Road to Resurrection Hope
Road to Resurrection Hope
Matthew 28:1-10
April 5, 2026 Easter Sunday
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA
Link to PDF of sermon below
1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the God came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Opening
Did you feel it? That shaking of the earth in the middle of the night on Wed.? I woke up at 1:40 am and later wondered if I had sensed a little jolt. 4.6 quake centered in Santa Cruz Mountains.
Easter and earthquakes. In California, maybe we take both in stride. I was struck this week as I noticed how Matthew tells the story of Easter. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the God came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. It is an interesting word in Greek. “earthquake” = seismos. 14x in New Testament. From seio (to shake, move, or quake to and fro; also used metaphorically - to create agitation, fear, a commotion, a shaking. Root of the word “seismic” comes from.
It is not a quiet Easter morning in Matthew gospel. No one is whispering – “Good news! Christ is risen!” No. For Matthew, this is earth-shaking news, surprising news. Actually, this is the second major (super)natural event that takes place in the Holy Week narrative. The earth also shook as Jesus “breathed his last” just a chapter before (27:50). And a third - the guards were so afraid of him that they shook.
Matthew makes sure we don’t miss the significance of both this death and this resurrection. It’s no accident. It’s nothing normal. The resurrection is earth shaking, disorienting news.
Some of us might be feeling particularly shaky these days for all kinds of personal and global reasons.
The earth shook, the tomb was empty, and the followers, women and men, are changed. Something happened to convince people that the one who they saw led away to be crucified had defeated death. What happened on the road to the cross and on the path to the empty tomb? Did the resurrection really happen? Let’s look at bit more closely at Matthew’s telling.
Biblical
Of all the Gospels, Matthew’s version might win the prize for “least believable.” The earthquake announces the angel, whose appearance is “like lightening.” Maybe picture angelic Superman or another superhero who easily pushes the stone or tosses it.
In the other gospels, the tomb was already open when the women arrive, but this muscular angel rolls back the stone as the women look on. Jesus is gone; apparently, the stone was no obstacle. The angel sits on the stone, crossing his angelic arms, and glances over at the security guards – only Matthew mentions these guards – who are frozen in fear. You see the irony: the living look dead and the dead are alive. The angel doesn’t speak to the guards. His assurances are only for the women: “You don’t need to be afraid.”
The angel says Jesus has been raised, just as he said he would. The angel then says, “Go tell the disciples. Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.” The women take off and run right into risen Jesus. In awe and surprise, they grab onto him and Jesus echoes the angel: “You have nothing to fear. Go tell my brothers I’ll meet them in Galilee.”
The Gospels don’t spell out what resurrection means. They do show us and tell us a lot about the person who was raised – about Jesus. He broke the rules about holiness. He spoke out against the government – the oppressive Roman Empire. (Matthew 22:15-22). He insisted that mercy triumphs over judgment (Matthew 5:7, 9:13). He chose to love and live among religious and political outcasts and called them beloved children of God – and that made him an outcast, as well (Matthew 9:10-13). He said that love was more important than money, power, status, everything (Matthew 22:36-40) – so important that we need to love even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). That’s why he was killed.
That’s who Jesus was and that’s who was raised. It wasn’t just shocking; it was scandalous. The women tell the disciples and then they are supposed to keep going. And they did and here we are 2000 years later. Are we remembering an old story about people walking the path and seeing an empty tomb? And a road that led to a risen Christ? Or is it more than that?
Easter Hope is in the present tense
When we think about the Bible and how we read about God, let’s go back to the beginning. In Genesis 1, we read a creation story. God speaks the world into being. It’s not surprising, then, that language is tied to how we see God at work in our lives, that our faith is as much about the architecture of nouns and verbs as it is about prayer and worship and community. Although I have a degree in English, I don’t necessary think about the grammar of our faith, how bound up language is in our ability to have hope during what feel like hopeless times. But recently it struck me. And it started on Christmas Eve. Candles, a dark sanctuary. We sing - Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright…. Christ the Savior is born…. Not Christ the Savior was born. And communion. This is my body, this is my life given for you. Present tense.
The liturgy is always about the present tense, with Christ present in the communion. In worship services, in serving our neighbors. We do not only remember; we participate. The eternal God speaks to us, here and now.
This morning we sang - Jesus Christ IS Risen Today - Not Jesus was raised in the past
Hope comes in the present tense. The resurrection invites us to be present now, to look at the roads we have traveled and how we might see our current path, a framing of communal hope, transforming our inner life and a voice of hope for others we meet on the road.
During Lent our congregation has focused on the theme - Meeting Jesus on the Road. We read a book together and sermons were based on scriptures where Jesus met people on various roads. I asked the congregation to share photos of roads and paths that have been meaningful to you – childhood, from travels, from walking or hiking or biking. It is a gift to see the variety of roads. When we look at them, we may see the ways we have changed. And we see how we can walk together now with Easter Resurrection hope.
Life After Death is not the same
In midst of the Easter story of Jesus being raised and the surprising, good news the women run back to share in Galilee, let’s be clear. On the road to Easter today, resurrection isn’t pretending that death isn’t real. Here is the truth. On that first Easter, the angel is letting the women know death isn’t the ending they thought it was.
Life after death isn’t a return to exactly what was before. Jesus doesn’t move back into his house and get back to his routine with the disciples. There were accounts of people encountering Jesus after the resurrection, but it sometimes takes a minute for them to recognize him. Even Jesus is changed by death. Resurrection is not the same as springtime flowers. The resurrection was a surprise and it changed people.
Easter takes place in springtime, which used to mean more to me when I lived in places that weren’t perpetually spring like. After a long winter in snowy, cold, dark places, you welcome the signs of new life and spring differently than I do living here. I grew up in Southern California. However, before moving to the Bay Area, Jeffrey and I lived in New Jersey for 12 years. Winters there were long and very cold. Nature went to sleep. Everything looked dead and dormant. The first sign of spring was the blooming of the yellow forsythia bushes. I loved seeing the one in our yard and the one near the church bloom. The kids in my church knew that. They would excitedly tell me – “Pastor Cynthia, the forsythia is blooming! Forsythia for Cynthia!”
It is a joy to see our sanctuary is filled with beautiful flowers today. They are a sign of life. They are a reminder that when the earth feels barren and empty, there are seeds or bulbs that are yet being born.
But the new life of resurrection isn’t a return of what we’ve known before. If you planted a tulip bulb and what grew out of the soil was a sequoia instead, that might be a better image for Easter.
Life after death is different. New life after death, leaving the empty tomb, can be hard and disorienting. The earth, our foundations, shook and things were not the same. Are we standing by an empty tomb but not sure what is next?
I imagine most of us have not had a literal conversation with an angel, but I do know what it feels like when an earthquake, literally or metaphorically, rocks your world.
And things are not what you thought they were.
When the dead aren’t in their tombs,
when the lab test comes back with bad news,
when death and grief and despair and fear threaten to overtake us.
I know many people who are facing tombs right now - tombs of tumors and cancer, tombs of addiction or anxiety, tombs of loss. Or tombs caused by political malice, politicians denying care and safety to people, tombs of violence and hate. We may feel stuck.
Can Jesus, raised from the dead, change me? Change us?
Resurrection Now for All of Us
What if we reframe what resurrection means. Easter doesn’t celebrate that one man rose from the dead. Easter celebrates new resurrection life for all of us. For all of us, now. Jesus was just the first, but all humanity can rise from what is deadly – deadly to us, and deadly to our whole world. Not sometime in the future, but now.
Maybe the Easter story, the deeper truth, is that Jesus was raised and lives on as the Christ (Richard Rohr uses the terms “Universal Christ”) and we and all humanity is part of that. Brian McClaren offers this image – “Easter points to Humanity 2.0, we might say. Resurrection invites us to join him in Humanity 2.0, in “resurrection life.” Resurrection life says, “You don’t have to wait for some distant future to start practicing compassion, empathy, nonviolence, reconciliation, reverence, joy, hope, and peace. You can leave the old humanity behind and start practicing Humanity 2.0 now.” We can join the resurrection, now, in the present. We can rise. Now.
The angel told the women, “He is not here; he has risen.”
“Did it happen?” is the wrong question. The right question is, “Is it happening?” The promise of the resurrection is not simply what God has done, but what God is still doing.
Like the women at the tomb, who went back to tell their friends, we’re called to tell people about this love that is stronger than death. Like the women at the tomb, we want people to know that what looks like an ending for us does not mean God is finished helping us tell our story.
As we live into this Easter season, I invite you to notice when the death and pain of the world make you forget to leave the tomb, when your imagination forgets to believe impossible things, when your heart protects itself from the possibility of life after it has known death.
In these days, especially in these days, the world needs to know the depth, and height, and breadth of God’s love. So leave the tombs to share the remarkable news that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death. Christ is risen. Amen.
Resources
Rev. Marci Glass, “Looking for the Living Among the Dead,” 4/20/25 Calvary Pres.
https://marciglass.com/2025/04/20/looking-for-the-living-among-the-dead/
Brian McClaren, “Joining the Resurrection,” 4/9/12 Patheos
https://www.patheos.com/progressive-christian/joining-the-resurrection-brian-mclaren-04-09-2012
Stephanie Saldaña, “Hope arrives in the present tense,” 3/18/26 The Christian Century
https://www.christiancentury.org/voices/hope-arrives-present-tense
Rev. Joanne Whitt, “We Rise,” 3/31/26 Solve By Walking blog
https://solve-by-walking.com/2026/03/31/we-rise/