When we have faith like Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus, and courage like the Myrrh Bearing Women, who went in the darkness of the night to anoint Jesus, our actions are blessed by God for the glory of His Church. Through faith, courage, and action, we will go out in the darkness of the world and share the good news of Christ’s resurrection. People need hope. People need the Good News to convince them to come to the Church to experience Jesus Christ, the King of King, Resurrected from the dead.
My brothers and sisters, we just heard two stories in this morning’s gospel. These two stories teach us a great lesson about faith, about courage, and about action. Beginning with Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph was one of the Jewish leaders. He was a member of the council. The gospel even says he was a respected member of the council. It was the council that made Pontius Pilate crucify Christ. And yet, as Christ was on the cross, Joseph believing in Christ from the very beginning, Joseph took courage to go to Pilate and say, “Give me the body. I want to bury my Lord.” We have no idea how much courage this took. For him to go to the council, to the leaders, to Pilot, they were part of who crucified him. The leaders wanted to have nothing to do with Jesus. And one of their own, Joseph Arimathea went and asked for Jesus’ body so that he could bury him. But he didn’t just bury him in a grave. He used his own tomb. He used his own grave. He used his own money. He used his own resources to bury Christ. You don’t think there were other people that were able to bury him, but Joseph used his own resources to take care of the body of Christ. And that is action if I’ve never seen it. To take what is ours and to use it for Christ.
You see, my brothers and sisters, we are in the same boat as Joseph. We live among people who do not believe in Christ. We live among people who want to have nothing to do with God or even religion. But because we believe, if we believe it requires us to have the courage to do something about our faith, to take care of the body of Christ. Who is the body of Christ, but you and me? The church is the body of Christ. We, when we are baptized and chrismated into Christ, we become one with him. So the church, my brothers and sisters, is the living body of Christ in the world. And so if Joseph stuck out his neck among his fellow people to say, “Let me take care of the body of Christ.” We, my brothers and sisters, have to use that same courage, that same faith and put that into action and take care of the body of Christ, the church.
The church, my brothers and sisters is not just this building. In fact, if this building were to crumble tomorrow, we would still have the church. The church, my brothers and sisters, is you and me living our faith in faith, courage, and action.
Now, let’s talk about the myrrh-bearing women. Wow. Talk about courage. These women, before dawn, in the darkness of the night, went to the tomb of Christ. Have any of you ever been to Cycadia Cemetery in the dark? It is not a nice place. And we have walls and fences and guards and cameras. It’s not so dangerous these days, but those days, the graveyards were the most dangerous place around. And the women, the myrrh-bearing women, had the faith and courage to go in the middle of the night because they were going to take care of Jesus Christ. There was nothing that was going to stop these women. Something tells me they were more Greek than anything.
But my brothers and sisters, their courage drove them to the cemetery in the middle of the night to anoint Jesus. And what did they receive for it? They didn’t even find him there. But because of their faith and courage, they were the first to receive the good news of his resurrection. Those faithful, courageous women were the first to hear Christ is risen. They were the first to then be told, “Now go tell everybody else. Go to his disciples. Go tell them what was that.” And they didn’t even believe. They had to go see for themselves. You see, my brothers and sisters, this is our life. This is our life. We have heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection. We sat here a couple of weeks ago in the dark. We lit our candles. We heard a few firecrackers. We sang Christ is Risen. We were blessed because we were willing to come out in the darkness. And now, God is telling us, go and tell everybody that Christ is risen. Go and bring them.
My brothers and sisters, we all know at least one person who needs God. And when I say needs God, I don’t mean needs to win the lottery. I mean, they’re living their life in pain. Not physically necessarily, but maybe. They’re living isolated maybe. They’re living feeling that they have no hope. Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s give them the hope. The apostles must have been terrified in the middle of the night. Their leader had just been crucified, was dead, was buried. They were hiding. Imagine the people that we know who are hiding from the world. And all we have to do is go share with them the good news of God and how God’s blessing has given us comfort. That’s all it takes. A little faith, a little courage, and a little bit of action.
So my brothers and sisters, let’s go out today having heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection, believing in Christ’s resurrection, and sharing that good news with at least one person that we know needs the hope of God. It can be a family member. It can be a neighbor. It can be a coworker. It can be one of the many homeless that are roaming our streets. People need to hear the good news of Christ and we are the ones to give it to them. It requires action though. Action based on faith and courage. Christ is risen. Now let’s go out there and live like we believe what we just said.
