Easter Message 2025
‘Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb’ (John 20:1)
All of us have known the sort of empty forlorn feeling that Mary must have had had that first Easter morning. The day after our team has just lost a big game, the day after we were fired from our job, the day after we heard that the cancer that’s growing within us is inoperable. The day after a loved one has passed away. There isn’t a person reading this message who hasn’t felt heartbroken like Mary. All of us have known what it is to rise in darkness and see no hope that daylight will ever enter our lives again. But here is the Good News friends, the darkness of death was not the end of Jesus Christ, for as Mary was about to discover, this Jesus was risen and with the break of the new day there was hope for the world.
Unlike the other Gospels, John has Mary arriving on her own at the tomb that morning. Much to her distress she finds it empty and presumes that someone has removed the body. She runs to the disciples to tell them the disturbing news that the body of missing. Peter and another disciple known as the Beloved disciple run to the tomb. The beloved disciple gets there first. He peers in and sees the linen wrappings lying there and the napkin that had once covered Jesus’ head. Peter, who clearly wasn’t as fit for an early morning run, eventually catches up, he looks in. He goes in. They see and they believe that something amazing has happened and they decide to go home, presumably to tell the others.
Mary though remains at the graveside. She is so overwhelmed by the occasion. Still weeping, she also peers into the tomb and sees two angels sitting one at the head and one at the feet of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They ask her, ‘Why are you weeping?’ she answers ‘They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him’. With these words, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there but did not recognise him. Jesus asks her why are you weeping? Who are you looking for? Thinking him to be a gardener, a natural mistake in the half light of early morning, she replied, If it is you Sir, who removed him, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her ‘Mary’ and she turned to him and said ‘Rabbuni’ which is Hebrew for teacher. Do not cling to me, said Jesus, ‘for I am going ascending to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father, to my God, and your God’ Mary went to tell the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’ and gave them his message.
The contrast between the darkness of despair with which Mary went to the tomb on that first Easter morning and the brightness of the light of God she felt after meeting the risen Jesus is a striking detail of this story. It is a reminder that God is always at work in our lives, even in the darkest reach of our despair. Jesus comes as light in our darkness. It is a reminder that God always come to pierce our darkness with the light of his risen presence.
Let us also remember that although Mary rose early and went out to find the grave, it was actually Jesus who found Mary. It was God who broke into this darkness, sending messengers to reassure Mary. Later Jesus himself takes the initiative as he appears to his disciples on the Road to Emmaus, beside the Lake and in the Upper room until all of them, even the doubting Thomas believed that Jesus really was alive!
This is the whole point of the gospel, when we discover the risen Christ in our lives, rarely is this because of our own efforts, our own studies, our own reading of clever books or the good works we carry out in the name of the church. More often than not, we discover the risen Christ because he breaks into our lives, he makes himself known to us. He makes himself known to us so often in the ordinary and the unexpected events of our life, the caring neighbour who helps us through a time of ill health, the words of a wisdom spoken to us by a dear friend when we are at a low point, the verse of a hymn or a line of scripture that speak to us in a way we have heard before and we are aware of the activity of the risen Christ who breaks into our lives and reminds us that he is not dead, he is alive!
In this Easter season, let us wipe aside any tears of sadness and darkness that may have overwhelmed us. Let us instead rejoice in the glorious truth that our Lord is risen from the dead and that through his resurrection all of us are offered the chance to find life in all its fullness. May the joyful news of this day, enliven your life and lift your spirits not just for today, but may we all be the Easter people every day of our lives, and may we be given the ability to recognise his grace in our lives, this day and forevermore!
Christ the Lord is risen. He is risen indeed Alleluia!