Easter Sunday

It’s dawn. Jesus has been gone for two days, but finally several women from his group of followers are able to sneak away. They hurry to the graveyard where his body has been buried. The women weren’t able to prepare his body for burial before, but now, at last, they can.  They’ve brought perfume and spices to anoint him, which is a way to bless Jesus as they say goodbye one last time.  

But when they arrive at the tomb, they are shocked to find that the heavy stone that had sealed the entrance has been rolled away.

Their minds immediately go to the worst case scenario: someone has stolen the body!  They run back and tell the other disciples who hurry there to investigate.

Would you have been brave enough to go inside the tomb?

They find two angels sitting where Jesus had lain. Their clothes shine like the sun. “He is not here,” they tell the disciples. “He is risen.”

The tomb is empty because Jesus is alive!  Jesus was not stolen. No, Jesus has stolen life back from the grave!

The empty tomb promises us that Jesus comes into all the dark places of our heart, our life, our world, and flings the doors wide open. There is nothing hidden. There is no one beyond saving. There is no place the Light cannot enter. 

Invite Jesus into every dark place. Let him fill it with life.

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Risen One

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Everything we’ve been learning these last weeks of Lent and Holy Week has been leading us to this moment: when Jesus will rise up and walk out of the tomb.

Yet even here on Easter Day, there is still more to learn. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not just a one-time event. The resurrection is something we share in every day, in our own lives.

The risen Jesus meets us as we go through our day, inviting us to join him in a life freed from the fear of death and the power of darkness.

It will be for us like it was for Mary Magdalene, who knelt in front of the open tomb, weeping and confused. She’d seen the angels, but still she did not understand where Jesus had gone.  A man approached and spoke to her: “Why are you weeping?” Mary explained that she did not know where Jesus was.

And then he spoke her name: “Mary.” And the way he said it – just the way Jesus had always said it – opened her heart with wonder. It was Jesus! Jesus was right in front of her – alive!

Jesus stands in the garden, alive, waiting for us to see him. He speaks our name, so tenderly, with the infinite love of God. He says your name and waits for you to recognize him.

Can you hear him?

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!