Easter Sunday Dawn Service
Text: John 20:1-18 Our Lives Rebooted
Every now and then as I’m working on my computer
it begins to slow down and get really sluggish.
Things take longer to process – programs take
longer to open.
And I realise that what I need to do is turn it
off and turn it back on again to refresh it.
Sometimes our lives are a little like that.
We get rundown with all the negativity in the
world and sometimes we wonder what the point of it all is.
And then comes along Easter Sunday.
The day when God restarts our lives again.
The day when God reboots our lives that have
become so defragmented with worry, work, conflict, and anything else that pulls
us in every direction.
God again comes into our lives to bring us back
into his love and care by reminding us that Jesus has defeated all the powers
of darkness that wage their war against us.
Without Jesus and his resurrection we would
descend further and further into the depths of darkness.
On the day of Jesus’ resurrection Mary went to the
tomb while it was still dark.
It was dark both physically because the sun had
not yet risen to announce the new day.
But it was also dark symbolically as Mary goes to
the tomb with a heavy heart because of grief.
Jesus was supposed to be the one who would make
things different in the world and in her life but he went the way of all people
and worse.
Not only did he die but he died the most horrific
and shameful death.
Humiliated in front of family, friends and
followers.
To add to her disappointment she discovers that
Jesus’ body is missing.
Suspecting the worse, she believes she is the
victim of heartless thieves:
They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we
don’t know where they have put him!”
And like so many people who go through difficult
times Mary can’t find Jesus amongst her problems.
Even though he is there and she is speaking with him
she doesn’t experience his presence in her time of crisis because she is so
focused on his death.
And how often don’t we feel that way?
Even though Jesus has promised to be with us always,
sometimes he seems to be rather absent when we need him.
And then, just when Mary feels as if she has hit
rock bottom Jesus reaches out to her and calls her name.
And immediately she is revived in her faith.
So too we sometimes walk through life aimlessly
not knowing where to turn or to whom we should talk.
It really does at times feel like we’re walking
through the valley of the shadow of death.
And then Jesus reaches out to us and reminds us
that in our Baptism we were called by name and promised I am with you always.
Jesus knows the feeling of abandonment from when
he cried out from the cross – My God, my God, why have you abandoned me.
We know that God the Father didn’t abandon his
son.
Jesus was experiencing the full weight of our sin
and what it does to our relationship with God.
And God doesn’t abandon us either but gives us his
Son, our great high priest who is able to empathise with our weakness because
he too experienced them.
But even more than empathise with us Jesus gives
us the way out and leads us to our heavenly Father as he sits at the right hand
of his Father interceding for us as does the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words.
And that’s why Jesus says to Mary - “Do not hold
on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
And then notice the change that will come through
Jesus’ ascension to heaven.
No longer will God be “the” Father but Jesus says:
Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
By his death and resurrection Jesus has now
completed the reconciliation between us and God.
A reconciliation that was needed when our sin
drove a wedge into that relationship.
The resurrection affirms for us that “it is
finished”
The virus of sin has been cleansed - our lives
have been rebooted – upgraded – a new “father board” or whatever other computer
terminology you want to use.
And now, like Mary, we are sent to tell the world
what Jesus has done for us and for all people.
With great excitement Mary rushed to tell the
others “I have seen the Lord!”
Let us too, with great excitement rush to tell
others “I have seen the Lord” and that Christ is risen – he is risen indeed.
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