The Empty Tomb - and why it still matters.

Why an Empty Tomb Changed the World

Every Easter, billions of people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. But strip away the chocolate eggs and the bank holiday, and you're left with a claim that sounds outrageous: a dead man walked out of his grave. Matt Edmundson explores why that claim matters so much, what it meant for the first people who encountered it, and why the empty tomb is still the central question of the Christian faith.

Two Women Who Went Anyway

The Easter story in the Gospels begins not with triumph but with grief. Two women — both called Mary — go to the tomb on Sunday morning to anoint Jesus's body. This was the custom at the time. They weren't expecting a miracle. They were expecting a corpse.

Matt highlights something about these women that's easy to miss: they went anyway. Their hero had been executed. Everything they'd hoped for had died with him. Their expectations of what Jesus would do had been completely shattered. But they still showed up to care for him.

"Despite everything around them now being hopeless and seemingly destroyed, they still went to minister to Jesus," Matt says. "Even though Jesus at that point was not meeting their expectations."

Then everything changes. There's an earthquake. An angel appears — face shining like lightning, clothes white as snow. The Roman guards stationed at the tomb faint on the spot. And the angel delivers the most world-altering news in human history: "He isn't here. He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen."

Why the Stone Was Rolled Away

Matt asks a question that sounds simple but reveals something important: why did the angel roll away the stone?

It wasn't to let Jesus out. As the rest of the story makes clear, the risen Jesus doesn't need stones moved for him — he appears and disappears wherever he likes. The stone was rolled away so that the women could see in. So they could verify for themselves that the tomb was empty.

"The angel is both telling them that Christ has risen and showing them that Christ has risen," Matt explains. "Come see where his body was lying."

This matters because the empty tomb is the foundation everything else rests on. As Matt puts it bluntly: "If Christ just died but wasn't raised from the dead, then Christianity has a huge problem." He quotes 1 Corinthians: "If Christ has not been raised, then all of our preaching is useless and your faith is useless." The Bible itself says that without the resurrection, the whole thing falls apart.

The Most Unlikely Witnesses

Here's something about the Easter story that historians find genuinely interesting. The first witnesses to the resurrection were women.

In first-century Jewish culture, women's testimony wasn't considered credible. They couldn't serve as legal witnesses. If you were inventing a story and wanted people to believe it, you would never choose women as your primary witnesses. It would undermine your credibility from the start.

And yet that's exactly what happened. God entrusted the most important news in human history to the people society considered least trustworthy.

Matt draws out the significance: "When the world, the culture, the society — even the women themselves — had told them that their voice was not as important, God sent an angel to talk to them and let them know that their voice did count and that they were worth something."

The disciples, when they heard the news from the women, didn't believe them. Which is exactly what you'd expect from that culture. But the women were right, and the men were wrong. It's a pattern that runs through the whole Gospel — God choosing the unlikely, the overlooked, the underestimated.

The Most Understated Greeting in History

Matt saves what he calls "perhaps the most understated part of scripture" for the emotional high point of his talk. After the women leave the tomb, Jesus meets them. And the text simply says: "Jesus met them and greeted them."

"Imagine it," Matt says. "You meet the risen Christ for the first time. Angels are around. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb is empty because the guy who was dead — you saw him die — is now stood in front of you. And the first thing he says is... hi."

The women run to him, grasp his feet, and worship him. It's the only reasonable response. And it's why Christians still worship him two thousand years later — not because they're following a tradition, but because when you encounter the risen Jesus, worship is the natural reaction.

A Before and After Story

During the service, Chris Kent shares his personal story. Raised in a chaotic home with violence and addiction, expelled from boarding school, arrested for breaking into a shop — his life was falling apart by age fifteen. Then his mum became a Christian, and the change in her was undeniable. Chris gave his life to Jesus and describes the difference it's made: "I live with a sense of peace and knowledge that I'm loved by God, that I'm his child, and that he's for me and he's always with me."

Sally reflects on this in the conversation: every Christian has a before and after. Whatever the circumstances, there's the person you were before you encountered the risen Jesus, and the person you became afterwards. That transformation is the ongoing evidence of the resurrection.

Grace — When You Have Nothing to Give

Sally shares a definition of grace that she finds particularly powerful: "Love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return."

She admits that accepting grace is harder than it sounds, especially in a culture where everything feels transactional. "Sometimes you just don't think we're worthy of this sacrifice. It feels a bit too big, a bit too much. But that's the whole point — and that's okay."

Matt agrees that grace is something Christians can spend years getting their heads around. But at its heart, it's simple: grace isn't about what you do. It's about what he did.

Things You Can Do This Week

1. Face the empty tomb question honestly. If you're exploring Christianity, the resurrection is the claim to investigate. Look at the evidence — the empty tomb, the eyewitnesses, the transformation of the disciples from terrified deserters to people willing to die for what they'd seen. Make up your own mind.

2. Show up anyway. Mary and Mary went to the tomb even when everything seemed hopeless. If you're in a season where faith feels pointless or God feels distant, keep showing up. Sometimes the breakthrough comes when you least expect it.

3. Tell someone your story. Chris Kent's testimony is powerful because it's real. If you have a before-and-after story with God, share it with someone this week. You don't need to be polished. Just be honest.

4. Sit with the greeting. The risen Jesus didn't deliver a lecture or a list of instructions. He said hello. If your picture of God is stern and demanding, consider that the first thing he did after conquering death was warmly greet two grieving women. What does that tell you about his character?

The Invitation Still Stands

The empty tomb isn't just a historical event. It's an ongoing invitation. Matt traces the journey of Mary and Mary — from hearing about the resurrection to being invited to see it for themselves, to meeting the risen Jesus face to face. That same journey is available to anyone.

Two thousand years later, the tomb is still empty. The question is still the same. And the greeting — that simple, understated, life-changing "hello" — is still being offered.

What would it look like to accept it?