Luke 24:1-8 - The Message
Looking for the Living One in a Cemetery
24 1-3 At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.
4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
As a child, I loved to spend time in a small cemetery in Earl’s Ville, NY, just over the border crossing at Hardman.
Now, some might have thought it was a strange thing for a child to do; loll about among old tomb stones, moss covered and long forgotten. But, for me, it was a place of great peace and wonder, not a place of death.
Sitting under the pine trees, the air was filled with the chatter of chipmunks as they argued amongst themselves, scampering up and down the trees. The constant buzzing of bees, so busy in the overgrown wild flowers filled me with the urge to go and smell what they were smelling. If there was a breeze that day, I tried hard to decipher the secret, whispered messages the pines shared with one another. And there was a constant background drone of unseen insects, going about their daily lives in spite of my uninvited presence.
In a place of death and decay, there was life in abundance! And that is what Easter is all about.
Resurrection – new and abundant life! Resurrection each and every day in so many ways! The cycle of life, death and rebirth! That is the Easter Message.
In these still uncertain days, on yet another Easter on the edges of a pandemic, I wish each and every one of you Happy Easter for he is risen, he is truly risen.
In peace
Pastor Beryl, DLM