Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON EASTER DAY 2009

On this glorious Easter Day, Christians throughout the world come to celebrate the Resurrection with joy and hope. But on the first Easter Day, joy and hope were not the emotions felt by the friends of Jesus.

In Saint Mark 16:8 it tells us: "They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them… for they were afraid".

The three women who came to the tomb early on that Easter Day are named - Mary Magdalene; Mary, the mother of James; and Salome. Saint Mark also names them as among the women who stood at Calvary on Good Friday - gazing helplessly as Jesus, their friend, died on the Cross.

Saint Mark says these women were disciples who ministered to Jesus during his life and ministry. Now on this Easter morning they come to do one last thing for Jesus - to anoint his body for burial. There is only one problem - the body is not there, the tomb is empty. So they fled "trembling and astonished" - afraid to say anything to anyone.

Later Mary Magdalene would return weeping and grieving. Saint John records the marvelous conversation between Mary and Jesus that happened. Jesus said: "Mary" - and she recognized him and said "Raboni", which means "Master". It is one of the most lovely incidents in the whole of the Scriptures.

Ever since that moment the empty tomb, despite the fear of those who saw it, has been a symbol of hope and joy.

For some people the empty tomb is a puzzle. No man has ever risen from the dead - how could it happen, and why isn't the body there anyway? Indeed, some years ago one liberal bishop dismissed the bodily resurrection of Jesus as "a conjuring trick with bones". No doubt when his time comes he will experience more than a conjuring trick with his bones!

I'm sure that this morning in some churches, and certainly some Anglican cathedrals, preachers will suggest that it is not necessary to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. They will say it is just a spiritual event - whatever that means! They will propose that Easter is rather about new life - like Easter eggs, rabbits, and Spring. That it is really about the resurrection of the twelve. That this day is all about what happened to them, and how they felt. That it's all about our resurrection - about how we feel.

Ultimately it is about our resurrection - but it's not about how we feel. I have no time for such a self-centered faith. My feelings need more than that. I need to have a Saviour who lived like me, not instead of me.

Today is about nothing less than the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The whole purpose of the Incarnation was that the divine Son of God would become flesh. Become just like us, even in suffering and death. And that he would prove victorious and prove himself Lord of life in that same body. So that I can have faith and new life.

Of course the tomb was empty. That was the beginning of the story, not the end of it. Later that same morning Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. They talk, she touches his risen body, and he commands her not to cling on to him. Then in the afternoon he appears to the eleven. He appears physically out of nowhere! He speaks to them. "Peace be with you", he says. Oh what wonderful words for those sad and grieving apostles!

But he does not stay long with them there. He disappears again. Then as evening draws near he appears again to two of the disciples. They were on their way home to a town called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

Saint Luke records this event in chapter 24 of his Gospel. It's a rather fascinating story. Their walk home from Jerusalem, after being there for this weekend, had become a trudge. The bottom of their world had fallen out. They had placed their hope in Jesus who would bring in a new world order - and he had been killed by the authorities in the most embarrassing of ways, as a criminal.

Suddenly a man draws near - it's him! Why didn't they know it was Jesus? Couldn't they tell? Well of course they weren't expecting it to be Jesus - he had been killed.

When you think about this scenario of Jesus drawing near, isn't that what happens to us? Hopes and dreams fade in our lives. People let us down. Sickness overtakes us or someone we love. Money is tight, the economic situation concerns us. And sometimes life is such that we don't understand or know where we are.

Mostly when we feel like that our walks become a trudge. We fail to see that Jesus draws near and is walking with us. We fail, like those two disciples, to recognise the presence of Jesus. But he does walk with us - even though we might not recognise him. He walks with us because he love us.

Even though the two disciples failed to recognize, Jesus managed to take their minds off what was troubling them – to take their minds of themselves. "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, and while he opened to us the scriptures" (24: 32).

Then something strange. When they reached Emmaus Jesus "made as if he was going further" -that he was not going to stay with them.

Jesus did not impose himself on them. He gave them the prerogative of saying to him "Yes" or "No".

He does that to us and everyone. We have to say "Yes" or "No". It is so easy for people to say “no” - to close themselves off from what can become a great adventure of faith.

But those two invited him in. They said "Yes" to the Risen Christ - yet they still didn't know it was him.

The story finishes in a remarkable way. At the table Jesus took the bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. "And their eyes were opened and they recognised him".

We know what happened - it was a Eucharist. As Jesus broke the bread he was celebrating Mass on Easter Day in his risen body.

Then no sooner had they recognised him and he vanished. Why?

Because Jesus has chosen the Eucharist to be the place where his risen and real presence can be encountered always by his people. So having manifested himself in that Eucharist, he then needs to leave so that they can tell the Church that he is alive and present whenever the bread is broken in the Sacrament of the altar.

Here today at our altar - the Risen Christ draws near.

My dear brothers and sisters - this morning we are those disciples at Emmaus. Here the Risen Christ walks with us. He has drawn near to us. More importantly, he will keep walking with us.

Because, as Saint Paul says, "Christ being raised from the dead will never die again".

That is what the bodily resurrection of Jesus means. That is the message of the empty tomb.

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!