Fellow Celebrants of Jesus resurrection,
When I was little, our family traveled often to central Pennsylvania. There were several tunnels on the turnpike we had to pass through. It was almost scary and confining, as you left the bright sun behind and entered that dimly lit tiled tube. My brother, sister, and I would strain our eyes ahead looking for the first glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Lenten season is something like that tunnel experience. The hours we’ve spent with Jesus have been rather somber and serious even as we focused our attention on our Savior’s names of wondrous love. Those hours also drew attention to our sins, and what we had deserved from a holy God and what Christ had to suffer in our place.
Today it’s all different. Today we drive out of the Lenten tunnel into the full sunshine, the glorious light of another Easter. We look at one more name of wondrous love for our Savior - THE LIGHT. We go from dark night to gray dawn to glorious light.
Mary Magdalene came early, “while it was still dark.” Anyone who has lost a loved one knows Mary’s heart must have been dark as well with loss and grief. She had followed Jesus, serving him with full devotion and a heart full of faith in him as the promised Savior. Then had come the dark hours of the past days. Not only was the tomb into which they had hurriedly placed his lifeless body devoid of light, so was her spirit.
How can we imagine the blackness as she sobbed later to Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”? Mary would have been happy if she had found his lifeless body still in that grave so that she could embalm it! Now she was denied even that last labor of love.
Someone once said, “It is always darkest before the dawn.” If you have wept at a freshly filled grave, if you have struggled with life’s burdens, if you are worried about health, loved ones, job, money or the future, if your temptations never seem to go away, take heart. If you are traveling in those dark tunnels, look ahead to the light, Jesus Christ. We follow Mary Magdalene from dark night into gray dawn.
Darkness must yield to dawn. Every day it happens. In the first glimmer of gray light that day, Mary could see the stone rolled away from the tomb of her Lord.
Mary should have known that the disciples would not have cracked open the master’s tomb and stolen his body. They would not spread a lie that Jesus was risen from the dead. She would have known that the enemies had nothing to do with the rolled away stone either. They wanted Jesus still dead in that tomb so that people could start forgetting about him and his claims.
Easter light was beginning to shine in some darkened souls. Several of the women claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. They reported angels at the tomb, not only shining in glory but also speaking the news that Jesus was no longer dead. Soon Peter and the Emmaus disciples breathlessly reported news so wonderful that it was almost unbelievable.
In an instant, Mary’s gray uncertainty would disappear. The name of wondrous love, the Light, would shine radiantly into her heart. It would be for her like traveling out of a dimly lit tunnel into the blinding summer sunshine.
Dawn lasts only that short period between night and light. In the dawn Mary had seen the stone rolled away and had run back to report her fears. Later, in the daylight, she had returned to the tomb to weep. As she wept, she turned and noticed a man standing behind her. She didn’t recognize him until he said, “Mary.” “Master,” she said in amazement.
This was her Lord. She had seen them lay his body in the grave, and she recognized him now. With amazing suddenness, her tears dried and the weight lifted from her heart. All past sorrows were gone. Darkness had vanished. Now it was “My Savior lives.” No more tunnel, just the bright light of Easter victory for her.
Yes, the Father had laid our guilt on the Light and crucified him, but his resurrection is proof positive that he had paid for all those sins. By raising his beloved Son, the Father has plainly shown Christ’s payment was complete. No more can Satan bedevil us because Christ on Calvary had crushed his head. The Savior had even descended into hell on that glorious Easter morning to lay the old, evil foe flat in the dust of defeat. Christ had entered his grave and exited to show that because he lives, we also will live. These wondrous truths, sealed by our Savior’s resurrection fill our days with glorious life of victory serving him.
Easter’s glorious light lifts us above our daily battles. The strife is o’er, the battle done. Easter’s glorious light brightens our darkest days. Long after our graves are forgotten and the etching on our gravestones has faded, this Easter light will still be shining. As long as the world stands, we find our greatest joy in the risen Savior, who said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). Amen. <SDG>