C, Resurrection of our Lord (Easter Sunday) - "Eight Day Creation"
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; he created our existence — all that exists — in eight days. Yes, that’s right! Eight days!
‘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. 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!”’ (John 20:1-2)
With all the chaos of Thursday evening, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, it was surely the darkest of times. In fact on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, as Mary Magdalene made her way to the tomb, it was still so dark in many ways. Perhaps in a state of grief and shock, at the events which transpired, and, at the horrific attitudes of those who just days earlier had betrayed and falsely accused her Lord and hammered him to the cross, she went to the tomb before dawn – her heart broken and churning in nothingness. Her life had become a formless void of emptiness.
After all, Mary was no stranger to chaos. Jesus had stabilised her life, turning it from disorder and chaos to order and peace by casting seven demons out of her. Up until that time her life had been in complete disarray. She was a lunatic – mad, confused, evil had oppressed her – she had been bound by unrelenting darkness and nights.
And now as she travelled to the tomb it seemed as though this darkness had once again returned to her life. Her pain heightened by the hope and trust she had in her Lord who was now buried; who was dead in the grave.
But alas! When she got to the tomb the stone was gone! Now even greater uncontrolled chaos and confusion pulsed through her veins as she ran to tell Peter and John. And in disbelief they quickly returned to the tomb, and Peter entered to see for himself. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (John 20:8-9) John now believed what Mary had first seen. Jesus was not there! But they still cowered in chaos and incomprehension; disunified by Jesus’ death, they too had feared the Jewish leaders would come after them, and kill them too.
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. “Woman,” he said, “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 said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). (John 20:10-11a, 15-16)
In fact Jesus is the Gardener, but not just a gardener in the garden of his death and tomb! He is the one with the Father at creation, breathing light and life into all things, including the Garden of Eden. And now he stood in a garden once again with humanity.
Right at this moment, let’s be reminded of the words written at the beginning of John’s Gospel… In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5,10-14)
We know Mary received him with great elation as she cried with joy “Rabboni”! Suddenly all the fear and confusion was gone, the chaos was gone in an instant. The Word Made Flesh was alive again, and so powerful is his word he recreated Mary’s life with one word, “Mary”! And so too with us, he comes to us every day of our baptised life and recreates us with his powerful word, and names us as his own, dispelling all the chaos from our lives.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Jesus’ yoke is light, in every sense of the word “light”. What Jesus gives us to carry is a light burden, and it’s a light to our path through the darkness of life. Through his word, with the eyes of faith, we see his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who is begotten of the Father from eternity, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, full of grace and truth.
When God named Mary, it was as if he said to her, “Let there be light.” And hope dawned on Mary, in all its glorified splendour. Now Mary Magdalene, ran with joy to pass on the word of life to the others after Jesus said, “Go… to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 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. (John 20:17-18)
In Genesis 1:1-5 it is written… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
In our world there is much darkness and destruction. It’s been this way since humanity was thrown out of the Garden by God as a result of our sin. We wander in the wilderness for a lifetime not fully understanding who we are, or who God originally created us to be. Our lives at best are full of confusion and toil until we die. On the first day Jesus walked into
But as it was for Mary Magdalene on the first day, it is for us too. As much as it is the first day of the week, where we still dwell with our doubts; our worries, our pride — our sin — where we dwell in the familiarity of a fallen world. We also dwell in a new day of the week, not familiar to us as the old seven-day order. We live in a new day of the week, the eighth day (Easter Sunday 2007 is the 8th day of April). This day is a reality, it’s the day of our hope, it’s a day of great joy, it’s the day of resurrection — Jesus’ resurrection and ours too. But unlike the other seven days of the week it’s a reality seen only by those who believe; to many it’s just another start to a week of seven days in an order filled with death, destruction, corruption and chaos.
On Friday, the sixth day, written in Genesis 1:26-27; God said, ‘“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’
It just so happens that six days after the foolish first day of our fallen week (in 2007 Good Friday is on the 6th day of April), on Good Friday God recreated humanity, in his image. This frightful Friday, reframed the foolish fallen week into a Holy Week. God sanctified the whole week by sending his Son into the world to do his work of re-creation, and when it was done he said, “It is finished, and with that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Now we can all get the daily baptismal rest we’ve needed every day since we were chucked out of
It’s written in Genesis 2:2-3, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” (Genesis 2:2-3) And God did truly rest on the Sabbath, a very special Sabbath indeed, where God passed over us and let his wrath fall on Christ on the cross. Jesus’ work for our salvation is finished, and he rested in death. Now our Risen God can truly rest with sinful humanity.
So we celebrate today as the first day of re-creation, as the eighth day of creation, this is the Day of Resurrection. It’s a day of hope and eternal love for all who trust and rest in Christ’s work of the cross. However, for those who don’t believe, it’s just another day of toil and trouble; the first day of a week of failures and frustrations. But for us, it is a day of release, re-creation, and recreation. Circumcised on the eighth day, we are being cut from the old and given a new day where we can rest in our new transfigured baptismal glory, in Jesus Christ who is risen from death, and to whom all glory and power is given. Amen.
