Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardner, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:11-18)
What a way to begin the most important day of history - tears! For Mary Magdalene, Easter was a day of tears - tears of sorrow that turned to tears of joy. Of all times, why would anyone cry on Easter, a glorious day of life? The angels at the empty tomb asked Mary, "Why are you weeping?" Later, Jesus asked the same question, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
Yes, why are you weeping on Easter? It is a day for shouting, laughing, dancing, singing, and - and tears of joy! There are times when feelings are so deep that we do not know whether to laugh or to cry as a way to express a very deep feeling. It happened when the Jews, under Ezra and Nehemiah, returned from fifty years of Babylonian captivity. They had just completed the laying of the foundation of Solomon's temple destroyed by Nebuchednezzar. A biblical historian tells us that some "shouted for joy," but others, like the old men who saw the first temple, wept.
With Jesus and the angels, we, too, keep asking, "Why are you weeping?" A bride sees her mother crying during the wedding and asks, "Mother, why are you weeping?" She answers, "Because I am so happy for you." A girl in the Miss America beauty contest hears her name as the winner and, as the crown is placed on her head as the most beautiful girl in America, tears roll down her cheeks. Parents might ask, "Daughter, why are you weeping? This is your finest hour." Some years ago, unexpectedly at a chapel service, a woman was called to the front by the Dean of the Seminary to be recognized for her excellent service over twenty years. Seated in the pew behind her, I saw, as she took her seat, tears in her eyes. I asked myself, "Mrs. Stowers, why are you weeping? This is your happy day of honor!" Likewise, Easter is a time for tears of joy. It is the most marvelous, most wonderful thing that ever happened or could ever happen. It is so exciting and thrilling that the best way to express our joy and exhilaration is to shed tears. But, how many of us sing "Christ is risen, Alleluia!" with tears in our eyes? Is it because we do not understand or appreciate what Eastermeans, or is it because Easter does not mean much to us?
The Joy of Victory
Tears of joy are appropriate for Easter because they express our exhilaration of victory. There is a very important principle involved here. Victory comes out of defeat. Life does not come after death but out of death. Weakness comes first and strength flows from weakness. Sorrow precedes joy; Easter follows Good Friday. The principle is illustrated by Mary Magdalene in our Easter text. When she came to the tomb, she wept because she thought that someone had stolen the body of Jesus. But her tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy as she recognized the risen Savior when he said to her, "Mary." She came to an empty tomb - out of death came the victory of life. Colleen McCullough got the title of her best-selling book, Thorn Birds, from a legend about a bird that sings only once and more sweetly than any other bird on earth. From the time it leaves the nest, it looks for a thorn tree and does not rest until it is found. Singing among the savage branches, the bird impales itself upon the longest, sharpest thorn. Dying, it rises above its agony to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The world gets still to listen and God in heaven smiles. Out of the tears of loss and defeat come the tears of joyous victory.
Now victory calls for a celebration. On this Easter day let the hallelujah choruses be heard throughout the world. Blow the trumpets! Wave the banners! Shout, "The victory is ours!" Cry tears of joy! To this day, Jews observe the feast of Purim. They celebrate the victory they had over Mordecai who planned to kill all the Jews in the land. In the book of Esther, the people were ordered to "hold the 14th day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting and holidaymaking and a day on which they send choice portions to one another." For two millenia, Christians have kept the feast of Easter to celebrate God's victory over humankind's greatest and ultimate enemy, death. God raised Jesus from the dead. The empty tomb Mary Magdalene found is evident of God's glorious victory, a victory so great that we shed tears of joy. Now we can stand at a grave and challenge it in the words of St. Paul, "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"
We cannot appreciate the victory unless we realize the dreadfulness of death. All other enemies of humanity are insignificant when contrasted with death. Humans can overcome all other enemies but only God could put death to death by the resurrection of Christ. Think of what death does to us. It breaks up a family circle of loved ones, and if we truly love each other, this is a horrible loss. You can work hard and save your money, but death takes all of it away from you. Is that fair? A person can reach the heights of pomp and power, but death brings the mighty to dust and ashes. You may be a scholar and spend years acquiring knowledge, but death causes all of it to evaporate into nothingness. Death turns life into tragedy. It takes away the meaning of life. If death is the ultimate, if there is no cure for death, then we may just as well "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!" What an enemy, but more so, what a victory!
On Easter, we shout victoriously, "Death is dead!" But, we must understand that this does not mean we shall not physically die. It is appointed for every person to taste death. God programmed us to die physically, and we all have an appointment with death. Peter Marshall told a legend about a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market. When the servant returned, he was pale with fright because he said Death jostled and threatened him. So he asked his master for a horse to go to Samarra to hide from death. The merchant lent him the horse and later went to market himself. There he, too, saw Death and asked him, "Why did you frighten my servant this morning?" Death answered that he was surprised to see him in Bagdad, for he had an appointment with him that night in Samarra.
No, the death over which God gives victory is spiritual death caused by separation from God. As St. Paul wrote, nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God or God himself. Though we physically die, we shall continue to live in and with God. And this is our comfort when we mourn the loss of those who died in Christ. Each Easter Moravians hold their sunrise Easter services, not in their churches, but in a cemetery. In the midst of death, the good news of victory over death is proclaimed. The dead in the graves are not really dead; they live with Christ.
The Joy of Truth
Tears of joy come to us at Easter, because we have in the resurrected Christ the truth of God, ourselves, and our salvation. When Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Jesus, she exclaimed, "Rabonni!" meaning "Teacher." Of all possible names, the one that instinctively came to her was the one that dealt with his teaching the truth. We need to know and understand the truth of God for our stability and security. Without the truth, we are confused. We want answers and solutions; we already have plenty of questions and problems. We are on sinking sand until we have the truth, and then our feet are on solid rock. Like Mary, we want to take hold of Jesus, the truth, and not let go. When Eisenhower was president, he summoned Billy Graham to his farm-retreat at Gettysburg. In the course of their four-hour discussion, President Eisenhower, longing to know the truth, said, "Billy, I want you to tell me why you believe in heaven, and why you believe in the afterlife."
Getting to know the truth is reason for rejoicing. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, Nehemiah, the governor, ordered Ezra, the scribe, to read the Word to the people. A pulpit was erected, and he read each day from early morning until noon. Others were appointed to explain to the people what was read. A strange reaction took place. When the people heard the Word read, they wept. An order went out: "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." As a result, "all the people went their way to eat and drink, and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them." Likewise on this Easter day, we rejoice with tears of joy because we have the truth in the Risen Christ, for the whole Christian faith ultimately rests on the resurrection. If Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith would be in vain.
The Resurrection gives us the truth that God can be trusted. It says to us positively that God is and that God is in control of the world and our lives. It was God who raised Jesus. It was God who did what no man could do - he rolled away the stone from the tomb. On Good Friday, we wondered where God was that he would allow his Son to be crucified. In the light of Easter, now we know that God was in the shadows, suffering and dying in his Son. Behind the overcast sky of doubt and tribulation, the sun of God shines and one day the sun of God's love and presence will shine through. In the light of this, no college teacher can upset or scare us with a philosophy that God is dead. His living reality is witnessed in the Resurrection. How happy we are to know that God lives and reigns!
Easter, moreover, gives us the truth of Jesus. Is he or is he not God's Son, the Messiah, the Redeemer, and our Savior? When he suffered and died on a cross like the two thieves, we may have had doubt that his words were true. He said, "The Father and I are one," and "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Now we know his words are solid truth. No other person was raised from the dead. No other religious leader, no wise sage, no ruler with power had that experience. Of all the billions of people that lived, only one was raised from the dead. He was the God-man. Jesus, for a fact, is God's only Son. He does have the authority to forgive our sins, and he does have the power to save us. Oh, what wonderful truth that rejoices the heart! Now I am sure I can put my whole trust in him for eternal life.
Rejoice in the truth that the final outcome is good. In a world where evil, corruption, and crime seem to succeed, we may wonder at times whether God or Satan is in control of the world. Easter gives us the truth: Good will ultimately win out. Love is stronger than hatred. Out of death will come life. At present, we may have troubles and tragedy. Our situation may seem hopeless. The Resurrection gives us the truth that the tomb of death will open. Things will straighten out. Justice will one day prevail. Morning follows the night. This is most certainly true. You can base your life on it. With tears of joy in your eyes, you can life with hope in "hopeless" circumstances.
The Joy of Experience
Tears of joy come to our eyes on Easter because of a personal experience with the risen Christ. This was the case with Mary Magdalene. Jesus came to her near the empty tomb and said, "Mary." She was a name and not a number! For the state, we are only a number, for every child entering first grade is given a Social Security card with a number and this continues throughout the child's life. With Christ we are more than a number; we are a person. You can say, "God knows me. He even calls me by my first name." In Mark's account of the Easter story, the angel told the women at the empty tomb, "Go, tell his disciples and Peter ..." What a joy it is to know that you are known intimately and personally by the risen Lord. What a joy! What an honor!
The joy of Easter is not only in personally being known by Christ but in our knowing him personally. When Mary Magdalene went to the Disciples, she exclaimed, "I have seen the Lord!" It was a personal experience. "I," not someone else, but "I" had the experience. I have "seen," not I have been told or I heard about it, but I myself have actually "seen" the Lord. She was excited and thrilled. This really happened to her. She really saw and spoke to the risen Christ! This is an experience that everyone, even today, can have, and when we have that personal confrontation, we experience the joy of Easter. The problem with some of us is that we are Christians without any experience. When we apply for a job, "experience" of some years is usually demanded. Can you say with Mary Magdalene that you are a Christian with experience with Christ?
What does this personal experience with the risen Lord mean to us? It means we have the knowledge and assurance, beyond all doubt, that Jesus did rise from the dead and that he lives here and now. Many "infallible proofs" can be given for the Resurrection, but the one infallible of infallible proofs is Christ's living in us. "I know he lives because he lives in me." How do I know that he lives in me? Because his presence in me makes me sorry for my sins, makes me love to worship him, compels me to work in his body, the church, motivates me to glorify him in every word and deed, and drives me to serve him by loving others.
Moreover, this experience with the risen Lord makes us happy because Christ lives to bless, to help, to comfort, and forgive us. It is more than "us"; it is "me" personally. Think of the joy we have when weexperience the love and forgiveness of Christ. One time Dwight L. Moody preached at a prison where there were many life-term prisoners. While he was there, the Parole Board chose the occasion to release one of them. The Warden announced that the prisoners could choose by secret ballot the one whom they thought worthy of release. After the vote was taken, the Warden called out the name of the winner: Reuben Johnson. No one stood up. He said again, "Reuben Johnson, will you stand?" Every convict turned and looked at Johnson. Moody recalled, "Here sat a man, with tears streaming down his face. He was free. He was forgiven. The reality of it all was beyond his comprehension and the only reaction he could make was to weep tears of joy." When we are released from guilt and set free to be full and complete persons, with tears, we ask, "What did you find in me that you have dealt so lovingly with me?" Then, rejoice, people - rejoice that you have a living Christ who lives to bless you real good!
Our time of tears throughout Lent has come to a happy ending with tears of joy over the Resurrection. A father took his little boy to a pet shop to pick out a puppy for his birthday present. For half an hour he looked at the assortment in the window. "Decided which one you want?" asked his Daddy. "Yes," the little fellow replied, pointing to one which was enthusiastically wagging his tail. "I want the one with the happy ending." Easter is a happy ending for all the tears of sorrow, disappointment, and tragedy. Christ's glorious resurrection has turned them into tears of joy. Tears on Easter? Yes, tears of a happy ending to sorrow, death, and tragedy. Now we can say "HAPPY EASTER" and really mean it!