Easter Day
April 4, 2010
The Reverend Monna Mayhall

Sunday – John 20:1-18

Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

You don’t look at all surprised to hear that. But then why would I expect you to be. I mean, Bob or Ann broke that news to you at the beginning of the service.

But it’s such Good News that you probably heard it or read about it before you even got here. 

Or maybe you remembered it from last year…or the year before that…or before that. I’m guessing it’s the reason why you’re here! After all it’s the great Joyous Easter proclamation…

Actually, I guess it’s the greatest proclamation of all time.     

Since it’s so familiar to you and you already know it…I wondered what I would tell you today that would surprise you…maybe keep you in suspense.    

          But John, in his gospel that we just heard – tells the Easter story quite simply and beautifully. And he does all the surprising and suspense building much better than I could possibly do.      

          His tactic? It’s the old “Elephant in the Room” approach. You know, state the obvious. 

Right out of the gate, John begins by telling us what we already know…The stone has been rolled away from the tomb and Jesus is not in the tomb. 

The suspense is in the searching –

Mary goes to tomb on the first day of the week, while it’s still dark – She is frantic when she realizes that Jesus, her Lord, is not there…he is nowhere to be found. Mary finds Peter and the other disciple – the one whom Jesus loved, and tells them that someone must have taken Jesus – maybe some grave robbers.          

But that notion is soon dispelled when Peter and the other disciple discover the linen wrappings still there and one even nicely rolled up by itself. Chances are anyone in a hurry wouldn’t be that careful. 

Even though, it seems the two disciples are fine for now returning to whatever they were doing before Mary interrupted them, Mary is still too distraught to think clearly. So, she double-checks and looks in the tomb again, and there are two angels. Through her tears and sadness, she tells them her dilemma about not being able to find Jesus. As she turns around – there he is.

Every day, it seems, I talk with someone who is struggling or experiencing hardships from a loss – loss of love, job, health, family, money, dignity, independence…

…Something important or valuable has been lost. Somehow it has been taken away from them, and they struggle and search to find it – maybe expecting it to be just as it was. 

I could share stories of loss with you, but I imagine that each one of you has a story of your own that is very near and dear to your heart.

The loss of something or someone feels dark, empty, lonely, and scary. Mary experiences all this, and in her distress, she overlooks what is right there with her…Jesus…standing right there all along.

Maybe he’s so familiar to her that she overlooks him…But she is so familiar to him that he calls her by name. Mary supposes him to be tending to his garden, when all the while he’s tending to his sheep.

Here at the empty tomb, right in front of her, Mary’s searching and suffering is over. For her, for us and for the world – new life begins on this side of the cross through Christ’s resurrection where grace and hope abound. Death and sin are no more, but rather life everlasting.       

The joys and miracles of that first Easter morning continue to happen again and again in our lives…and we don’t have to search hard at all to realize that our losses, no matter what kind, and as painful as they are, our losses are overcome and redeemed by Easter.  

And we don’t have to search far at all to find the Risen Lord – He is here, in so many familiar places, spaces, and in so many faces.

So, I guess I’m okay after all with not being the first to break the news to you, because even the familiar old news is still Good News…

…No wait, it’s Great News! 

Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!