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Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Isaiah 51:9-11
Colossians 3:1-4
Luke 24:1-10
Early Sunday morning on that first Easter day, as soon as the Sabbath restrictions were lifted Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and some other women made their way to the tomb where Jesus had been laid. As they turned into the garden the city wall blocked the sun coming up in the East. The tombs were barely visible in the pale early morning light. Suddenly Mary Magdalene shrieked and stopped dead in her tracks. The smell of myrrh filled the air as Joanna ran into her and oil spilled from the jar she was carrying to anoint Jesus. body. The heavy stone that had been rolled across the entrance to the tomb to keep thieves from stealing the body was no longer there. The women peered into the shadowy light trying to make out what had happened. Suddenly as if from nowhere, what looked to the women like two radiant young men appeared at the tomb in a blaze of light. Their words were unmistakable. .Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen..
Mary.s stomach lurched. She knelt down in front of the tomb entrance. She could see the white linen that had wrapped her beloved teacher.s body after he had been taken down from the cross. She reached in to feel where his body had been. Her fingers touched cold stone. The ledge where his body had laid was empty. He was gone! He was gone, just as the shining young men had said!
She sprang to her feet, running so fast she could scarcely breathe. Past the women who were now stumbling back down the path they had just taken, through the Garden Gate and into Jerusalem, up the road that led to the house where Simon Peter was staying. Not since Jesus had driven the demons from her head had Mary been this crazed. When she reached the disciples. house she beat on the door over and over again until Peter, terrified by the noise, finally let her in. .The tomb is empty . he.s gone. she sobbed over and over again. .They have taken my beloved. she blurted out as tears streamed down her cheeks.
They must have asked Mary to repeat her story many times: .Why are you looking for the living among the dead., the young men had said. .He is not here . he has risen!. It took weeks before the disciples could really take it in. The past few days had been so filled with grief that the women and the disciples needed time to take in the full import of what had just happened. At first they were afraid to talk about it except in whispers among themselves. Then Jesus appeared to them several times . to the women in the garden, in the upper room, and on the road as they were walking. At first, it wasn.t easy to believe that Jesus was alive. Thomas, who was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them, refused to accept that Jesus was really alive until he saw him for himself . until he touched the holes where nails had pierced him. Slowly, the disciples began to believe what their eyes were telling them, to grasp the incredible news that Jesus was alive. God had raised Jesus up from the dead. And it would take a lifetime to grasp the full impact of Jesus. resurrection from the dead.
There is a wonderful, very old stone carving in the Cathedral in Bristol, England, where I grew up. It is an image of Jesus. resurrection seen through the eyes of a sculptor. In it Jesus is standing, feet astride the world, holding Adam and Eve by the hair as he literally pulls them up out of their graves. At first glance it looks as if he has one foot up on a rock. But as you look closer you can see that it is no rock he is standing on . it is the devil.s head! As he is raised from the dead Jesus is trampling down evil and pulling humanity up with him into new life. It.s an image I have always remembered, partly I think, because that.s exactly what we long to see. We want to see evil crushed to the ground and ourselves pulled from darkness into light. We want to see bad people smashed down and good people receiving the blessings that they deserve. But things don.t always turn out that way in the real world, do they? Instead, we sometimes still see terrible things happen to the most wonderful people, while bad people seem to get off scot free. So what good news does the resurrection bring if evil can continue to exist in our world?
I guess if we want to find the answer to that question we have to look more carefully at the experience of the first disciples. The power of Jesus. resurrection, when the disciples were finally able to take it in, was not what some of them had originally hoped for either. The Romans were not forced from power in shame and indignation. They recognized the power of Jesus resurrection in the incredible realization that even the enormous power of the Romans was not strong enough to quench God.s love. Soldiers and politicians had tried to kill God.s only son, but the grave could not contain a life so completely given to love.
The resurrection does not promise us that destructive things will just disappear. Instead, it promises that God will bring good out of the very worst this world has to offer. The good news of the resurrection is far greater than the promise of new life after death. It is the promise of new life in the midst of the struggles of daily existence . it is new life now. God, in Jesus, has already experienced the worst this world has to offer so that he can be present to us in the midst of our worst nightmares.
It is not enough to simply to celebrate Easter with the words, .Christ is risen.. The resurrection is not simply a historical fact, it is the possibility of new life for us . now . if we can allow God to transform our present day existence with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. This is the true Easter victory of our God. And it is a victory that will continue to be experienced over and over again in the lives of those who love God.
Jesus is still alive in this place today . transforming us with his words and presence. God.s love did not die on the cross . it is here among these followers. And you are invited over and over again to come and share in the love that will not die. The Lord is risen indeed and living in our midst.
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