Sermon Series: Out of Hiding and Into View            

Sermon – “When the Story Has a Point” – Matthew 28:1-10

Clinging to What Was Lost

  • The women who arrive at dawn are there to see where Jesus has been buried. Their intention in going is to cling to the death that has been their reality. 

  • The story (person) they have followed has reached its finality. Their own stories must shift now to this new reality that Jesus is gone. 

  • It can be easy for us to reach a sense of finality in our own stories or to think, “this is just the way it’s going to be.” 

Living as Dead Men

  • After the ground has shaken, an angel removes the stone at the entrance, and it says the guards appeared like dead men. They were alive but weren’t living. 

  • This can also be the case for many of the stories we are living. We go through the motions of life, waking, rising, going to school and work, with a sense that life is happening, but it feels like your story isn’t going anywhere. You’re alive, but you aren’t living. 

News That Changes the Narrative

  • The angel informs them to look inside and see that Jesus is not there. They are told not to be afraid. 

  • We learn that the women “go and tell” the disciples, but they also went with both fear and joy. The Greek word here is not reverence or awe, but actual fear. 

  • Something has shifted. What could this mean? Finality has disappeared, and a new beginning has entered the story. 

  • When Jesus shows up on the scene, he again tells them not to be afraid. He wants them not to get caught up in terror and perhaps a desire to flee, but to take in the newness of the story they thought they had and the story in front of them now. 

Rest of Your Story

  • A day like Easter reminds the Christian Church who we are, what we believe, and the story we are invited to join or continue to participate in. 

  • Perhaps the story of Jesus seems a bit far-fetched, but you find yourself alive but not really living. Perhaps the story of Jesus could be just the story you need to change your life narrative. 

  • Perhaps fear of people, things, situations, has had a grip on you, and it keeps you from the joy that comes in knowing Christ. It might be time to lean a bit deeper into Jesus and not let the grip of fear be your dominant narrative. 

  • For all of us here today, it’s time to embrace more deeply the rest of our story. Perhaps it’s time to embrace the story of Jesus for the first time and let the rest of your story be as a follower of Jesus. 

(Resources provided by Stanley Hauerwas, Douglas R.A., and Hare, R.T. France)


Discussion Questions

  1. Where in your life have you accepted a sense of “this is just how it is” — even though God may want to rewrite that story?

  2. What are some signs that a person might be “going through the motions” instead of truly living? Where do you see that in your own life (if anywhere)?

  3. Why do you think both emotions showed up together? When have you experienced fear and joy at the same time in your faith or life?

  4. What would it look like for the story of Jesus to actually change your current life narrative—not just what you believe, but how you live?

  5. What is one area of your life where fear, doubt, or disappointment is still “writing your story”? What would it look like to let Jesus reshape that part of your story this week?