"An Empty Tomb and an Open Future"
Rev. Dr. Bruce Epperly, Westmoreland UCC
April 20, 2025
Resurrection happens when we least expect it. New life blooms when we see death all around. An empty tomb gives way to an Open Future, and in the midst of struggle, we can proclaim, Glory Hallelujah! Christ the Lord is Risen Today! That’s the Easter Message.
At sunrise, the women disciples trudged to the graveyard. Weary, dispirited, hopeless. Like millions of mourners throughout history, they came to give one last act of love.
They had lost everything. Their beloved teacher, martyred by the forces of evil, by Caesar, Pilate, Herod, and all those for whom the love of power dominates everything else. His message of love defeated; his promise of a beloved community where everyone belongs just an illusion.
The women feared that they might not even be able to perform this one last act of love, embalming their beloved friend. Anxiously they ask one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us?”
Then, to their astonishment, the stone is rolled away – an angelic being proclaims, “he has risen, he is not here…Go tell the male disciples that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and there they will meet him.” Astonished, the women’s response is silence…but eventually The Great Commission, “go and tell,” is delivered by Jesus’ first women disciples.
So ends the original version of Mark’s Gospel…An empty tomb and an open future.
Today, the resurrection message is no less amazing than it was that first Easter. Death is all around us: we fear the death of our planet, the soul of the nation is on intensive care, and we face our own mortality and growing up can be difficult at times. And we ask, “Can new life burst forth where death is all around?”
Like these women, we need to follow poet Mary Oliver’s advice, “Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About It.” Because Christ the Lord is Risen Today, despite our dark thoughts of the future, our own struggles with health and grief, and our own fears for our nation, and planet. Yes, in all our struggles, Christ is Risen, there is an empty tomb and an open future!
I want to reflect on four questions raised by the resurrection stories from Mark and John:
- Who will roll the stone away for us?
- Where is Jesus?
- How will we recognize him?
- How shall we respond to the Risen Jesus?
Who will roll the stone away for us? The women reached a dead end, the path ahead was blocked. No way ahead. In valley of the shadow of death, you can’t go around, beneath, or above. You must go through. Hoping against hope to make it to the other side.
Yet, when there is no way, God makes a way! God is in the tomb and God is in the valley of the shadow of death. There is a growing edge: love conquers hate, life conquers death - new life springs up after California fires, new possibilities emerge when the future you planned collapses: when the world says “no:” God says yes – and you can breathe again, and you can live again. God’s resurrection spirit rolls away the stone of hopelessness and fear, and new life springs from the death of dreams.
I have been there, and so have you, and we will be there in the future facing our own diminishment and struggles, but the empty tomb tells us that God makes a way when we see no way! As German theologian, Deitrich Bonhoeffer proclaimed as Nazi soldiers led him to his execution - “This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.” “Death where is thy sting, grave where is thy victory!” Christ the Lord is risen, and we rise with him!
Where is Jesus? In John’s account of the resurrection, an Empty Tomb is not enough to restore Mary of Magdala’s spirit. She exclaims to the gardener, not knowing he is the Risen Jesus: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Bereft of hope, she pleads “Where is Jesus?”
Here at Westmoreland, we tend to be rational people: we don’t look for miracles to solve our problems and certainly don’t trust the supernatural rescue operations that some of our Christian kin promise. But we also seek healing, comfort, and living with courage, and dying with hope. Like Mary of Magdala, we need the resources of God’s Loving Power, and we cry out, each in our own way, “Where is Jesus? Where do we find hope? What will give us the strength to fight the good fight for future generations and the soul of our nation?”
For Mary, Jesus is right beside her, but in her grief, she cannot see him. The Risen Jesus is in the Garden and Jesus is alive and present in this room. Even if we can’t see him, the Risen Jesus is here in the strength to persevere, to face calamity with hope, and to fight for justice despite the odds. Jesus comes to us each moment, and despite the limits placed on our lives, when Jesus comes into our lives, we proclaim, with Maya Angelou, “And still I rise.”
How will we recognize the Risen Jesus? Mary of Magdala initially sees only a gardener, until she hears Jesus call her name, “Mary, Mary.” Have you ever heard someone call your name when it really mattered? Perhaps you were scared, and it was a parent or grandparent who called your name. Perhaps you felt bullied, and a friend stood beside you, and courage returned. Perhaps feeling lost and looking for life’s direction or grieving the death of a loved one, you heard a whisper and found the right path.
The Risen Jesus is alive and calling your name. Right here. In the hospital room. At the protest. Walking down the hallways of your school. In perplexity and pain, Jesus calls your name, and when you hear it, you find a way to the Future. From now on, no one can turn you around because the Risen Jesus has called you forward.
How shall we respond? When she recognizes the Risen Jesus, Mary of Magdala wants to hug him. Jesus’ response is curious. “Don’t touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go tell my brothers that I am alive.” It takes a moment for Mary to get his meaning. “I am with always, Mary. But don’t localize me here. From now on, you will see me everywhere. And I will be with you wherever you go, in joy and sorrow, in life and death and in the everlasting life I’ve prepared for you!”
I think of Tom Joad’s words to his mother, in the Grapes of Wrath. Tom is leaving home to protect his family from reprisals for his labor organizing: “I’ll be everywhere — wherever you look. Wherever there’s fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there… — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there.”
That’s resurrection. Jesus is wherever we need him. Even when we don’t know we need him, Jesus is here. Even if we cry with no hope, Jesus is here. Coming to us in the way we need it. At the hour of birth and the hour of death, struggling with a math problem, pondering our identity, fearful of the future, angry at injustice. Jesus comes to us in thousand faces, and says I am with you, and now that you know it, make your life a witness to love that conquers death and joy that energizes action.
That first Easter morning Mary was astonished. Overwhelmed, she proclaims the Great Commission, “I have seen the Risen Jesus,” and you will see him soon.
So, this Easter. The Risen Jesus comes to us in the person beside you, in hymns of celebration, in the power to resist evil, and the Risen Jesus “walks with you and talks with you and tells you that you are his own,” and “gives you strength and courage to march in the light of God.” Christ is Risen today. And every day, from now on, you can find him on the path. Glory Hallelujah! Thanks be to God!
