Sunday, April 5, 2026

Scripture: John 20:1-18

Sermon Title: “He is Risen!”

“April Fool’s! ”These are the words my six-year-old daughter Ellie kept telling me when she got home from school this past Wednesday. For adults, it was just April 1st, the start of a new month, but for kids, it was “April Fool’s Day.” I don’t think Ellie really grasped though that you’re supposed to trick someone first, and then say, “April Fool’s!” She just kept saying “April Fool’s!” like a greeting, how you would say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Easter!”

And I have to admit, my Holy Week so far has felt a little out of sorts. If you were with us on Maundy Thursday, again thank you to all who helped make our Last Supper Drama Possible, it was great. But when we were getting ready to do communion and Piper came out and announced that there was no juice in the chalices, I was thinking to myself, “Is this some sort of April Fool’s Joke? What is happening right now?” Thankfully it all worked out, but it’s a communion experience I’ll never forget.

Then last night, I went to First United to give one of the Good Friday Devotions. Now this one wasn’t as blatant as the no juice for communion. But right before I’m getting ready to walk up and give my devotion, I feel like I’m stepping on something and look down to see that the sole of my high heel had come unglued and was flopping as I walked. Then, no one knew this one but me. I always preach off a tablet, and a little way into my devotion, my tablet just went black. So I did what I could from memory, and when I got home later, I was mad because I realized I left out a good illustration in my devotion.

It has felt like I’ve been getting pranked this Holy Week. It has felt like I’ve been living an extended April Fool’s prank. I’m hoping all the pranks are done and we have a great Easter Service this morning. But just in case I have a printed sermon along with my tablet.

Now, most April Fool’s jokes are just funny pranks. But in recent years, due to social media and online bullying, sometimes April Fool’s Pranks can go a little too far and be downright cruel.

I know that April Fool’s Day didn’t exist back in Jesus’s time, but I imagine thatwhen the women got to the empty tomb on Easter morning, it felt like a cruel AprilFool’s Prank. We have to remember that first Easter, they didn’t know the rest of the story. They just show up and know that a body is missing.

In other gospel accounts, multiple women went to the tomb that first Easter Morning. In John’s Gospel account that we heard from today, it was just Mary Magdalene. Remember, Mary Magdalene was the woman who Jesus had healed of 7 demons.  

Mary thinks she is going to care for the body of her dearly loved friend, rabbi, and teacher. Jesus was killed right before the Sabbath began, so they were not able toproperly care for the body. Jesus was put in a tomb, and they had to wait until Sunday to attend to the body. Imagine how Mary must be feeling. She saw Jesus executed before her very eyes.  She is mourning and grieving. But she has now come to do what must be done to care for the body. How faithful this woman is. But when she gets there, she sees that things are not right at the tomb.

I imagine Mary thinking, “why is the stone not blocking the entrance of the tomb?” It might feel like coming home and realizing your front door is ajar. It’s unsettling.

Mary goes running to Peter and the other disciple who Jesus loved to tell them what she has experienced. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Mary’s first thought is not resurrection. Mary’s first thought is not hope and new life. Mary’s first thought is not “He is Risen.” Mary’s first thought is that his body has been stolen. What cruelty to steal a dead body.  

How often when God is moving in ways we don’t comprehend, we go to the worst-case scenario instead of realizing that God is at work even in the midst of our pain?

I imagine Peter and the other disciple think that Mary is crazy, but they go running to see what all the commotion is about. I volunteered at Field Day on Friday, so now I’m picturing Peter and the beloved disciple doing some sort of field day race as they race one another to the tomb. They discover the strips of linen and cloth, but no body, no Jesus. And then they go back to where they are staying.

But not Mary. No, Mary stays.

She stays and weeps and then looks in the tomb again. I imagine hoping that her worst fears are wrong, and hoping his body is somehow back where it should be.

But then she sees angels in the tomb.

They ask her, “Woman, why are you crying?” (John 20:15)

Mary explains that her Lord has been taken, and she doesn’t know where he is.

She then turns and sees Jesus but doesn’t recognize him. We’ll see this next week in our scripture as well that the people on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Jesus at first either. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps resurrected bodies look different from regular bodies. Perhaps she was just too overwhelmed by the trauma of Good Friday, that she is blinded to think in any way shape or form this could possibly be Jesus.

The angels have asked her, and now Jesus is asking her. He says, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” (John 20:15, NIV)

She thinks he is the gardener. She wants to know where he has taken Jesus. Remember John 19:14 tells us, “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” So it makes sense she would assume this man is the gardener.

Then Jesus simply says her name, “Mary.”

And she turns toward him and says, “Rabboni,” which means “teacher.”

Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus when she first sees him, or even when he first speaks to her. But she recognizes him when he calls her by name.

There’s something about a loved one saying our name. They just say it in a certain way. For those of us who have lost loved ones, we long to hear their voice again. We long to hear them speak to us one more time and call us by name.

And Mary gets to experience this. She gets to experience Jesus being resurrected and calling her by name.

Jesus tells her, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

And she goes to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”

Mary Magdalene, a woman who at one time was possessed by 7 demons is the first evangelist. She is the first to tell others the good news of Easter Morning. She is the first to proclaim the good news of Resurrection. The first to say, “I have seen the Lord!”

I know for many of us, we have heard the Easter story, the story of the empty tomband Resurrection so many times that maybe we forget how crazy this would have sounded to hear that first Easter. Jesus has risen from the dead? But that’s impossible. Dead people don’t come back to life. What in the world is going on?

I know all of us here have lost at least one loved one in our life, probably more.  We’ve all experienced the pain of losing a loved one and experienced that horriblegrief. Can you even imagine hearing the news that your loved one has come back to life? It’s unfathomable. And then, that person appears before you. You would be in shock, and awe, and overjoyed. Your loved one is risen from the dead.  

I know it’s easy to hear this story of the Resurrection, and think, it’s just a story, there’s no way this could possibly be true. Dead people don’t come back to life.  

One of the biggest proofs that this story is true is that Jesus first appeared to women. In Jesus’s time, no one believed women. Women’s testimony wasn’t even valid in a court of law. If the writers of the Gospels were wanting to make up a story of Resurrection to sound good, they would have written that Jesus first appeared to men. This would have made their story look better. Men’s testimony was valid in the court of law. But by saying that Jesus first appeared to women, people who were often not believed, people whose testimony was not valid, we know that this story must be true. No one would make that up. The gospel accounts may vary a little, today’s scripture it’s just Mary Magdalene, but all 4 gospel accounts have Jesus first appearing to women.

What does it mean that Jesus first appeared to women? It shows that even in his death and resurrection, Jesus lifts up the lowly. He knows they were the ones with him at the cross, he knows they were coming to care for his body. He knows when everyone else abandoned him, they were faithful. The world may have looked down on them, but Jesus did not look down on them. He lifted up the lowly, and these women at the empty tomb, those looked down by their society, are still beingtalked about 2,000 years later.  

Today is the Holiest Day of the Christian Year. Easter. Resurrection Day. Our whole faith hinges on this day. Without the Resurrection, there would be no Christian Religion. Without the Resurrection, Jesus would just have been a prophet, and teacher, who was executed by the state. But because Jesus was Resurrected, because he overcame death itself, we know that Jesus is not just a prophet. Jesus was not just a good teacher. Jesus was the Savior of the World, the Son of God, God in the flesh.  

So what does the Resurrection mean for us? What does Easter mean for us?  

Jesus’s resurrection means resurrection for us as well. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that Jesus overcame sin and death itself. Because of Jesus, we will experience resurrection in heaven one day. Because of Jesus we will experience heaven. Death is not the end. Death does not get the final say.

As awful and horrific as the cross was, the cross wasn’t the final word. The empty tomb was. Darkness, suffering, and death did not get the final say. Resurrection gets the final say. Hope and New Life get the final say. Whatever awful and horrific things you have gone through, or are going through right now will not get the final say either. Life will. Resurrection will.  

I’m still young, so I haven’t lost a ton of people yet, but I’ve lost my share of people that I wish I hadn’t. I’ve lost a great grandmother I was very close to, a friend of the family who was like an aunt, my first baby, a grandfather, and my husband Jesse has lost his mom and we lost his grandmother a couple of years agoas well. All of us here can probably name lists of people that we were very close to that we lost. Some who died young, some who lived long lives. Some who died suddenly, some who died after a long sickness. Here in our own congregation, we have many widows and widowers who have lost a spouse in the last year. We know pain and loss and grief.

But the Empty Tomb, the Resurrection tells us, death isn’t the end of the story.  Life and Resurrection are. Because of the empty tomb, because of the Resurrection, I will see my great grandmother again, I will see my aunt, my grandpa. We will see our first-born Leah. We will see Jesse’s mom and grandmother again. You too will see your spouses and loved one again. This is the hope of Resurrection. This is the hope of Easter.

My grandparents actually got married on April Fool’s Day. My grandma got remarried when I was about five years old. So he wasn’t my biological grandpa, but he had been in my life since I was a little kid. They joked that April Fool’s Day was perfect because they were two old fools getting married. They weren’t too old, I think in their fifties. They ended up being married 28 years.  

He died about 2 and a half years ago. I know that this past Wednesday, April 1st, April Fool’s Day was probably hard for my grandma. It would have been their 31stWedding Anniversary.

And although Wednesday was difficult for her, the hope we have of Easter means that death is not the end. My grandma will see her husband again.  Death does not get the last say. Hope is coming. Resurrection is coming.  

But that is not our only hope. It gets better. I know, I sound like a commercial – “but wait, there’s more!”  

The Resurrection of Jesus is not just good news for when we die someday and experience eternal life in heaven in the presence of God. We serve a God who is bringing about new life, hope, and resurrection in the here and now as well. We have a God who brings new life out of hopeless situations. Someone overcoming an addiction, that’s new life, that’s hope, that’s resurrection. A crumbling marriage being restored through counseling. That’s new life, that’s hope, that’s resurrection. Forgiveness happening in a family where members have been estranged for years. That’s new life, that’s hope, that’s resurrection. A couple being able to have a baby after praying for many years. That’s new life, that’s hope, that’s resurrection.

Where do you need new life to spring forward? Where do you need resurrection tohappen? Where do you need hope in your life?

Remember how Mary assumed Jesus was the gardener because Jesus was buried in a garden? Scripture begins in a garden, with Adam and Eve, messing up royally, sinning, and giving in to their pride and selfishness. And today, we see a new garden unfolding. We see Jesus overcoming death in the garden. And scripture ends with a garden as well.

Do we have any master gardeners in the congregation? I believe our very own Elizabeth Flynn is. I am not at all. I do not have a green thumb. Plants come to me to die. My mom and grandmothers would be very disappointed in my gardening skills. And yet, while I’m not a good gardener, I can appreciate the beauty of a beautiful garden.

My family and I just went to South Korea over Spring Break. We were visiting friends from seminary who are serving there as missionaries. And while we had a great time, I kept thinking, if we would have come maybe a month later, we would have seen the Cherry Blossoms blooming. But while we were there, we did go to a botanical garden, where some stuff was blooming, but we were a little too early for the Cherry Blossoms.

I’m originally from Ohio, and I kept making the comparisons between Ohio’s climate and South Korea’s climate. So a lot of South Korea looked like Ohio at the end of winter before everything is blooming. There were a lot of dead tree branches with no leaves and flowers.

But as I stared out at the dead plants, if I closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would look like in a month or so when the Cherry Blossoms would be blooming. I imagined it would be beautiful shades of pinks and whites as far as the eye could see.

And that’s the thing about a master gardener. A master gardener doesn’t just see what something looks like now. A master gardener sees what something could look like with some sunlight, water, and fertilizer.

Mary confused Jesus for the gardener that first Easter, but I wouldn’t say that Mary was too far off. Jesus is the master gardener. The one who looks at us, dead in our sin and transgressions and can see what will happen to us when his resurrection power gets a hold of us. Jesus looks at a family of dysfunction, addiction, bitterness and pain and sees what his resurrection power can do: bring life, wholeness, healing, and forgiveness. Jesus looks at a world of chaos, war, injustice, and violence, and has a vision of peace.

And Jesus the master gardener, doesn’t just have a vision, but through the resurrection power of Jesus, Jesus makes that vision of new life happen.

There is something about a garden that simply invokes images of life. You can’t tell as much here in Florida, but in Ohio, after the dead of winter, it is so exciting to see new life spring forth when you see those first buds blooming in Spring. And that is the image that scripture gives us for resurrection as well. New Life Springing forth. Its why we have this beautiful cross of fresh flowers, reminding us that on Good Friday, when all hope seemed lost, when it seemed death had won, the Master Gardner was working behind the scenes to bring new life and resurrection.

We serve a God who overcame sin and death itself. God can bring hope, new life, and resurrection to whatever is going on in your life today as well.  

That is what we are celebrating today. That Jesus overcame sin and death. That death has been defeated. We don’t have to live in fear of death. And, we can experience resurrection, hope, and new life in the here and now as well. We don’t have to wait to heaven to experience heaven here on earth.

And this great news is being celebrated all over the world today. But you know what? Easter is not meant to only be celebrated one day a year. We as followers of Jesus Christ are an Easter People.

What if we lived every day as if it were Easter? As if hope, resurrection, and new life were just around the corner? What if we lived everyday knowing that death does not get the final say. Jesus has conquered sin and even death itself. Because the truth is, that is the reality.

And what if we left this place, and didn’t keep this good news for ourselves, but shared it with others. Mary’s response to seeing and speaking with Jesus was to run and tell others, “I have seen the Lord!”

How have you seen the Lord today? How have you seen and experienced the Lord throughout your life? How are you telling others about what God has done in your life? Be like Mary Magdalene, go and tell others, “I have seen the Lord!”

April Fool’s Day might have been a few days ago, for me it felt like an extended April Fool’s Day with all my Holy Week mishaps. But we are not fools for believing in the Resurrection. Far from it. This is not a prank. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is true. We are an Easter People, we know that hope, new life, and Resurrection are coming. Happy Easter!  He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Amen