All Shook Up

 Matt 28:1010

Oh, well, a-bless my soul, what's wrong with me? …

Oh, well, my hands are shaky, and my knees are weak

I can't seem to stand on my own two feet …

I'm in love

I'm all shook up

Hm, ooh, yeah-yeah, yeah

To quote another song title - there’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on here in the gospel of Matthew. 

We often tend to focus on the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday but all the gospels also mention fear, anxiety and distress on this day. Nothing is simple. 

Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers to speak of an earthquake in connection the resurrection. In this brief resurrection story we have the earth shaking and the guards shaking and then fainting. But this is not the first time in Matthew’s story we find mention of quaking and shaking. When Jesus entered the city on palm Sunday the whole city of Jerusalem was shaken up, disturbed, in turmoil. 

Right back in the beginning of Matthew we find that image of things being shaken up, disturbed, disrupted. When the magi arrived in Jerusalem looking for the new king all of Jerusalem was shaken up. At the transfiguration the disciples were so shaken with fear they fell to the ground. There was an earthquake also at the moment Jesus died in Matthew’s story, the veil in the temple was torn in two, rocks were split and tombs opened. The veil in the temple was a symbol of the barrier between heaven and earth - it’s gone now. 

A whole lot of shaking going on indeed. 

We know about earthquakes here in Aotearoa / NZ - probably most of us here have experienced an earthquake and even minor ones can be quite scary. Nothing is ever certain during an earthquake, nothing is stable, everything totters, things fall out of cabinets, vases fall down, things break. The earth literally shakes beneath your feet, nothing feels stable. 

The resurrection is a great act of destabilisation. The earth is literally shaking, everything that you thought you knew, everything that you expected is falling down or falling out of cabinets. It’s all teetering and tottering. 

Resurrection is a disruptor. In fact, looking at the way Matthew scatters shaking and earthquakes throughout his gospel - Jesus’ entire life is disruptive. This resurrection earthquake is an act of great power and it disrupts everything we thought we knew about power. We thought the empire had power when they crucified Jesus. We thought death had power when Jesus died. But the earth shakes and this changes everything - this kind of power far exceeds that of empire. It challenged the power of the Roman empire to control things back in Jesus’ time and it challenges our modern empires and their arrogance, violence and oppression in our own day.  Nothing has ever been the same in our world since the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. 

Resurrection is disruptive because it introduces New Life. We lived in a world full of death and now there is this unpredictable, mystery of New Life introduced into the equation. 

Resurrection is disruptive - it brings light - the angel’s appearance was like lightening and his clothing white as snow. This light is almost unbearably bright. Light reveals the truth - the truth that death and suffering do not have the last word, the truth of New Life. The truth of love and relationship being greater than death. 

While there is fear in the story, there is also peace - both the angel and Jesus bring a message of reassurance, of peace. This disruptive resurrection brings peace at the grave of one who died a violent death at the hands of their oppressors. The Romans used crucifixion to bring fear, to intimidate, to control. But in resurrection there is a peace which is disruptive, there is hope, there is unpredictable, uncontrollable new life. 

Resurrection disrupts our existence with a commission - Go and tell. 

Resurrection is not just a celebration for us to have inside our churches on Easter Sunday. Just as Jesus could not be contained in the tomb, the resurrection cannot be contained here today on Easter Sunday. It cannot be contained TO Easter Sunday. The disruption, the new life, the hope and peace, the light of resurrection is for all the world and for all time. 

It was Saint Augustine who said “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song”. It was later popularised by Pope John Paul II and has inspired a number of Easter Songs

We profess we’re Easter people, singing Christ is raised today

In our pews beneath some steeple, Alleluias on display

How we love the festive feeling that has drawn us to this place

Resurrection, truth revealing, hope on ev’ry gathered face. 

Once we’ve sung the hymns of glory and our thankful tears have dried

will the message of this story for a year be cast aside?

Or from now till pew and steeple find our voices raised anew

will we live as Easter people, Christ alive in all we do?

Lord today we hear you calling, “If you’re Easter people, rise

for a world where bombs are falling, for a land which still denies

that I died for all creation, death of death itself to be

Rose for ev’ry race and nation, loving each one equally. 

Jesus we are Easter people, this the dearest truth we claim

As this world’s conditions worsen, send us onward in your name.

Raise us up to see as neighbour any-one in pain or need

When like you in love we labour we’ll be Easter folks indeed. 

This morning we said 

Christ is risen, 

He is risen indeed alleluia

Let us join with Christ in disruptive resurrection, 

lets shake up the world. 

Let us challenge the power of empire

Let us affirm the power of love and new life. 

Let us live and share the new life, the resurrection life, begun in Christ, let us share it here in our world today. 

Let us bring peace amid anxiety, hope amidst fear.

Let us bring light and truth to our darkened world

Let us share the disruption of resurrection beyond these walls, beyond this community, to a world in need. 

We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song

Ours is an Easter faith

our fears have died

we rise to love, to dance, to live

Christ is risen Christ is risen

Risen indeed

and Risen in our lives