I have preached before on the contrast between our Easter and that very first Easter. For us, Easter morning is a day of joy and celebration. For us, we gather together with a really large group of people and we shout out, we sing out, “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!” because we know that Jesus Christ has risen today. Now, hindsight is 20/20, so we know that the tomb being empty is good news. And then we hear that story, as we do every year, as we just heard, of the very first Easter morning. And it is so very different. The disciples are not gathering together as a large group to celebrate and praise God. No, Mary Magdalene goes down to the tomb by herself, and she goes down while it is still dark, John tells us. Now you know John. John does not throw out the words light and dark unless there is a deep meaning. When John says she went while it was still dark, he is not talking just about the hour. John is referring to the state of her soul. He is talking about the darkness in her life, the darkness of her grief, her sorrow, her pain, her suffering, her trauma, and her confusion. How is this possible? Everything had been going so well, and then suddenly it wasn’t. Jesus, who had raised somebody from the dead, is now himself dead on the cross. And not just dead, but killed in the most painful and shameful way possible. Mary Magdalene does not go down to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning in joy and celebration, she goes down there in her darkness. When she gets there, her darkness is only compounded because the tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. What does that mean? She runs to get Simon Peter and the beloved disciple. They race to the tomb and look at it, and are just as confused as she is. Then they leave, they abandon Mary Magdalene to the darkness. Things are spiraling down and down for her as she is left there, weeping.
I have to say, this very strange Easter when we cannot do the things we normally do, like gather together in a big crowd, we are experiencing a darkness that makes this very first Easter resonate so much more richly and deeply and profoundly for me.
As we celebrate Easter we come to this morning while it is still dark. The darkness of this pandemic, the darkness of the confusion, trauma, pain, suffering, and the grief are profound in this moment for so many of us. We come to this Easter like Mary Magdalene, feeling that, carrying that.
The Gospel goes on to tell us that it is in the midst of that very darkness that Mary Magdalene is experiencing, Jesus shows up. It is in the midst of this very darkness that the light of Christ shines. She doesn’t recognize it, at first. She confuses him for a gardener. It takes a little while. She has to see him, hear him, and finally when he speaks her name—I wonder what it was about hearing her name—but in that moment when she hears her name spoken by his voice, she finally recognizes him there with her. It lifts her up. She is able to see the path forward. She now knows the Good News.
Jesus shows up to her in the midst, in the depth of her darkness, because that is what he does. That is how John’s Gospel begins, talking about the light of Christ shining in the darkness, and that the darkness cannot overcome it. That is what Jesus was doing on the cross. He was going down to the depths of humanity’s horrific pain and suffering and showing us that he is there in the middle of it, that he is present, that he is bringing God’s love to it.
Jesus is with us. The light of Christ is shining in this moment. The only question is, do we recognize it, or do we confuse him with a gardener? I wonder how many times in my life when I have been experiencing darkness, have I confused Jesus for a gardener. The Gospel reminds us that he is always there, always coming to us whenever we experience darkness in our life, including in this very present darkness that we are experiencing.
The Gospel goes on to say that after Mary Magdalene sees the light of Christ, Jesus sends her to go carry that light to the others. He sends her to tell the others that he has risen. That is what Jesus asks of us as well. In the midst of this darkness we are sent by him to bring light. In the midst of this despair, we are the ones who have been asked to bring hope.
And so, my friends, that is what we do. We look for the light, we see the light, and then we carry the light into this world. While it may feel that this Easter is like the very first Easter with its darkness, we know that we have hindsight, unlike the first disciples. We know where the story goes. We know that Christ showed up to them, risen, bringing the light. And we know that Christ has continued to do that throughout history, down to this very day. We know the Good News. We know the hope and the love, the grace and the mercy of God. So we are still able to shout out and to sing out our alleluias, because we know that Jesus Christ is risen.
Amen. Alleluia.
