Surprise in a Graveyard
John 20:1-18
A two year old girl could hardly wait for Easter to come. She had a new dress to wear and new shoes to go with it, but her father wondered whether she knew the true meaning of Easter. “Kara,” he asked, “do you know what Easter means?”
“Yes, I do,” she smiled.
“What does it mean then?” her father asked.
With a smile on her face and her arms raised, she cried, “Surprise!”
There is no better word for Easter. “Surprise!”
In our reading today, John, tells us, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away. So, she runs to Simon Peter and John, and says, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Evidently the thought had not occurred to Mary that Christ could be resurrected from the grave.
Peter and John start for the tomb. When they find it empty, they simply go back to the house where they were staying. There was no celebration, no cries of, He’s alive. You might expect those who knew Christ best to be bubbling over with excitement that first Easter Sunday morning, because he had been raised from the dead, just as he said. Instead, they were totally mystified that his body was gone.
As for Mary, she stands outside the tomb crying. She bends over to look into the tomb and sees two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They ask her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she explains, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turns around and sees Jesus standing there, but she doesn’t recognize him. “Woman,” he says, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he’s the gardener, she says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus calls her name, “Mary.”
She turns toward him and cries out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Surprise, Mary! Surprise! He is alive. Surprise, Peter. Surprise, John. Surprise, all those who thought Jesus was dead. Surprise, world, Jesus is alive!
The story of Easter is no carefully contrived story designed by Jesus’ followers to convince us of something that isn’t so. The story of Easter is the honest reporting of baffled believers who had no idea where Christ was leading them until he appeared to them beyond the grave. Surprise, everyone!
Easter is such an extraordinary day. No wonder people gather in such numbers all over the world to celebrate the event of the resurrection. Jesus Christ who was dead is alive!
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 the Apostle Paul wrote, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles . . .”
Paul was telling about a shared experience of the Christian community. The risen Christ had appeared to more than five hundred believers, most of whom were still alive when Paul was writing. All it would have taken to shake Paul’s witness would have been one of those 500 who had encountered the risen Christ to refute his testimony, but none of them did. To their minds, there was no doubt. Christ is alive. Nothing in the ancient world refutes that testimony. The tomb was empty. The body was missing. Even more important, hundreds of lives were changed by the appearance of Jesus after his death.
Nothing in the modern world refutes that testimony either. It always has been fashionable in some circles to doubt Christ’s resurrection. The critical mind cannot accept what cannot be proved or, at least, that’s what we say. And yet we are not always so resistant to alternative ideas. We accept many things that cannot be proved.
Deep within our souls the very spirit of God testifies with our spirit, Christ is alive!
A man named Robert E. Smith once told of hearing the “Hallelujah Chorus” sung by five hundred trained voices. The “Hallelujah Chorus,” of course, is the triumphant part of Messiah composed by George Frederic Handel after he lost his sight in 1751. Handel claimed he had a vision and that this chorus is that vision set to music. Smith wrote that he could not for an instant doubt Handel’s claim, not after having his soul lifted into paradise by those 500 inspiring voices.
Bob Smith expressed the experience of being swept up by the sound of those 500 voices: “My soul was stirred, my mind was quickened spiritually and my imagination carried me beyond things earthly, and into the paradise of God. I saw a great chorus which no person could number before the throne of God. I listened to the song they sang. It was a song of triumph to the King of kings, telling of Christ wondrous achievements and of the universality and permanence of Christ reign. In their song I heard the voices of the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles and martyrs say, ‘For he shall reign for ever and ever.’. . . the angels of God and all the redeemed of the ages, joined in one grand chorus, and my spirit was lifted to ecstasy supreme, as they pealed forth the blessed and triumphant strain, ‘For he shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings! and Lord of Lords! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!’”
Most of us couldn’t express it that well, but we’ve experienced that same emotion. It is the music of Easter. It is the joyous surprise for Mary, and Peter and those other believers to whom the risen Christ appeared. And it is the song that rings in our hearts today, “For he shall reign forever and ever, King of kings! and Lord of Lords! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Christ is alive.