1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! The message for this glorious Easter Day we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead is taken from John 20:1-18, it’s entitled, “Three Days,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Three days. That’s how we observed our Lord’s death and prepared for his resurrection. We gathered for the Triduum. Three days. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. In these three days, we walk with Jesus from his Last Supper to his betrayal, his trial, his beating, his crucifixion, his death, and his rest in the tomb. These three days were the longest, toughest days Jesus’ disciples ever endured. Obviously! But regardless of how old or young you are—these three days are tough to make it through. They are tough because they lead us up Mount Calvary. In those three days we see the innocent, perfect, spotless Lamb of God, God’s own Son, take upon himself the sins of the whole world—our sins, the sins of which we’re guilty.
3. But while the whole world may not realize what that means for them, we know what it means for us—the full and complete forgiveness of all of our sins. Because Christ died for you, you are saved from sin, from death, and from the devil. Because Christ died for you, they have no more power over you. Because Christ died for you, you have peace with God and with your fellow brothers and sisters in him. This is a peace that the world longs for. This is a peace that wars are fought for, and people die to achieve. This is the peace that binds troubled bodies, that soothes troubled hearts and minds. This peace is yours in Christ, a free gift, that has been won for you through his death. For when our Lord speaks his last word, “It is finished,” and breathes his last, it is finished, done, and complete.
4. But those three days were only to walk us up the mountain to Jesus’ death and burial. They weren’t the final three days. No, death is not the last word for Jesus. No, life is. Those days were to lead us as a guide to a destination, up the mountain that is Easter. They led us and prepared us well for the glorious resurrection of our Lord. For without them, we see not what the full work of our Lord is and what the will of the Father is for him and for us.
5. Without those days, we reduce Christ to a good teacher, a prophet, or a mighty man—or even a magician. Those three days prepared us as we walked along with our Good Shepherd, who fully and completely lays down his life for his sheep, for you. And in laying it down, he also takes it back up—for you too. So that you now have new life in him, and the promise and the hope of heaven when he calls you to himself. This is your Easter gift. Not bunnies and eggs or marshmallows and chocolate, but that you are an heir through Jesus of new life, a new creation, and the heavenly reward.
6. Our celebration of Easter is the peak of the mountain. It’s the pinnacle of everything that we do and everything that we are as followers of Christ. Today, this Easter Day, we stand at the top of the mountain. We look out over the vast landscape that was once ruled by death with new and hope-filled eyes. Life that was thought to be swallowed up by death has now overtaken it in itself.
7. But the women who went to Jesus’ tomb that morning did not know that. On that first day of the week, that Easter Sunday morning, they came to the tomb of Jesus hopeless and despairing. They came to do, to finish, the work that had been done by those who laid Jesus in the tomb in haste. They came expecting to find a cold, heavy stone and a cold, dead body. But what they found was a stone rolled away. This was not how it was meant to be, so they ran and got the disciples.
8. In haste, both Peter and the disciple whom we can reason to be John sprinted to the tomb. For this is not what they expected either. Although told of it time and time again, this is not what they, having seen the events of Good Friday, expected would happen. And stooping down to enter the tomb, they both go in to find nothing but the cloth that had been over Jesus’ face and the linens, even neatly folded. Not knowing what this meant, they returned to their brother disciples to report to them all that they had seen. Mary they left there to weep and mourn for the Lord. For she knew not where he had gone, but only that his body was no longer where she had thought it would be—where she thought it should be—not understanding him either.
9. Our Lord Jesus, though, is always one to give more than we deserve. He is always one to forgive our faithlessness. To enlighten our darkened eyes. To show us who he truly is when we cannot comprehend it. He speaks to Mary, to comfort her in her sorrow. “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” (John 20:15). Sorrowed and grieved, she doesn’t know with whom she’s talking, and she asks if he knows where Jesus’ body is. Now all Jesus has to do is speak one word, “Mary” (John 20:16), and she knows who this person is. He is her teacher, her “Rabboni” (John 20:16). He is her Lord. He is Jesus, risen from the dead, there in flesh and blood before her very eyes.
10. But Jesus commands Mary not to hold on to him in this world. He is going to ascend to his Father’s right hand. While Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday serve to get us up the mountain, and while this Easter Day is the pinnacle of the mountain, Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and all the days beyond will walk us down the back side of the mountain—and that has purpose too. So in faith, Mary returns to the disciples to tell them the good news that “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). Her life, the disciples’ lives, and our lives, are all changed by this, that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
11. In taking away your sins, he calls for you to live a new life in him, and through his Holy Spirit, he calls for you to live not in the way that the world lives but in the way that a redeemed person lives. You are living on the back side of the mountain that is Easter. But that doesn’t mean the best is over, that it’s all downhill from here. As the apostle Paul says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2–3). You are justified. You are sanctified. You are called to live a life different from the world. As Christ has died for you and you are dead in him, so as he rises, you are raised too. Three days—that’s what it took for him to bring you up the mountain, to win for you all of your days. To free you from sin, from death, and from the devil. From here, we see what it was all for.
12. As difficult as it was for the disciples to go through those three Days, those three days are nothing in comparison to the joys we will experience on this, the far side of the mountain, as those who believe in him. Every day is a new day in him. A day of forgiveness. A day of love. A day of grace. The day to reside in his mercy. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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