Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Holy Saturday Easter Vigil

Text: John 20: 1-10

Theme: Seeing in the Dark

They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. vs. 2b

This evening we stand watch at the tomb of Jesus and are directed by our appointed Gospel to consider the condition of the tomb as it was discovered by Mary Magdalene in those early hours before sun up. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb is empty. This fact is really the starting point of the Good News of Easter. In fact, there is no Good News without understanding . . . the tomb is empty!

In order to understand the Good News about who is not there, it is important to clear up some common misconceptions about the absent body of Jesus. The first misconception is the misunderstanding that Mary Magdalene had - even before she noticed that the stone was rolled away and the tomb empty. She came to the tomb motivated by the desire to honor the memory of her dead friend by anointing his remains with precious spices. She came to have the dead honored - not raised. But then even after discovering the empty tomb, Mary’s basic orientation remains unchanged. She does not nonchalantly conclude; Oh, I guess He’s risen from the dead. Rather, she continues to believe that Jesus is still dead, but now His lifeless body has been rudely stolen. She says: They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

Many even to this day have thought that Mary’s first thoughts must really be the final conclusion about Jesus. The real event of Easter is just the story of an empty tomb and an absconded dead body. The only interesting, but dispassionate question for them is: who stole the body and why? The Jewish religious leaders charged that the disciples of Jesus stole the body as part of a religious conspiracy. Many today revere the name of Jesus, but also think of Him as dead and gone. They want to revere him as an important religious leader who met an untimely demise in the prime of life. But, like Mary here in the early morning, they remain in the dark about the true meaning of the stone that was rolled away and the empty tomb of Jesus. Both entertain a bad question: Who took the body? And as we know, there are not good answers to bad questions. There is not Good News either. Lets move on.

Today in our contemporary culture, there is another powerful paradigm that seeks to capture the significance of Easter and the empty tomb. Easter is seen as a mere religious symbol of the cycle of death and new life. The life that was fruitful returns to the ground from which it sprang. In the winter of life, all is not really dead, just resting. Then in the spring, it bursts forth again. The Easter Jesus is merged with the Easter Bunny and both celebrate the coming forth of new life, egged on by images of bursting colorful flowers and baby animals. The empty tomb is like the empty cocoon. It is simply the shell left behind of the new life which has and always does spring forth in the true nature of things bound to mother earth. Now, whereas the absconded body explanation of the empty tomb was fraught with ideas of intrigue and chicanery, this second view well reflected in the marketing dimensions of Easter is pure drivel.

When Adam and Even were tossed out of the garden, the ground was not rested; it was cursed. As Adam’s body came from the dirt he walked on, so it now it would return because of the corruption of sin. The wages of sin is death, not recycling. The dead stay dead. The women came to the tomb of Jesus to anoint a dead body out of respect for the departed Jesus, not to prepare for some cycle of return. They came looking for a dead Jesus. There is no cyclical springtime for sinners under the curse. Even the most unreligious farmer today knows the difference between a fallow field and a graveyard. Corn cycles, sinful humans do not. Because of sin there is death. And because of death, there are graveyards, lots of them. And because there are graveyards, there are loved ones who visit to pay their respects and grieve those who are dead and buried.

And with that truth, we return full circle to the early morning and behold the empty tomb of Jesus. It signals not some conspiracy, nor a cycle in nature, but rather a victory over the curse of death itself. What you don’t see is what you get. The negative space in the tomb signals a turn of events for fallen sinners born of Adam. The curse has been broken by the Second Adam so that all reborn of this One, might receive the inheritance of his victory over death. He is the first fruit of a new life where dead bodies are not simply anointed out of respect, they are raised up out of grace and truth. What you don’t see in the tomb of our Lord is the Good News you get. He is not here, he is risen.

We acknowledge these exciting things about the tomb of Jesus here in the darkness of the early morning. Here in the darkness and the shadows of the stone rolled away and beholding the empty tomb with Mary, what you don’t see is indeed what you get. Look at the empty tomb again. There is Good News here in what you do not see. You don’t see a secure stone, with soldiers at guard. You don’t see the lifeless bloody body of the crucified Jesus. You don’t see the women going about their business anointing a lifeless body. You don’t see God’s curse of the ground holding your Lord and Savior. You don’t see any of these things . . . because, Christ is risen! . . . He is risen, indeed!).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, A-men.