Easter Day
Collect Lord of all life and power, Amen.
Acts 10.34-43 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached – how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
1 Corinthians 15.1-11 Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
John 20.1-18 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
A reflection by the Revd Sandie
I’m conscious that it might not be immediately obvious to everybody in our world why Christians so passionately celebrate the fact that, Jesus didn’t remain dead despite suffering a despicable death on the cross. As I read through it once again I was pondering why this resurrection narrative is so unspectacular and filled with odd details. And why do I know this, because as I read the text again, I could not get past that first sentence. “Early on the first day of the week while it was still dark.” Now this could be John giving us a reference to the time of day, just another detail to set the scene. But then it struck me that for Mary it wasn’t just the physical darkness but a spiritual darkness she was experiencing. She had been with Jesus from early in His ministry and witnessed so many amazing things. But she had also stood helpless at the foot of the cross as Jesus suffered and died. What was happening to her Saviour? Where was God in all this? So she must have approached the tomb that morning with a very heavy heart and a darkness in her soul. And the confusion of the empty tomb and the loneliness as the John and Peter left her there again trying to understand what had happened may have compounded this Mary went on to be called the Apostle to the Apostles although there is no consensus on what happened to her after the disciples left Jerusalem. What is acknowledge though, in all four Gospels, is that she saw the risen Lord that first Easter morning and believed that all that Jesus had said would happen, happened. Jesus has been raised from the dead, and anything and everything is possible, and some things are certain: Evil will not triumph in this world, Death will not have the final say, and His Kingdom will come! Post Communion Prayer God of Life, Copyright acknowledgement (where not already indicated above): 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Pub. Hodder & Stoughton |