Easter Day, Year B, March 31
Acts 10:34-43 or Isa. 25:6-9
Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Cor. 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8
By Patrick Twomey
We now stand at the epicenter of a great and wondrous sacred mystery, the glorious resurrection of our Lord from the dead. Christ has “broken the bonds of death and hell, and has risen victorious from the grave,” a victory we share as the adopted children of God (BCP, p. 287). We know this mystery as the lifeblood of our being. Indeed, so transformative is this mystery that the final enemy, death itself, has become the gate of everlasting life (Collect).
The unimagined joy of the Lord’s resurrection set the world on fire, something we notice by the intensity of the eyewitness accounts. St. Peter preached to the people, saying, “You know the message he sent to the people of Israel … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witness to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:36-41).
Of the witnesses to the resurrection, none is of greater significance than Mary Magdalene, a woman for whom Jesus has a special affection and who appears in every resurrection account. St. Mark tells the story in this way. “After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, and suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.” The angel says to these followers of the Lord, “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. Come, see the place where he lay.” The angel instructs the women to tell the disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him” (Mark 16:1-7). Then the resurrected Christ greets them and adds: “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Mark 16:9-10).
The fidelity of St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene and many others as witnesses of the resurrection is the reason the message passed from hand to hand, from generation to generation, until, in our own time, it has come to us who are witnesses, not by sight but by faith. Like us, St. Paul never met Jesus Christ during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry, and yet he too became a witness of staggering importance, taking the message to the nations of the world. He speaks for us. “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time … Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor. 15:3-8).
Many of the first witnesses and many in the early church would die as martyrs in witness to their unrelenting conviction that Christ is risen. We carry on their announcement of hope and life.
Look It Up: Psalm 118:16-17
Think About It: I shall not die, but live.
