April 9: Easter Day

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for April 9, 2023 was preached in response to John 20:1-18 based on the manuscript below.

“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. 

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