Texts: John 20:1-18 (RSV)
The Resurrection of Jesus
20 Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag′dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. 4 They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; 5 and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, 7 and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rab-bo′ni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” 18 Mary Mag′dalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
THE LORD IS RISEN!
THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED!
So here we are, finally! Both the cross and the tomb are empty! The Risen Lord is abroad in the land again, and death has been put to flight!
No matter how many times this story is told, its drama does not fail to stir our hearts and give us strength.
A family sat watching a movie about the life of Jesus. Their 6-year-old daughter was deeply moved as the film realistically portrayed Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Tears ran down the little girl’s face as they took Him from the cross and laid him in a borrowed tomb. She watched as a guard was set. Suddenly, a big smile broke on her face. She bounced up on the arm of the chair and said with great anticipation, “Now comes the good part.”
Yes, indeed, this is the good part.
The resurrection of our Lord changes everything!
“Resurrection” – it’s an odd word we don’t hear too often. We usually only hear it in church, or in a religious context. During this time of year, we hear it a lot, though. But I think it is one of the most important words in the Christian lexicon.
Resurrection. It’s not hard to say – but it is very hard to understand. The very idea of someone who’s dead coming back to life flies in the face of the sum total of human experience. Even the disciples – the ones who were there and who had witnessed the raising of Lazarus and who had been told repeatedly by Jesus himself that he would rise again on the third day – didn’t get it, at least not at first. Fearing – with very good reason – brutal persecution and death because of their association with this criminal Jesus of Nazareth, they escaped into seclusion. They fled to the famous Upper Room, slammed the doors shut, bolted the windows, and tried very hard to be forgotten. There was nothing of our customary resurrection joy in their hearts that day. Quite the opposite – their hearts were heavy with sorrow and they were paralyzed with fear. Even Mary, who was the first to see the Risen Lord, thought he was the gardener!
Resurrection is a difficult concept for us. And when we modern people are faced with something like that, something that goes against our “common sense”, that is just too challenging for our minds to take in, we sometimes take the easy road of denial. Even some Christian theologians have expressed doubt when it comes to the Resurrection. Marcus Borg was one of them. He wrote a book back in the 198os in which he stated that the Resurrection of Jesus probably didn’t happen as it’s been handed down to us, but that we can still be Christians, anyway. My question is: Just how does that work? That’s like saying, “You can live just fine without oxygen.” Try that for a while and see how it goes…
But God has a way of taking our wisdom and “common sense” and turning it on its head…
In a churchyard in England stands one of the largest trees in the country. It stands as a great four-trunked tree growing out of grave. Its presence there has given rise to much speculation. The grave from which this mammoth tree grows from is that of Lady Anne Grimston.
Lady Anne Grimston did not believe in the resurrection. A life after this life was for her just so much nonsense. It is reported that when she lay dying in her luxurious home, she sarcastically remarked to a friend, “I shall live again as surely as a tree will grow from my body.” As the story goes, “Lady Anne Grimston died, and was buried in a strong tomb made of marble – buried and forgotten. But not quite, for one day, many years after, the marble slab over her grave was found to have moved from its position. The builders fixed it firmly back in its place and left it, thinking it quite secure.
“Again the heavy marble slab tilted slightly on one side, and in the middle was a crack, with a tiny bunch of leaves bursting through. The crack was closed with cement, and the slab put back. But again the slab was lifted up, the crack opened wider than ever, and the thin trunk of a tree appeared. They repaired the crumbling tomb and built tall iron railings around it to hold the masonry together. But the young tree made its way through, breaking the masonry in two, destroying the walls of the tomb, and tearing the heavy iron railings out of the ground.
“And today, growing right from the heart of Lady Anne Grimston’s grave in St. Peter’s churchyard in Herfordshire County is one of the largest trees in England, with four trees growing from one root. The trunk of the tree has grown fast through heavy iron railing, which cannot be moved. The marble masonry of the tomb has shattered to pieces, and today Lady Anne Grimston’s grave is a heap of broken stone and twisted iron bars.
“For over 200 years the trunks have forced their way through the tomb to raise their branches in a silent but powerful triumph.”[1]
To the unbeliever, this may be only viewed as a coincidence. However, to us Believers, it can only be viewed as providence. God took her up on her challenge.
Resurrection is real, Sisters and Brothers!
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is an irrefutable historical fact. One of the most significant things I learned in seminary – and it’s something that I keep coming back to – is that no one in those days – even, maybe especially, those who were the most vocal and even venomous detractors of the Christian faith – ever denied or went on record as doubting the reality of the resurrection. What they did was make themselves complicit in the fiction that we read about in Matthew’s Gospel where the elders and chief priests gave money to the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb of Jesus and told them to say that the followers of Jesus had sneaked by them in the night and stolen the body. They couldn’t deny the facts, so they lied about them.
Resurrection is real.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central, the core belief of our faith. It is the bedrock on which everything else is built. There is no room here for compromise or neutrality. If we Christians need to be certain of anything, it is that we need to be certain of the resurrection of our Lord.
Resurrection is real.
Other religions may point to a founder as Christianity does, but these religions must also point to their founder’s grave. ONLY Christianity is able to point to an empty tomb. Some tombs are famous because of what they contain; the tomb of Jesus is famous because of what it does not contain.
Today – Easter Sunday – is not just a day in our church year; it is The Day. This is the Day on which the power of death was shattered once and for all, the Day on which God reached down and lifted us up with Jesus, the Day when human life – your life, my life, everyone’s life – achieved a deep and holy worth.
As Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola put it in their book Jesus: A Theography: “The great dividing line in history, ‘the moment when Before turned into After,’ is not the BC/AD division, or the page that separates the First and Second Testament. The great dividing line in time is the BR/AR line of demarcation: Before Resurrection, After Resurrection. Resurrection is the theological singularity of all singularities, ushering in new realities that change everything. The resurrection isn’t something that came about. The resurrection is something that opened up.
“The richly diverse early church was united in one thing: an allegiance to Jesus and a belief in His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.”[2]
On the cross, the world did all it could to Jesus. And failed. On Easter, God did all he could to the world. And the earth trembled and shook with His mighty power.
As the early Church Father John Chrysostom wrote so many centuries ago:
‘Hell took a body, & discovered God.
It took earth, & encountered heaven.
It took what it saw, & was overcome by what it did not see!’
So, today, fellow Easter people, let us again make the bold claim that not only is this true, not only that it’s real, but that it matters. Matters deeply, to each of us, now and for all time. “Because I live,” Jesus says, “you will live also.”
We have crossed from darkness into light. We have passed from fear into joy. We have passed from hatred into love.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Galitzin, Margaret, “The Story of Lady Anne Grimston,” http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/h010rp.LadyGrimston_Galitzin.html
[2][2] Sweet, Leonard and Viola, Frank, “Jesus: A Theography,” Nashville, Dallas, Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, Thomas Nelson, 2012