By Reverend Joy L. Gallmon
Early one Sunday morning, as a new day dawned, two Marys pressed their way to a cemetery.
Two women bound by grief and gratitude made their way to the last place they had seen the crucified body of their teacher, Jesus the one who came in the name of the Lord.
In the Gospel according to Matthew 28, Mary Madelene and the other Mary are not carrying oils nor spices.
They are not journeying to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus properly, an unnamed woman in Matthew 26 has already done that.
Early one Sunday morning, as a new day was dawning Mary Madelene and the other Mary, went to see a monument to the memory of their crucified LORD.
Just before the light cracked through the darkness they found their way to the place designed to memorialize the death of what was and what was not to be.
The Bible says on their way to the place of dead things, to the tomb the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing.
He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Matthew 28:2 In that moment the earth moved, and everything they thought they knew about the things of this world shook, shifting their outlook on life and death forever.
The angel rolled away the stone, the thing set in place to keep them out, the obstacle created to keep them from the knowledge that could change their lives, and sat on it.
The moment the angel made the soul-saving, life-changing, curse-breaking announcement, Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Matthew 28:5-6a. In that moment new possibilities became available.
A Sunday morning girl’s trip to sit at the feet of a monument to the memory of dead hopes, dead dreams, and dead possibilities turned into receiving the announcement that what was dead is ALIVE.
A visit to where they last saw the person who saw them and believed in them, is transformed into an encounter with the Divine and an invitation to live. Live despite all that has died.
Live not among the graveyards, crypts, and mausoleums of this world, but live free from the shame and guilt of sin. Live not in the darkness of disappointment and despair, but in the light of a Resurrected Jesus.
Live in the possibilities birth out of hope in knowing the love of God for you made real in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the crucified Savior and Resurrected King.
This Resurrection Sunday, I pray that you will come to know and to accept the redeeming love of God made available in Christ Jesus. I pray that the dawn of a new day will take hold of your life.
I pray that a new season in God will open your heart, your mind, and your spirit to new possibilities, and new life knowing that the God of all creation has defeated death, and has made all things new, beginning with Jesus, and continuing with you. Amen.
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