Easter Sunday Sermon - “The Longest Silence, The Loudest Hope”
It is Resurrection Sunday. It is a day that we
Remember Jesus’ triumph over death
Renew our commitment to the One in Whom we believe Who triumphed over death
Proclaim that light is greater than darkness, That God is stronger than Satan
That we are people of the resurrected King Who live resurrected lives
Remember that in Him we are a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
If you were here 2 days ago on Good Friday, you journeyed with the others who were here through a remarkable dramatization of the events of the first Good Friday.
Marjorie wrote a deeply moving play that was presented in a readers’-theatre style in which we entered into the experience of the 4 key people at the foot of the cross who were witnesses to Jesus hanging on the cross. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, Mary Magdalene - WHY are there so many Marys in the gospels? And John the Beloved.
It was powerful, it was moving. It helped us all to more truly appreciate the goodness of Jesus and the very real, human experiences of those who, like us, loved Jesus.
We left afterward after some fellowship time. It was warm and it was quite wonderful, in my experience.
And then we went our separate ways. Pause.
After the death of Jesus on that Friday long ago, then Saturday came.
“The Saturday the day after Good Friday is often known as “Silent Saturday.”
Silent Saturday is the day in between, the space between death and resurrection, grief and glory. It is the day the tomb stayed shut.
The Messiah’s body lay cold and lifeless, wrapped in linen and sealed behind a stone (Matthew 27:59–60). For the disciples, it was a day of unanswered questions.
The One they had followed, the One they had hoped was the Redeemer of Israel, had been crucified (Luke 24:21).
Their dreams had died on Friday, and Saturday brought no clarity or explanation, only silence. But that silence was not abandonment.
It was not a failure in the plan. It was a pause that carried purpose. Just as the earth rested on the seventh day after creation, the Lamb of God rested in the grave, having finished the work of redemption (Genesis 2:2; John 19:30).
Silent Saturday was not a mistake. It was Sabbath fulfillment. It was not defeat. It was the stillness before the shaking of the earth.
Beneath the surface of that silence, something deeper was taking place.
Christ had descended into death, not as a victim but as a victor. He did not lie helpless.
He held the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). While the world mourned, the powers of darkness trembled.
The silence of Saturday was a cosmic calm before the ultimate storm of resurrection.
Prophecies were being completed. The grave was being disarmed. And even though heaven seemed quiet, God was not absent.
He was moving in hidden power. For all who feel the ache of delay, the weight of prayers that seem unanswered, or the sting of loss that has not yet turned to joy,
Days like yesterday, like “Silent Saturday” remind us that the waiting is not wasted. Even when God is silent, He is not still.
The stone will roll away. The dawn will break. And when it does, it will bring with it the roar of victory.
It’s always darkest before the dawn, yet God still causes the sun to rise and fulfill its purpose.
In the same way, even when we cannot see it or understand it, God is still working, even in the silence”.
Today’s message is called: “The Longest Silence, The Loudest Hope”
Let’s continue to reflect as we explore today’s Scripture passage.
20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
This is about the morning of the 3rd day after Jesus died
Mary Magdalene was in shock still from the death of Jesus
She went to Jesus' tomb, that belonged to Joseph of Arithramea.
Why? She went to mourn.
Have you ever gone to a gravestone to mourn? Soon after a loved one died? I have.
It’s a wrenching experience.
Did it with my brother and my parents.
You don’t do it without a lot of tears, overwhelming grief.
While it was dark, Mary, the woman from whom Jesus had cast 7 demons and who followed Jesus as a faithful disciple, apparently even before Jesus called the first male disciples, went to the tomb. Her heart was in turmoil. Her soul deep in grief.
You know the way the mind is clouded with grief as your eyes are clouded by tears.
Then she arrives. She arrives and she sees something she was not... expecting...to see. Not a welcome sight.
She sees that the stone had been removed, rolled away from the tomb.
“Oh no!...Grave robbers!...How could they!”
The indignity, the pain heaped upon pain.
2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So yes, she ran and she ran. Tears falling on the earth beneath her.
She ran and she ran to Peter. Peter and the other disciple. The one Jesus loved in particular. The one who wrote the gospel of John.
And she said:
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
THEY...someone, grave robbers. Someone. Someone terrible had robbed the body of Jesus, Mary thought. We don’t know where his body is. How can we grieve when we don’t even know where His body is?
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
So Peter and John hightail it for the tomb. I mean they are running, panting, adrenalin flowing, hearts pounding. Peter was running REALLY fast. Really fast. But John outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.
He gets then and bends over and looks in to the tomb and sees
What?
Strips of linen, grave clothes, burial garments that Jesus had been wrapped in. Just lying there.
John is stunned...and motionless. He’s trying to make sense out of what has happened. Guards had been stationed there. Trained military men under direct orders. A huge rock had been set in place to block the tomb
6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
Then Peter, always with a little too much bluster, ran straight in to the tomb. He sees what John saw. And he saw the cloth. The head cloth.
The fabric that had been tenderly wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still where it would have been as Jesus was laid there in the tomb, separate from the linen.
8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
John shakes himself and goes into the tomb. He looks around. His heart is racing. His mind is flooded with emotion. His spirit is bursting with revelation. And so, He saw. And he believed. What did he see? Well, on the one hand, he saw nothing, really. He definitely didn’t see Jesus. He didn’t see His body, he didn’t see the corpse of his best friend, his Rabbi, his teacher.
The one who had healed so many of their diseases and affliction, the One who had raised Lazarus from the dead.
He saw the death-clothes of Jesus. But still he saw something very important. He saw that Jesus wasn’t there. He saw and believed.
Now at that moment it wasn’t what we know as the gospel that he believed. Verse 9 says that (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
So what did John see and believe? He saw with spiritual sight, we say he saw with his heart. He saw and believed that God...was doing something. He believed that God was at work, even if how God was working was still unclear to him.
He wasn’t believing in human potential. Nothing like that at all. But he knew...
God was up to something. Something wonderful. “I don’t know what is happening, precisely. I can’t put words to it, but I see and believe that God is doing something here”.
10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Walking back with wonder. John and Peter. John, believing. His heart wide open to what was happening that morning.
His mind filled with wonder at what he had seen, or rather what he did not see. John believed. Now that same John was the one who wrote this gospel account, so of course he knew what was going on in his heart.
Peter, who he walked back with to where they were staying, he was trying to make sense of this too. He was trying to grasp what this all meant as the twigs snapped under his feet. He wasn’t so blustery and over-confident now. He wasn’t full of himself. He was full of wonder.
He was still reeling from a terrible, recent moment.
After hearing along with the other disciples from Jesus that they would all soon abandon Him, he had vowed that even if all of them were to abandon Jesus in His hour of need - that he - he alone, Peter, the Rock, would stand by Jesus.
Even to the point of death if necessary. He carried a very personal guilt at having betrayed Jesus, denying - swearing up and down. that he even knew Jesus.
And then when push came to shove, he tucked tail and ran. His bravado had shrivelled due to fear.
Such shame Peter felt. Perhaps that shame made it really tough for him to believe, to believe that something marvelous was happening.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
Mary has stayed outside the tomb. She is weeping. There is such strength, I’ve observed, in tears. She has the courage to allow what is happening into her heart and mind. It is something very strange. Disturbing
Mary is weeping and she bends over to look again into the tomb.
She wishes to see the cloths that covered Jesus again. Instead she sees 2 angels.
And they are sitting right where Jesus’ body should have been. One is sitting where Jesus’ feet should be. The other where His head should be.
These 2 angels inquire. Why are you crying? Mary speaks through her tears. “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
That’s my problem. That’s why I’m in grief. I don’t know the location of my beloved, deceased Rabbi. I want to know where His body is.
Then Mary suddenly turns. She turns and she sees Jesus standing there, but she doesn’t recognize him.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus inquires. Why the tears, woman? For whom do you weep?
Mary, overwhelmed with sorrow, thinks He’s the gardener. “If YOU’VE taken Him, just tell. Just tell me where He is and I will get him. I will give Him the proper honour. The honour that is His due. He is due such honour.
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
“Mary” he says. Shocked, she turns to Him and cries out: “Rabboni! Teacher! A dozen emotions are shaking her body.
Her teacher had been tortured and died, brutally on the cross, at the callous hands of men. All because some others had lied, given false testimony. It was all so wrong. So unjust. And then his body had been stolen. Such a horrendous affront. So dishonouring. So wildly shameful and utter inappropriate.
And now...He stands in front of Mary. He speaks her name. She knows His voice.
She knows His voice so well. That voice had spoken her name and cast out the demons that had kept her bound up, trapped, enslaved to darkness. That voice that gave her freedom.
The voice that she had heard tell parables of the kingdom, of God’s new order. That voice had spoken the Beatitudes to many on the Mount of Olives.
That voice that had called Lazarus, dead Lazarus out of the grave in his own graveclothes.
That voice that she loved spoke her name. “Mary”. And she wanted to cleave to Him.
She wanted to hold Him. To live in that moment; that moment that was so surreal...how could she know if it would end as strangely as it had begun.
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Jesus has something bigger on His mind. He has yet to ascend to the Father. He has His plan in mind. He has the purposes of God first and foremost in his thinking. He has the apostles in mind.
And He wanted Mary, Mary the one who would bring the good news to the apostles, who would be the apostle to the apostles, to go to them and tell them. Tell them that Jesus is alive. Tell them that she has seen the Lord.
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
And so she went, bearing the good news that Jesus is alive. She took that message to those who would later take that same message to a great many others. And so on and so on around the world for centuries...
Until this very day when I have the joy to share this same truth, this same reality...that Jesus has risen. He is alive.
You know, this story is my story. It is the foundation of my own life.
It’s the reason-for-being for every follower of Jesus, who is the very ground of our being.
This story is your story. It’s how the Creator of everything came to dwell with us. Clothed Himself with human skin.
Became fully acquainted with the beauty of human existence, and of course also with the suffering that is unavoidable in life.
He dwelt among us and He taught us. He taught what God thinks about and how God behaves.
And He called us to love God with everything that we are and all that we have, all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
And He taught us to go and manifest that love in how we treat our neighbour. How I treat you, how you treat me.
So. Easter. Resurrection Sunday. The day after the long silence of Saturday. The day after waiting.
What is your response to the story of Jesus?
Where are you in relation to the living God?
Have you begun your journey with Jesus, loving and serving Him as a disciple?
Or might your journey begin today? Would you come to Jesus today and place your faith in Him?
Will you take a moment right now to speak to God in silence? In your thoughts, will you quietly and reverently consider the goodness of God?
Will you embrace the fact that when you hear the call of Jesus to follow Him, when you in trust Jesus’ Christ and believe in His sacrifice for your sins, you are then forgiven, and reconciled to God.
Will you carefully consider the love of God and the promise of that love…the promise that He wants you, that He forgives you, completely.
Utterly. That your sins are forgiven and you are cleansed from all unrighteousness?
And...and this is very important too... that He has given us together a mission to fulfill together as the Body of Christ in Cabbagetown, in Regent Park.
Today we remember Jesus’ triumph over death. In doing that, we can renew our commitment to the One in Whom we believe Who triumphed over death.
We can know in our hearts and minds and even proclaim that light is greater than darkness, That God is stronger than Satan
We can remember that we are called to live free, as people of the resurrected King. Because He lives, we also live. Because he was resurrected from the grace, you and I can live resurrected lives
You and I can remember that in Him we are a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come
Let’s pray in silence for a moment.
Holy God, the events we mark on this weekend…the bleakness and sadness of Good Friday, the strange silence of Saturday, and the power and joy and glory of this Easter Sunday…they are such a gift to us…to remind us of Your humility and Your love and Your mighty power.
Turn our longing hearts and thirsty souls to You once again, that we might live joyfully and for the One who laid down His life and took it up again on that first Sunday of resurrection.
May each of us here this Easter Sunday come to the embrace of the living God as we choose to believe and receive God’s greatest gift to us…that of His Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God over all. Amen.
