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The Sunday Of The Resurrection: Easter Day
Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by thy life-giving Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Scripture citation(s): John 20:1-18
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 20:1-18
✛
One Word.
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Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
You see how easy that trips off the tongue? We know the end of the story and that means that even on Good Friday, we hear the Passion Gospel and even see that through the lens of the Resurrection. But to truly understand today’s Gospel, we need to imagine what it felt like for those first followers of Jesus.
To help us, I want to share a poem by Tony Harrison – Long Distance 2 – (from Selected Poems 1984)
Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.
You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone.
He’d put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.
He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he’d hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she’d just popped out to get the tea.
I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven’t both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there’s your name
and the disconnected number I still call.
I have always found that poem intensely moving – at one and the same time it portrays the utter finality of death and the excruciating anguish of not accepting it.
Perhaps you know some of those feelings. As a priest, I guess I ought to know better but I still find myself caught out at times as I think about my mum in particular – sudden moments when I have the urge to call her on the phone to share something important. I remember the finality of disconnecting her own telephone some weeks after her death. My sister pleaded with me not to do it; I discovered she was calling home simply to hear my mum’s answerphone message in that ridiculous telephone voice she had; “I can’t take your call right now. Please leave a message and I will call you back.” Of course, she never has. And that is the finality of death.
When Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus from the cross, tradition tells us that Jesus was placed into the arms of his mother. That image has inspired some of the most exquisite works of art. This pieta – which comes from the word for dutiful – is a scene of dereliction but also a scene of intense intimacy and beauty. It is only John’s Gospel that tells us specifically that the Mother of Jesus was standing at the foot of the Cross with the Beloved Disciple – dutifully – and, like so many mothers before, and so many mothers after, as she held the body of her only son she would have looked closely at his tortured body, wounded and pierced and known the finality of death.
That same dereliction was felt by Mary Magdalene who came, in John’s Gospel alone, to the tomb to be with her Lord. We must remember that we look back at this story with the knowledge of the Resurrection; we look back with the eyes of faith; but for Mary Magdalene – not only had Jesus died, but now someone had taken away the body and she was devastated. Mary was distraught and through her tears is unable to take in the scene. She had been denied the chance to see his body one last time; why did she want to see it? It can’t just have been to dutiful (to do those customary things that Jewish women did at the time of burial) there is a much deeper longing here – of someone yearning to see the one who had shown such great love one last time – before the finality of bodily decomposition began. “Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.”
“Mary.”
One word. And not only a word, but a name. “Mary.” They say that hearing is the last sense to leave the body at death; Jesus spoke and, her eyes blurred by the tears, it is through hearing that Mary discovers that her Lord is not dead but is very much alive. “Mary” says Jesus; and in one small intimate gesture, her grief is changed to amazement and then to overwhelming joy. The Gospel suggests that her reaction to seeing Jesus is to touch him – but more than that, to hold on to him. But notice, there is an urgency in the Gospel narrative – there is no taking time to sit and enjoy the moment – there are things to be done and Mary Magdalene is given a task: “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
In our Gospel today, Mary Magdalene became the apostle to the apostles – “I have seen the Lord!”
Everything changed – this was no resuscitated corpse; this was the real Jesus, wounded, dead, overnight in a tomb, now risen and glorified who was speaking about his ascension to the Father and who, on that same day of the week would appear to his frightened disciples and breath on them the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.
Easter Day will never fully take away the heart ache that many, if not all of us, will experience when a loved one dies. But Easter isn’t about turning the clock back or making us feel better. It is not like someone with a terminal illness being told that they have gone into remission and, therefore, we have a little more time with them. Easter is not even about giving us something to hope for. The message of Easter is about God’s sovereignty over the whole created order; it is about his power to save and to change; his love which is stronger than death and his power to conquer death; his sacrificial love which forgives sins and welcomes the frail and mortal sinner back into his arms; his grace which is freely poured out into the lives of those who believe; that transforms a mortal dust-filled body into a glorious life-filled creation. What did Peter say in our reading from Acts? “He commanded us… to testify that he is the one ordained by God 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.” And at the end of the day, isn’t that the most wonderful message of Easter – not simply that we will be given immortality, after all, do I really want this body for ever! Rather, a new resurrection body which will be marked by a life different to this current one – one that is truly redeemed, forgiven, and made whole in Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed Alleluia!
Some lines from the poem, ‘The Temple’ by George Herbert in which he reflects on how, in Jesus, God can turn dust into glory:
Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.
