Easter Sunday’ by Rev Allister Lane

John 20:1-18

Mary comes to the tomb expecting to embalm the body of Jesus.

She finds the tomb opened.

She begins searching – preoccupied with finding a corpse.

Mary talks with three people:

1.     two disciples

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” (v2)

2.     angels at the tomb

“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”(v13)

3.     Gardener (Jesus)

“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him…” (v15)

To all three she expresses her preoccupation with Jesus’ corpse.

Mary’s initial response to the Resurrection is panic about a lost corpse

(to be fair: the last remaining remnant of her beloved Rabbi – we know how when in grief we cling to memories)

Mary is preoccupied with a missing corpse and the reality of an empty tomb.

Then she has an encounter that transforms her world (and ours).

Mary hears her name, spoken by the voice of Jesus – the Jesus she knows so well and trusts so deeply.

‘Mary!’

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (v16)

Mary encounters the real thing, the personification of God’s love and life, who has overcome death and transforms despair and loss.

A new reality.

What does Mary do next…?

18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mary goes from desperate search for a corpse to proclamation of life.

She goes from forensic faith to Gospel faith.

Some still struggle with the reality of the Resurrection.

Perhaps it’s because of an emphasis on the ‘forensic’.

We are immersed in a culture that priorities materialism, rejecting the spiritual dimension.

I’m not saying belief in the Resurrection has ever been easy – it remains one of the most audacious claims ever!

At the youth event on Good Friday we had a panel taking questions about Easter.

And it was recognised that we encourage a questioning faith – genuine inquiry into the depth of Christian belief is vital for strong trust and robust perseverance.

That day Mary proclaims that the Resurrection is the real thing.

Not superstition.

Nor was resurrection merely a “lofty paradigm”

when ‘hope rises up from desolation’, 

‘courage from anxiety’,

‘success out of failure’,

‘love out of the ruins of hate’,

or ‘life from what seems like death’.

This is the real thing.

Not a myth, not just a paradigm, not a parable.

But an event!

Their Rabbi was alive and available to them in a new and permanent way.

This is the event of eternal love and eternal life come with resilient power, and with unlimited possibilities.

New creation was among them and around them and within them.

Death could never again harm Jesus, nor could their own dying separate them from his living presence.

Only the power of that risen Reality was able to transform the monumental despair (that dumped on them when Jesus had been crucified) into the exhilaration and confidence that followed this event.

Did you notice in this passage, Mary was asked twice “Woman, why are you weeping?” (vv13, 15)

Mary’s loss turns into rejoicing.

And this event promises a day with no more tears;

no more death.

This event is the transformation from fear and loss,

to fullness and hope and purpose.

Easter marks the beginning of a new creation;

a new reality,

a new deathless tribe,

following in the way of Jesus.

Love is all in all.

Christ has risen indeed.

Amen.