A Sunday School teacher asks the children in her kindergarten class what Easter is all about.  The first little fellow says, “Easter is when all the family comes to the house and we eat a big turkey and watch football on TV.”  “Well,” the teacher gently says, “I think you might be confusing Easter with Thanksgiving.”  Then, the little girl next to him says,“I know; Easter is the day when you come down the stairs in the morning and you see all the beautiful presents under the tree.”  “Uh, no dear,” the teacher says, and she goes on to explain to her that she is probably thinking about Christmas.  The teacher then notices a little boy whose hand is tentatively raised.  But, her spirits perk up as that little boy says,“Easter is the time when Jesus was crucified and buried.”  The teacher silently rejoices that the lessons she has taught about Jesus’ death and resurrection have gotten through to at least one child – that is, until he adds, “And then Jesus comes out of the grave, and if He sees His shadow, we have six more weeks of winter.”  Ouch! 

Well, certainly there is still some work to do with those kids!  But you know what?  I’m not so sure a lot of adults would do much better.  I mean, if retail stores reflect the average person’s understanding of Easter, then apparently it has something to do with baby chicks, colored eggs, and chocolate bunnies.

And so, what do you believe about Easter?  About Jesus?  About the cross?  About the empty tomb?  Surveys tell us that most people believe in God, or a higher power of some sort.  Surveys also tell us that most people believe that there was a man named Jesus who was a prophet and a teacher and a healer, who lived a moral life and died on the cross.  But, when it comes to the empty tomb, however, many people hesitate.  They stop short of believing in Christ’s resurrection, for then they would have to admit that something that sounds impossible is possible; that something that sounds unbelievable is believable; that something that can’t be rationally explained by mere mortals can still happen with God.

As most of us have heard, today, Easter Day, is the most important day of the Christian calendar, and Christ’s resurrection is central to everything that Jesus taught concerning himself and the Kingdom of God, to everything the church has proclaimed since the day that Jesus ascended into heaven.  Most of us have heard that Easter is the key to our faith and to our hope as Christians. 

Hope.  Ah, yes, hope.  Now, I would venture to guess that if we really looked deep into our hearts, hope is why many of us have come here this morning.  We are searching for a hope that is greater and stronger and more certain than the failures and tragedies and problems we experience in our everyday lives.  And I am convinced that Easter offers us the most powerful message of hope available. Hope.  That is what Mary desperately needs as she makes her way through the dark streets of Jerusalem and the dark night of her soul to the small garden tomb where the body of her friend, Jesus of Nazareth, lies.  She has watched Jesus die on the cross; she has watched as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea prepared His body with perfumes and linen wrappings, laid Him in the tomb and rolled the stone over the entrance.  Jesus had once cast seven demons out of Mary.  He had healed her and loved her and given her a sense of self-worth.  And now He is dead – brutally killed by people who felt threatened by him, by people who neither knew nor understood Him. 

And so Mary goes to the tomb early Sunday morning, while it is still dark.  It is dark not just because of the time of day, but also because the Light of the world is gone.  It is dark because in her heart, Mary can no longer feel the presence of God, and a world without Jesus is a world without hope.  When she gets to the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away and the grave opened, Mary does not even bother to look inside.  Through the blur of her tears and the haze of her exhaustion, Mary can only guess that grave robbers have stolen Jesus’ body.  And, even long after the disciples have seen for themselves and returned home, Mary lingers outside the tomb, weeping. 

Certainly, we can imagine that she is thinking back on all that has happened, the many lives that Jesus has touched and transformed during the time she’s known him.  And she is thinking that now it’s all over.  And as she stands there, remembering and weeping, she sees a man near the cave.  He speaks, and there is something in his voice that sounds so familiar.  “Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you looking for?”  In the dim light she cannot see his face and thinks he must be the gardener.  The Voice speaks again: “Mary.”  And suddenly she knows.  It is he; he is alive again!  Christ is Risen! 

And, dear friends, that is the Good News we proclaim and celebrate on this Easter morn, because we, too, can be transformed and have new life.  Christ is risen – and he is here today, here in our midst, in our hearts, in the words we speak, in the love we show, here even in our questions and our doubts.  Christ is risen – and he is here to forgive and heal, to transform and make new, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; he is here to help us stand up when we fall.  For that is the literal meaning of the word resurrection –
“to stand up again.” 

When Christ heals the paralytic, who then stands up – that’s resurrection!  When Christ heals the woman with the hemorrhage, and she is able to re-enter society and live a full life again – that’s resurrection!  When Christ grants the sinful woman forgiveness and tells her to go in peace – that’s resurrection! 

And each of us can experience resurrection in our own lives, too.  When we are imprisoned by anger and hatred and Christ frees us to offer reconciling forgiveness –that’s resurrection!  When we fall into an anguished and hopeless despair, and Christ pulls us back into the light – that’s resurrection!  When our hearts have been broken, and Christ heals us so that we are able to love again – that’s resurrection!  When our hopes are dashed, when we lose a relationship, when illness visits, when death intrudes -- and the Risen Christ gives us strength to keep going – that’s resurrection! You see, as some of you have heard me say before, Easter is not about proving the mystery of the event that happened some 2000 years ago.  Easter is about how we live today.  It’s about living the mystery of the Gospel which liberates us from our tombs - our tombs of depression, shame, guilt, despair, regret, denial and loss.  It is about rolling away what locks us up and blocks us from wholeness.  Jesus tells us to roll away those stones so we can hear his voice and let him bring us healing and new life. 

You see, death is not just physical death, but death is everything that diminishes or destroys life, whatever sours or kills love, whatever keeps us from reconciliation, peace, forgiveness; whatever threatens life’s joy and possibility, whatever tears us apart and separates us from one another. 

So, where are the places that hope is gone for you?  Where are you living in a tomb, sealed by a stone?  Jesus is calling to you and to me, calling each of us by name just as he called to Mary.  Resurrection begins for us when we recognize his voice and believe, for even with faith the size of a mustard seed, God can bring peace in the midst of pain, hope in the center of hurt, new life in the face of death.  Resurrection is about letting God transform our existence into the fullness of life God intends for us.  In the words of the Apostle Paul, we “can do all things through God who strengthens” us [Philippians 4:13].

Friends, today and every Sunday, we gather in this church to celebrate that God in Jesus Christ offers to each one of us unconditional love, forgiveness, and healing.  And the Risen Christ does this in spite of being rejected, in spite of being doubted and disbelieved.  The empty tomb shows us that God cares so much for us that God came to us as one of us in Jesus Christ to enter into our lives and show us how to live, and when we fall – which we will do – to help us to stand up again.

So, no, it’s not Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or Ground Hog Day.  It’s Easter.  And Jesus is calling our name, holding out his hand, and helping us to stand up again.  And, surely that’s resurrection! 

Alleluia, Christ is risen;
the Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Amen.

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