SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2008

EASTER

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Dear Friends in Our Lord Jesus:

The scene was stark. The atmosphere was heavy. And the emotions were swirling together in a confusing mixture of sorrow and fear, pain and numbness, emptiness and apprehension.

It was two hours before daylight, around 4 a.m. A grief-stricken woman named Mary, from the village of Magdala, was making her way quietly and unobtrusively to a heavily guarded tomb just outside the city. It was the first day of the week, in the year 30 AD, just outside the city of Jerusalem. Mary carried a basket of ointments and spices to finish the task of anointing the body of her teacher and rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, a powerful prophet and miracle worker crucified by the Romans less than two days earlier.

Her questions were many: Would the Roman soldiers allow her to finish the task begun in haste just before sundown some 36 hours earlier? Or would she, too, be arrested by the temple authorities as a blasphemer and traitor against religious law? Would she be allowed to approach the tomb? And, if so, would she be strong enough to roll away the stone from in front of the small cave? And who would break the tomb's seal, placed the previous day on orders of the governor?

With her fear increasing at every step, Mary Magdalene walked into the garden. But to her shock, disbelief, and horror, she found that the stone had already been moved. And the soldiers -- risking the death penalty -- had abandoned their posts. Suddenly, at the tomb's entrance, a man dressed in dazzling white robes greeted her: "Fear not!" he said. "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen!"

And so began the most incredible, the most miraculous, the most decisive, the most important day in history. Alleluia! Christ is risen!

-- The Very Rev. Dr. Steve Sellers +