St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Easter Sunday (Year C): April 20, 2025
Luke 24:1-12
Lord, take our minds and think through them. Take our mouths and speak through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.
Alleluia. Christ is Risen (the Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!).
Ten years ago, I was a seminarian studying and conducting research for my senior thesis in England. During my time there, I took a train to a retreat house, about two hours outside of London. When I entered the gift shop, my attention was immediately captured by a vibrantly colored display of abstract art. The art display was actually a stunning set of bookmarks, entitled, Stations of the Resurrection. Now, I was very familiar with the spiritual practice of praying the Stations of the Cross, which focus on Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection (those stations adorn the walls of this sanctuary), but I had never heard about, or even considered, that I could pray the Stations of the Resurrection. I intentionally use the word, resurrection, because it hasn’t been hijacked by the secular marketing folks. I’m pretty sure that I haven’t seen store aisles stocked with resurrection bunnies and resurrection candy.
Today is Resurrection Sunday. And, just as I invited the congregation, last week on Palm Sunday, to sit in the raw and tender stories of Jesus’ suffering and death during Holy Week, I invite us all to rejoice in the revelation of the empty tomb, the inbreaking of light into darkness, and Jesus’ triumph over death. We must be clear that we gather together in worship as Easter people, only because of God’s resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ.
In Luke’s gospel today, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other unnamed women, had gone to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus. The women found that the tomb’s entrance was open because the large stone, which sealed it, had already been rolled away. Upon entering the open tomb, the women were perplexed—not by what they saw, but by what they did not see—the body of Jesus was not where it was supposed to be. Dead bodies don’t just disappear.
The perplexed state of the women was intensified with terror when two angels, described as two men in dazzling clothes, announced God’s raising of Jesus from the dead. The angels said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (24:5). The women could neither make sense of what could have possibly happened before they arrived at the tomb, nor what they were collectively witnessing inside of the tomb, until they were shaken out of their forgetfulness by the divine messengers who said, “Remember how he told you…that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (24:7). It was this angelic call to remembrance that released the women from their forgetfulness. Knowledge of the risen Christ transformed the women into earthly messengers—evangelists—who would announce Jesus’ resurrection to his own apostles.
Unfortunately, the male apostles ignored the women’s announcement. But Peter did listen to the women and ran to the tomb to investigate this “idle tale” for himself. Peter did not go into the tomb as the women had done; he stooped down and looked inside. There Peter saw evidence of the linen cloths that once covered Jesus’ dead body. Recall that on the way to the tomb, Peter ran. But, on his way back, Peter did not run; he went home amazed. Perhaps Peter’s return home was occupied with pondering Jesus’ words as he slowly remembered how Jesus had, three times, foretold his suffering, death and resurrection on the third day.[1]
Remembering is a subtle theme woven throughout this gospel passage. The human tendency to forget must not be taken lightly. Forgetfulness, for the faithful and the unbelievers alike, seeps into our lives, disguised as the competing demands for our time and attention. Certainly, human forgetfulness can be powerful in the enslavement of humanity by sin, but our remembrance of God’s love for us through the salvific work of Jesus on the cross and his glorious resurrection, has the power to liberate humanity in this broken world. The image of the empty tomb reminds us, mere mortals, not of our mortality, but of Christ’s victory over death and our promised eternal life with God.
The danger, for the faithful, is forgetting our identity as children of the living God and our purpose as the living body of Christ in the world. Jesus’ public ministry took place in, and through, community. It is in the community of faith that we guard against this dangerous forgetfulness. Within the faith community, we are steeped in remembering who Jesus is, what Jesus has done for us in his saving work on the cross, who we are, and what we are called to do, as His living body—the Church—in this death-dealing world.
The risen Christ calls those, who believe in him—you and me—to enter into the open tombs of the human condition, in all of their manifestations, so that we may seek those souls who are like the spiritually walking dead amongst the living. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can courageously walk inside those open tombs, not timidly poke our heads inside. Standing inside the spiritual tombs, positions us well to bear Christ’s hope—the hope that because Jesus was raised from the dead, all who believe in him, shall also be raised.
Perhaps you are in a season of your life where you find yourself needing someone to courageously step into your open tomb to witness your suffering and to point to Christ’s light in your own darkness; someone who reminds you of Christ’s power to restore to wholeness that which is broken in you.
I pray that God led you to this church with ears to hear and hearts to receive this word of hope—resurrection. Know that through baptism, we are united with Christ in a death like his and are certainly united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6:5). Death is not the final answer.
Throughout the Great 50 days of the Easter season, intentionally spend time with God praying, with gratitude, your own stations of resurrection—those moments in your life where God gave you help in times of helplessness; healing in times of sickness; comfort in your grief; peace in the midst of a storm; and hope where there seemed to be none.
Renowned Yale professor, Jaroslav Pelikan, a preeminent authority on Christian history, spoke these deathbed words: “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not—nothing else matters.”[2] On this day on which we celebrate Jesus’ rising to life again, we must remember to always choose resurrection even as we sit in the tombs of this earthly life. Remember, Jesus Christ is risen. Nothing else matters. Amen.
[1] Luke 9:22; Luke 9:44; Luke 18:31-33
[2] Collier, Winn, “This Changes Everything,” Our Daily Bread, Our Daily Bread Ministries, April 2022.
