Easter Sunday!

 

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8 ESV).

 

Mark tells us the women were “trembling and astonishment had seized them” (v. 8). I suppose I may have reacted even more fearfully. I cannot imagine anything more astonishing than the empty tomb. Yet it is precisely this event that Jesus had been teaching them that they would not be so easily upset at his death (cf. John 14:1-6). All these things were exactly as God had determined. From the beginning, when Adam and Eve plunged humanity into sin with death as the consequence, He knew it would end just this way. It was simply so difficult for those early disciples to grasp. Yet here they were standing in an empty tomb.

 

Our task is to remember that this first Easter was no more than a dress rehearsal for that great coming Day, when our perishable bodies will put on the imperishable, when the mortal finally puts on immortality. When we join in the triumph song with the prophets and the apostles, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (cf. Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians  15:55). Just as rehearsing the details of Jesus’ final days leading up to the cross prepares us for the fiery trial coming on us, so also Easter readies us for the triumph that will follow. Easter is our foretaste of glory divine. Christ has been raised. Day no longer is fading to black, but night is awakening to the brightness. Darkness is not suffocating the sun, but light is chasing away the shadows. Sin is not winning, but death is swallowed up in victory. Indeed, even agony will turn to glory.

 

Easter doesn’t suppress our pain. It doesn’t minimize our loss. It bids our burdens stand as they are, in all their weight, with all their threats. And this risen Christ, with the brilliance of indestructible life in his eyes, says, “These too I will claim in the victory. These too will serve your joy. These too, even these, I can make an occasion for rejoicing. I have overcome, and you will more than conquer.”

 

Easter is not an occasion to repress whatever ails you and put on a happy face. Rather, the joy of Easter speaks tenderly to the pains that plague you. Whatever loss you lament, whatever burden weighs you down, Easter says, “It will not always be this way for you. The new age has begun. Jesus has risen, and the kingdom of the Messiah is here. He has conquered death and sin and hell. He is alive and on his throne. And he is putting your enemies, all your enemies, under his feet.” Not only will he remedy what’s wrong in your life and bring glorious order to the mess and vanquish your foe, but he will make your pain, your grief, your loss, your burden, through the deep mystery of resurrection, to be a real ingredient in your everlasting joy. You will not only conquer this one day soon, but you will be more than a conqueror (cf. Romans 8:37).

 

There is a day coming that will last forever when he wipes away every tear and heals every infirmity. Such power is too great to simply return us to the Garden. He ushers us into a garden-city, the New Jerusalem. Easter announces, in the voice of the risen Christ, “Your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20), and “no one will take your joy from

you” (John 16:22). Easter declares, for all time, that the one who has conquered death has now made it the servant of our joy.