We think of Easter Sunday as a
celebration. And it is! And it
should be! The tomb is empty! He
is risen! He’s alive! Jesus Christ, proving once and for all who he
was and who he is. Jesus Christ, defeating death itself! And not just defeating death for himself, but
for all of us who believe! There’s nothing more important to celebrate
than that!
But, on that first Easter Sunday morning, no one was
celebrating. Not at first anyway.
When people woke up that first Easter morning, all they knew was that
Jesus was dead. They had put so much hope into him. They had thought he was the one who was going
to bring salvation to Israel. Some of them had followed him for
years. They had believed, they had
trusted, they had hoped. But now he was
dead. Jesus was dead, and for all they knew the authorities were going to
come after all his followers. It looked
like it was all over.
Mary goes out to the tomb. Other gospels tell us that
she went with others to prepare the body for burial, but John does not tell us
that. John does not give us a reason why Mary went out to the tomb. It just tells us she went. And when she got there, she saw that the
stone had been rolled away from the entrance, and the tomb was empty.
We say “the tomb was empty” in a tone of joy, of
triumph. We know what the tomb being empty means. But Mary Magdalene did not know. When
she saw that the tomb was empty, she was miserable. Can you imagine how she felt? Think
about it. Someone you love has
passed. That’s bad enough. But now, you don’t even know where their body
is. You feel like you cannot even grieve properly. What an awful thing. This was probably the lowest point of Mary
Magdalene’s life.
She’s frantic. She goes running to the disciples and
tells them what happened. Simon Peter and John go running out to the
tomb. They see the grave clothes.
It’s said of John that “he saw and believed”, but we’re not told just what he
believed. Did he believe that Jesus was alive? Or did he just believe that Mary had told the
truth about Jesus not being there? At any rate, before too long John and
Simon Peter leave.
Mary stays. She’s crying. We don’t know why she
stayed. Maybe it comforted her a little to be in the place where she’d last
seen Jesus. Maybe she was just feeling too overcome with sadness to even
move. Maybe she stayed there because,
well, where else would she go? But at any rate, she stayed.
At some point she looks into the tomb. She sees the
two angels. She turns, and she sees
Jesus. At first she does not recognize him, but eventually she
does. And her tears of sadness turn into tears of joy. In just a few minutes, a few seconds, really,
Mary Magdalene goes from having the worst day of her life to having the best day
of her life.
Now, I doubt that Mary really knew exactly what had
happened. And I doubt even more that she fully understood what it
meant. But in that moment, none of that
mattered. She knew that, somehow, in some way, Jesus was alive! And at that moment, that was all she needed
to know.
And when you think about it, Jesus can do for us what he
did for Mary Magdalene. He can take the worst day of our life and turn it
into the best day of our life. And he
can do it in a very short time.
In fact, I suspect there are some of us for whom Jesus has
done that. If we really think about it, I’m confident that there are at
least some of us who can think of a time when that happened. A time when
things were going wrong, when we were having a really bad day. And then, suddenly, in some way, Jesus showed
up. And our bad day suddenly turned into a really good day.
Now, when I say “Jesus showed up”, I don’t necessarily mean
that Jesus showed up the way he showed up for Mary Magdalene. You may not
have actually seen the physical presence of Jesus. You might have--I mean, as the divine Son of
God Jesus can do that if Jesus chooses to.
But more likely, Jesus showed up in some other way.
Maybe Jesus showed up in the form of something that suddenly went right,
something you were not expecting. An unexpected compliment from a friend,
or a job that you were dreading that turned out to be a lot easier than you
thought it would be. Or maybe Jesus showed up in the form of an inner
voice, or maybe just a feeling, that said the Lord is with you and things are
going to be all right. Or maybe Jesus showed up in the form of some other
person, someone who was there for you when you needed them, someone who showed
up to help just when you needed help, or even someone who showed us just to sit
with you and let you know they cared.
Can you think of a time like that? I think a lot of
us probably can. Maybe, at the time, you
did not recognize Jesus, just like Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus at
first. Maybe you thought it was just a coincidence. Maybe you thought it was just good luck. Or maybe, at the time, you thought how
fortunate you were to have someone help you, but you did not think about where
that good fortune came from. Or maybe at the time, you did not think much
of it at all. Maybe you just accepted it
and went about your business.
Maybe later you did realize it was Jesus. Or, maybe,
this is the first time you ever thought of it that way. Maybe, sometimes,
we need to hear Jesus speak our name, just as Mary needed to hear Jesus speak
her name, before we recognize that it really is Jesus.
You know, it’s kind of funny. We say “Jesus is
alive”. We especially say it today, on
Easter Sunday. It’s one of the things we’re celebrating today, that “Jesus
is alive”. And yet, for a lot of us, it
sounds strange to think about Jesus actually showing up for us. In fact,
I suspect that when I said that, there were some who were a little skeptical. Or maybe there were some who thought of it as
“preacher talk”, you know, the sort of thing a pastor says, and you kind of go
along with it, but you don’t think it actually happens in real life.
But if we truly believe that Jesus is alive, then why
should we not believe that Jesus shows up for us? Why should that be such
a strange notion? Why should it sound
odd to us that Jesus would take an active interest in our lives, just as he
took an active interest in the lives of Mary Magdalene and John and Simon Peter
and all sorts of other people when he was on earth?
After all, we’re talking about our Lord and Savior
here. And again, we say those words, but sometimes we don’t think about
what they mean. We sing “Jesus loves me, this I know”, but somehow, too
many times, we don’t make the connection between Jesus loving us and Jesus
actively being there for us and showing up in our lives.
Think of it this way. Think about the people you
love. If they needed your help, would you help them? If they needed
someone to be there for them, would you be there? If they were having a
bad day, would you do what you could to turn it into a good day? Sure you
would, every time.
So why would we expect less
from Jesus Christ? If we believe, as the Apostle Paul said, that nothing
can separate us from the love of Christ, then why we would not expect not
expect Jesus to do at least what we would do? Why would we not expect
Jesus to help us when we need help, to be there for us when we need someone, to
turn our bad days into good days? In
fact, why would we not expect the divine Son, Jesus Christ, to do much more
than we mere human beings would do?
Jesus loves you. And
Jesus will be there for you. Now, don’t get me wrong. That does not mean that we get everything we
want. That does not mean that everything always goes smoothly. Things did not always go smoothly for
Jesus. Things did not always go smoothly for the disciples. Saying Jesus loves you and Jesus will be
there you is not a guarantee of an easy life, and it never has been. You
know that.
But it is a guarantee that, no
matter what we have to face, we will not have to face it alone. Jesus
will be there for us. No matter what’s
going on, Jesus will help us. And if we
open our hearts, if we allow Jesus to lead us, if we go the way Jesus shows us
to go, Jesus will take our bad days and turn them into good days. It
might take some time--it may not happen right away. Or it might.
It might happen in a matter of a few seconds, just like it did for Mary
Magdalene.
The tomb is empty! Jesus
is risen! He’s alive! And he loves
us, and he will always be there for us. Hallelujah! Amen.
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