. “See, he is not here in the house of the dead. He has risen, just as he said he would. Go and tell the disciples.”
Now, truth be told, in all of this great excitement, maybe we might feel a tinge of disappointment? Don’t we want to see Jesus front and center on this day of days? Don’t we want to see him shining brighter than the angel? Trouncing the powers of hell before us and making those Romans run? Don’t we kinda want to see him looking the way he will look on the Last Day and as John saw him in the opening chapter of the book of Revelation with blazing eyes and roaring voice?
No! Instead we see his glory from the vantagepoint of the women at the tomb. Jesus appears to them – yet with his glory hidden! And thanks God for that, if the sight of angel caused soldiers to fall down like dead men, what, then, would become of us if we would see Jesus in all his resurrection glory? Freeze in terror? Die of fright right on the spot? But no. This is a day for gladness. Unlike mere mortals, Jesus has no need to make sure that everyone is impressed by his might and his majesty. This day is a day of joy for our Savior to comfort our souls. The women have no dread, no fear, no terror. They run to him, not away from him. They fall down before him in worship and adoration. Their joy cannot be contained. How they must have drenched the ground with their tears of gladness! And yet there will be a day where he arrives in full glory, but not this day. On Easter he hides it.
The glory is hidden in his words. He tells the women, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Do not be afraid! Even with Adam and Eve falling in the garden where we were separated from God by our sin. And death became our lot in this life, and hell became our future in the next. Do not be afraid, for Jesus died and has risen. He did exactly what he said he would do already in the Garden of Eden. He went into battle for us on the cross. And he won. Easter Sunday is proof of it. Do not be afraid; he paid for our sin. Do not be afraid; he conquered hell. Do not be afraid; he has triumphed over the grave.
But how can I, sitting here in the pew this morning, know that he did that for me? If you’re like me, my conscience still condemns, temptations still nag, and the thought of death still makes me uneasy. Today we also listen to Jesus who says: “Go and tell my brothers!” What an astonishing thing! He calls the disciples his brothers! Now if you remember, all they did was sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane after he warned them and told them to watch and pray. All they did was both fight and flight, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. All they did was disappear, deny, and double-cross.
And he calls them “brothers?” That’s exactly the point. That’s exactly the glory of Lent and of Easter. The disciples don’t deserve that gracious name, and neither do we. We are no better than they. But we are no worse either. Their sins are gone, and our sins are gone. They are buried in Jesus’ grave when we were baptized. And now with our sins handled and hidden away, Jesus looks at you and calls you brother or sister with a smile. “Don’t be afraid!” For behold the glory of Easter, now as God’s own children!
What a message! See your risen Savior. Appreciate how gentle, kind, and considerate, he is with us! He does not scare us to death or terrify us sinners. He hides his glory in his Word. That’s where we will find Jesus emphasizing the point of Easter. Jesus promised that he would rise. And he has the women “go and tell.” He does not appear to the disciples right away – He wants them to depend on the Word. Soon enough his visible presence will ascend into heaven on the 40th day. But his real and abiding presence he will not take away. He will be with them, and us, until the end of time, just as he promised: in his Word and sacraments.
Do you want to find the glory of Easter? You’ve come to the right place! Here is where his Word is proclaimed. The Word declares sin forgiven. The Word drives away fears. “Don’t be afraid.” Tomorrow you will still have problems and temptations. But “Don’t be afraid. I have died, and see, I am alive. I will not leave you or forsake you.” Ah, but Jesus, the grave – my grave – still lies ahead. “Don’t be afraid. I conquered it all in my death and resurrection. Because I live, you will live also. Death, the last enemy, has been defeated, and the grave is now the portal to life eternal.”
Go ahead then. Go with Jesus. Go and depart in peace. And remember that he always gives more than he promises—so you too will see him in splendor in heaven. Yes, and you will even share in his glory. For you are his brothers, his sisters. He will hold nothing back from you. And every step of the way, whenever you can, come to his Word and return to his sacraments, so that through the whole journey you may taste and see the glory that is hidden on the cross, the glory that is his resurrection and the promise of your own. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! HALLELUJAH! Amen.
