Mark 16:1-8
“Again & Again: The Sun Rises”
Preached Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024
Ready-or-Not, here I come!
Have you ever played hide and seek with a toddler? It’s a favorite game in our house and we will often take turns - who hides and who seeks. And especially when it’s the three year old’s time to count…well, the ready-or-not gets taken seriously. Instead of slowly counting to ten we might get, “One, Two, Three, Six, Eight, Ten! Ready-or-not, here I come!” And that all actually takes just three seconds to hide - so you better book it into that closet.
And ready-or-not, Easter is here. Church-wise? I am ready! At home? Well, let’s just say that Easter eggs won’t be hidden until after worship this morning.
To be honest, I often feel unprepared in life. At least for the big things. How can you ever really be prepared to fall in love? How can you ever really be prepared to become a parent? Whether it’s for the first or more time? How can you ever really be prepared for a diagnosis? How can you ever really be prepared for a loved one to die? How can you ever really be prepared for the breaking news headline? For a time of war? For life as we know it to change - for better or worse?
The women at that tomb that first Easter were not ready. How could they have been? Sure, Jesus had said that he would die…and that he would rise again. But his words hadn't been inputted. And even if they had, how can you prepare for that kind of loss? For witnessing the horror and violence of crucifixion, of the scattering and betrayal of friends, of this deep sense of loss and grief and it makes it all too easy for doubt and fear to creep in. How can you ever really prepare for a loss so profound? You can’t.
The Gospel of Mark says they went when the sun had risen, to the tomb. A new day had dawned on their grief. It hadn’t even been 48 hours since Jesus died on the cross. To those who have lost a loved one...those first 48 hours are...well...hard. As an understatement. But planning the funeral normally gives one direction, decisions to make, things to do - so the women went to the tomb to do the next thing on their to-do list: Prepare the body for burial. ...and Jesus was not there. Instead a man, or an angel, all in white told them that Jesus was not there. He was risen.
And what did the women do? The text says, “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.” And actually, this is where the Gospel of Mark ends. There are alternative endings that aren’t in the earliest manuscripts. Mark ends his Gospel on a cliff-hanger.
How could the women have prepared for the shock of that first Easter? How could they have prepared for the news that Jesus rose from the dead? How could they have prepared for the total upheaval of the world as they knew it? How could they have prepared for the complete change of the patterns of life and death as they knew it? How could they have been prepared for a sudden shock of joy when they were in deep grief? How could they have been prepared to process, to make sense, to explain this news and share it with others? How? They couldn’t have prepared. They couldn’t have been ready.
And that’s the thing...Easter comes every year - whether we are ready for it or not...Easter comes. Every year - Easter happens.
Easter happens in the midst of war.
Easter happens in the middle of turmoil.
Easter happens in times of depression.
Easter happens - good or bad times - Easter happens.
And that’s kind of the whole point of Easter - Easter isn’t this happy day of celebration that stands apart on its own. There would be no Easter if there was not first Good Friday.
Easter is a day of joy and a day of celebration that comes out of a day of death, a day of grief, loss, and pain.
Easter is powerful BECAUSE we have experienced Good Friday. The Resurrection is powerful because there was first, Death. In his death and resurrection, the God who is Love looks at all the terror and grief and fear and violence and despair and sin of this world - the God who is Love looks at them straight on and says, nothing, not even all the combined powers of Darkness are greater than I, are greater than Life. Are greater than Love.
Easter happens whether we are ready for it or not. Easter happens whether we are prepared for it or not. And that’s the beautiful thing about it - Easter does not depend on us. It is something God does entirely for us. It is God who defeats death. It is God who brings joy to grief. It is God who makes the sun rise again after the dark night.
The sun of that first Easter dawned on a morning of grief, a morning of loss.
The sun of that first Easter dawned on a day of confusion, or terror, and amazement.
The sun of that first Easter dawned...because that’s what the sun does.
Again and again, no matter what the day brings, no matter what the world is doing, no matter if we’re prepared or not - the sun rises. A new day comes. The sunrise brings with it day after night, light after dark.
And if the sun rises, and you are still in a dark place, if you’re not prepared for the sun, that’s okay. The sun will rise anyway, and hopefully offer you warmth, comfort, and hope for a new day.
That’s the power of both the sunrise and of Easter - they come - they come into a world of grief. They come after the long night. They come and say that the darkness does not last forever. Grief does not last forever. Not even death is forever. In this world there is nothing, no sadness, no despair, no night that is more powerful than Jesus. There is light. There is hope. There is Resurrection. The sun dawns, Easter comes, death’s chains have been defeated, Jesus is alive.
The sun has risen. Jesus is alive.
And so today, Easter has come - ready or not.
And so let us, in the morning light proclaim: He is risen - He is risen Indeed!
Amen.
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