Go and Tell: Easter Resurrection and New Life

Throughout the Lenten journey, the narrative traces a pilgrimage toward living water and new life. The wilderness becomes a formative place where temptation, reflection, and repentance shape hearts for resurrection. Stories from Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus illustrate different openings of sight, welcome, and restoration; each episode shows how God’s kingdom breaks into ordinary life and reorders human longing. The passion narrative moves from the shouts of hosanna to the silence of the cross, exposing how human hearts can turn from praise to condemnation when love confronts entrenched power and exclusion.

At the tomb, grief and faithful service meet the unthinkable: an earthquake, an angelic announcement, and the empty grave. The women who came to tend the body remain steadfast in death’s work and become the first witnesses to life’s reversal. Encountering resurrection on the road, the community receives both reassurance and a charge: do not be afraid; go and tell. The text frames resurrection as encounteral and on-the-way—life emerges as people move, meet, and respond, not as a static doctrine but as a living practice.

Lazarus’ unbinding points to communal responsibility in the work of resurrection. New life arrives tethered to human hands called to loosen grave clothes and accompany one another into freedom. The Eucharistic table then frames that practice: remembrance of Christ’s passing from death to life becomes both nourishment and commission. Bread and cup gather memories of deliverance, the flood, the exodus, Jesus’ life, death, and rising, and the Spirit poured out to make all things new.

The closing summons sends the community into ordinary spaces—brunch, children’s games, shared labor—so that resurrection may be practiced in hospitality, peacemaking, and service. The blessing and dismissal reconfirm that the God who began a new thing in Christ will continue to send and sustain those who live into the justice, mercy, and love revealed in the risen life.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Resurrection breaks sin's binding power The empty tomb announces that death and shame no longer hold ultimate sway. This breaking does not remove struggle or grief, but it reorients identity: sin’s claims lose their finality, and moral transformation becomes possible because life has already been given. Faithful living proceeds from this liberation, not toward it. [24:52]
• 2. Formation in the Lenten wilderness The desert proves a shaping place where desire, temptation, and repentance refine attention toward God’s life-giving water. Formation requires discomfort and honest reckoning with idols; it trains the heart to recognize grace when it arrives. Spiritual growth thus moves through testing into rootedness, not around it. [25:43]
• 3. Unbinding brings communal resurrection responsibility Lazarus’ release after being ordered unbound insists that resurrection involves communal labor: others must physically and relationally loosen death’s restraints. Freedom arrives through hands and voices that refuse to leave the bound in tombs—practical acts accompany spiritual truth. The church’s ministry of unbinding looks like accompaniment, not mere proclamation. [28:33]
• 4. Go and tell with courageous faith The encounter on the way shows that witness happens while moving—amid fear, doubt, and daily tasks. Courage to proclaim the risen life grows from being met by Jesus in transit, not from final certainty. The call to tell compels vulnerable testimony that invites others into the journey. [33:16]
• 5. Practice resurrection through shared life Communion gathers memory and mission: the table forms a people who taste deliverance and then live it. Shared meals, hospitality, and peace-speaking become concrete rehearsals of new creation. Worship and witness remain inseparable practices that both sustain and send the community into service. [48:31]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [07:47] - Prayer of Resurrection
• [24:12] - Gospel Reading: Matthew 28
• [24:33] - Angel and Stone Rolled Away
• [25:20] - Women's Encounter with Jesus
• [25:43] - Lenten Journey to Living Water
• [27:16] - Lenten Stories of Transformation
• [28:33] - Lazarus and the Unbinding
• [29:14] - From Palm Praise to Passion
• [32:29] - Tomb, Earthquake, and Hope
• [33:16] - Commission: Go and Tell
• [48:31] - Communion and Sending
• [56:54] - Final Blessing and Dismissal

Bible reading: Matthew 28:1-10 (ESV)

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 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 been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has been raised from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Observation questions

1. What were the women doing when they went to the tomb and what does this tell us about their character?
2. What specific instructions did the angel give to the women after telling them Jesus had been raised?
3. How did the women react after hearing the angel's message and leaving the tomb?
4. What was Jesus's first and repeated instruction to the women when he met them on the road?

Interpretation questions

1. The angel told the women, "He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said." Why is the phrase "as he said" so important to the truth of the resurrection?
2. The women left the tomb with both "fear and great joy." How can these two very different emotions exist together in this moment?
3. The resurrection was first announced to people who were engaged in the faithful, ordinary work of caring for the dead. What does this say about how and where God reveals new life?
4. Jesus met the women "on the way" as they were obeying the command to go and tell. What does this suggest about how we encounter Christ in our own lives?

Application questions

1. Resurrection breaks sin's binding power and reorients our identity [24:52]. What is one "grave cloth" — a habit, fear, or lie — that you feel Jesus is calling your community to help you loosen?
2. The Lenten wilderness is a shaping place where desire and temptation refine our attention toward God [25:43]. What was one "dry" or "barren" place in your life this past season that actually helped you recognize your need for God's grace?
3. The call to "go and tell" happens while moving, amid fear and daily tasks [33:16]. Who is one person in your ordinary life (a coworker, neighbor, family member) that you feel called to simply share a word of peace or hope with this week?
4. Lazarus's unbinding shows that resurrection involves communal labor [28:33]. What is one practical, hands-on way your small group can "unbind" someone this month — to accompany them into a new sense of freedom or belonging?
5. The practice of resurrection happens through shared life, like meals and hospitality [48:31]. How can your home or your table become a place where others can taste and see God's goodness this season?
6. The women remained steadfast in death's work and became the first witnesses to life's reversal. When have you found that showing up for a hard or sad task (like "death's work") unexpectedly opened your eyes to a new beginning?