April 17, 2022
Easter Sunday
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Luke 24:1-12
The Dawn of a New Day
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
It was early dawn when they went to Jesus’ grave. The sun was just warming the sky into the light of morning. It was a new day. But as they made their way to the tomb, they had no idea just how new this day would be.
It was, indeed, a new day. It was evening and it was morning, a new day. Saturday had ended and now it was Sunday. But this new day was even bigger than that. They were passing into a new era! A new age had dawned on that morning.
Their bundle of spices left a fragrant trace in the air as they walked. But when they arrived at the tomb, they were startled to find the large stone rolled away from the entrance. In the morning’s gray light, they entered the darkened tomb. It was empty. Jesus’ body was gone.
But the darkness of the tomb was spliced open by the sudden brightness of two men in dazzling apparel. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” they asked. “He isn’t here, he’s risen!”
Jesus wasn’t there in the tomb. He had arisen, just like the morning’s sun. It was the dawn of a new day, a new era.
Friends, Jesus had risen from the dead! His victory over death ushered in a new day! Jesus’ resurrection was the first day of a new age. We live in that new age which dawned on that morning many years ago.
Today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. When he stepped from his tomb, he demonstrated that there is SOMETHING STRONGER than death. Death was defeated when Jesus arose. He had entered death’s realm when he died on a cross. His lifeless body was removed from the cross and gently laid to rest.
But in the early dawn’s light, death was kicked aside. Jesus was alive! When he stepped into that new day, Jesus’ resurrection revealed to us a new reality. There is NOTHING, nothing in all of creation, there is nothing that can separate us from the life and love of God! Not our defiant sin, not even grim death.
Jesus’ resurrection shows us that there is something even greater and more lasting than sin and death! These two great enemies were defeated on that new day. And not by swords or brute force. They were overcome by the source of life and love that flows from the throne of God. For this is an ever-flowing stream of goodness and vitality. It cannot be exhausted.
All of that divine new creation was revealed in the emerging dawn on Easter. But it would take longer for its reality to dawn upon the women. The disciples and Peter, too, this new reality was just too tremendous for them to comprehend. The significance of Jesus’ resurrection didn’t dawn on them, either, not when the women told them what had happened, not even when Peter saw the discarded death shroud.
They had to let the reality of the resurrection sink in. The same is true for us.
Even as we gather here today to rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection, a part of our spirits and mind still lingers under the shadow of death’s pall. Our lives are still directed by the influence of fear and pain. The specter of death and dying loom large. We grope within the murky pull of violence and deception, anger and mistrust.
Like Peter, like the women, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection is still dawning on us. It takes time, it takes the span of a lifetime for this new reality to dawn upon us.
As we maneuver through the darkness of sin’s division and evil, Christ’s resurrection sheds the first rays of that new dawn breaking into our realm. The emptiness of his grave reminds us that he is present even when he cannot be directly seen. That empty tomb tells us the balance has shifted. Evil and death have already been defeated. And night has transitioned into Christ’s new day.
We still dwell in the grayness of that Easter dawn. But gradually, day by day, we become more and more aware of God’s vibrant new life and generous grace breaking upon our lives. In Easter, the dawn of God’s new day has emerged.
And one day, each one of us will step into that great new morning. We shall be made completely new! Death’s grip on us will have ended. And on that new morning, there will be no need for the sun to rise, for Christ will be our light.
