Well that’s pretty amazing today, my son was baptized, washed clean in the waters and given the gift of the Holy Spirit, some family here to witness it too very cool – he’s a lucky man, I’m a lucky man! Just like our little girl has been welcomed into God’s family – her grandpop did her baptism, now our little man joins in too – amazing. This is very special, and not only that but it’s Easter Sunday! The day that changes everything for all of us, the day that Jesus wins for us the ultimate victory. I might not show too much on the outside but this is a very cool day!
I think I’m feeling a little bit like Mary today, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ My redeemer lives, our redeemer lives, what a life-changing and transforming situation we get to be in today.
Anyone else feeling like that? It’s a good day this Easter Sunday! Yes there’s public holidays, yes there may or may not be chocolate after church, but even better we get new life on this day, Jesus has won it and freely gives it for all of us.
And what a scene we come to, early in the morning, while it was still dark, as Mary goes to the tomb.
There has been a lot of darkness. There has been distress, disappointment, even death – a lot of D words.
But today is all about L words – there’s light, there’s love & there’s life. What a day to celebrate, the day that changes everything.
If we cast our minds back to Maundy Thursday for a second, where Jesus and his disciples are sharing the Passover meal. They don’t know what’s about to happen. As I spoke about about there may have been a sense of foreboding in the way Jesus was speaking, definitely as Judas was called out and left the room, but they didn’t really know what was about to happen.
So with that in mind, we can imagine how they felt after Jesus has died on the cross, and after he’s been buried in the tomb. The worst possible outcome has come to pass. That must have felt like the end of the world, like their great hope was snuffed out like a candle, like they wouldn’t have known what to do next.
And then we get to Sunday morning, and Mary’s gone to the tomb.
She’s shocked to see the stone removed from the entrance, so she runs back to tell Peter and we can assume John is the other disciple here, and they come running to see what’s going on. They go in, they see cloths but no body, and they go back again to where they were staying – a lot of running around here, a lot of back and forth early in the morning! Maybe a bit like the kids when they go hunting for easter eggs!
But Mary hasn’t gone back, we read she’s crying by the tomb. As if they haven’t been through enough turmoil already, Jesus has been killed and now they don’t even know where the body is – I think most of us would be in tears in that situation.
But then the situation starts to develop – John tells us Mary sees two angels sitting there, and they ask her why she’s crying. Then she turns around and sees Jesus – but doesn’t realise it’s him until he says something – what does he say?
“Mary.“
He says her name.
Then she realizes it’s really him, he is with her, he is alive. And she goes off to tell the disciples as Jesus tells her that she has seen the Lord.
I have seen the Lord. The Lord has seen her, and she has seen the Lord. Beautiful isn’t it.
What hope, what a bright light shining through the darkness of the past few days. A light that isn’t going to go away, a light that’s going to stay there. A light bright enough for all to see.
We heard on Friday how Good Friday was the day we had to have, the day we had to have so we could be saved by Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us. We heard that if we didn’t have that day, we wouldn’t be saved, the debt we owe wouldn’t have been paid. But when we get to Easter Sunday, the day that changes everything, we learn that Jesus is alive. He has paid our debt, he’s gone from death to life, and that means we can go from death to life too.
This is what happens in our baptism too, there we go from death to life. We’re baptized into Jesus’ death, and we are raised to new life with him as well. He does the work, he sets the precedent for what we get to receive all these years later, what little Zeke gets to receive today.
What a turn-around, what a change – from one extreme to the other. We hear about the disciples experiencing this on this morning, everyone’s falling over themselves running around trying to figure out what’s going on. Emotions all over the place, doubts, questions, uncertainty – then we can imagine what Mary feels as she sees and recognizes Jesus there with her – relief, hope, joy, all of the above. Everything is changed on this day that changes everything.
There’s another great illustration of just how much has changed, if we bring in Peter’s story. We heard on Thursday how he doesn’t want Jesus to wash his feet, then he wants Jesus to wash all of him, then he’s running around this morning trying to figure out what’s going on. He’s in the moment, like we are when we don’t have the full picture, when we’re running on empty, when we – like all human beings – are relying on our tendency to want to know, to get things done ourselves, to have some control over our situation. Peter is a great example of human behaviour, and then we get to our first reading today, where Peter is talking in the book of Acts, and we hear a different side of him. Here he summarises very clearly and succinctly what’s just happened, and what it means for all God’s people, from Acts 10:39:
‘We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen… He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
There you go, that’s what’s just gone on, that’s a good summary of what’s happened at Easter and what it means for us. This is post-resurrection Peter isn’t it, Peter who has seen the risen Jesus, who knows God’s call on his heart, who has been sent out to make disciples of all nations!
This is a sure and steady Peter, a Peter with a solid foundation of who he is, based not on his own ideas but on who God says he is. You can see the difference here in Peter, from denying Jesus before his death to eventually giving up his own life for the sake of the Gospel. That’s the power of the resurrection to change lives right there.
Through faith we believe Jesus rising from the dead is no small thing – this is not something that may or may not have happened a long time ago, as a lot of the world might suggest today. It’s not a cliché, something we were told as kids but don’t really go in for these days. Maybe that’s the direction a lot of the world has gone, I don’t know about you but I definitely know people in that boat, have seen how that line of thinking is out there. And we pray for them, we pray that they would know Jesus, that they would know the life-changing presence of God in their lives. We trust the Holy Spirit’s work there, and we don’t forget that we still desperately need God’s help, God is still doing the life-changing thing in us today. It’s not over, yes we talk about Jesus’ death and resurrection as a one-time event a long time ago, it was once and for all, but the ‘all’ part of that is still going. God is still reaching out to us, helping us, guiding us, leading us, calling us to reach out to others out of the love he’s first given us.
So it goes on! We have lives to live of loving and serving each other, growing in our relationship with Jesus and with each other – whatever age or stage of life we’re in. And we know when our time in this life ends, we have ongoing life in heaven with Jesus himself, the one who did all this for us.
So in case you missed it, there’s a bit of good news in there today!
We are changed today, like Zeke all of us who are baptized and believe have been changed, and we continue being changed as we learn and grow and love and serve as part of the body of Christ. And if we are not yet baptized or don’t yet quite believe, the call is coming for us! Jesus says I have done this for you, trust me. I am with you, I forgive you, I will stay with you. Pretty good news there today, whatever circumstances we might find ourselves in this Easter. If it’s going well, if things are a bit tough, Jesus is with you. Jesus died for you. Jesus rose again for you, so you could have life forever with him.
One last thing to take away this morning: Remember Mary, as she hears Jesus say her name and she realizes it’s him. It’s the same for you and me. Jesus knows you by name. He calls you by name, to be with him, a child of his Father, part of his family. We can hope in that today, especially today, this day that changes everything.
Lord we are in awe of you, of your love and your ultimate victory you won for us on the cross and by rising again from the dead. Lead us to know you the way Mary did, lead us to see you and to follow you, the one who has saved us, has given us new life, and who knows us by name. In your name we pray, Amen.
Tom Kitson 