Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022 – Acts 10:34A, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

It’s like a very serious game of “Where’s Waldo Now?” Who’s missing from the story? This is the great feast of Easter, the Lord’s Resurrection, and He’s the only one that doesn’t show up in the gospel story.

There are four gospels. Each one tells a different story of the Crucifixion, the Death, the Empty Tomb, and the Resurrection. But all of them have the three elements that we heard in today’s story. The women go at dawn. The tomb is empty. Strange messengers tell them, “He is not here. He is risen. Go tell.” Go tell. The story ends there in two of our three Easter celebrations. This is Year C, the year of Luke. In Year A, the year of Matthew, Jesus does show up in the last line of the story. In Year B, the year of Mark, Jesus isn’t there. This is not the gospel. This is the liturgy, the church’s use of the gospel to make a point.

So what’s the point? All of us have buried. We have buried our dearest loved ones. We have buried hopes and dreams and expectations. We have buried disappointments and brokenhearted-ness. We have buried all sorts of things. And, if we are baptized Christians, then, when we buried those persons, and those things, and those events, and those attitudes, Jesus was there in our tombs of our own making with us. Jesus might have been there as a companion. He might have been there as someone to whom we had prayed and not gotten the answer we wanted. He may have been there as someone with whom we were exceedingly angry and did not want to acknowledge. He may have been there as someone who is challenging us that the reason for the death was some sin of ours. But, no matter how he was there, he was there.

We still go back to those graves. In devotion, to place flowers near the tomb and tombstone of a loved one, in happy memory of cheerful days gone by, in bitter memory of hurts and angers still not resolved, in frightened memory of the way in which our body has betrayed us and we are stuck with its effects. In so many different ways, we still go back to those tombs. And what happens? We go in like we usually do, but the tomb is empty. And who’s not there? Jesus is not there. We are there, but we’re now there alone. Because Jesus, who is always resurrection and life, Jesus, who is our life at its fullest, has moved on. The empty tomb and those there with us, both our friends and our enemies, both our dearest loved ones and those with whom we have issues, they’re all saying to us, “Look. Look. He’s not here. He’s out there. Go out and you will find Him.”

That’s why the church cuts off the story just before Jesus comes back. Because, on the Feast of Easter, the church invites us to leave the tombs that we have created for ourselves, or that life has created for us, and go out to where Jesus, our life and our light, is waiting for you and for me.