Easter Sunday
John 20:1-18
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15″Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ “
18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have been there? What would it be like to walk with Jesus, to listen as he speaks, to see what he does and walk through those last days of his life, the last supper, the trial and the crucifixion. Do you think it would be any easier to believe to believe in the resurrection if you had been there? If you could have run to the empty tomb yourself, do you think it would be easier to believe?
Was it easy for those who were eyewitnesses? No, not really. They saw an empty tomb, but what did that mean? It might just as well have meant that someone had stolen the body of Jesus.
The gospels report the first Easter as an occasion for fear, disbelief, and astonishment. There was joy, but the joy came after the more understandable emotions of disbelief and incomprehension.
Easter is like that. What we have here is not so much a problem of history, the gap between our time and the time of the first Easter. What we have here is a problem of faith. Not faith as blind belief in something, but rather faith as the ability to trust even that which we do not have the equipment to comprehend. It is beyond our wildest imaginations. The problem is not one of time, a gap between our modern time and their pre-modern time. The problem is faith in God’s ability to work life from death.
I love Easter, the colors, the festivity, the feeling of new life and hope. Easter moves us beyond our wildest imaginations and out to share the good news.
Lord Jesus, in your glorious resurrection, you not only defeated evil and the powers of death but you also came back to us. You revealed yourself to us; you spoke to us; you fed us. For your continuing presence with us, we give thanks. For your continuing nurture and care of us, we give thanks. For calling us by name, we give thanks. Amen.
