Everything Is Different Now
Acts 10:34A; 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-18
In the early gray light of morning, when the sun is not quite up; in that period when it is difficult to distinguish reality from shadow, a woman makes her way through the streets of Jerusalem. Her step is slow but purposeful. She pauses at the gate of the city for a moment, looks up toward a hill outside the city wall where, shrouded still in darkness, three empty crosses stand. She dries tears from her eyes, then moves on, as if carrying on her shoulders an unseen burden. Slipping along the outer wall of the city, finally she comes to a small garden – to a tomb in the garden where, some thirty-six hours before, her master, her teacher, her friend, Jesus of Nazareth, had been hastily buried.
What sort of woman ventures out at night to weep in a graveyard? One stricken by love, or grief – or both. Surely that is Mary’s story.
In the quiet of the garden, she has come to be alone with her thoughts, her memories, her grief, her love – knowing full well that she will never again behold her beloved carpenter-messiah.
She sits for a while in the garden, in the dark, alone with her memories, trying to gather the courage to visit the grave. She sits, and she remembers. She remembered the day Jesus came along, and that remembrance brings a smile. A rabbi – a religious man – but not like the disapproving ones of her home town. Rather than condemning, he revealed God’s love for her. It was as if he held up a mirror to her in which, instead of seeing what she had become, revealed what God had created her to be. And it was beautiful - in the love of this rabbi, she found God’s love, reaching down to her, through this man of God. Through the compassion of this healer of bodies and mender of souls she was cured of the demons that alienated her from others, from God and from her true self. And so she left everything behind, and followed him – free, happy and whole, touched by his love . . . challenged by his teachings.
Then came Good Friday, and everything fell apart. Jesus was arrested, beaten, vilified, and hung on a cross to die. She couldn’t understand how it could happen to someone so loving, so gentle. She shuddered. Was it the chill of the morning air, or the thought – that it might be for her sake that he died?
The shadows slowly receded as dawn broke over the garden. It was interesting, she noted, that she was the only one to come. Was it their grief or their fear that kept them away? It didn’t matter to her anyway – she had already lost the only thing important in her life – the only thing that made life worth living.
In the early morning rose of dawn, as she sat in the garden with her memories, she turned to watch the sun break over the tomb. It was then that she noticed that the stone was rolled away. A gasp escaped her lips. It wasn’t enough that they killed Jesus – even in death, they would not let him be! Her weak knees could barely carry her to the tomb, only to find it empty! Not only had someone robbed the tomb, but they had carried off his body! She ran to tell the others, but only Peter and John would come. Then they, too, retreated behind locked doors, trembling and fearful.
Only Mary remained in the garden, her watch of love shattered, dissolving into despair. Then, in the midst of her abject misery and hopelessness, she hears a familiar voice call out her name: "Mary!" And suddenly, everything is changed. Everything became different. Everything became new. Where there was death, now there is life. Where there was despair, there is hope. Where there was overwhelming sorrow, there is endless joy. Where there was only a tomb, there is new life.
Yes something changed that Easter morning nearly 2000 years ago. Something altered the reality of everyone involved in this story. Something wonderful! Something that turned a woman in mourning into a joyful witness. Something that turned cowards into preachers. Something that turned persecutors into believers. Something so wonderful that has swept time and space so that today we are sitting and standing in this building and telling that same story again.
In a few moments we will be declaring that something. We will declare what we believe: In a world of doubt and rejection…of idols and secularism: We believe in God, the Father All Mighty.
In a world that claims to honor intelligence and calls itself modern and belittles the supernatural, we believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.
In a world that honors selfishness and materialism and wallows in negativity and apathy, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Today, Christians around the world celebrate that life has meaning. We celebrate that life is redeemed. We celebrate that to be human is to be good because when we are most ourselves, when we are most fully human, it is then that we recognize God.
Today's celebration challenges us to move from FEAR to FREEDOM. We are challenged to move from a relationship of fear to a free, life-giving relationship of love. We are asked to believe that even in spite of sin, evil and darkness, the world is better off because now we have a God who comes to look for us.
Today's feast invites us to move from the past to the present, from winter to spring, from death to life. Jesus invites you and me to come out of our own tombs into the light of His life.
In the end, all of this is fairly simple: nothing can separate us from the love of God - not time, not space, not even death. Since God was faithful to Christ, God will be faithful to us.
What does Easter mean for you today? G. K. Chesterton once said: "A Christian will do two things: dance out of the sheer sense of joy, and fight out of the sheer sense of victory." Is that where you are today? This morning, did you go to the tomb and graveyard of your life, and find them empty? Did you discover that the shadow over your life is not the shadow of the tomb, but merely the morning shadows of a new day? Did you get up this morning, full of the sense of possibility – that anything can happen – that ours is the God of new possibilities, of resurrection faith? Has the acceptance and love ignited by Jesus in you given you a new and different sense of who you are, and of what your life is about? Has it led you to a life of laughter, of love, of generosity of the heart? Do you hear Jesus calling your name, confirming for you that his love for you will never die?
In the early gray dawn, a woman sits alone, weeping in the garden, when the voice of her teacher, her healer, and now her Redeemer calls to her: "Don’t weep, Mary. Do not fear. Do not cling to something that is dead and gone - an old remembrance, an old hope. Go back to my brothers and sisters now and share the good news. Go back to life – to new life, resurrected life. Because now I am with you – and forever I will be with you. Everything has changed. Everything is different now. See, I make all things new.”
