Easter Sunrise

March 23, 2008

Victor H. Nixon

LETTING GO OF OUR PRECONCEPTIONS

John 20:1-18

Happy Easter, Arkansas!

Happy Easter, Little Rock and North Little Rock!

Happy Easter, NCAA teams, coaches and fans!

As an old basketball player, I know what it means to win a tournament game. There’s nothing quite like the joy and elation experienced when the final buzzer sounds and the trophy is yours. Nothing! I also know the agony of losing a tournament game, to experience the disappointment and despair, the tears of guilt and grief, for what could have been. If I had made the free throw we would have won the game! There’s nothing to compare with winning. And there’s just nothing worse than losing.

Easter is a story of winners and losers. Jesus and his meager, unlikely team of disciples lost out in Jerusalem to a powerful coalition of religious and political authorities that successfully managed to manipulate public opinion by fear, innuendo and false accusation—all in the name of law and order. It’s a familiar, sorry story with predictable results. According to John’s Gospel, Jesus was executed on a cross along with two criminals outside the city on Friday as his mother Mary, his aunt Mary and his friend and supporter, Mary Magdalene, watched and his disciples hid in fear that they might suffer the same ignominious end. A secret disciple, Joseph of Arimathea, received permission to take the body of Jesus and placed it in a tomb in a nearby garden.

And that’s where we find Mary Magdalene weeping before sunrise. She had earlier discovered the tomb open and empty, and reported her findings to the disciples. Two came and investigated, found only grave clothes, and went back home. Where was Jesus? There was nothing to do but weep. Mary wept in grief for her friend and rabbi. She wept because she was afraid. She wept out of disappointment and despair. Mary wept in anger over the injustice of innocent suffering and death.

Like Mary Magdalene we have stood weeping outside of tombs when faith, hope, and love have died. We weep with grief when loved ones die from violence that stalks our streets, invades our homes and schools, that drives us into hiding behind security fences and alarms. We weep because lives and property have been destroyed by disease and natural disasters. We weep because those we love have been sent to war, knowing that some will not return. We weep because personal dreams have died and the future is uncertain. We weep because we are alone with nobody to share joy and pain. We cry because we fear there is nothing more than the daily grind with prospects of unemployment and a sour economy, afraid that life ends with a tomb, afraid of failure.

We cry because we are in pain—physically, emotionally and spiritually. Like Mary, we have our own demons and need healing and wholeness. We weep because we are separated from one another by boundaries of suspicion, hatred, bigotry, politics, social and economic status, and indifference. Mary is not alone outside that tomb. Some of us have been there a number of times, up close and personal, and doubtless will return when we lose.

In the midst of misery Mary became aware that the Risen Christ was with her. She ran and told the others, "I have seen the Lord!" Mourning turned to joy. That’s what Easter is all about. The resurrection of Christ is God’s signal that hope is not dead. Resurrection is God’s notice that faith overcomes failure.

Easter is God’s message that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Easter is losing our preconceptions of what is possible. Resurrection is God’s assurance that even when you lose you can win. Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!