Easter 2024
Channel: St. Bartholomew's, Livermore
Date: 2024-03-31

Collect:  Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Scripture (John 20:11-18):  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.


Reflection:  This conversation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is arguably the most pivotal one in the entirety of human history, but one would hardly guess it.  It is, by all appearances, so small and insignificant.  One bereaved woman lingers by a tomb and suddenly sees her beloved friend and teacher, whom she believed dead, alive and well.  After this she goes and tells his other friends what happened.  Compared to the forces of evil, this seems like nothing.  This is no accident.  Evil always looks like it has the upper hand.  The forces that seek to corrupt and destroy are almost always seemingly bigger, flashier, and louder than the power of God.  But make no mistake; it's all smoke and mirrors.  The seemingly indestructible empire that sought to kill Jesus and stamp out any hint of resistance has been gone for over 1500 years, and like it every apparently spectacular show of human power has met a similar fate.  But the message of the Resurrection lives on.  God's power lives on.  It may appear tiny, weak, and insignificant, but it has one trait that everything else lacks: it is eternal and indestructible.  And in that we can put our full faith and trust.  No matter how things look, God wins.  Life wins.  Love wins.  Happy Easter!