From Darkness to Light - Easter

John 20:1-18

What a week we have just been through – were you aware of it?  We’re so busy with our worldly lives, we can often miss Holy Week entirely.  So, let’s pause for a moment and reflect.

On Palm Sunday, just last Sunday, Christians around the world began their walk towards the Cross, then the Empty Tomb. Here at Mystic Side we waved our palms and sang our hosannas, to dramatize the hopeful expectations of those in Jerusalem.  Why were they so happy?  Who did they think Jesus was, and what His mission might be?  Did you realize, as you rejoiced,  that all those eager and excited folks thought that Jesus was arriving to overthrow their imperial totalitarian oppressors with force? That’s why we were singing “hosannah”.

Those joyous people were bound to be disappointed.  Ride into Jerusalem, raise an army and overthrow Rome?  It was, as we know, not the plan, not that simple. Quickly, we went from the Palm Sunday Gospel to the Passion Gospel, and the story changed.  We moved with lightning speed from joy to suffering from celebration, to betrayal. 

This past week, we were all invited to live through the hardest parts of our sacred story. As we did so, we were also invited to dwell in the loving embrace of our merciful, gracious God.

On Thursday, we were reminded that Jesus knelt before the ones He loved, whom He knew would betray Him, and tenderly washed their feet. On Friday, we gazed on the hard wood of the Cross, where He died to redeem the whole world.  On Saturday we waited. We, who live now so many years after His resurrection, waited for the celebration of our redemption, but think what that day, only 24 hours after He had died, must have been like for His followers.

Think what an emotional state they must have been experiencing. The man they had followed, worshipped, loved, the man Peter had identified as God, was dead. He was the One they had believed would bring freedom, recognition, and peace to their people.  He was the One who taught the right way to live and the power of Love.  He was the One – and now He was dead and buried.  End of story!    

The Gospel of John, which is what we just heard this morning, is picking up the narrative, which, in the chapter before what we heard today, ended with Jesus’ burial in the tomb on the afternoon of His’ crucifixion. We have moved beyond the brutal scene in which Mary Magdalene witnessed Jesus’ torture and death on the cross. Silence follows the sure and certain knowledge that the long hoped-for Messiah has been executed. Jesus’ death has plunged those who loved Him into the dark night of hopelessness.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

Darkness still hides the coming dawn as Mary Magdalene ventures out to Jesus’ tomb. What she sees shakes this fearless follower of Jesus to her core. She discovers that the massive stone set in place to seal His tomb has been removed. Mary has no thoughts of resurrection – and an empty tomb is frightening when you don’t know what has happened to the body of the deceased. The darkness of the morning has suddenly become darker, and heavier.

Who is our Lord?  “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  Jesus Himself has told us, “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”  Jesus is the Light of the World, but on that morning so long ago, it seemed that the world and darkness had won.

Jesus’ followers are enveloped in grief and fear with no hope that that light will return. Their grief is immense and deep. They had lost not just a friend or teacher, but their desire to see good conquer evil and love defeat hate.

And so, Mary arrives at the tomb – and finds it empty. We read in the Gospel that she was so bewildered, that she went for help, and soon Simon Peter and John were literally racing to the tomb. John arrived first to see the linen wrappings without pushing into the tomb itself. Peter goes inside and discovers the linen wrappings, with the head cloth rolled up and set in a place by itself. Jesus’ body, as Mary has told them, is gone.

John’s Gospel shows how the light of the glory of what God had done in raising Jesus was slow to dawn on His followers. They don’t understand what is going on. This lack of recognition reveals the way despair clouds our vision and hinders us from seeing rightly, seeing Truth. It takes time for the eyes of the heart to adjust to the new Light. Peter and John return home. Only Mary Magdalene remains. She just can tear herself away, and as she stands weeping outside the tomb, the miracle is made manifest.

Mary turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus

She still cannot grasp the world-changing revelation of Jesus’ resurrection, even though He is standing in front of her.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking" 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." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).

And that is the moment, when for Mary, the Alleluias of life begin. Hearing her name called by Jesus, the light of the glory of God floods in. She must have instinctively wanted to throw herself into Jesus’ arms, because He has to caution her not to.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  The LORD is risen indeed.  Alleluia!

Mary’s joy is unbounded – and she rushes back to share the good news with all of Jesus’ friends and followers.

We, gathered here today, are Jesus’ followers, His friends, the ones who through the grace given us at our Baptism, are called to live and walk the Way of the Cross, but we are not called to do so in darkness.  Like Mary, because we are human, we sometimes know suffering and sorrow, and we can see how dark our world can be, but always with us is the Light of Christ.

For us, the real proof of the resurrection comes not just in a story of something that happened long ago, but also in our own experience of God’s Presence. This is something way more reliable than our feelings. We will not always feel Christ in and with us, yet in looking back over difficult times, we can see how God was there. We know God was with us by the peace that was beyond us and the joy, the solution that came, because God was, and always is, with us.

We sing alleluia today for joy, that we are saved from our sins - from darkness.  We sing because we have hope, even in the worst of times. We rejoice because we are a people filled with light and love. Jesus gave us the gift of eternal life, but part of that gift is the gift of hope, and joy, and love, and through Him the grace to find all this in ourselves and share it with others.

Earlier today, Easter Day, but two millennia ago, on a very dark morning, a despairing young woman spoke to a man she thought was a gardener, and found herself face to face with God.   

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  The LORD is risen indeed.  Alleluia!

Let us pray – in the words of the hymn:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done, in Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.  Amen.