"Easter in a Good Friday World" **Sermon for Easter Sunday, 20 April 2025**

 

            It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

            So begins “A Tale of Two Cities.”  I can think of no better words to describe this present moment.  Dickens writes in 1859 to describe pre-Revolution France.  And I am sure I am not alone in this train of the thought.  I think even the people in the Bible can relate.  Maybe, you can, too.

            Darkness, the absence of light, is a prelude to God working in the Biblical narrative.  All is in darkness before God calls forth creation.  No light is seen from noon until three on Good Friday.  Mary walks in the dark as she goes to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.

The other week in Bible study, we discussed the way of violence versus the way of love.  Barabbas, a murderer and a rebel rouser, represents the path of violence and anger.  Jesus stands for the way of love.  Herod and Pilate both offer the people and the leaders a choice.

During Jesus’ trials, the crowd picks Barabbas.  The people choose the way of violence as opposed to the way of Love.  The leaders and people ask for Barabbas’ release.  They then clamor, time and again, for Jesus’ death as an outlaw, a political criminal.

Right now, I feel as if you and I are living in a Good Friday world.  Darkness appears to surround us.  The path of hatred speaks louder than that of love.  I find myself feeling overwhelmed by the darkness of anger, hatred, and violence that separate and divide us.

            So, how do you and I find hope?  How do we find the light in the darkness?  That can be very challenging.  The wisest of Wizards, Professor Albus Dumbledore, reminds us that: “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”[1]

The good news is that darkness is not permanent.  Jesus is the light that the darkness cannot overcome (John 1).  Good Friday is followed by Easter.  Easter brings with it the good news that evil and darkness do not have the final word.  The stone has been rolled away!  The tomb is empty!  Jesus is not there.  He is risen, just as Jesus promised.

            Scholar Joshua Ripley adds, “not only is the grave overcome, but so too is the fear that isolates and separates us from God and each other.  No longer servants, and even more than friends (John 15:15), we are proclaimed to be brothers and sisters of Christ, fully and completely children of God.  As God fashioned humanity from dust in the garden of Genesis 2, the “gardener” molds Mary’s tears and testimony to fashion a new creation in God’s family.  Mary’s gospel rings as hopeful and transformative today as it did at first![2]

            Maybe you are not feeling that hope, that transformation right now.  Perhaps you are struggling to find Easter in a world of Good Friday.  I want you to know that that is okay.  But I also want you to know that Easter is coming.  Easter is here, even when we don’t feel it.

You and I are God’s beloved.  We are carved into the palm of God’s hand (Isaiah 49).  There is nothing that can change or take away God’s love for you.  A love so deep that it overcomes fear, anger, and hatred.  Even death itself.  As Paul reminds the Romans:

 The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.  Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us?  There is no way!  Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture . . . None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.                                                           Romans 8 (MSG)


[1] HP and the Goblet of Fire.  J.K. Rowling. 

[2] Jason Ripley at workingpreacher.org

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