Monochrome to Polychrome

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one 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 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” 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 Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for 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 that he had said these things to her. (John 20:11–18, ESV)

One of my favorite Easter theologians is Dave Grohl, the Lead singer of The Foo Fighters. By all accounts, Dave Grohl is not a Christian, but one of his songs, "Come Alive," speaks to me about Easter.

The song was written about the birth of his daughter, but listen to these words from the song:

Seems like only yesterday

Life belonged to runaways

Nothin' here to see

No looking back

Every sound monotone

Every color monochrome

Light began to fade Into the black

Such a simple animal Sterilized with alcohol,

I could hardly Feel myself anymore

Desperate and meaningless

All filled up with emptiness

Felt like everything

Was said and done

I lay there in the dark, And I closed my eyes.

You saved me the day You came alive

If there is no resurrection, then, as Paul says to the church in Corinth, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Christ's resurrection, the day he came alive, saved you and me. That is why this song is a great Easter song. We can see it in today's passage.

Mary comes to the tomb while it is still dark. The Gospel of John is my favorite gospel. His imagery of light and dark has always struck me, and it is evident here again. Mary is walking to the tomb in the dark. Not only is she walking physically in the dark, but she is living in the dark now that Jesus is dead. She was traveling to the tomb of the man who freed her from her past, the thoughts that must have been going through her head.

We know from Scripture that seven demons possessed Mary; now, the one who freed her from those demons is dead. The darkness that was over her must have been unbearable. Will the demons come back now that Jesus is gone? Why did he have to die? why him? Why? She is walking to this tomb in a world that is now monotone and monochrome.

The disciples are living in this darkness as well. They experienced the feast with Jesus. He washed their feet. Then he was arrested and they fled. He was tortured hung on a cross and now he is dead. The darkness of Saturday has filed them.

This Holy Saturday darkness scene is all around us in the world: people walking in the darkness because they don't know how this story ends. So, like the song, they fill the darkness with alcohol or something else that makes them feel like they are living in a polychrome world rather than a monochrome world. That simply means a color world instead of black and white. Think Wizard of Oz when Dorthy goes from Kansas to the Land of Oz.

Mary gets to the tomb and the stone is rolled away and she doesn’t even know if the body is gone she assumes there is no body. She immediately runs back to the disciples and tells them what she has seen. Peter and the one whom Jesus loved ran to the tomb to see for themselves what Mary had said was true. I always love this part of the passage because it is like two brothers poking fun at each other, and John outran Peter.

Can't you see John writing this and laughing as he puts into his account for all of history that he outran Peter? I always get a good chuckle out of it. They both get to the tomb, but John does not go in. Peter goes in, and then it says he believed.

But the very next line—for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, and they went home. But Mary stays behind and is weeping outside the tomb. The weight of the loss she is having must be excruciating. She gets the courage to peek into the tomb and is greeted by two angels sitting where Jesus should have been.

They ask, "Why are you weeping?" She tells them, and as she is speaking, Jesus appears behind her. She turns around and doesn't recognize him until she hears his voice.

He doesn't scold her, doesn't tell some great theological mystery; he just simply calls her name, Mary! The same voice that called her out of the darkness of being possessed by seven demons is now calling her out of the dark and into the light.

The voice of Jesus does that for us today. We come to this park while it is still dark. This is our first Easter without Rev Dobi. It has been a dark several months as a community at fpc. Some of you are dealing with darkness personally, you are stuck in that Holy Saturday mind set, and you come here in the dark. Jesus is calling your name, bringing you from that monochrome world into the polychrome world.

The world is more colorful when you know the risen Lord. I love the fact that Easter is around this time of the year because it truly brings this dark world to light. Easter falls in spring after months of darkness and monochrome days of gray, white, and black. The sun is missing, and then spring comes, and the days get brighter. The colors are full spectrum or polychrome. We now have greens, yellows, pinks, blues, Sunlight, etc.

That translates into our spiritual lives as well. No matter our circumstances, when you are in Christ, the world is brighter than before. Paul's life is a great example of this. He was beaten and stoned, thrown in prison, and left for dead, and he boasted about those things because it was all for Christ. He sang hymns of praise because of the love he found in Jesus.

People today find all kinds of ways to deal with the darkness they find themselves in. The song shared earlier said, "A simple animal sterilized with alcohol." That is the most common way people think to get out of the monochrome world. But the song says that is also part of why the world is monochrome. You have no idea who you are anymore.

Jesus comes alive and says your name and the world completely changes. The colors come to life, the sounds are brighter, and you finally understand who you are because you now know whose you are. The creator of the universe has called you, and he calls you his own.

Mary understood this the moment he said her name. Her teacher, her savior, was still alive, and that meant the darkness would not return. I am sure she had dark times ahead, but they were not the dark that she entered this scene in or the one she came out of before. This time, Jesus was alive, and the moment he came alive, he saved her life.

The moment Jesus came alive, you were saved as well. Come Alive by The Foo Fighters is a great Easter Hymn. It speaks of all the things we believe about Easter morning and how, on this day, death has been defeated forever.

You come here this morning for whatever reasons, but I ask you the very question that Jesus asked Mary: Whom are you seeking this day? Whom are you seeking in your everyday life?

Jesus is the one to follow all the days of your life. Following him means he is your teacher, and you follow his instructions and live for him and only him. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Simply put by Paul—Love.

Easter is about love—the love that God had for us to send his son to die and be raised again, and Jesus' love for us to do it all. The love of God is shown by loving others. That is the key: loving God and then loving others by sharing with them how to go from a monochrome world to a polychrome world, simply through Jesus.

He will call your name to follow him, and your life will forever change when he does.

"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'" (Isaiah 43:1, ESV)

Mary, that is all it took for Mary to believe. She became the first evangelist to tell others about what had happened to her in the garden when she encountered the risen Jesus. Today, my prayer is that you encounter the risen Lord here in this little garden in PA. That as we watched the sunrise and the world became a little brighter, you encountered the risen Lord. He has risen. He has risen indeed.

As you leave this place entirely in the Light, my prayer for you, and I close with this, is the prayer of Paul to the church in Ephesus.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

May you encounter the risen Savior and be able to sing. You saved me the day you came alive!!