Easter: He is Risen!

Devotion by: Pastor Paul Gysan

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…” It will be dark this year also, as I go to Great Falls National Park for a 6:30 am service. Easter between 1875 and 2124 hasn’t been celebrated any earlier. In 1913 Easter was on March 23, but I doubt they had daylight savings time back then. So I would say that this will be the darkest Easter sunrise service I will have ever attended, and sometime after 2124 it may be celebrated again this early.

This year we won’t have butterflies, flowering plants, and trees -- part of the normal cycle of life and death. Popular piety hopes for a white Christmas and a flowering Easter. I love to point to the wonder of new sprouts and new blooms, springing to life as an emblem of the resurrection. That won’t be the case this Easter.

Easter day starts with the voice of Mary asking herself, “What time is it? Got to go and see my dead Lord one more time.” Rubbing sleep from her eyes, she can’t believe the tomb is empty. She runs to Peter and John and says, “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Going back to the tomb with Mary, we are told that Peter sees the empty linen wrappings and that John sees and believes. Snow at Easter? Flowering plants at Christmas? Easter is not the celebration of the expected. Easter celebrates the unexpected, the risen Lord Jesus saying to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She supposes him to be the gardener. But in hearing Jesus speak her name, Mary comes to believe! The stranger turns out to be not the gardener, but the very one whom the world has crucified.

Mary had more than a memory of a dead rabbi’s wisdom. She felt his empowering presence in her life! Mary the mother of Jesus carried the Savior of the world into birth. Then another Mary carried forth the word of new life for all. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”

Jesus rose from the dead, and Mary felt his empowering presence. We can also feel this empowering presence, celebrating it in the winter, spring, summer, and fall of our lives -- thanks to the miraculous resurrection of Christ!

In the words of one of my favorite hymns, “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives. He lives. Salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!”

PRAYER: Risen Lord, live within my heart. I pray that the blessings of Easter may always be felt in my heart, whether it is in the winter or spring, summer or fall of my life. Risen Lord, live within our church. I pray that the blessings of Easter may touch my brothers and sisters. Help us not to “hold on to our Lord’ but share the Good News! In the name of Jesus, our Risen Lord and Savior. Alleluia! Amen!