Good News! He Is Alive – Sermon 31 March, 2013

Good News! He Is Alive

I am not sure if you heard any good news this week.  Usually the news we hear is bad news.

If we read the newspapers or listen to the radio/TV we usually get bad news. News about  abuse, burglary, drugs, wars, conflicts, hunger, sickness, poverty, mass killings, refugee crisis, disasters be it storms, floods, bushfires, earthquakes, and the list goes on. Also we here about the political issues, debates, scandals, corruption, etc.

But as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we come upon some Good News. Finally! Good News. That’s what the word Gospel means: Good News. The Bible is full of Good News.

You know Good News lifts us up, transforms our life, and makes life worth living.

The apostles and the women were eyewitness reporters to the greatest news in the history of the universe.

In our reading from Acts, Peter is an eyewitness news reporter, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.

Peter reports: “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen…He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins through his name.”

And the 44th verse informs us that while Peter was giving this eyewitness news updat “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.”

Peter shared the news in Acts…but Peter wasn’t the first one on the scene nor was Peter the first one to share the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection.

As we see in our Gospel reading for this morning from John—it was Mary Magdalene who went to Jesus’ tomb early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark and was an eyewitness to the fact that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

She was the first eyewitness to the Resurrected Christ and the first person Jesus chose to appear to. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, King of Kings, the Lord of Lord’s, I believe He deliberately chose to reveal Himself first to a woman.

Everything that Jesus Christ did is considered to be radical move. This is a good example.

Mary Magdalene was a colourful person. We don’t know much about Mary. Some believe that she was the woman caught in adultery in John Chapter 8 or the woman whom the people were about to stone until Jesus stepped in and said, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

We are not sure about all that. We do know that Mary had been a very sick troubled person but she was transformed. She was a marginalised person and probably discriminated against.

We read in our passage that Mary was crying outside the tomb on that first Easter morning and Jesus came to her.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

And of course, she was looking for the body of Jesus, which she thought someone had taken away.

Then Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

And at that moment Mary turned to Jesus and cried out: “Rabboni”, “My Lord”.

After this occurred, “Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news,” she went to the disciples with the greatest news anyone could ever share or hear “I have seen the Lord!”

Sometimes we have trouble to see the Good News and to see the Lord. He tries to communicate with us in many ways and still we do not recognise His voice. He speaks to us through His powerful Word, through people and through the things that happen to us. Even He calls us by name. In this case He said “Mary” and that was enough to open the eyes of grieving Mary.

His appearance was the visual proof of His resurrection and the reason to be Good News.

Mary and the disciples shared the Good News about the Resurrected Lord with the rest of the world.

What can we do, as a church today, to be reporters of the Good News as well?

How can we “get the word out” and be one of Christ’s active churches?

What can we do to “get the word out” seeking people who are marginalised, poor, sick, outcast, those who doubt and those who are hurting?

There’s too much bad news in this world and people need Good News. The church stands to give that Good News. We should extend a helping hand to the needy and to those who are in pain.

Sometimes just a phone call, a few comforting words or a visit can help to bring hope in one’s life.

The world, the people around us need to hear about the Good News. We should do our best to give that Good News. If we do that, we will play our part in the process as the children of God who represent Him in the world. We can make a difference, even though if it is one life that we touch and tell about our Lord and Saviour and the promise of salvation through Him.

Mary, Peter and many others did their part. They were not perfect, they had their weaknesses but they did their part. Now it is time for the church to do its part.

Let’s be one of the Good News Churches!

Let’s live into what it means to be people of the Resurrection doing the work of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is done in heaven!

Let’s spread the news that Jesus is Well and Alive and that the Easter is true.

Krikor Youmshajekian