Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

God's Shakeup Call

Back in 1973 I was suddenly shaken out of my bed in the middle of the night. My first thought was that my college roommate had pulled some kind of prank on me. But when I glanced across the room, there was my roommate, also sitting on the floor, wondering what had happened. Later we would discover that a minor earthquake registering 4.7 on the Richter scale had struck the Knoxville, TN area. After checking our dorm for damages and greeting our now suddenly awake fellow students, we went back to bed. The excitement was over. Business as usual would go on tomorrow.

I can’t help but think that something similar happens to us on Easter Sunday. We are mildly “shaken up” by the story of Jesus’ resurrection; then we return to business as usual. We are amazingly well adjusted to the same old world. We need a “shakeup” call.

The resurrection is God’s shakeup call to the world.

Christ’s resurrection is accompanied by an earthquake. But so was his crucifixion. This is significant. In the Old Testament earthquakes were connected with manifestations of the presence of God. An earthquake was often a sign of the presence of God which would comfort believers. At Sinai the earth trembled; the mountain trembled and shook. God was unmistakably present. But the shaking of the earth was also a sign, in the Old Testament, of God's judgment against His enemies.

Here’s where we need to pay attention. Two great earthquakes mark the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is as though Almighty God is announcing the great and awesome thing that His Son Jesus Christ has done by shaking the earth. The earth trembled in sorrow at the crucifixion, but it leaped for joy at the resurrection. God is tying the crucifixion and the resurrection of His Son together with a seismic knot.

Two groups of people were present at the tomb—the women who had come to tend to Jesus’ body and the soldiers who were guarding the tomb. Both groups were feeling the effects of God’s presence. Both groups were afraid, but for different reasons. Matthew tells us, in so many words, that the angel scared the guards to death. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:5-6). One group at the tomb was comforted. The other was terrified. But one thing is for sure—nobody went back the same way they came.