Easter Sunday, April 20,2025: Isaiah 65:17-25; Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
This proclamation, repeated three times, begins the Easter liturgy. We have made it through the long days of Lent, and the hard days of Holy Week. We have sat and watched the tomb. And now we can proclaim that it is over: Christ has risen.
What is so striking about the two gospels from which we can choose this morning is that for those coming to the tomb, this was confusing and hard. In John’s gospel, Mary Magdalen is weeping outside the tomb when Jesus appears to her. But while it’s Jesus, she doesn’t recognize him until he speaks, when he tells her not to hold on to him, because he still has to ascend to heaven. It’s like one of those dreams when you know it’s a particular person, except that person did not look like themselves. She goes back and tells the others, but no one seems to act.
In Luke’s gospel, the women who had come with Jesus find the empty tomb and are told that has he had promised, he had risen from the dead. When they tell the disciples “and all the rest”, most think it is idle chatter. It is obvious that there is a crowd there, not just the twelve. Only Peter wondered enough to check it out, but he was “amazed”, but doesn’t do anything.
Do we know what has happened? How do we understand it? What does it mean in this world to see, in the words of Isaiah, “new heavens and a new earth”? On the day, people were confused and frightened. When the women came back with their account of what had happened, they were not believed. It seemed unbelievable. In any case, what were Jesus’ followers supposed to do?
And yet, something had happened. The promise to us is eternal life. But the promise is to those who follow Jesus. We say the creed every week, proclaiming our beliefs, but in the end what Jesus cares about is those who follow him, who keep the commandments. And the commandments that Jesus cares about are about love and generosity. Jesus notoriously hung out with all the wrong people, the poor, prisoners, prostitutes, tax collectors, women. So love and generosity are not just for those close to us, but for our neighbors and the strangers we encounter. It is for everyone.
In the new heavens and new earth, we are promised a world of abundance and care. We do not yet live in that world, but we can act as if we do. In this Easter season, may we live as if we are part of the resurrection world.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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