St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Easter Day Principal Service/B—March 31, 2024
Mark 16:1-8
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—Amen. Alleluia. Christ is risen! [The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.]
Welcome to the other side of the cross! After experiencing a Holy Lent, pregnant with the anticipation of Jesus’ passion; the emotional heaviness of his death on a cross; the waiting in silence on Holy Saturday; and finally—after holding our breath—we collectively exhale.
We rejoice that the tomb is empty; bring “alleluia” back and sing the joyful Easter hymns—exhaling as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The tomb is empty, and we can breathe again. We can breathe again because we have the advantage of entering into this Resurrection account in Mark from the other side of the cross. The women in our gospel, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, were also on the other side of the cross.
In our gospel passage in Mark, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, set out early on that first day of the week to anoint the body of Jesus in the tomb. On their journey the three were occupied with the question, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (v.3). Depending on the type of stone used, the stone covering the tomb entrance could have weighed up to three thousand pounds.[1] Without help, the women would not have been able to access Jesus’ body. Even without the assurance of access to Jesus’ body, the women walked ahead.
As the readers of this scripture, we know what the women did not know prior to their arrival—the stone had already been rolled away—they already had full access to the tomb. Seeing that the stone had been rolled away, the women entered the tomb. When they entered, they were not perplexed by what they saw; they were perplexed by what they did not see—the body of Jesus was not there. How could this be? Dead, human bodies don’t just disappear.
In this gospel account, the tomb was not exactly empty. Sitting in the tomb was a young man, dressed in a white robe. It was he who informed the women that the crucified Jesus had been raised, and was not there. The young man gave the women the directive to, “…Go and tell…” Jesus’ disciples to meet him in Galilee just as he had told them. Terrified and amazed, the women fled the tomb and said nothing to anyone. The women could not have known that their encounter with a messenger of the heavenly realm would transform them into messengers of the earthly realm—evangelists—who would announce Jesus’ resurrection to his own disciples.
As I think about the ever-present human condition of suffering, in its many forms—the immense weight of suffering—enslaves many people to the belief that they are helpless, or unworthy, to be freed from such spiritual, physical and mental peril. Such helplessness invites a hopeless cry that pours out from souls, “Who will roll away the stone from my tomb so that I may live?”
I am reminded of the quote, often attributed to escaped slave, turned leading abolitionist before the Civil War, Harriet Tubman. Tubman was nicknamed “Moses” because she, like Moses of the Bible, led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the North through an elaborate secret network of safe houses, called the Underground Railroad, while risking her own life and freedom. Tubman was believed to have said, “I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”[2]
As followers of the risen Christ, we ask not “Who will roll away the stones from the entrances of life’s myriad tombs.” For even when we find ourselves in one of the tombs of our own lives, we know, by faith, that God is always at work, and God has already rolled away ALL stones from ALL tombs hidden in the depths of the human soul.
Not everyone knows that. Those who do not know Christ, so desperately want to be saved from pain and suffering of life’s dark and suffocating tombs, seeking salvation in all the wrong people, places and things—all of which are passing away. So many people choose enslavement because they don’t know that they are slaves to sin.
If only they knew that belief in Jesus Christ liberates enslaved souls from the sin and death.
If only they knew that by their belief in Christ, access to eternal life with God is theirs now.
If they only knew that Jesus has already rolled away the stone of their tomb.
That’s where you and I come in. The women received the directive from the young man in the tomb to, “Go and tell,” and the 11 disciples were commissioned by Jesus with the words, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). Jesus’ 21st century disciples, who are baptized into Jesus’ death and share in his resurrection, are also empowered by the Holy Spirit to boldly “go and tell” the good news of God in Christ.
At all times we are called to share and embody the life-giving and life-saving gospel message, so that all people may know Christ, and that by his blood, access to the kingdom of heaven is theirs today. As the body of Christ, in this temporal world, the Church offers Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension as the blueprint for hope and meaning-making when the tombs of everyday life, filled with loss, grief, despair, unforgiveness, shame and guilt, suffocate people as they cry out into the darkness, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of my tomb?”
If we claim Christ in our hearts, we must necessarily proclaim Christ to the world, because the world needs to hear the good news that Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Jesus Christ is the hope of humankind and the hope of this world. If only all of God’s people knew that the stone has already been rolled away, the tomb is empty, and we can breathe again.
As Easter people, we rejoice on this Resurrection Sunday because we do not claim the agony of this death-dealing world. We claim—and proclaim—as we sing our joyous recessional hymn, “He is risen, he is risen! He has burst his three days’ prison; let the whole wide earth rejoice: death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory.”[3] Amen.
[1] The Size of the Stone Covering Jesus’ Tomb | Thinking to Believe. Accessed March 30, 2024.
[2] AZ Quotes. http://www.azquotes.com/author/14834-Harriet_Tubman. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
[3] Hymn #180, 1982 Hymnal.
