When Easter Becomes Personal – April 5, 2026, Easter Sunday!

Isaiah 12:2-6, John 20:1-18
April 5, 2026, Easter Sunday!

I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with John’s Gospel through this Lenten season.  As I’ve said before, John tells the stories a little differently.  He records more of the dialogue, more of the story, and more of the emotions.  And in a number of places, he tells stories of Jesus the others don’t.  He tells us of the wedding at Cana, the woman at the well, the man born blind, and of course, the raising of Lazarus!

So, leave it to John to tell the Easter story just a little differently.  Leave it to him to tell a side of the story the others don’t.  And leave it to him to add more of the story, more of the dialogue, and more of the emotion!

This is the greatest story ever told!  As I said last week, the God of the Old Testament – the God of the Hebrew Scriptures – has stepped into history.  And Easter – the Resurrection of Jesus – is the culmination of that story!  Easter is told in all of its “unbelievable nature” by all the Gospel writers.  And, as I’ve said before, “unbelievable” is the word of the day that first Easter.  When the disciples heard the women tell what happened at the tomb of Jesus,  they didn’t believe it.  In Luke’s Gospel, they even thought it to be an “idle tale” – a “fairy tale,” as one author put it.

But as I said, leave it to John to tell the story in an entirely different way.  Because John makes it the story of Mary Magdalene.  In his Gospel, the story of Easter is personal.  It’s emotional!  And it’s full of grief, doubt, despair, and great wonder!

Now, I have to say, there are some differences in John’s timeline.  He tells us that Mary went to the tomb early.  And he doesn’t mention the other women who went to the tomb in the other Gospels.  But I don’t think we can just assume they weren’t there with her.  But, as one writer suggests, this story is focused on Mary and her encounter with Jesus, so John simply mentions her alone.

So, did Mary go to the tomb before the other women?  Again, John says she went early – when it was still dark, while the other Gospels say the women went when it was early dawn.  It’s hard to know for certain.  But remember this.  When Mary first went and told Peter and John that Jesus was gone, she said, “We don’t know where they have taken him.”  Does that suggest the others were there, or at least somehow involved in what happened?

However this happened, John tells us that Mary went and found Peter and “the other disciple whom Jesus loved” – which is often how John described himself.  She told them that someone had taken Jesus’ body.  And so they ran to the tomb.  And being a runner, I love that John tells us who was faster!  And since tradition is that he was the one writing this Gospel, I think maybe he was “rubbing it in!”  Don’t you?

So,, Peter and John go into the tomb and find things there as John describes is.  And we’re told that, when they saw it, “they believed.”  And then there’s this strange line, “For as yet, they did not know the scripture that he must rise from thet dead.”  I say that’s strange, because Jesus himself had told them he would rise!  So when he says they did “not know the scripture,” does that mean they did “not know it at all?”  Or does it mean that it now made sense and they now knew it to be true?  It’s hard to say exactly what John meant by that.  But it does point out one thing – something I’ve always said.  That is, that they didn’t know all that we the readers know!  We always know more than the people in these stories!  And since they didn’t know – as John says – they didn’t believe.  Or at least they didn’t up to this point.

So, that’s the first part of this story.  And I’m so glad John tells us the next part.  Because here’s where Easter becomes personal.  Here John tells us of this personal encounter Mary had with Jesus – in the garden.  And yes, this is indeed the inspiration for the beloved song, “In the Garden.”  And, believe it or not, I never actually heard that song until I first moved to Kansas in 1985.  And I was almost 30 years old by then!  That’s right!  I had never heard it before!  And the first time they talked about singing it, and I told them I’d never heard it before, they looked at me like I was from Mars!

Anyway, as the story goes, Peter and John leave, but Mary stays.  Apparently she had followed them to the tomb.  (Although John doesn’t tell us how fast a runner she was!)  So she’s by herself now, and she looks in the tomb, and she sees the two angels sitting there.  (Which are described by the other Gospel writers.)  They ask her why she’s weeping, and she says, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where.”

That’s when she turns and sees Jesus.  But she doesn’t know it’s him, because she asks if he has “carried the Lord away.”  And if so, where?  Of course, then he speaks to her, and she knows him.  And this flood of emotion comes over Mary.  But Jesus tells her not to touch him because he has “not yet ascended to his Father.”

And I find that part interesting because, to me, it makes me think of our creed.  It’s the part where we say, “He was crucified, dead, and buried, and he descended into Hell.”  As I read this, I wonder, was Jesus just now back from that “descent into Hell?”  It’s hard to say for sure – at least biblically.  But tradition tells us that.  Since Jesus died on Friday, and he rose on Sunday, there are those who say that’s where he was for those days.

So that’s the personal Easter encounter between Mary and Jesus.  And it makes me wonder what some people have said about her.  Some have said that Mary played a more prominent role in the life and ministry of Jesus than early “Church fathers” were willing to ascribe to her.

We could debate that for a long time.  Personally, I think she probably did have more of a role in all this than we might realize.  But whatever that role was, what I really like in this is that Mary was the first person to witness the resurrection of Jesus!  And I think that’s saying something.  It wasn’t Peter, James, or “that other disciples whom Jesus loved.”  If you remember, they were his closest disciples.  But they weren’t the first to see him after his resurrection.  It was Mary!

I’ve been thinking about this story, I realized that it’s important that Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ was a personal encounter.  It wasn’t just a story someone else told her.  She didn’t just hear the angels say that Jesus had risen.  This was a one on one personal encounter.

And the reason I think that’s important is that the resurrection of Jesus needs to be personal for all of us.  This can’t be just a story we’ve heard or we’ve been taught.  It can’t be just an event that we know of, and we think, “Oh I guess there’s enough evidence to believe it.”  No.  The question of Easter is, have we had a personal encounter, a personal relationship with the risen Jesus?  That’s what this story asks us.

Paul did!  He had a very personal encounter!  He didn’t just “hear enough evidence about the resurrection to finally believe it was true, and change his ways.”  No.  He was knocked off of his donkey!  There on the road to Damascus, he met the risen Christ!  It was an intensely personal encounter!  And I’m not saying that same thing is going to happen to us.  Then again, I’m not saying it isn’t!  But we may not see Jesus’ actual presence.   We may not hear his audible voice.  But, we do encounter the risen Christ as we believe, as we interact with him in our personal lives, and as we put our trust in him.  That’s how this story becomes personal.

Easter needs to become personal.  Because you see, if Easter isn’t personal, then it’s just history!  If it isn’t personal, then it’s just facts and events to learn about – and yes, maybe to believe actually happened.  But, that’s it.  No.  When Easter becomes personal, it then becomes life!  That’s what John’s Gospel is all about.  He said it several times, “These things I have written that you may believe, and in believing have life.”  That echoes the words of Jesus, who gave us himself the reason he came to this earth.  He said, “I have come, that you may have life, and have it more abundantly!”

So I ask you, is Easter personal to you?  That’s the question of the day!  Has Easter become personal to you?  Do you want Easter to be personal?  Do you want it to be the life changing event that it was?  If you do, then the person to tell that to… is Jesus!

Prayer

Eternal God, we celebrate today the greatest story ever told.  We celebrate the Resurrection of your son, Jesus, the Christ.  Help us, not only to believe, but to make it personal.  Help us to put our trust in him, and to seek to follow his example of love and Grace.  For we pray in the name of Jesus, our resurrected and reigning Lord, Amen.