Easter Vigil homily - In Newness of Life

Romans 6.3-11

Mark 16.1-8

 

Alleluia, Christ is risen.

 

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There are three scenes in the Gospel of St Mark that feature the same small group of women: Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

 

First, Mark records their presence at the Crucifixion. They look on from a distance as the dreadful and, literally, excruciating process of this form of execution took place. They will have heard the battle-hardened Centurion's astonished declaration that, 'Truly this man was the Son of God' as Christ breathed his last. (Mark 15.39)

 

The second scene is portrayed on the order of service tonight. The upper image shows the burial of Jesus. And there they are, along with Joseph of Arimathea and others, wrapping a linen shroud around Jesus’ lifeless corpse. And Mark notes that, as a stone is rolled against the entrance of the tomb, they saw where he was laid. (Mark 15.46, 47)

 

And the lower image is a portrayal of tonight’s gospel reading. That group of faithful, devoted, women go to the tomb. At the first opportunity as the Sabbath ended, that is today, the Saturday, they had ‘bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him’ (Mark 16.1). You can see the detail of the holder for the spices and oil that they brought.

 

So tonight we know them as 'The Myrrh Bearing Women', echoing the Magi who brought myrrh to the Infant Lord. Like the Magi they had come in devotion and reverence. This was not, though, to a newborn, but rather they had come to wash and anoint the Lord's corpse, to give his body dignity before, they thought, it would be received back to the dust from which, Genesis says, we all come and will return: ‘Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return' (Genesis 3:19).

 

As they made their way there the women were worrying over who would move the stone that had been so firmly put in place. Their expectation was that the tomb would be firmly shut, not open.

 

So they arrive and an angel, a messenger of God, tells the women, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him’ (Mark 16.6). Those women knew that place, they were there when the corpse was laid there. They knew it as a tomb, a place of death, where the earth reclaims those who have lived their lives. They found no body, instead they hear the first proclamation of Easter – he has been raised! - a proclamation we hear afresh tonight.

 

So we have come to rekindle, with that New Fire of Easter, the light of the Crucified and Risen Lord in our lives.

 

We have come bringing, not spices and oil, but our devotion, our hope and our love.

 

Last time we were in church Christ’s death was proclaimed but now the Easter alleluias ring out. Then there was the threefold proclamation ‘This is the wood of the cross whereon was hung the Saviour of the world’; tonight, we hear the threefold proclamation, ‘The light of Christ’ to which we respond, ‘Thanks be to God’, tonight ‘alleluia’ returns in threefold splendour.

 

The thing is though that we can’t rest on hearing and receiving the Good News. That group of women is given a commission, a commission that extends to you and to me.

 

The angel told the women, ‘go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ (Mark 16.7)

 

In other words go and be witnesses, communicators of what you have heard to the Church who in turn will be sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring that Good News to the ends of the earth.

 

That Easter commission became ours when we were baptised, when we were washed with the saving waters of life, anointed ourselves with Holy Oil and incorporated into the enduring, vibrant life of the Holy One.

 

This promise unfolds throughout the Scriptures, and we have had a taste of that this evening, starting with the first week of Creation, a week echoed in Holy Week, through which God relentlessly creates, restores, delivers and renews.

 

All this he brings to our lives. That’s why St Paul, one of the very greatest of gospel witnesses, reflecting on the power of the resurrection and the implication of baptism, can write:

 

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6.9-11)

 

In baptism we are part of the risen, living, Body of Christ. In the Eucharist we seek out the body of the Lord and receive him: broken for us; living for us. What that group of women sought, we seek. And like them we will find the mystery and ultimately the life he came to bring. They were fearful at this news: and, make no mistake, embracing the life of the resurrection is an awesome thing.

 

So now let us prepare to ‘walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6.4) and renew the faith of our baptism and then seek his body at the altar and receive him.