“From Betrayal to Brother”

Matthew 28:1-10

Easter Sunday

March 27, 2005

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming, Senior Pastor

Last Saturday evening, I was flipping through the channels trying to find something worth watching on television when I stopped on channel three, the station that houses AETN, our Public Broadcasting Station. I will admit that I do not watch many shows on the channel. I know that I should, but I don’t. To be honest with you, I was on my way to channel two, one of the ESPN sports networks on the cable package that we have.

Something on PBS, on channel three, caught my eye. I had heard about this show, but had never spent much time watching it. Maybe you have seen episodes of The Antiques Road Show. The show is in its tenth year, so it is a show that enjoys both popularity and longevity. The premise of the show is that the produces travel around the country with appraisers and rent either convention centers or auditoriums and invite people, ordinary people, to bring items that they either have lying around somewhere in their house, or some treasure that they have gotten either at a swap meet, a garage sale, or an auction. They bring these items to be appraised. I imagine that there is a screening process, but I understand that people bring just about anything and everything. They bring old clocks and watches, pieces of jewelry, vases, furniture, to the Road Show and then the conversation between the owners and the appraisers is televised. The appraisers look for hints about the objects. The appraisers want to know the history of the objects they are considering. They want to know how an object’s owner came to possess it. They want to know if it came from a yard sale, an auction, or whether it is an heirloom. If the owners bought the object, the appraisers want to know how much they paid for it. If it is an heirloom, they want to know how it came to be in their family. Then comes the moment of truth. The moment that both the owner and the watchers of this show have been waiting for, the worth of the object in today’s market.

A preacher tells of watching an episode of that show where a woman brought something that she had found in her attic. The object was made out of metal and had a scene imbedded in it. It looked like a hat, but it did not have a brim, like most hats. The woman tells that she found it nestled in one of the ceiling joists in her attic. She had lived in her house for years and years and thought that it was probably there when they moved in. The appraiser looked at it and then came the moment that everyone was waiting for. The appraiser said, “I believe that this is a processional helmet from an army in Italy. If I were to have the object, I would ask $250,000 for it. The woman, this owner almost fainted. I heard that story this week. After I did, I went climbing in the storage room in the basement of the parsonage that acts as our attic. I was hoping to find some great treasure that I had overlooked or one that a former pastor left behind. So far I have not found anything!

The part of the show that I like the best is what the appraiser does. He looks the things that people bring over and notices things that the owners most likely have missed. He says things like, “Did you see this? Did you see this mark right here? Or how about this, did you see this signature? It’s the artist’s signature and there’s a date under it? Did you notice that? It means something!” Almost always they had not noticed it. And then the appraiser, because of these details, tells the owners things about their objects that they had only dreamed of. If he had not pointed these things, these small things out, they would not have know the value of their possession. You see, friends, the value is in the details.

The same thing is true in the stories in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four tell the same story, the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But they all tell it in different ways. For instance, there are stories in Luke that can be found no where else. A couple of examples are the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. The stories that we used in the weeks preceding Easter were from John’s gospel. These stories, the ones of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, a woman at a well, a man born blind, and Lazarus are not in the other three gospels. Now, when it comes time to tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus, all four give good details. If you were to stand them up side by side by side by side to notice how details line up, and the differences between them, you would see that each writer puts his own unique twist on the story, like an artist would on a work of art.

This morning, it’s Matthew’s turn to tell the story. This morning I would like for us to look at the unique stamp that Matthew puts on the story. The main characters in the gospel stories of the resurrection are always the same. The women are there. Mary Magdalene is in all four accounts. In Matthew’s gospel another Mary is present at the tomb. We are not given her name. The good news is that she made it in the most famous of all stories. The bad news is that she is known as the other Mary. That is unfortunate, I guess. But Mary was a common name in her time, I guess. The name John was when I was named. I may have told you that growing up in my neighborhood, there were five boys, about the same age, all named John. When someone’s mother called out and said, “John, it’s time to come home for dinner,” whatever game we were playing was over because five of us had to leave. So two women named Mary were there on that first Easter morning. But back to the story, these two Marys, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary make their way to the cemetery, to Jesus’ grave site. They were not expecting much. For sure they were not expecting to find an angel sitting on a heavy stone and the body of Jesus missing. Somewhere along that road, without their knowledge of it, their world changed. The world that they started walking in was a world where hope was in constant danger, where peace did not have a chance, where you could get away with a murderous plot, where the rich got richer, where the weak suffered and where dead people stayed dead. But somewhere along the road, they entered the world of the resurrection of Jesus and new life, but they didn’t know it.

Matthew tells us that there was a great earthquake and that an angel of the Lord descended, rolled away the stone, and was sitting on it. Matthew tells us that the angels’ appearance was like lightning and that his clothes were dazzling white. There were guards who were assigned to keep Jesus in the grave, but they failed at that. Matthew tells us that these men were afraid because of the appearance of the angel. I think that Matthew cannot help but to take a stab a death when he says that the guards, “...became like dead men.”

This is the world that the two Marys arrived in that first Easter morning. The first thing out of the angels’ mouth was to tell these two to not be afraid. And then he tells them, “He is not here. Tell the disciples to go to Galilee.” So the two women left, with a mixture of fear and great joy welled up inside of them, on their way to find the disciples. No one knew for sure where they were. They were hiding, fearful for their own lives. And while they are searching, while they are walking, Jesus himself appears to them and says, “Tell my brothers to go to Galilee and I will meet them there.” The directions from the angel and from Jesus are the same, except that the angel tells the two women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. But Jesus says this, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Depending on which gospel you read, Jesus has called these eleven men disciples or friends, but not brothers. “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee?” Now what is that all about? What is that supposed to mean?

None of the other gospel writers give us that detail. None of them call the disciples brothers. It must be Matthew’s signature. It makes me wonder what Matthew is up to. So I have been thinking about it for a few days now. What is a brother? Why would Jesus use such a phrase? So I thought about all the passages of scripture where brothers are mentioned. There were several candidates. I first thought about the lost brothers in the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel. No doubt you remember that story. One of the sons went off to find himself. One stayed home. And Jesus used the story to explain why he ate with sinners. There was another story that was a candidate. No doubt you remember the Old Testament story of Jacob and Esau. One brother is born first and receives their father’s birth right. A birth right, back in those days, was a big deal. And the rest of their story has to do with reconciling these boys. But the third story that crossed my mind seems to be the kind of story about brothers that can speak to our story. It, too, is an Old Testament story. This story is the one of Joseph and his brothers. If you remember the story, Joseph was immature and favored and flaunted his position in the family. His brothers plotted to get rid of him and eventually sold him into slavery. A caravan came their way and Joseph’s brothers sold him. Maybe there is a connection. Joseph’s brothers betray him. Jesus, too, is betrayed. Joseph’s brothers received payment for what they did. Judas, one of Jesus’ brothers, received thirty pieces of silver. The disciples pledged their loyalty to Jesus. They said that they would never leave him or forsake him, but they did. Maybe Matthew wants us to remember the story of Joseph. Maybe that is why he uses the word brother. Maybe that is why he has Jesus saying, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Remember with me the end of the story of Joseph and his brothers. There is a famine in the land of the brothers and so they go to Egypt, looking for food. Joseph is in charge of that. He sees his brothers coming and recognize them. They do not recognize Joseph. It has been years since they have seen him. He has grown up. He’s matured. He sees his brothers coming and cannot contain himself. With tears in his eyes, he says, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you betrayed.” Now listen to Jesus, “Tell my brothers, who betrayed me, that I will meet them in Galilee.” Joseph’s story ends with a great scene and with powerful words. Joseph says this to his brothers, “As for you, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Now go back to the gospel. Think about Jesus using the word “brother.” Think about the cross. Is it possible for you to understand that the world meant the cross to be an evil thing, but that God changed it, redeemed it, and now it is one of the most powerful symbols that we have? The cross, now stands tall in sanctuaries and on top of steeples. Crosses now are worn as signs of love, not hate. Is it possible that Matthew’s slant on the resurrection story is that it is a tale of reconciliation more than it is a tale of anything else? The basic message of Easter is that Jesus is alive and well and doing something important in the world today. That is in all the gospels, but I think Matthew wants to say something to all of us who have betrayed him, who have stepped away from his cross, and who did not follow him all the way to the top of the hill and his crucifixion. I think that Matthew wants to say something to all of us, in today’s world, who have not followed him as closely as we should. I think that Matthew wants to say something to us who have betrayed him not so much in what we have done, but what we have left undone. I think that Matthew wants to say something to most of us who have followed when it was convenient, and the thing to do, not when it was hard. Following Jesus, friends, is sometimes very hard.

And Jesus’ answer to all of this is that love always wins. Betrayal is not what we are known for, at least not in Jesus’ eyes. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” And the love that Jesus has for us, well, it will not let us go.

Let me illustrate that with a story, our closing story. The story is of a young woman whose name was Sarah. Sarah grew up in home with opportunities. There were vacations, birthday parties, dance classes, even church. But for some reason, Sarah never felt good about herself or her life. Her teenaged years were tough on her and everyone around her. In high school the symptoms appeared. She drank and did drugs. She stole things and lied about where she was and who she was with. Her family did all that they could to help her while at the same time keeping the family together. There were counseling sessions, rehabilitation stints, tough love, tears, and prayers. The more Sarah’s parents tried to love her, the more she turned away. Finally she ran away and lived a life that now she doesn’t like to talk about.

When she got a little older, in her late twenties, things started to change. She talked about what happened. She said this, “As long as my parents loved me, I wasn’t free to do what I wanted to do. So I had to destroy their love and I tried my best to do that. That didn’t work. Even when I was arrested and they left me in jail, I could see the love in their eyes. Now I know how much I needed their love; their love and their prayers kept me alive.” Listen to her last words, church. She said this, “What amazes me the most of all is that my worst could not destroy their love for me.” The world gave Jesus its very worst, but its worst was not stronger than the love of God. Maybe that is what Matthew is trying to tell us. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to a faithful preacher who helped me understand Matthew’s version of this passage. The ending story and an idea or two in it are gifts from him).