He is not here for he is risen
Only just over 100 years ago few people thought it possible that human beings could fly. No one except the two sons of Rev. Milton Wright who at 10:35 on the morning of Dec. 17 1903 made their first successful flight of 175 feet in a aeroplane driven by a four cylinder combustion engine. Even when I was a girl flying by aeroplane was not the norm. Today, with the advent of cheap air travel, we have become used to jetting off to all kinds of locations. All kinds of things that many years ago would have seemed impossible are now perfectly possible. Flight has changed not just individual lives, but the life of our world.
The resurrection of Jesus changes the world. People may not have thought it possible, but it has happened, and changes the life of the world – the lives of individual people.
The Empty Tomb
John’s account of the empty tomb focuses on two sets of characters: Mary Magdalene – the other women havedisappeared, and two male disciples. At this stage the two men only see the empty tomb, whereas Mary, who stays, meets the risen Lord. The challenge of Easter morning is whether we see just the empty tomb, or stay a while and meet the risen Lord.
Jesus had done something for Mary Magdalene that no one else could ever do, and she could never forget. Tradition has it that she was a sinner – possibly a prostitute, certainly someone who knew that she had got things wrong. But she also knew that she had encountered Jesus, who had forgiven and purified her life – reclaiming her from the depths to which she had sunk.
It was the Jewish custom to visit the tomb of a loved one for three days after the body was laid to rest. They couldn’t come to the tomb on the Sabbath, because to have made the journey would have broken the Sabbath law. So Mary comes as soon as she can, in the last of the night, because she can no loner stay away.
She comes to Jesus tomb to bring her worship, and discovers the stone rolled away, and the tomb is empty. She must have been both shocked and distraught.
He is not here for he is risen
The fact of the matter was – and is – that Jesus is risen. He is not there, because he is not dead, he is alive.
But that leaves questions for us today. Questions for how we respond to the resurrection, and what it means in our lives today.
- The empty tomb – an integral part of the story – raises a question – where is Jesus’ body? Mary jumps to the logical conclusion that the body has been stolen: ‘They have taken my Lord away.’ And then ensues her search for where the Lord has gone. I don’t know whether she assumed Peter would know, or just wants some company in the search, but she goes to tell him. And they join in the search.
Mary had come that morning expecting to find a body. To be able to do what was needed for the body. She would have been distraught at the death of Jesus, but surely now she could come and mourn in peace. But she is faced with the shock of him being missing, and she needs some answers.
Where is Jesus? A question for each of us today. Where is Jesus for us???? Dead, left in the tomb, or alive?
During his day Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was as powerful a man as there was on earth. He was a Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. The story is told that one day in 1930 he went to Kiev to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.
When he had finished, an hour later, he looked out at what he thought would be the smouldering ashes of men’s faith. “Are there any questions?” Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church:
“CHRIST IS RISEN!” En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”
Jesus is not buried, he is risen; he is not dead he is alive. And his risen life, brings new life to us. John’s account of the resurrection is full of echoes of the creation story… On the first day of the week in the garden, God begins again. He makes right by his resurrection and victory over death, all the things that had gone wrong since that first perfect creation. In his rising is the possibility of recreation for humanity and the world. The resurrection is new creation for all those who want to receive it.
The story goes of a church in Hampshire that put on a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion. The following day the choir leader put up a notice: ‘The Crucifixion – well done everybody.’ By the end of the day, someone had scribbled underneath: ‘The Resurrection – well done God!’
This reading speaks of the effect of God’s act of restoration, on individuals, peoples and nations. God can be trusted to put things right. His action in Christ transforms human lives. Broken relationships are restored, sins are forgiven, and enemies are reconciled.
The stone has to be rolled back for Jesus to come out, and more especially for Mary to come in. To come to meet with the risen Jesus, and allow his risen power to meet her. What stone in our hearts/lives needs to be rolled aside for Jesus to come in his risen power? Where can there be recreation in our lives?
Perhaps one of the most surprising new things that Jesus does, is sends Mary out. She becomes the first preacher of the resurrection, as she goes to tell the disciples. The angels message to her is quite simple: do not be afraid; Jesus has risen; come and see; go and tell.
God has won the victory and has saved each one of us. He invites us to share in that, and for us to invite others to share in it too.
As we come to Jesus, risen, changed, victorious; as we allow him to touch us, to roll away the stones of our life, and bring his recreation; he asks us to go and tell others. We should not be afraid, he is not dead, it is not over, he is alive and it is just beginning; we meet him for ourselves, and go and tell others what we have found – that God’s recreation may come in all the world.
Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen
Pam's Perambulation 