Dark to LIght John 20 Easter

 Darkness to Light   - John 20:1-18   Easter 2023

    " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre , and we know not where they have laid Him."  20:2  In the darkness Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had been rolled away, and she was in darkness.

A lot of us if we were honest with others and ourselves are in darkness a good bit of the time.  Sickness, loss, disappointment, dealing with difficult people, the economy, the country, the coming war we think is going to real, and even in our own despair in our inner spiritual world that seems so often dark and gloomy.  My favorite comic strip Snoopy on the dog house said, " It was a dark and gloomy night: or was it stormy night? 

I wrote this Friday morning the day in which Jesus was crucified on the Cross.  And yes it was foggy.  In the fog I hear the birds cawing and not so much singing.  When I visited my father in California,  I heard the beautiful sounds of the Monterey bay and the sea lions and these things gave me comfort, not sadness.

Is the darkness to last ?  We ask that of our God and Father.  Is this despair I feel about myself and others and the world and crazy political world I live in going to go on like this?What did Mary Magdalene do when she was in the darkness ? I saw this which helped me, "  Let us understand that God is a Physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation,  not a punishment for damnation." ST Augustine , and this has helped me through some strange days, " A Prayer of Unknowing By Thomas Merton"---" My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so."

---Mary went to Simon Peter.  " She runneth therefore and cometh to Simon Peter" 20:2  John was there too.  " They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid Him."  I hope God is like that for you . when you are going through darkness.  In the quiet and stillness He is speaking through our friends, especially Jesus.  Friends  are actors on our behalf.  They can listen and act in their sympathy for our suffering. Sometimes they sit there and listen.  That is what we need most of the time, not someone to tell us what to do or what we should have done.

----Then the friends Peter and John took action and didn't just say, " I know how you feel" when they really didn't.  What does the old hymn sing, " Nobody knows the sorrows I feel,  but Jesus, Nobody knows but Jesus"  " Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.  Peter had his nikes on , because he got there first before John. They saw the evidence of a folded gravecloth that was about the head, neatly folded.

--- But John believes.  He sees and believes. 20:8  The evidence is clear to him that there is a Resurrected Lord.  Peter turns away bewildered and distressed. Which are we , Peter or John in this stage of the empy tomb?  " There is only one answer for the thoughtful mind: resurrection."  Charles Erdman

Darkness to light.  The answers are often found there.  Without darkness we would not know light.  Without death, we would have no resurrection.  Without the fog, we would never know the sun's loveliness. I hear the train and I know there is one.  I hear the sounds and its blaring horns.  That convinces me there is a train.

Ogilivie on the steps to Living Without Fear said, " I will face my eventual physical death and claim that I am alive eternally. Therefore, I can live abundantly without panic for the rest of my time on earth."

Conclusion--- We too have an encounter with the risen Christ as Mary Magdalene did in the Garden. She came and told the disciples, " I have seen the Lord". Darkness to light.  Whatever is dark now can and will be light. Our family that believed are people we will see again.  Death is not the end.  The grave is quiet and silent, but the stones cry out, " He is Risen!"