THE OPENED GATE
Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006

TEXT: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!

Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

TEXT: Mark 16:1-8
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Near the Scottish Border town of Inerleathen is Traquir House which dates back to 1107 and is said to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. It is owned by the Maxwell Stuarts who were staunch supporters of the Stuart kings. A legend has it that the Fifth Earl of Traquair entertained Bonnie Prince Charlie one autumn day 1745, and after wishing his guest a safe journey, closed and locked the gate behind him. He vowed never to open the gate again until a Stuart sat on the Scottish throne. The famous Bear Gates are still locked and will probably remain that way. Another parallel road to the main house had to be constructed.

There was another locked gate to the Garden of Eden. Adam and his sons were walking by the gate when Cain asked his father what was beyond it. Adam replied, “That’s where we used to live before your mother ate us out house and home.” The gate to Eden was locked and guarded by an angel with a fiery sword. It would never be opened again in this world.

One of the excavation sites that I had worked at in Jerusalem was near the Golden Gate, one of eleven built into the walls of the city. Christian tradition believes that it was through a gate on this site that Jesus entered on Palm Sunday. Jewish tradition believes that the Golden Gate is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem, bringing the Jewish nation to redemption. The Turkish emperor Suleiman, who heard this tradition, decided to prevent the arrival of the Messiah by blocking the gate with bricks, and by building a Muslim cemetery in front of the gate, for it was believed that the Messiah would not walk through an unclean place where the dead were buried. The Golden Gate, with its twin portals of Grace and Mercy, are still sealed.

The writer of Psalm 118, possibly the king of Judah, came to the Temple to give thanks for deliverance in battle. His life had been in jeopardy, but God had saved him: “The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous. . . I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.”

Standing outside the Golden Gate, the entrance to the Temple, he sings: “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.” The gate is opened and he enters into the presence of God.

When Jacob awoke from his dream at Bethel, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place. For this is the house of God and these are the gates of heaven.”

Three women went to the tomb of Jesus on the third day after his death. They wondered to themselves: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” Who will unlock the gate? Who will allow them access to their Lord? But when they arrived, they looked up and “saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.”

There is a lot of controversy in Christianity these days. The literal interpretations of the scripture are being challenged by a sophisticated culture that is unsure about miracles. The idea of dead men walking boggles the mind. A body lying in a tomb for three days being restored to life defies reason. The Romans were experts at their work of killing people. They would not have left a comatose man on the cross. That’s why they broke the legs of the two thieves to insure their death by strangulation. Jesus was dead, and dead men do not return to life.

If we are going to approach Easter with our scientific mind-sets and try to figure out how a physical resurrection of the body can take place, we will have overlooked the greatest miracle of Easter. It is not humans who roll away the stone; it is God who removes the obstacles and grants us new life, new possibilities, new opportunities.

I don’t know whether you noticed it or not, but in Mark’s account of the resurrection, Jesus is not seen. Mark’s story is the original which Matthew and Luke used in preparing their own versions. There is no Jesus, only a young man dressed in white who tells the women to look elsewhere.

The gate, the rolled away stone are signs of passage, transition, beginning. Easter is a celebration of new life, not only life in the spiritual realm, but new life now. “Christ has opened Paradise,” says our Easter hymn. The image is now of an opened gate replacing that of a closed one. The old gate into the Garden of Eden is still closed and always will be, for its purpose was to stop the human race, in disobedience, selfishness and greed, from seizing the fruit of the tree of life to their own eternal misery. But the gift of the fruit of the tree of life is another matter. God has found another way to give to people that which they must not and cannot seize for themselves. It is God who rolls away the stone and opens life to new possibilities.

Cat Stevens, in his 1970'salbum, Teaser and the Firecat, introduced the song “Morning Has Broken” to the world. It became an anthem of the Flower Children who saw a new world coming, a world full of hope and peace. While Cat Stevens made the song famous, it was actually written in 1931 by Eleanor Farjeon, who wrote a lot of children’s poetry. She set the words to an old Scottish tune that was a children’s Christmas hymn. Her words were inspired by Psalm 118: “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It became a hymn for Easter, proclaiming the restoration of Eden and the re-creation of God’s new day.


Harry Serio