What is an Angel For

Second Presbyterian Church

Roanoke, Virginia

Easter, March 23, 2008

"What are Angels For?"

Luke 24:1-12

George C. Anderson

Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing through the night

And the mountains in reply,

Echoing their brave delight.

Gloria, in excelsis deo,

Gloria, in excelsis deo.

Brings back memories, doesn’t it?Christmas Eve, singing our questions of the shepherds, what great brightness did you see?What glad tidings did you hear?

That’s how angels work at Christmas and Easter,out of great brightness they bring glad tidings.The glad tidings of Christmas Eve was this: Unto us a child is born and a son given. The glad tidings of Easter is this:He is not here; he is risen!

Christmas: Good news, Mary.

Your son is born.

Easter: Good news, Mary.

Your son is risen.

Out of great brightness come glad tidings. The church does a simple thing to make sure we get it.The white paraments are displayed only during the Christmas and Easter seasons. On Christmas and Easter, the light of the good news shines bright, undiluted, uncorrupted, pure. All is calm, all is light; Joy!Joy at the beginning of the Gospel, and joy at the end.And both times, the joy is announced by angels.

We remember how it was with the shepherds, how an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shined round about them. And how suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among all people."

Listen to Luke’s telling of how angels tell the joyful news of a new birth, and listen for the Word of God:

^{1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women who had come with him from Galilee] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.}

As at the beginning, here at the end, the most amazing news. And as at the beginning,

here at the end, the amazing news does not come to people in high places, but to people in low places.Not the shepherds this time;the poor field hands distrusted by many because of an unsavory reputation, but to women,who are supposed to get this kind of news through the men in their lives.

The women are unnamed at the beginning of the passage because they are only playing a role.They have come with spices they prepared to anoint the body. Even when all joy and hope is gone, you do what must to honor the dead.

When we lose hope and joy, perhaps we become nameless too. Perhaps we lose our identity when our Savior is in a grave, when what once was alive for us is now dead to us.

Is it possible that for some of us, the one we came to anoint with the spices of our worship, is more our God of yesterdays than of today, more the God of a life that was than of life lived right now?

Maybe some of us do not expect to be personally addressed today.We are members, maybe, or visitors, but some of us feel unnamed, maybe.We were brought up to honor God and so we are here. But how many of us expect anything? It is not about us anymore, if it ever was.

I think all of us have those days when we are just "believers." Just "members."not the ones called upon to answer, or to follow, because right now, the Jesus some of us grew up believing and trying to follow, is buried. We are just glad to be counted among those who have come to the tomb, or at least to the sanctuary, to help things look right. Maybe we came to anoint, to honor a god we expect to be still, lying there, doing nothing; certainly not calling our names.

But when these unnamed women arrive at the tomb, there is no body to anoint. The tomb is empty . . .

Well, not really. Two strangers-let’s go ahead and call them angels-appear to them, and the glory of the Lord shines round about them, and suddenly the women know they’re in church, by God! They are filled with fear, and they fall to their faces. But the angels say unto them, "Do not look for the dead among the living. He is not here, but is risen. Don’t you remember? He told you what would happen. He would be handed over, crucified, but THEN RAISED!"

He is risen! He was dead. The Romans know how to execute people and they did Jesus in. He was dead, but now he is raised. Such news is so wonderful, it is right that it come from the tongues of angels. For, isn’t that what angels are for, bearing news that is so pure, so full of joy, that no moral, limited in understanding, and corrupted by sin, has the right to be the first to tell it? Isn’t that what angels are for?

Well, not entirely. Did you hear everything that these two angels said? They asked the women to remember what had been told them, that the Son of man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.

Christmas and Easter may be days of bright light, but even at the empty tomb, what happened between Christmas and Easter is remembered. "Remember the betrayal and the arrest," the angel said. "Remember the execution. Remember everything, so you can now rightly hear this: the one crucified is risen!"

The angels remind us of just why it is so glorious that Jesus is risen. Look at the other times in Luke’s Gospel when angels are mentioned. For instance, remember at the beginning of the Gospel, right after Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan? First temptation: Turn stones to bread. No, Jesus won’t do it.

Second temptation: Gain power over the world by worshipping the devil. No, Jesus won’t do it.

And then the third temptation: Satan takes Jesus to the highest point on the Temple wall and says to him: "Throw yourself off… and let the angels rescue you!" Let the angels rescue you from death.

Why not? Fill the sky again with heavenly host who will bear you up as if on eagles wings, and prove to the world who you are. But Jesus won’t do it. He won’t put God to the test. He takes the hard way out and leaves the wilderness to face life!!! He feasts, laughs, makes friends, teaches students, learns . . . but he also faces lepers, the sick, the lost, the poor, the dirty, the miserable, the prisoners, and even those who are trying to destroy him.He will not be rescued from death, nor from his call to touch and love those who are dying in some way; physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Jumping off the Temple wall was the wrong thing to do, and Jesus didn’t do it. But if he had done it, and the angels are all about bright, white, good news, they would have rescued him, right?

Let’s jump ahead. I take you to the garden at the Mount of Olives where Jesus is praying. His prayer is theologically correct: "Not my will, but thine be done." (He taught us to pray like that.) But it is also impassioned: "If you are willing, take this cup from me!" The cup Jesus speaks of is death, for he knows what he is facing, and he wants to be rescued! "Angels, rescue me!" And, you know what, an angel comes to him . . . Not all the early manuscripts have this verse, but some do. After Jesus says his prayer, some manuscripts then say,

"And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground."

According to these manuscripts, an angel comes, not to rescue Jesus from death, but to minister to him as he faces death. Now let me take you to one more place in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus isn’t thrown from the Temple wall, but at the foot of that wall, in the middle of a garbage heap, he has been nailed to a cross and lifted up.

We hear Satan’s words again, but they are spoken in the words of the crowd: "He saved others! Let him save himself." And we hear the words in the voice of one of the criminals crucified with him: "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" The other criminal rebukes him, and then asks Jesus to remember him. And Jesus becomes the angel to that criminal and ministers to him; not to save him from death, but to assure him that "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

So, when the angels appear to the women who have come to the tomb, the bright, white, joy they have to announce, is a joy that remembers and embraces all of life. Remember the betrayal and the crucifixion, and now know this: He is risen. And because the women hear this news and believe it, and return to the apostles to tell them all about it, it is as if every bit of their lives – who they have been, who they are, and who they will become, is remembered and redeemed.

Every bit of who they are, which includes their past mistakes and successes, all their happiness and sadness, heartache and joy, is addressed. It is at this point in the passage, three of the women are named: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James.

What are angels for? Some other answers are given in other books of the Bible, but here is Luke’s answer:

Not to spare us from the sometimes fair and sometimes unfair experiences in life,

Not to keep us from our mistakes and their consequences,

Not to keep us from living lives where it matters what we say and do, and what we fail to say and do, that brings us glory and brings us shame.

And certainly not to spare us from death.

What angels are for is to give us news that names us. They ask us to remember Jesus’ life to tell us God remembers our lives. God remembers everything. Everything! Jesus was betrayed and killed, but Jesus was raised. God remembers everything, and then God forgives.

In keeping with what Greg Jones said this past weekend, God is not a "Forgive and forget" kind of God." He is a "Remember and forgive" kind of God. Here is the good news of Easter. You did not come into this sanctuary as strangers to God, even if you feel that way. Your files have been compromised; God knows their every detail.

In a sense, you came in this sanctuary as those who are to the right and left of Jesus at his crucifixion. All you and I have any right to say to Jesus is this: remember us. And God does remember us. God knows us by name.

So, don’t any of you believe for a second that you are a stranger to God, neither because of your being dead to God, or your thinking God is dead to you.You are a child of God, known by name, with nothing you can hide, and God has a place for you in Paradise.Your life with God is not just yesterday or even tomorrow, but right now.

He is not dead! He is risen, for you!