Sermon for Easter Sunday 2018

Sermon for Easter Sunday 2018

Open our minds to understanding, our hearts to loving, and our wills to carrying out your mission. In the strong name of Jesus our Christ. Amen.

Poem - Written by Ann Siddall – beginning of the poem

Think of a moment when someone that you least expected to see suddenly stands before you.

A moment when something you’d lost is found again and you can scarcely believe your eyes.

Think of a moment when your fear was suddenly proved unfounded and you were surprised by joy.

This morning is such a moment. We resign ourselves to the worst, and suddenly life turns around.

John tells us it was the first day of the week and it was still dark outside, no hint of dawn at all.

It was a darkness that covered everything—not just a physical darkness, but a darkness of grief, disappointment, confusion, fear. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb alone. Her loyalty to Jesus leads her to begin the week in prayer at Jesus tomb. She didn’t come to give Jesus a proper burial, Nicodemus had seen to that and gave Jesus a very lavish burial with many spices. What could Mary do but return, if only to pick up the pieces of her life and try, squinting through the darkness, to make some sense out of what was left? She wanted to start there, in the last place she’d seen Jesus, ground zero of whatever life she was going to have to rebuild, all the while frantically wishing for everything just to return to the way it had been before.   

Once she got there, though, she could see clearly that the foggy recollection of days just past were real memories, and that, in fact, the nightmare had just gotten worse.

All the care and love put into entombing Jesus’ body had been upset, the stone moved, the seal of the tomb broken, the grave clothes piled there and no body to be found at all.  John tells us Mary runs to tell the disciples—this was a serious turn of events, the looting of the grave—and Mary, John tells us, couldn’t stop crying.

Until two days ago she’d finally known who she was: Mary Magdalene, disciple of Jesus.  Now, in the darkness, she didn’t recognize that Mary, the one she’d become since she met Jesus . . . and she couldn’t see through the darkness to know who on earth she was supposed to be now.

The two men run to the tomb. Both men “believed” Mary, but what did they believe? Both men entered the tomb & saw Jesus grave clothes there.

They did not yet believe in the Resurrection. They merely believed that yes, His body was gone and they did not know where it was. “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he (Jesus) must rise again from the dead” (John 20:9). Again we find the claim that Scripture has been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. The men went home depressed.

Mary remained & stood there, by the grave weeping. She met a stranger in the garden.  This man must be the gardener, she thought.  He looked at her with compassion—she was obviously distraught—and asked her why she was crying, but how he could help her, if there was someone she had lost.

“Yes!” she sobbed.  “If you have moved his body for some reason, please, please tell me where you have laid him and I will take His body and care for it.  Please help me.”

“Mary.”  Her name.  That was all he said, but . . . then she knew.  She knew.  His voice pierced the foggy, befuddled chaos of her brain and she looked up in sudden recognition and said, “Rabbouni!” (Teacher)

In the moment when Jesus called her name her whole world shifted and she knew in an instant: nothing would ever be the same again.

The appearance of Jesus to Mary is the beginning of the Resurrection faith. Mary’s emotions raw; but her devotion unshaken. She does not recognize Jesus when He speaks to her, because she does not expect to seem again.  

 Often in life, good things come our way, but we do not recognize them or appreciate them because we do not expect them, or we are looking for something else.

Of course, we grieve when we lose a loved one. In many cases, we will feel the loss every day for the rest of our lives. It’s not wrong to weep over such losses (John 16:20). But the Bible says that although we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The hope that Jesus is risen and that He is coming again to take us to be with Him and with our loved ones who have died in Him, comforts us through our tears. Whatever our loss, we must process our sorrow in light of the sure fact that Jesus is risen and thus His promises are true! Those promises give us hope in our sorrow.

Perhaps the risen Lord is asking you the same question that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” Maybe, like me you are inclined to think that that seems obvious doesn’t it? Her loved one has died & now His body is missing? But, there’s a second important question that the risen Lord asks Mary (John 20:15): “Whom are you looking for?”  He asks it even before she has a chance to answer the first question, because the answer to why she is weeping is found in the answer of whom she is seeking.

2. If we will seek the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.

Mary was seeking a dead Lord (John 20:13, 15). Her love for Jesus is commendable, but really, what good would it have done for Mary to find Jesus dead body and perhaps add a few more embalming spices? Only a living Savior who has triumphed over the grave offers hope for our sorrows.

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art. When the Viet Nam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art. The young man held out his package. "I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. "Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift." The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel.

"We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?"

There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one."

But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"

Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn't come to see this painting.. We came to see the Van Gogh’s, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!"

But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who'll take the son?"

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I'll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

"We have $10, who will bid $20?" "Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters." "$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"

A man sitting on the second row shouted. "Now let's get on with the collection!"

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over."

"What about the paintings?"

"I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!"

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is, "The son, the son, who'll take the son?" Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

For Mary now, the unconceivable could now be thought. Jesus has been resurrected from the dead.

Mary returns and tells the men; her devotion now has a new zeal “I have seen the Lord she said and told them He had said these things to her.

Many of us have lost loved ones—fathers, mothers, husbands, wives—even children—that is the hardest—the children. But Easter is God’s promise that the stone that stops the mouth of the grave is never great enough to block the resurrection.

As Frederick Beck said,

“The stone at the tomb of Jesus
was a pebble to the Rock of Ages inside.”

Herbert Booth Smith put it this way. He said, “The biggest fact about Joseph’s tomb was that it wasn’t a tomb at all—it was a room for a transient. Jesus stopped there a night or two on his way back to glory.” In other words, Jesus’ tomb was really nothing but a place to spend the weekend.

And, because Christ broke the bonds of death, the grave is not the end for your loved ones. One day we will reign eternally with Christ, reunited with those whom we love—and able, finally, really to love completely.

But the Good News of Easter is not confined to the resurrection of the dead. Christ is the Lord over death, but he is also the Lord of life.

Copyright 2008, Richard Niell Donovan

So come this Easter morning, to be shaken from your conviction that nothing can change your situation.

Come if you look at the world and feel overwhelmed by its chaos or disillusioned by its promises.

On this morning we remember how Mary went to anoint a corpse and was greeted by a Saviour.

Come to worship prepared to see your life and the world through new eyes. For Christ is risen,                                                                                             he is risen indeed. Hallelujah!                                                                                

  Written by Ann Siddall, and posted on the Stillpoint Spirituality Centre website

John 20:1-18 Thomas B. Slater Working Preacher

John 20:1-18 Karoline Lewis – Working Preacher

Opening verses~ written by Ann Siddall and posted on the Stillpoint Spirituality Centre website. 

Rev. Amy Butler Sermon Writer 2008 “Called By Name” John 20:1-18

Copyright 2008, Richard Niell Donovan Sermon Writer Easter Sunrise