The First Words of Christ - Easter Sunday (Matthew 28:5-12, Romans 5:6-12)

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The seven last words of Christ, spoken as He hung on the cross: 

• Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do.  
• Today, you will be with me in paradise.  
• Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.  
• My God. My God, why have you forsaken me?  
• I thirst. 
• It is finished.  
• Into your hands I commit my spirit. 

Those are the Seven Last Words of Christ.  

Except they're really, really not. Jesus had more to say:  

But 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, see the place where He lay. 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.’ See, I have told you.

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So they hurried away from the tomb in fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said... (Matthew 28:5-9) 

Let’s look the first three words of Jesus—the first three things that He said to us, and to the women who had come to care for him, after His death. These are the first three things that came out of Jesus’ mouth when He was back with His feet on the ground, and there for us to see.  

Jesus’ first word was “Greetings” (28:9). Or so my translation says. In ancient Greek the common word of greeting was khai-re. This was the equivalent of our ‘hello’ or ‘hey.’ In Luke 1:28 when the angel came to tell Mary that she was about to conceive Jesus and to become the mother of the Lord, the angel said to her “Khai-re, favoured one!”  In John 19:3, in a very, very different situation, the Roman guards who had bound Jesus and were beating and mocking him, who had given Him the crown of thorns, said “Khai-re, king of the Jews” in the same way that they would have said “Khai-re, Ceasar!” It's also (very ironically) the same word that Judas said to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he arrived with the arresting troop to take Jesus into custody. “Khai-re, Rabbi.”  

But...  Nobody in our world talks like that. Nobody begins an interaction by saying, “greetings.” When we see it on the page, it seems stilted. Formal. Distant. Especially given the circumstances; Jesus has just risen from the dead, and this is the first moment he's making contact again with the people He loves. He loves these people. They’ve spent years on the road together, sharing their lives. They've supported His ministry. They've wept with Him and laughed with Him. And we’re to understand that when He comes to them that morning in the garden, the best He can do is “greetings?”  

Well, no.  

A bit of background. In English, we’ve lost our connection with whatever meaning our word ‘hello’ originally had. When we say ‘hello’ it’s almost not even a word, but a noise that communicates, “I acknowledge your presence. Please acknowledge my presence.” 

Not so in some other languages. For example, in Hebrew, to say hello they say shalom. Shalom is also a word that in everyday conversation means ‘peace.’ In Spanish, buenos dias means hello. It also means ‘good day.’ In Hawaiian, aloha means hello. It also means ‘love,’ and ‘affection.’ People speaking these other languages can speak their word of greeting, knowing that they are communicating to each other their hopes for peace, a good day, love, affection. There's a value, an emotional component, connected to the word that they use to greet each other. That is also the case with ancient Greek.  

Jesus stood in the garden and said to them, “Khai-re-te,” a word that translates as... “Rejoice! Be glad! Be happy!” 

In Matthew 5:12,  Jesus says “Khai-re-te and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.” In Luke 10:20, He says, “Khai-re-te that your names are written in heaven.”  

The first word out of Jesus’ mouth when He met His friends after His death and His resurrection was not just “greetings.” It was “Rejoice! Be happy! Be glad!”  

And they did. The next thing that happened? 

...They came to Him and they grabbed hold of Him by His feet and they worshipped him. (Matthew 28:9b)

Humanity fell to its knees in joy, reverence, and adoration of their God because He was alive and He said, “Rejoice.” 

Jesus' second word on that first morning was, “Do not be afraid.” 

What was it that they might have been afraid of?  

Would they have been afraid of him? Quite possibly. This was a lot to take in. He was dead. He was dead-dead. People who lived in ancient times knew what dead looked like. They had far more exposure to it than we do. But now He was standing there, talking to them, smiling. They knew He wasn't a ghost or a hallucination; they had all touched Him. He was present. Human beings fear what we don't understand and this... They did not understand.  

Or they might have been afraid of... just kind of everything. What a trauma-filled weekend they had just had! They had been betrayed—all of them—by one of their own. Some had been present when Jesus was arrested. Some had witnessed His trial. Some had seen Him so beaten that that they could hardly recognize Him. Some had actually witnessed His execution. Some had snuck along in the dark afterwards, so they'd at least know where He was buried. They had spent the last couple of days looking over their shoulder. Maybe they were just afraid of everything.  

Maybe they were afraid of the future. The game had changed. Nothing was the same. What would happen now? 

Isn’t it interesting that the story of Jesus’ human life on earth begins with those same words: don't be afraid. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke (from which we receive most of our information about His conception and birth) the first words out of anybody's mouth are "don't be afraid,” some of the first words that Jesus said when His and our new life began.  

That morning in the garden was a new beginning, a new life, and—just like for Mary and Joseph, just like for Zechariah and Elizabeth—it wasn’t going to be easy. They were going to need to be courageous. But it was going to be amazing. So “don't be afraid.”  

Jesus' third word after His resurrection was “Go and tell.” These women were the first witnesses and messengers of the gospel. Jesus trusted His good news, His first wonderful words, to them. They were the first evangelists, a word that makes us uncomfortable.  

Yeah, sure, Jesus said, “don't be afraid,” but actually talking about Jesus out in public can be intimidating. It can be daunting. It can be scary. However, just because it's hard doesn't mean we're off the hook. One of the first things Jesus said after leaving the tomb, and also pretty much the last thing He said to us before His return to heaven, was “Go and tell, go and preach the gospel” (Matthew 28:18-20).  

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This is our story. Resurrection Sunday morning is our story.

The writer Paul tells us in Romans 5:6-12 that through one person, sin entered the world. Through sin, death entered the world. Death was passed on to all people, because all sinned.

This is the beginning of our story: we had become enemies of God, working against His loving purpose for the world He had made.  We were, to some extent, pawns being manipulated by the enemy, but we had made choices that landed us between a holy God and the one against whom He was angry—the perpetrator of evil in the world.  

But... Rejoice!  

God's love is greater than His anger, and just at the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for us—for the ungodly—and God proves His love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  

So... Don't be afraid.  

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, through His blood, we have now been made right with God. We were enemies of God, now saved from His anger, reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.  

Now... Go and tell. 

Because how much more (having been reconciled, having been saved from death) are we saved to life. We are not just saved from death... We are saved to life. Rejoice! Out loud and in public! In God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  

This is our story. Easter Sunday is our story.  

We have come with Jesus through the darkness.

We have seen His death and His suffering.

And now we stand in the garden with Mary saying, “Teacher! It's you! You're here. What do I do now?” 

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Awake sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns; 
Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth; 
Unfold thy forehead gather’d into frowns: 
Thy Saviour comes, and with Him mirth: 
Awake, awake; 
And with a thankfull heart his comforts take. 
But thou dost still lament, and pine, and crie; 
And feel his death, but not his victorie. 
 
Arise sad heart; if thou dost not withstand, 
Christ’s resurrection thine may be: 
Do not by hanging down break from the hand, 
Which as it riseth, raiseth thee: 
Arise, Arise; 
And with his buriall-linen drie thine eyes: 
Christ left his grave-clothes, that we might, when grief 
Draws tears, or blood, not lack an handkerchief. 
--The Dawning, George Herbert 

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