Easter Morning

Easter Morning FOUR INCREDIBLE WORDS April 16, 2006

About 50 feet inside the township cemetery fence, on the outskirts of town, there was an old pecan tree. Two boys entered the cemetery, filled up a bucketful of pecan nuts, sat down behind the tree, out of sight, to begin dividing the nuts: “One for you, one for me; one for you, one for me.” Several other pecan nuts had fallen and rolled down closer to the cemetery fence. Another boy, riding his bike by the cemetery, stopped when he heard these voices within the cemetery: “One for you, one for me; one for you, one for me.” Just then an old woman, hobbling with a cane, walked by the cemetery. The young boy, in a shouted whisper, signals her, “Lady! Listen! Satan and the Lord are inside this cemetery dividing up the souls.” Listening, sure enough, the old woman heard, “One for you, one for me.” The young boy and old woman, peering through the wrought-iron fence, were unable to see a thing. Just then, they both heard a voice from inside the cemetery say, “One for you, one for me. Ah, we’re nearly finished. Let’s go get those nuts over by the fence and we can leave!” Legend holds that the old woman made it back into town at least 10 minutes ahead of the boy on the bike------

On this Easter Day, we hear many voices from the cemetery…some are voices of confusion and others are far more clear. As this old woman and young boy quickly left the cemetery, so did Mary Magdalene. Upon seeing “that the stone had been taken away from the tomb,” (John 20:1) she went and told “Peter and the other disciple” what she had seen and “they went toward the tomb…they both ran.” (John 20: 3-4) According to John’s, and he is “the other disciple” who runs to the cemetery with Peter, they looked in the tomb, but neither one of them spoke a single word. Our Gospel lesson unremarkably records: “Then the disciples went back to their homes.” (John 20: 10)

It is evident that Mary Magdalene had returned to the cemetery and, unlike the two disciples, she stayed and “she wept” as she “stooped to look into the tomb.” (John 20:11) Mary, like the old woman and young man in our first story, heard voices within the cemetery. “She saw two angels in white…they said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20: 12-13) She explained about what had happened to her Lord 3 days ago and that, now, she does “not know where they have laid him.” (John 20:13) Just then, Mary turns and sees a man standing beside her and he asks her two questions: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”(John 20:15) The man calls her by name, she recognizes him to be the risen Christ, Jesus offers her a brief instruction, and Mary promptly leaves the cemetery as the first obedient witness to the resurrection!

We are not accustomed to hearing voices or answering questions when visiting a cemetery. Cemeteries are usually quiet, reflective places where human voices are soft, subdued, and often our tears outnumber our words. That was the way all cemeteries were until that first Easter day. Places of death, places of finality, places of tremendous sadness. The dead could not speak and the living didn’t know quite what to say.

Only Peter and John remain speechless while in the cemetery in the early hours of that first Easter. The cemetery on Easter is a place of conversion and conversation. The angels spoke, Mary spoke, and Jesus spoke. Angels, Jesus, and believers have been speaking ever since! Through Jesus death no longer has the final “say”! Through Jesus, death is silenced! Through Jesus, hope shouts out loud! As Christ was raised, cemeteries were transformed into places of hope because death was defeated.

Peter, as recorded in his final sermon in Acts 10: 39-40, describes this death-defying transformation so simply, so eloquently: “They put Jesus to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him.” Where the devil attempted to put a “period,” God---as recorded in scripture---put a semi-colon. Whereas the devil sought to make death permanent, God---through Jesus---makes death a “pause” unfettered by time and space! In but Four Incredible Words, 19 letters, Peter---the second of the two men to arrive at the tomb, but the first to actually enter it (John 20: 6) ---announces the miraculous God-event that we celebrate this day: “But God raised him” !

Are these 4 words a living truth when a parent’s mind slowly diminishes in the ravages of Alzheimer’s? Are these 4 words a renewing hope when children in our schools and a thousand other places fall victim to violence? Are these 4 words a breath of hope when the doctor says “cancer”? Do we really believe in our hearts that the power of life is greater than the power of death? As Jesus and the angels asked Mary questions on that first Easter morning, these are my questions to us this Easter morning! “Christ is risen!” is not resuscitation, some cosmic CPR where a person is brought back to life only to, one day, die again! We will die, but because of Easter, and our Easter-faith, we---like Jesus---will be raised from death to die no more! The question is not only “Do we believe it?”, but “Will we live it?” AMEN.