Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021 – Acts 10:34A, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

This has been a difficult year for all of us. I’d like you to just sit back. Let your body relax. Take a deep breath or two. If you want to, close your eyes. If not, there are beautiful things here in the sanctuary that you can look at as I speak.

Jesus lies on a slab of stone inside Nicodemus’ tomb. He is wrapped loosely in a burial shroud - loosely because it was too late on Friday to complete the binding of mummification. A piece of cloth covers His face. The air inside is cold and damp. It is pitch black.

There is the sound of stone grating on stone. Slowly, the dim light of early morning begins to filter into the corners of the tomb. Jesus stirs. First He smells the scent of His own breath. “Why,” He wonders, “does it feel so close?” Then He feels the soft, textured linen covering His face. It itches slightly. Instinctively, He shakes His head to free himself.  The covering falls to the floor beside Him. He blinks His eyes, trying to focus in the dark. “Where am I,” He wonders.

Then He remembers. A shudder runs through Him. He begins to recoil.

But, now, He realizes that He is bound and cannot move. In a panic, He begins to struggle. But, with no effort at all, the shroud falls from His body and He is released.

He looks at His hands. The holes at His wrists are still there, still caked with His dried blood. He begins to move - slowly, haltingly, at first - unsure of His own strength. But He feels vigor coursing through His body. He stands and sees that there are also holes in His feet. He touches His side and feels the fresh scar there.

And He remembers.

He recalls His last gasping cry, “Why, Abba, have You abandoned Me?”  

Oh, but He hasn’t. With a shock of joy, Jesus realizes that He is alive. “Alive!! Oh, my God, I’m alive!”

 “... But I’m naked.” No sooner does He recognize his embarrassing condition than an attendant appears, seemingly out of nowhere. Silently, reverently, he presents Jesus with a seamless tunic. Jesus raises His arms to put them through the sleeves. He feels the tunic fall softly to His feet. Absentmindedly, with care born of habit, he folds the face cloth, and he rolls up the shroud, setting them on the floor.

The growing light attracts him.  Slowly, He moves toward the opening of this cave, this tomb. He peers out, head and shoulders.

The sudden glare of the bright, rising sun momentarily blinds Him. He blinks once or twice and opens His eyes, adjusting to the light. The sun feels warm against His face. Somewhere a bird is singing. A breeze caresses His face, carrying with it the distant sounds of the city. The taste, the scent, the tang of spring is in the air. Jesus smiles. He laughs out loud.

 “I am alive!!  Oh, Abba, I am alive!!”

Christ is alive.

We are alive.