Scripture Reading Luke 24:1-12 (from The Message)
24 1-3 At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.
4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
9-11 They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.
12 But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Pastor: Divine redeemer, bearer of life, open us to the wisdom of your Word today and enlighten us with your truth. Liberate us from all that distracts us and turns us from your path. Guide us and ground us in Christ’s everlasting hope. Amen.
Message He Is Risen!
When I was a little girl, my dad had to work in Texas for what seemed like a long time…14 months or so. He usually came home for the weekends, but we also visited him there whenever we had long breaks from school. Our spring break was always the same week as Easter, so we spent a few Easters in Texas, in Houston.
One of the years we were there, we went to a celebration in a big park. There were lots of other families and kids there, which was fun. My mother started to notice that all of the other kids had colorful confetti in their hair….some of the adults had it too…why? What was this strange Easter tradition that inspired people to don confetti on their heads?
We later found out that the families and kids we saw had cracked eggs over their heads – cascarones. The eggs were dried, dyed, filled with confetti and taped shut. On Easter morning, it is a Spanish tradition to surprise one another by cracking eggs over each other’s heads. Breaking cascarones is a popular activity in all the places Spain colonized, including the Southwestern US.
Just as a baby chick breaking through an egg is a sign of new life, the Easter egg has been adopted as a sign of new life for Christians. The cascarones are hallow, just as Jesus’ tomb was hallow and empty. The surprise of having the egg cracked over your head is reminiscence of the Easter surprise….Jesus was resurrected. The joke is on the Romans, and the scheming priests, and the people who wanted Jesus to die. Nothing human beings can do can defeat God. Nothing humans can do can destroy the promise of new life we have in Christ.
This morning, we gather in our cemetery to remember the visit a group of women made to another cemetery on the first Easter morning. They were tired…they were sad….they were just going through the motions of doing their duty as women. Jewish women in Israel in the first century were responsible for preparing bodies for burial. The women who trudged to the garden cemetery on the first Easter morning were fulfilling their obligation and were prepared to do their final act of service for Jesus….to show their love for him by caring for his broken and battered body.
But, imagine their surprise when his body was not there. It would have been more surprising than having a confetti egg randomly cracked over our head. Jesus was not there. He was not in the tomb. They were probably horror struck when they assumed his body had been stolen.
But, that feeling would have shifted to a different kind of surprise and fear when the angels appeared. They were awestruck by the angels who told them the Good News. Christ was risen! His prophecies, and the prophecies of the prophets, were fulfilled. Jesus was resurrected. Jesus was alive once again!
This is not the first time we are hearing this good news. But, as we remember the women, let us work to feel the same surprise, the same joy, the same delight they felt. Nothing is able to defeat God, and God’s plan. Nothing men and women can do is able to separate us from the love of Christ. God loves the world so much that God shared Jesus with us, and not even death itself could keep Jesus away from the people of God.
Christ the Lord is Risen today! Alleluia!!
Amen.
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