And Peter...

Jesus was dead.
The spirit of the disciples had been broken.
Their Lord was gone.
The Sabbath had passed,
and the crucifixion on Friday was receding into memory.

It was all over.

The great teaching,
The glorious miracles,
The hopeful expectation.....
It was all gone.

Jesus, their Rabbi, was dead.
The dream was over.
And a cold, rotting Body,
was all that remained of a once vibrant, powerful, glorious man.

And so, the women came.
They brought spices to anoint his body.
They brought perfumes so cover the stench of rotting flesh.
They had no doubt that Jesus was dead.
They, among the closest of his disciples had seen him die.
They knew that all was lost.

It was an early morning.
The sun was just coming up.
The air was still cool from the night breezes,
And, yes, the dew was still on the roses.
The bright, sun shining glory of an early spring morning
would hardly reflect the pain and sorrow which these women felt.
I can see them, walking slowly along a path
outside the city walls
heads hung low
arms limp,
just barely able to carry their
jugs full of spice and perfume.
Their eyes were downcast,
Mary kicks a rock with frustration.

"Who's going to open the tomb?” she asks.
“The stone which covers the entrance
is just too large for us to move!”
"I don't know" says Mary Magdaline
“Perhaps the Roman soldiers standing guard, will open it for us."
Their voices trailed into silence as, looking up, they saw the stone rolled away!

And, looking at one another,
their pace quickened as they climbed the side of the hill
to the open hole in the wall
which was the entrance to their master's tomb.

They entered to see a young man,
sitting over on the right side of the tomb,
dressed in a white robe.
He said, “Don't be amazed."
"You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
But he is risen,
he is not here.
Go, and tell the disciples and Peter
that he is going before you to Galilee;
There, you will see him, as he told you.”

And,
terrified,
the women dropped their spices and perfumes
and fled from the tomb,
for they were afraid.
And, as the Gospel of St. Mark tells us,
they didn't even tell anyone what they had seen
For they were afraid.
They had been wrong.
The story wasn't over.
The dream was still alive.
He was alive.
The master was not dead.
He had died,
but now he lives.

It's not over.
It's just only begun.
And it’s still, today, only just begun.
Christ is here.
He is risen.
He is not in a grave somewhere in Israel.
He lives.

Can you imagine the effect this sudden realization had on the disciples?
We know from the other Gospels that the women didn't say quiet long.
They ran and proclaimed the message,
as they had been told, to the other disciples
--and to Peter.

You know, I find it interesting that the young man
an Angel, really,
singles out Peter in his directions.
“Go, tell His Disciples . . . and Peter."

I wonder why Peter was singled out for special treatment?
I wonder why the women were told to make sure that Peter heard the message?
Might it have had something to do with what had happened early Friday morning,
outside Caiaphas' house?

Might it have something to do with his denial of his Lord
three times before the rooster announced the rising of the Sun that faithful morning?
Might it just have something to do with the fact
that Jesus knew Peter was especially heart broken.
Not only had his master died,
but he had denied him too.
Much like Judas, and like most of the other disciples,
Peter had, in his own way, betrayed his Lord in order to save his own skin.
Jesus had died, and Peter was nowhere to be found.

"Go tell His Disciples . . . and Peter."

The message of Lent was both simple and striking, indeed.
We crucified our Lord
We are like Judas,
like Peter,
like the Roman Soldiers
like the Jewish Authorities
like the crowds, screaming “crucify him!”
We were lost in our sins,
bound in a spiritual captivity to evil,
Until Jesus died to set us free.

Peter knew Jesus had come for him
Peter knew who Jesus was
--he had proclaimed him to be the Messiah
the Christ.
Peter knew, in his heart of hearts, what was going on...
But he didn't have the courage to stand with his master.
And, so, he blamed himself for Christ's death.
He blamed himself because he couldn't do anything to stop it.
All he did was cut off Malchus’ ear!!!
He, of all the disciples,
He had to hear that message.
He, of all the disciples,
He needed to hear that his Lord and Master was alive.
That was why he raced to the tomb in the version of this story told in John’s Gospel.
He was especially singled out because he had denied his Lord.

This morning,
as on every Easter morning,
God is singling out us
to hear this glorious message anew.
“Go tell His Disciples..... and (name several church members)
Go tell His Disciples..... and (name several more, including some not present)
That Jesus is Risen from the dead!"

This wonderful proclamation is one which the Church has always made
and which we are called to make today.

Look at what happened to Peter.
He had denied his Lord three times before the crucifixion.
He had run away and, in one Gospel, he went fishing.

“Go, tell His Disciples . . . and Peter."

After the resurrection, Peter became one of the greatest voices
proclaiming the Gospel message of the Resurrection.

And let's look at the Women,
Mary the Mother of James,
Mary Magdalene, and Salome,
They were so terrified,
they were so afraid of the awesome truth and majesty
of Christ's victory over death
that they couldn't tell any one ... at first

We, I pray, may be so stunned,
so awed,
so empowered by the glorious truth of the resurrection
and of Christ's presence with us, now,
That we may be as the women,
as Peter
and as the disciples became.....

Faithful witness to the wondrous Gospel message:

"Christ, our Lord, is risen today."
Alleluia!
If we, as the Church, say and do nothing else--
we must proclaim that He is risen!
If we don't,
then we're not the Church,
and we need to stop playing this game.

Stand.
Stand to your feet, my brothers and sisters,
and proclaim the message with me today:
“He is risen!"