I love going to see. That whole experience of going to see something or someone.
Going to see fireworks, the eclipse, a friend, the latest Star Wars movie with the Grace Youth Group. So many favorite moments are just that, going to see.
Then there are harder moments of going to see. Someone who I love who is in distress, pain, sickness. To see their dead body.
These all create significant wakes in my memory, an intensifying, a focus, a clarity. The recall is always there. Going in expectation. It builds up something. It opens us up.
So here is an interesting thing. Scripture saying different things, not agreeing with itself. This drives some people crazy. Some people think it proves that it is all false. Therefore, there is no God, or therefore there is no resurrection. Some people dismiss the disparity by trying to explain it away.
So here is an interesting thing. Easter morning. The Gospels are all different, in significant ways. The tomb is empty, they all agree on that, but after that there is enthusiastic discord, disharmony, everyone talking at once. Kind of like Easter dinner…
In the Gospel according Mark the two Mary’s and Salome come to the tomb to anoint the dead, they were carrying the spices to do so, they come in grief.
Today we hear from Matthew, the two Mary’s are there again, but they were not there to anoint, there are no spices. They came to see. They came expecting something. It wasn’t in grief. They came to the tomb expectant, hopeful, Jesus spoke of the third day. They came to see just what that was.
Seeing. Understanding. Insight into God’s purpose.
That is Matthew’s Easter message.
We all know the truism: seeing is believing.
The two Mary’s came to the tomb looking to believe, they came to see that they may believe.
There is still a huge surprise. The Angel descending, rolling back the stone and sitting on it. And the Angel says to come and see the empty tomb. And then Jesus met them, with the message to tell the others to go and see as well.
They came to see, the angel tells them to see, to go on ahead to see, and Jesus sends them to tell the others to see.
There is a whole lot of seeing going on, on Easter morning, in the Gospel according to Matthew.
We all come to Easter morning for different reasons, much like the four Gospels.
Perhaps we are like Matthew.
We come to see that we may believe.
What is it to see death emptied out?
What is it to see life forever rising?
What is it to believe in resurrection?
There is enthusiastic dissonance. Everyone talking at once at Easter dinner.
Such life.
Such liveliness.
There is a whole lot seeing going on.
He is alive, he has been raised.
Believing is seeing.