They Got up and Went: A Sermon for Easter Sunday

After Jesus had died, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and Joseph of Arimathea were in such a hurry to get Jesus inside the tomb before the sabbath that they hadn’t had an opportunity to properly anoint his body for burial. So after the sabbath day was over, the three women got up and went. They got up and went to buy some spices. And then they got up and went to the tomb. 

On their way to the tomb, it occurred to them that what they had set out to do might be impossible. They wondered aloud how they were going to move the stone that was blocking the entrance of the tomb. Who might they ask to move the stone? Would anybody be closeby to help? If so, would they be willing to help? After all, opening a tomb that contained a dead body - and the stench that came with it - would be a rather harrowing task. 

These pragmatic questions didn’t stop the two Marys and Salome from going to the tomb. There was absolutely no way that they would be able to accomplish their task without moving the stone. And there was absolutely no way that they could move it themselves. And they had no idea who - if anybody - would be there to  move the stone for them. But they still got up and went, and they kept going until they arrived.

And because they got up and went, they were the first people to bear witness to the initially terrifying Good News of the resurrection of Jesus’ body from the dead. All because they got up and went to the tomb to carry out a rather mundane task. 

If they had avoided going because they knew the stone would be impossible to move - or if they had waited until they found someone to help them - they would have missed the whole thing.

On that very first Easter Sunday morning, the two Mary’s and Salome got up and went to the tomb. And that “get up and go” is what enabled them to transition from deep grief, hopelessness - and then fear - to what presumably was profound joy and transformation. And for one reason or another, today you did exactly what the two Marys and Salome did on that very first Easter Sunday morning - you got up and went. And I am grateful that you did.

A large part of the popularity of Easter is sensory and nostalgic. After a long, dreary season of Lent with no flowers, no alleluias, and subdued music mostly in the past and the other day that a minor key, we are greeted with the beauty of Easter flowers, alleluias, and triumphant, joyful music to help us celebrate the highest holy day of the Christian year. And since we were unable to gather in person for Easter Sunday last year, today is especially meaningful. All of these things that help make Easter Sunday so joyful, meaningful, and popular are a part of what helped us “get up and go” to church today. And hopefully today’s Easter experience will be all that you hoped that it would be. And if your decision to “get up and go” results in your being inspired, encouraged, and overjoyed, then getting up and going to church was worth the effort. 

That being said, my deepest hope is that perhaps somebody here might leave having experienced something in addition to the typical joy of Easter. My abiding hope is that somebody might actually experience the earth-shattering, stone-moving miracle of the resurrection. Might one of us, in a new and even perhaps terrifying way, be profoundly changed by the Good News that “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” Might some of us see and hear in a new way what we’ve heard so many times before - “for since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” What might it be like for us to be surprised - and to hear and believe this shockingly Good News differently this year? 

Am I being a bit too grandiose? We must remember that the two Mary’s and Salome didn’t get up and go to the tomb that morning expecting the miracle that they experienced. They got up and went to accomplish the rather mundane task of anointing a dead body...and look what God had in store for them. When we expect or even demand a miracle, they rarely happen on our terms. But we can and should hope for them. That is the call of Christians in a world marred by despair. 

Yet, most of what we do as Christians is rather routine and sometimes perhaps even mundane at times. We set the altar and arrange the flowers for worship. We serve on committees. We volunteer at medical clinics, food pantries, and thrift stores. We participate in Bible Studies and other classes and groups. We attend worship on days that are not as exciting as Christmas and Easter. And that is part of the faithful, steadfast life as a Christian.

That being said, I do believe that our getting up and going can result in an earth-shattering, stone-moving, miraculous turnaround, revelation, or experience. But we have to get up and go. When we do so, we are creating an opportunity for our hard heads and our hard hearts can be softened. Our apathy, disinterest, and boredom with Christianity may be converted to a newfound passion. Our hate may be converted to love. Our anger may be converted to forgiveness. Our despair may be converted to hope. Our disbelief may be converted to belief. 

An abiding hope that this sort of transformation - made possible by Christ’s resurrection from the dead - awaits us all. That is why I am here. And that is why we are here. That, my friends, whether we know it or not, is why we got up and went to church today.

As Christians, we must be driven by an abiding hope for what is possible for ourselves, for others, and for God’s whole creation. That hope is not naive, pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. Rather, it is a resurrection-informed hope in God making possible what the world tells us is impossible. 

The two Mary’s and Salome got up and went, trusting that their getting up and going wouldn’t be in vain. And as a result, they became the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They were the first to proclaim that Jesus, though he had died and had been buried, “was raised on the third day.” This is the same Lord for whom we got up and went today. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”