Jesus Is Alive!
John 20:1-18  +  Easter Dawn

	There are twenty-four people in the U.S. today celebrating an especially meaningful Easter. I’m sure you have followed the headlines as the twenty-four crewmembers of a Navy plane made an emergency landing in China and then were detained for 11 days before being freed. As a nation, we perhaps felt a little bit of the anxiety and joy that Jesus’ followers did on that first Easter weekend. Eager parents and friends waited to hear that loved ones were O.K. and anticipated that first big hug that would finally assure them the crewmembers were alive and well.  

	The emotional peaks and valleys of that first Easter must have been even greater than what we might have experienced over the last weeks. On the downside, Jesus was not just detained in some cell; he was dead in a grave. On the upside, hardly anyone expected to see Jesus alive; consider the ecstasy when they saw him alive whom they considered as good as dead.
	
	For a few brief moments let’s consider this most basic of Easter messages - Jesus Is Alive! Using John’s account of the first Easter as our touch stone we will have the message that Jesus Is Alive! communicated to us by what we do not see and by what we do see.

Because of what we do not see

	“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’” The sight that met Mary’s eyes in those early morning hours was not at all what she had expected.  Mary had been with Jesus at his cross. She had seen his agony. She had heard his bitter cries. She knew he was dead. When Joseph and Nicodemus prepared Jesus body for the grave and laid him in the tomb, Mary had watched. She had seen the men roll the large stone in front of the tomb and perhaps knew of the guards and the seal protecting the tomb. She and some other faithful women followers had decided to bring more spices to anoint Jesus’ body, but wondered aloud how they were going to get into the tomb. But when they came to the tomb, they did not see the tomb in front of the grave. It had been removed! What they didn’t see communicated to them that something had happened to Jesus. Mary didn’t go in at first. The sight of the open grave told her that Jesus’ body was gone, taken away by somebody. She ran to Peter and John with frantic news, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Hindsight tells us that Mary had assumed too much. The stone she didn’t see did mean that Jesus was out of the tomb, but not because someone else had taken him, but because Jesus Is Alive!

	But there is more NOT to see as we follow Peter and John into the grave. “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head.” Mary’s news hit Peter and John square between the eyes. A thousand questions must have raced through their minds. One peeked in; the other couldn’t be held back. There were the burial linens. There was the burial cloth. But there was no body inside of them. Perhaps Mary was correct, someone had taken Jesus’ body. But it was awfully strange for them to disrobe the body of its burial cloth in order to move it. Certainly things were not adding up from what they could not see, but as John indicates in a verse or two, it was beginning to dawn on them that no one had taken the body - there was no body in the linens because Jesus Is Alive!

John gives us one additional piece of information in his Gospel, one additional thing they did not see that helped to seal their joy in Jesus’ resurrection. “The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)” Did you catch it? They didn’t see a mess! The cloth that had covered Jesus’ body had not been cast carelessly aside, as one might expect if someone had stolen the body in haste. Instead Peter and John found the cloth neatly folded by itself aside from the linens. Oh what a sermon that piece of cloth must have preached. With great care and love Jesus had left his death cloths nicely folded. He left no mess behind but preached his resurrection in the folded burial cloth. There was no mess because Jesus Is Alive!

	All the things that were missing - no stone, no guard, no seal, no body, no mess - they told John something - Jesus Is Alive! For a few hours John would be among the blessed who had not seen and yet had believed. How blessed our God has made you and me, for by his grace he has called us to believe - and think of all that we have NOT seen. What great grace that Lord has shown us that we not only believe Jesus Is Alive but are confident that his resurrection guarantees our own resurrection. Ah, dear friends, we believe Jesus Is Alive because of what we do not see on this day. But also, because Jesus Is Alive consider all the things we will never see - things like God’s anger, things like the Devil, things like hell. Rejoice for he is risen, he is risen indeed! 

Because of what we do see

	There is an old saying, “Seeing is believing.” So it was on that first Easter morning. What the women and disciples did not see (which led them to conclude that Jesus had risen) was confirmed by what they did see.  And because of what they did see, they knew with certainty that Jesus Is Alive!

	Our account turns again to Mary Magdalene, “Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’” When Mary finally did peer into the tomb, she was met by angels. This was no vision. These men spoke with Mary.  They were there and she saw them. What a busy and delightful morning these angels were having. The other Gospel writers tell us that they had also appeared when the other women had entered the empty tomb. Hardly able to contain themselves they told the women that they were in the right place - this is the tomb where Jesus, who was crucified, was laid. And then the great good news that of all the angels God had given them the privilege to announce - But he is not here, he has risen, just as he said! The open entrance, the empty linens and the folded cloth had started people on the path to considering that Jesus was alive, but with sights and sounds of the angels confirmed their joy - Jesus Is Alive!

	We don’t know why, but even the sight of angels hadn’t convinced Mary that Jesus was indeed alive.  Rather than back away in fright or amazement, she shared with the angels her sorrow that Jesus had been taken from the tomb and she did not know where to find his body. But in a moment Mary would see someone else who would make all her sorrow disappear, “At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ‘Woman,’ he said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them that he had said these things to her.” Even at the sight of Jesus, Mary is still in disbelief. Until he speaks her name. Was ever a word spoken with more tenderness and yet rebuke? “Mary” why are you so slow to believe? “Mary” it is I, Jesus, I am alive. All it took was one word from the almighty and risen Son of God for Mary to see now with her eyes that Jesus was not gone, that he had not been taken, but that he was risen. And now that she had him she was not going to let him go. But the risen Lord had other things for he to do. There would be time in these next weeks for her to see him again. Right now Jesus wanted her to begin telling others about the great good news that Jesus Is Alive!
	Read through your New Testament and you will see how much the resurrection meant to the early Christian church. Religions all around them worshipped false gods who were dead. Christianity preached an entirely different message - Jesus Is Alive! People all around them lived in spiritual confusion. Christianity preached the message of certainty because the true God is alive. People all around them bore the weight of guilty consciences. Christianity spoke of peace between God and men, guaranteed because Jesus died for sins and rose again - Jesus Is Alive! It is true that neither you nor I have ever seen with our eyes what Mary and the disciples saw on the first Easter day. But we have seen the effects that Jesus’ resurrection has had on the world over the centuries. We have seen the effects that Jesus’ resurrection has had on our own life. We have been invited to stand in his presence where two or three gather in his name or where his blessed supper is celebrated.

	Let the story be told again and again. The tomb is empty, the mess has been tidied, eyes have seen angels, and hands have touched the risen Savior. Do not be afraid, but rejoice for Jesus Is Alive!  Amen.