Love is not in the tomb. Love has gone ahead of you.

Sermon for the Sunday of the Resurrection: Easter Sunday (March 31, 2024) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.

The myrrh-bearing women at the empty tomb, c. 1420, at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in Sergiyev Posad, Russia.

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When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and 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. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Mark 16:1-8

Edited Transcript

May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.

When you woke up this morning and you realized that it was Easter, how did you feel? Did you feel terror? No? Did you feel amazement? Did you feel afraid? No? What? So these aren't the first words that come to your mind when someone says, Happy Easter.

When I say Happy Easter, what are the words that come to your mind? Joy! Bunny! Egg! Yeah! There's one word, we had it on a banner... Does anyone remember? Big word? We haven't said it for 40 days... Alleluia! Christ is risen.

Okay, so these are the words that we think of on Easter morning. Joy, maybe family, fun, excitement, eggs and bunnies and flowers... not terror and amazement. In some translations of Mark's Gospel, we hear: total bewilderment. We hear that they ran from the tomb and they said nothing to anyone, or they were filled with terror and amazement. This isn't how we think of Easter. And yet the witnesses to the resurrection experienced feelings of fear, terror, bewilderment, wonder... at the absence of what they expected.

What did they come to the tomb to seek? Did they come to seek Jesus risen? They came to seek the dead in the place where the dead were laid.

They came in grief. They came in sorrow. They came in horror.

And having witnessed the death of their beloved friend. These were the women who, when everyone else had left Jesus, these women stood and watched until he breathed his very last words, which were, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And so they woke on the third day. And many of us in this room have had that feeling. When we are in a deep grief, when we have experienced a deep loss that has torn our world apart, how does it feel when you wake up in the morning? You might wake up from a dream of the person you lost. You wake up and you realize that the grief is still there, that the loss is still real.

And somehow, if you're lucky enough, you get up, you get out of bed, and you go about your day to do the things that you need to do. That's what these women did. Woke up on the third day, realized again, he is dead.

And somehow they got up anyway, they found each other, came together, took the spices for anointing, went to the tomb to look for the dead, among the dead.

And they didn't know how they were going to move the stone away. And that's what they were talking about as they went: the things we do one day at a time, living our lives in the wake of the world's suffering and grief, carrying our pain, carrying the pain of others, and we do what we need to do.

When they get there, they find not a great obstacle, not a stone, but the stone has been rolled away. And they go to find the dead among the dead, but he is not there.

And there's a young man there, and he says, He has risen, as he said! Now go tell the disciples. He is going ahead of you. He has gone ahead of you. He's not here. He's not among the dead. He is gone ahead of you back to life. He has gone ahead of you to bring love to the world that thought that love had been crucified, died, buried, sealed over. But he is not in the grave. He is risen, and they can't see him. They can't touch him.

They see only this empty tomb, only the absence of the one they love in the place that they thought he was. And they're called to go and tell others he is not here, he is risen!

Love is not dead. Love is alive in this world, in our world, full of sorrow, suffering, grief, where we wake day after day, turn on the news, turn on the radio, open our phones, see the headlines, see the war, see the shootings, see the terror. We go day after day to the grave, looking to see that love has finally lost.

But each time we go, we discover: love is not in the tomb. Love is risen. It has gone ahead of us out into the world again, where we didn't expect to see it. We had lost every hope. But love is not in the tomb. Love is risen. Love is alive. Love burns. Love lives where we do not hope for it, where we do not expect it.

Jesus went ahead of us to show us that truth. And now each of us, we are called to proclaim. Go ahead, tell the world. Love is not entombed. Love is risen. Love is alive. Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ is risen. Christ is risen!

Alleluia! Alleluia. And amen.