Resurrection Sunday (Easter), April 9 – Bystanders at the Resurrection
Mary was standing
outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting
at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had
been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. (John 20: 11 -13, New Living Translation)
However, it was still dark when she approached the tomb. Luke tells us that
the women were coming to the tomb with more spices for the body. How they were going to move the huge stone
that blocked the tomb was beyond them. Perhaps, Mary was the first to arrive.
It was dark. The stone had been rolled away. The body was missing. The logical
conclusion that she came to was that someone had stolen Jesus’ body.
Let’s just stop right there for a moment.
We all are in the dark as to what exactly happened overnight before Easter
morning. We have returned to the tomb, expecting one thing, and are stunned by
what we see or don’t see. We haven’t any idea how to roll away stones and
boulders which block our path and sight, and, yet, we discover that they are
gone, just the same. We try to arrive at logical, rational, feasible
conclusions to explain the first impressions of our experience.
It's hard. It is enough to make one cry.
Why are we crying? We weep as if it couldn’t get any worse, but it has.
Even angels can’t dissuade us from the evidence that someone has stolen or
removed the body of Jesus and hid it elsewhere.
Why are we crying? Because the ignominy of death is deepened by his
absence from the tomb, where he was supposed to be, where he was meant to be,
where he was dead to rights to be.
Why are we crying? “They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know
where they put him.”
There is always a thorny problem when we don’t know or understand where
Jesus is.
But like Mary, we need to stop staring at an empty tomb and see who
stands behind us. We need to stop allowing death to set the agenda and hear the
voice which speaks our name. We need to
trust the promises he made and recognize the One who made them in the first
place.
“I saw the Master!” (John 20:18, TMB)
No more crying!
Instead, there he is, the reality of the Resurrection standing before
us. Perhaps, it takes a moment or two for the truth to sink in. Our focus was on the tomb, but now it needs
to be upon the Risen One.
It seems appropriate that this revelation take place in a garden. All of
Creation began with an ideal Garden which humanity tossed away in sin. Scriptures also end with a Garden, restored,
complete, where “never again will anything be cursed.” (Revelation 22:3, TMB) The Risen
Lord stands in the middle of those two gardens and reveals new Hope, new Joy, new
Possibilities, new Life.
“I saw the Master!”
He is the beginning of that journey to all that God intends for us. “I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
(Revelation 22:13, NLT)
“I saw the Master!”
These words are the words of faith, discipleship and assurance. These
are the words of the Way, the Truth and the Life. These are the words of those
of us who dare believe in something so incredibly outrageous and preposterous as
Resurrection. Something so radical. Something so provocative. Something so
contrary to the laws of nature. Something that is thrilling beyond all measure.
“I saw the Master!”
Use your words this Resurrections Sunday. Who do you see?
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known
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