“There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
“No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
These words by Keith Getty –
which I know from the Newsboys,
so only hear them with a Queensland accent –
have brought me joy and celebration at Easter
for over 15 years.
“Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me.”
Wow.
Mary Magdalene didn’t know this
when she went to the tomb on the first day of the week.
Her friend and teacher had died.
She went to visit his body,
to spend some more time with him
sitting at the grave
the way she’d sat at his feet
and listened to his teachings.
When she gets to the tomb though,
the stone has been rolled away.
Full of anguish,
she runs to the disciples and tells them
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
and we do not know where they have laid him.”
John tells us that he and Peter
race to the tomb,
and John wins the footrace
he wants us to clearly understand,
and the tomb is empty.
John doesn’t understand
what Jesus has said
that he must die and will be raised again
yet John believes.
The men go home,
but Mary stays and weeps,
still longing to know
where her friend and teacher’s body
has been put.
When Mary looks in the tomb herself
two angels are there to greet her.
“Woman, why are you weeping?”
She answers
and then turns around.
A man she supposes is the gardener asks her
“Woman, why are you weeping?”
I hate repeating myself
even when I’m not wracked by emotion.
I would be tired of telling my story by now.
Having said it twice,
but feeling like everyone should know it by now.
“They have taken away my Lord,
and I do not know where they have laid him…
Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him,
and I will take him away.”
Calling her by name
Mary recognizes Jesus
and calls out to him.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Having stayed to pay homage
having stayed to adjust to her new reality –
a reality of Jesus’ death –
Mary encounters a truly new reality:
death has been defeated.
Jesus the resurrected Christ
the savior of the whole of the cosmos
tells Mary to go tell his brothers
that he will be ascending.
So Mary goes and preaches
the first Easter sermon:
“I have seen the Lord.”
“I have seen the Lord.”
Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death
and to those in the tombs
bestowing life.
We are confronted by death
every day on the news.
From global wars
to shootings in schools
to complications with pregnancies.
Easter doesn’t make those hurt any less.
Easter doesn’t take away
the reality that death surrounds us.
Jesus died at the hands of sinners
and Mary going to mourn
is how she found the good news
that he didn’t stay dead.
The resurrection is not bypassing
the reality of sin and death
the grief that comes from situations
we put ourselves in
or that happen to us.
The resurrection,
the bold claim that Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death
and to those in the tombs
bestowing life
tells us that in our grief
we have hope.
In our sorrow we have joy
because Mary went to Jesus’ other disciples
with five simple words,
“I have seen the Lord.”
Joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection
through the watery grave of the font
that resurrection is ours too.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”
Alleluia and amen.