Celebrating The Resurrection - Easter Sunday 2020

<p>Safety is something that is on all our minds these days.  And, along with that concern, most of us are living with a certain amount of fear.  As we live with this stay at home order, we do so because we are rightly concerned for people’s safety, concerned for the safety of those in our families, and concerned for our own personal safety and security.  We do this because we are justifiably fearful of this COVID-19 virus and the way it is spreading in our world.  While this concern is necessary and required, the intentional focus on safety intensifies our fear and anxiety as it permeates our culture and each of our lives.</p> <p>Well, in the last chapters of Matthew’s gospel, we find people who were fearful and intently focused on safety, their own safety and security. When Jesus was betrayed and arrested, the disciples were fearful and so they sought safety in the cover of darkness by deserting Jesus and fleeing the garden.  Peter was fearful and sought safety in that courtyard by trying to stay a distance away from Jesus, while trying to follow what happened to Jesus during his trial.  And, after Jesus was safely dead, the chief priests asked Pilate to place guards at the sealed tomb where Jesus’ body was laid to rest.  They remembered that Jesus had said he would rise again in three days.  <strong>They</strong> were fearful and wanted a secure tomb.  So, Pilate told his soldiers to “make that tomb as secure and safe as you can,” as he placed twenty-four-hour guards to keep watch.</p> <p>Well, guess what!  It did not work!  It did not work for Peter who ended up denying Jesus three times.  And, it did not work for the chief priests who tried to secure and seal Jesus in a tomb.  It did not work because Jesus, the Word made flesh, <strong>cannot</strong> be contained.  All the chief priests’ attempts at achieving security and safety were shattered when the very foundations of the earth shook.  And, by a power <strong>greater</strong> than <strong>all</strong> their efforts, <strong>Jesus was raised!</strong> </p