Easter Day

New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition The Resurrection of Jesus

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to looka into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,b “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 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.

New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition Gentiles Hear the Good News

34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Early on the first day of the week. Here John is echoing the great creation narrative at the beginning of the church’s scriptures.

When, at the beginning of the Bible, God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos; and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Early on the first day of the week, while darkness covered the face of the earth and the depth of her heart, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed. God had said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The light that is the love of Jesus for the outsiders and for those who put him to death. This light was separated from the darkness and Jesus was raised from the dead.

The Gospel of John begins with a summary, a synopsis of the narrative that follows. This synopsis starts by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and that in this Word was life, and that the life of this Word is the light of all people.” In the beginning was the Word, but remember that the beginning in the Gospel of Saint John is not the creation account at the start of the Bible. That beginning was only a shadow of the true beginning. The beginning, the beginning of the true life that God longs for us to be a part of, the life which this life is only a shadow of, begins on the first day of the week. When Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and broods over it, over the tomb which turns out to be a womb. On this first day Jesus is born.

I was going to make a joke about fortnights. But the punchline was too week… sorry, had to crack a bad yolk!

There’s lots to say about the theme of “The Week” in the Jewish scriptures but I’ll just focus on one thing, the Sabbath command in the Ten Commandments. After being liberated from slavery in Egypt, Israel travel through the wilderness and, whilst in the wilderness are given Ten Commandments. Ten laws that start to reveal the heart of God. One of the laws is the Sabbath law. The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, the last day of the week, on which Israel were commanded to rest. There are two different versions of the Ten Commandments in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. In the version in Exodus, the Israelites are commanded to keep the Sabbath holy to remember that, in their creation story, God created in seven days and rested on the seventh. In the version in Deuteronomy, Israel are commanded to keep the Sabbath holy to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt and God liberated them. They were to rest. Rest for their sake but, more importantly, rest for those who had become slaves in the mini systems created within the community, as happens in every community. And rest for the animals; rest for the earth.

The two themes that the Israelites had in mind every Sabbath, every week when they stopped and made the day holy, were creation and liberation. There’s lots to say about how this Sabbath narrative develops throughout the Jewish scriptures but fast forward to Easter and the Gospel of Saint John. In the Gospel, Jesus’s death happens at the time of the year that is the Jewish feast of Passover. Arguably the greatest Sabbath of the year where the Jewish people retell the story of their liberation from slavery in Egypt. In the Gospel of John, Jesus dies on Friday, the sixth day of the week, the day of preparation. The day when the lambs are killed in preparation for the celebration of passover the following day. Jesus, the slain lamb, is then put in a tomb and lies asleep in death on the seventh day, on the Passover, the great Sabbath. But on the next day, on the first day of the week, God separates the light that is Jesus from the darkness of death, the true beginning of creation.

What does this mean for us? On the day of the Sabbath we remember that God is a creator God and that God liberates from slavery. Through the death of Jesus, we will be made new, sharing in the true life that will be unveiled. Through the death of Jesus we are liberated from slavery. Slavery to the fear of our mortality, slavery to the fear that we don’t matter, slavery to the chaos of a world ruled by frail creatures and not yet by perfected creators.

This Easter, on the first day of the week, let us go like Mary to the tomb, to those dark, deep places in our lives, to place flowers on those places. Flowers given to us by the gardener, the risen Jesus, as he offers himself for the life of the world. Let us brood over those places, trusting that, in God’s eternity, there will be creation and liberation.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.