Children’s Address
Good morning children of God! Today is the most special day of the year— Easter Day. It’s the day we celebrate the miracle of Jesus rising from the dead, to overcome death for us. He was dead in the tomb but then on the third day he came back to life!
To help us think about this, I have a plant bulb. It looks dried up, old and pretty dead. Many people might think that if you put this in the ground nothing would happen at all. It would seem like it would just stay in the ground dead for ever and that would be the end of the story. But that’s not what would happen. What would happen if we planted this in the ground? Yes! It grows into a beautiful flower full of life.
When Jesus was put to death on the Cross the people thought that he was dead and gone forever. But Jesus is different. He is God’s own son. He is the resurrection and the life. After they buried Jesus in the tomb they all went away very sad but then on the third day they discovered that he had come back to life! It was a miracle – He came back to life. He rose from the dead.
On this Easter morning at the front of the church there is a beautiful display of plants with colourful flowers. It is like a garden down here…reminding us of what happened on the first Easter morning. Flowers are a great way to show how Jesus brings new life through his death. From a bud on a plant a beautiful flower unfolds and opens up—reminding us of how Jesus’ tomb was opened and he came out to rise from the dead, and appeared to Mary in the Garden where he had been buried.
I’m going to give you this bulb this morning. When you plant it, think of how Jesus was planted in the ground when he was buried in the tomb. And when the flower comes out, remember how died to give life for the world, and give his life to you. Today’s reading from the letter to the Colossians puts it this way: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1)
Taking faith home prayer – bulletin insert
SERMON – God’s resurrection garden
On Friday we left off where Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. Joseph of Arimathea had gone to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body, because the next day was the Sabbath. After Pilate agreed, Joseph and Nicodemus came and took the body of Jesus to prepare for burial. Nicodemus had brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and the two of them wrapped Jesus’ body, with the spices, in strips of linen, in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 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. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there (John 19:38-42).
A couple of days later; on Sunday, the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to that tomb. It was early in the morning, still dark, when she walked through the garden.
Why had Mary Magdalene gone to the garden? Jesus had already been prepared for burial just days before. There was nothing else she could have done now anyway, for the body of Jesus was strictly off limits to his followers. Pilate had given orders for the tomb to be made as secure as possible until the third day. This was at the request of the Chief Priests and Pharisees who anticipated that Jesus’ disciples might come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. So a seal was put on the stone and a guard posted by the tomb. (Matthew 27:62-66).
Early in the morning, on the first day of the week, Mary expected nothing else than to go to the sealed tomb and grieve.
Jesus dying hit Mary hard. She loved Jesus. How much had Jesus meant to Mary? Mary heard and saw and how Jesus had taught, healed, and transformed lives. But she didn’t just know about this—she knew this personally herself—Jesus had changed her life too! Luke tells us that Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary. That can mean nothing else that her life was once one of suffering, completely oppressed under the kingdom of Satan—until Jesus did what no-one else could for her: freeing her for new life, to serve Jesus in everlasting innocence, righteousness and blessedness. Since then, Mary had worked with the other women who supported Jesus and the disciples in his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom of God (Luke 8:1-3).
Whoever has been shown much grace loves much, and Mary greatly loved her Lord.
Now, Jesus was dead. She came to the garden to grieve. There is no way she expected to see what she saw that morning—the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb, where Jesus’ body had been laid. Had one of the disciples done that which the religious authorities had feared—stolen the body of Jesus? Or was it the guard, stationed at the tomb, seeing as he had mysteriously disappeared too? She could draw no other conclusion.
Everything that unfolded next seemed such a blur—Mary rushing, anxious and confused, exclaiming: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they put him!” Peter and John, racing, hearts racing, running and gasping, stooping down, looking inside the tomb. They see the strips of linen which Joseph and Nicodemus had wrapped around the body of Jesus just lying there—but no Jesus; Simon Peter also seeing the cloth which had been on Jesus’ head, looking as though it was too neatly folded and too carefully placed for there to have been an intrusion.
Then the disciples left, and Mary goes back to grieving there in the garden, standing outside the tomb crying, stooping down, looking into the tomb…
Sight dimmed by the darkness of early morning and awareness veiled by grief, it seemingly doesn’t register for Mary that she is talking with angels, as they ask her from inside the tomb why she is crying. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she sobs, “and I do not know where they have put him.”
This is the second of three times Mary says this in today’s Gospel reading. Mary expected Jesus to be in the tomb, there in the garden, on the first day of the week—and nowhere else. When she turns she thinks she is speaking with the gardener. Through this exchange it is clear that Mary understands she is speaking with an actual person. is only when he says her name, she knows that it is not the gardener she is speaking with, but Jesus.
“Rabboni!” she cries out, without time to even wonder if she is hallucinating or dreaming. This is not a dream, or a hallucination, or even a ghost—but a flesh and blood person; the flesh and blood Person of Christ standing before her. Dumbfounded, lost for words, Mary reaches out to touch him. For a moment she grasps his crucified hands. Jesus is actually there, every single cell, every hair on his head. Then it all makes sense—no one has taken Jesus. He is not in the tomb, because he is risen from the tomb!
Of all the images for God, there is one that is perhaps understated—God as gardener. Genesis 2:8 says: “Now the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.”
Now John tells us that God the Father has planted a new garden; a garden better than Eden. In his new garden, he planted Jesus in the ground when he was crucified and buried. As Jesus himself would teach: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).
Jesus will not be left for dust, because it is in the dust that the life of a buried seed unfolds, and takes root, and sprouts, and blooms. Like a beautiful flower emerging from its unfolding bud, reaching out to the world, Jesus has blossomed out of the grave.
Your Father in heaven is the Gardener who carefully planted you in this garden. In baptism, he planted you with Christ in his tomb, where your sinful nature was buried, and where you were united in Christ’s own resurrection, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you also, like a flower rising up out of the soil, have risen to new life through faith in him.
Just as Jesus called Mary’s name, he has called your name, claiming you as his own, together with the names of all his holy people he has redeemed over time. He says of you: “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me.” The seed of his word has blossomed in the hearts of his faithful people, and by his glorious gospel he has brought to you the same wonderful and incredible freedom from the powers of hell and Satan as he did for Mary Magdalene.
Paul speaks of our resurrection as something that has already begun; something that has already happened, since we were planted by God with Christ in the garden bed of his church: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).
The church, with our hearts and minds set on things above, bursts forth with new blooms all the time, as the Holy Spirit opens our lips and brings forth the next proclamation of the gospel; the next person being baptized, the next person confessing their faith, the next person supporting the ministry of Jesus in faithful service and charity, like Mary and those she served with. These are the occasions that bright, vibrant blooms burst from the new Easter Garden bed of God, his church, in which you also have been planted.
Tied together with the garden stake that is Christ, your confession of faith and witness to the world is a spectacular floral display in a world overrun with thorns and thistles. That witness is on the things above—on the gracious rule of God’s Kingdom at work in the person of Jesus, who has won the mighty victory over sin, death and hell, bringing freedom from the power of Satan. It is the witness of God’s grace and love at work in Jesus, who brings freedom and salvation, just as Mary had herself experienced, and just as you have too: given salvation, freedom from all evil, judgment, condemnation, death and hell. You have been forgiven for everything—everything you’ve ever done or failed to do. Every thought, every attitude in the heart. And so, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:4).
This picture in John’s Gospel, of the garden, early in the morning on the first day of the week, is a picture of the reality of what God has done for you. For it is again early in the morning on the first day of the week, and the risen Christ who knows you by name, is here—speaking to you with all his freeing power, all his forgiveness and compassion. For his sake, your Father in heaven gives you the fullness of his blessing, so that his new garden of the resurrection that bursts forth in bloom will never wither and perish, even long after the world has given way.
On that day, all his children who remain steadfast in faith will be summoned by the Lord by name. Your grave clothes will also be left folded, your grave, made holy by the death of Jesus, be left empty, filled only with the light of his resurrection. How deep the Father’s love for us! Now not even death itself can separate you form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! For when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory! Amen.
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
