Wellspring UMC; Easter
-John
20: 1-18
We’ve
gathered today in the dark, an odd thing to do on a Sunday morning. After all, the rest of the world tends to
sleep in, read the paper, or head to Starbucks on Sundays, and Lord knows that
they don’t get up before dark to do any such things! But we’re here in the dark. Before the light of day, gathered.
Then
slowly, deliberately the light began to appear.
Verse by verse, refrain after refrain, responses shared, the light of
Life emerged among us, and is still rising upon us as we receive the gift of
Easter morning...the gift of new life and Resurrection. But we gathered while it was still dark, and
when I say it was still dark, I mean more than the fact that the sun was not
up. No, indeed the world has been dark!
From
our Holy Week services we know full well that it’s been a dark couple of
days! The Passover Meal transformed into
a Last Supper for Jesus. Last because He
left there to pray and be abandoned in the Garden. Last because the symbol of a kiss was used as
a weapon for evil. Last because in
remembering, recounting the arrest, trial, beating, and crucifixion of Christ,
a pall has enveloped the world, and we have been carrying the weight of the
Cross on our shoulders, acknowledging that because of us Jesus died.
While
it was still dark indeed. This happened
centuries ago, but if we open our eyes and hearts to today, it is still
dark. In the face of hunger,
homelessness, and society’s tendency to turn a blind eye, the world is a dark
place. As we take in images of war and
disaster, as we hear of murders and robberies, as parents or friends abuse
their loved ones, as the truth of disease and sickness settles on us and brings
pain and grief, it is dark out there.
Even more disturbingly, it is dark in here...inside our own skins, as we
live our lives, as we stumble through what life places before us. While it was still dark? While it IS still dark, we gather today,
seeking some light, some hope, something that will make sense of it all.
“Early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb...” Don’t you
think Mary felt like her world was a bit dark as she made her way to the grave
of our Lord? She’d sat at His feet,
she’d been there as He healed others, she’d been the recipient of His grace,
love, and teaching. Even more profound,
she’d walked with Jesus’ mother every step of the road to
But while it was still dark she went to the tomb. Despite the pain and grief, while it was
still dark, she journeyed. Despite what
she knew to be true and what she knew to expect, while it was still dark, she
went to that tomb. Despite all that
world had thrown at her, the judgment, the struggles, the feeling of
helplessness in the face of Jesus’s suffering and death, while it was still
dark, she made her way there, knowing what to expect, as hard as it would
be. Don’t you think Mary’s world was a
dark world?
But
while it was dark she arrived, and he wasn’t there! To add insult to injury, to make her world
even darker, someone had taken the body!
She ran to Peter and the other disciples and cried out, “They’ve taken
the Lord! Look at all we’ve been
through! How could this happen? Do the authorities and opposition want so
make us agonize even more? As if their
evil was not bad enough, they’ve taken Him!”
The disciples run and find that He was indeed gone. In the midst of this dark reality, they go
home.
But
Mary...stood weeping. Her darkness was
even deeper than it had been before the discovery. Agonizing outside the tomb, for there was
nowhere else to go, she wept. She wept bitterly for the darkness had closed in
on her.
In
disbelief she turned to the tomb, bent over and looked in. Out of the darkness shone the brightest
lights she’d ever seen. Angels, dressed in
white, right where the body would have been.
While it was still dark,
blinding light, confusion and the words, “Woman, why are you weeping?,” then
she heard the same behind her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
In
the whirlwind of belief and disbelief she thought him the gardener, “Sir, if
you carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I’ll take care of
him!”
Then
out of the darkness, but surrounded by light, from the darkest and most
confusing moment of her life, she heard,“Mary...”
Light! Life!
Recognition! Christ revealed,
energy, affirmation, amazement, and a light went off in her head...and beamed
across the world. “Rabbouni!” Teacher...Jesus.
In
an instant the darkness turned to light!
Everything came clear, and no matter what she had been through, no
matter what overwhelmed her, no matter where she was, who she was, what she’d
done...light! Hope! Truth!
RESURRECTION!
And
she went and announced, “I have seen the Lord!
He is alive, just as He said.”
While it was still dark, WE have gathered. While it may be dark in your life, you have come. And out of the darkness, in the midst of darkness...light! Hope! Truth! Resurrection! Christ is alive! Alleluia! Amen.