What would it have been like to have been at the tomb that Sunday morning? What would you have seen if you had been there? Was it a morning like this one, with the sun peeking its head over the trees, the birds serenading the rising sun, the cold dew covering the ground? Was it a morning like this? You surely would have seen Roman guards stirring from their sleep, stretching their sore arms and legs, grumbling among themselves. They hated this kind of duty -- the air was cold, the ground was hard. They were in a cemetery, away from their families because some Jewish leaders were scared to death of a peasant rabbi they had just crucified. He is dead, for God's sake! These priests had come to Pilate on the Passover, breaking their own laws -- to ask him to seal the tomb with a Roman guard to keep His disciples from stealing the body. Because of these leaders, the guards have been stationed here since Friday night and they are not happy. This will be their last day.

If you had been there, you might have noticed an unusual breeze blowing through the camp and the sound of what seemed like voices calling out in the distance. An eerie light filtered through the air. You might have seen the guards get up, rubbing their eyes, when suddenly the ground begins to shake beneath them. The soldiers fall to the ground and each time they try to stand, they are knocked down. It is an earthquake just like the one on Friday. They hear a scraping noise by the tomb and they look up to see one who shines with a blinding light. He rolls back the stone like it was a pebble and then hops up on the stone and looks at the soldiers with a grin on His face. The guards are absolutely frozen in fear -- they become like dead men -- which is appropriate since they are in a cemetery.

You would also have seen two women on their way to the tomb carrying spices. One was Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus had cast out evil spirits, and the other was likely the sister of Jesus' mother. They were on the way to the tomb when the ground begins to shake. Haltingly, they run to the tomb and see the guards lying on the ground, the stone rolled away, and the gleaming figure in white sitting on the stone. He says to them: "Don't be afraid -- He is not here -- He is risen just as He said -- Go quickly and tell His disciples." The women drop their spices and begin to run back into town, but as they do, they almost run headlong into the one they had come to anoint. "Greetings," He says to them. And if there was ever an explosion of joy, it was that moment. They fall at His feet, weeping for sheer joy. He tells them, "Don't be afraid -- go and tell my brothers...."

It's hard to know what we would have seen, the details are sketchy. Little is said about the actual resurrection; it's as if God said, "Let this be shrouded in mystery. All you need to know is that Jesus is risen! He is alive!"

But it is a story of one surprise after another, one irony after another. A group of religious leaders plot to put to death the very one they had taught about -- the Messiah. These leaders broke their own laws by appearing before Pilate on Passover. Here is a group who bribed Judas to betray Jesus, who arrested Jesus and tried Him illegally, who brought in false witnesses to lie about Him, who incited the crowd to ask for Barabbas the murderer, who asked for the execution of an innocent man -- and they call Jesus the deceiver! They begged Pilate to seal His tomb to keep His disciples out. But they were really sealing the tomb to keep God in, away from them. They were securing themselves from the presence of God in their midst, an effort many of us know so well. Although you can secure a tomb to keep people from coming in, it's difficult to secure it to keep people from coming out!