The Easter Resurrection Story

Easter Day Sermon – April 17, 2022

Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; John 20:1-18

Call to Worship for Easter Sunday ~ written by Joanna Harader

The stone has been rolled away. The grave clothes are lying in a heap.

The body is gone.

Mary’s weeping is halted by the man’s questions:

Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?

Let us proclaim with Mary:

We have seen the risen Lord!

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

 

Yes…today, we celebrate the Easter Resurrection story with much joy – the good news that Christ is risen indeed…Alleluia!

Yet there is so much more to the story…that brings us to this moment…this transformative moment that turned the world and its people upside down, yet lifted them up into the loving embrace of a God, who is always doing a new thing, always eager to show us…that in all our endings, there will always be new beginnings, a new creation, yet to become fully alive in us, and with all whom we share this earthly life with…and with all the company of saints in the life yet to come…

So, I would like to back us up a bit, beginning on Palm Sunday…with a review of what has happened in the life of Jesus, and his followers, and the other witnesses who walked among him, on his final journey to the cross on Good Friday…to the silence of Holy Saturday…and to the discovery of the empty tomb on Easter morning…

1st egg/dark blue: Palm Sunday – Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations, riding on a donkey…The shouts of Hosanna – Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord...quickly and abruptly die down…some powerful people did not like Jesus, and what he was doing…and wanted to find a way to stop him…to get rid of him…

2nd egg/lt pink: Judas – Judas was one of Jesus early followers, but he ended up betraying Jesus when he accepted 30 silver coins from those who wanted to get rid of Jesus – the ones who didn’t want to believe what Jesus was telling them…that they had to repent of their wrong-doings, and return to God…to return to the creator of all that is love…

3rd egg/lt purple: Cup – on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is gathered with his disciples, talking about his death that is imminent… Jesus breaks bread, and shares the cup of wine with his disciples to help them remember all that he said and did…It’s something that we continue to celebrate, with “Thanksgiving” in what we call Holy Communion/Holy Eucharist…And on that night, After supper, he washes their feet, and gives them a new commandment: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

4th egg/orange: Praying hands…on the night before Jesus died…he asked his disciples to go along with him to the garden of Gethsemane to pray…and to stay awake with him… it was in that place, later on where he was betrayed by Judas who arrived with a multitude of soldiers, high priests, Pharisees and servants who came to arrest him, and take him away…

5th egg:/lt yellow: crown of thorns & nails – On Good Friday – Jesus is nailed to a cross, they put a crown of thorns on his head to mock him, and make fun of him, calling him a king – Jesus dies on the cross this day…and the world fell into a hushed silence…

6th egg:/pink – cloth & stone – After Jesus’ death – Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus to give him a proper burial. The body was wrapped in a linen cloth, and placed in a tomb…with a large stone blocking the entrance…On Holy Saturday…we recall the story about the guards and the roman soldiers who kept watch at the tomb, for fear that some of Jesus’ disciples would come and steal Jesus’ body, to prove Jesus’ words were true, and to proclaim he had risen from the dead…because Jesus had said to them before, “After three days, I will rise again”

7th egg/lt blue – empty – Yes…that is right – the tomb is empty! That’s the good news we hear in today’s gospel reading… 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. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.

 He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Yes. The tomb was empty.  The stone has been rolled away.

The grave clothes are lying in a heap. The body is gone.

Yet, the story continues with the Good News of Jesus being risen from the dead….

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

With Mary, I, too proclaim today: That I have seen the Lord. I have seen signs of Jesus’ resurrection, all around me, in the lives of people everywhere…creating and encouraging new life for others by the outpouring of love and forgiveness and compassion for those who believed that death, illness, addictions, suffering, estrangement from one another, was the end of their story.

I believe that Jesus’ resurrection story teaches us and reminds us that death, and what we often believe are endings, will never have the last word…

This is the Hope to which we can hold onto….In the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by our baptisms, we are united to one another by the love of God who is always doing a new thing, always eager to show us…that in all our endings, there will always be new beginnings, a new creation, yet to become fully alive in us, and with all whom we share this earthly life with…and with all the company of saints in the life yet to come…

Today, in the seeing and the hearing of this Easter Resurrection story once again…what might we, as witnesses to this good news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, take with us into the world once we leave this place today…In what ways can each of us, uniquely proclaim this good news to others, through our words and actions, so that they might come to believe, too? So that they, too might come to know the love of God, proclaimed for us, given for us, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We can put all of our trust and hope in this good news:

 Christ has died. Christ IS Risen. Christ will come again!

 

Let me close now, with a couple verses of an Easter hymn…reminding us of the Good News story proclaimed on Easter day…That, indeed -  Christ is Alive!

 

Rev Julie Platson

St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Sitka, AK

Hymn after sermon: H 182 (VS 1 & 5)

1        Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.

          His cross stands empty to the sky.

          Let streets and homes with praises ring.

          His love in death shall never die.

         

5        Christ is alive! His Spirit burns

          through this and every future age,

          till all creation lives and learns

          his joy, his justice, love, and praise.