The Resurrection of Our Lord (Sunrise Service) – April 20th, 2025
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: John 20:1–18
“Joy Comes in the Morning”
Theme: Jesus brings the light of the Gospel to Mary Magdalene and to us.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
I don’t know whether you are a night owl or morning bird, but there sure were some morning birds who woke up early to go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body. Our text says that it was still dark outside when they arrived at the tomb. It was also dark within their spirits.
It’s impossible for us to understand their grief completely. Many of us have lost loved ones and have had to wake up the day or week or year after losing them. Sometimes you don’t even want to get out of bed for grief. Mary Magdalene and the other women did not just lose a loved one, but they lost the person they regarded as the most important person in their religion: the Messiah, the Holy One of God. They didn’t think he would or could die. Yet he did.
The blackness of the night symbolizes the despair of their spirit. We must remember that all creation was dark from noon until three, mourning the crucifixion of its Lord. Darkness is often an image for sadness or death. Hear this from Job: “…before I go to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness” (10:21–22). The pagan Gentiles are called a “people walking in darkness” in Isaiah (9:2).
These women walked in darkness to a tomb of the darkness of death.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been walking outside in the middle of the night at a campground, and suddenly someone shines a bright flashlight in your eyes. It absolutely blinds you. It’s almost worse than stumbling around in the dark, because now your eyes are hurting.
I wonder if these women felt the same way. They received a light that would blind them with utter shock: the stone was rolled away, and the angels announced to them that Jesus had risen. They would not be able to fully process it, fleeing instead to tell Peter and John what they had seen—or had not seen, as was the case.
The sun had risen by this point. So, perhaps, had joy in their hearts. It’s just my imagination, but I like to think of those words, “He has risen; he is not here” (Mark 16:6) as happening at the same time as the sun was rising. The message of the Gospel brings light to their hearts, even as the sun rises upon their faces.
The sun began to shine on the disciples as well. You have a comical race to the tomb, which John makes clear to us that he won, but he allowed the elder Peter to enter first. Peter remained in darkness, confused by the empty tomb, but John “saw and believed” (8). The light was getting stronger. They go away, and they must await the Lord’s appearing later that evening in the meal of Emmaus and in the upper room.
The light would continue to get stronger, though, as Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb. She saw the two angels, and they ask her, “‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him’” (13). She turned and saw Jesus, but did not recognize him. Even though the sun had risen, her mind was still in darkness. She mistook him in her grief for the gardener. None of us see clearly in the midst of our grief, but our Lord is kind to her and to us.
All He says is one word: “Mary” (16). He calls her by name. That is how the light enters her soul. God knows her and says her name. Her eyes are opened, and she calls out, “Rabboni!” (16). She clings to him, not wanting to ever let go of him, but Jesus says, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (17).
Jesus speaks to you as well by name. He knows you by name, and he even when your mind is clouded and darkened by grief or shame, he speaks to you through His Word. You have been baptized, when He gave you His name and promised to be with you, even to the end of the age.
If you are in darkness, listen to that Word of Jesus. He called to Mary. He calls to you. Let the light shine into your hearts. St. Paul reminds us, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). Jesus is the “The light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). He is the “Light of the world. Whoever follows [him] will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Today is Easter, and it is good that we are here at a sunrise service. You may not normally be a morning person, but you are a person of the light, for you belong to Christ. The sunrise brings light, so we are happy. The darkness of sin and death is past, and they cannot truly scare us anymore. We know where we will be when we die: we cross through the portal of death to meet our Lord and Savior in heaven. A far greater future is planned for us. Blessed will that day be when we see Jesus face to face with our own eyes and live in his light and life forevermore. Blessed will that day be when we will hear our names spoken by Jesus as He welcomes us to paradise, where we can cling to him forever.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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