By: Erin M Diericx

Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 and John 20:1-18

His steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 118:2 NRSV)

Easter Sunday is filled with joy and excitement. Jesus Christ who was crucified, died, and buried in a tomb sealed with a stoned has now risen from the dead and escaped his tomb without any help from other human beings. It nothing less than amazing, spectacular, exciting, joyful all wrapped up together.

Psalm 118 is the last of five psalms called the “Egyptian Hallel” psalms which are read at the Passover meal on the eighth day of the celebration. The hymns are a mixed with themes of the individual and community hymns. Psalm 118 is a mix of an individuals’ hymn of thanksgiving for being delivered from troubled within the context of being in a corporate worship. The Psalmist is acknowledging there is a supreme creator, an external force other than a human being—the Lord, which has saved and delivered this individual from trouble, evil, the trappings of the devil himself. And what a joyous and wonderful occasion it is to be freed from the devil, to be brought back into the light, to be with the Lord.

In John 20, Mary Magdalene is distraught. Jesus’s body is missing, gone, nowhere in sight. What makes it worst is the fact Mary Magdalene saw with her own two eyes Jospeh of Arimathea and Nicodemus lay Jesus’s body in the tomb and sealed it with a stoned. If there is a time for Mary Magdalene to say a string of explicits, it would be now. Her world has been turned upside down; the only man, the only human being who did not judge her but loved her for who God created her to be was brutally murdered in the most inhuman way possible. And now she is being kicked into a hole, because someone robbed her of the opportunity to pay respect to her dear friend, the one who always defended her, the one who looked past her mistakes. His body was gone.

In a baffled, confused, hysteria mode, Mary Magdalene sees the gardener and asks where they have taken Jesus’s body, though she does not seeing the person, the human being standing in front of her. She is still bond by the expectations of the world; Jesus Christ has died and is no more. 

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. (Psalm 118:19, NRSV)

In  the midst of her anguish, the gardener says, “Mary!” In a moment, Mary Magdalene has a series of flashed backs—the grave clothes still laying in the tomb, Jesus defending her and saying she was preparing him for burial by washing his feet with the perfume, Jesus saying he would rise on the third day. Suddenly everything starts making sense. Her world has not turned upside down; she has not kicked in a hole; but Mary Magdalene has been set free, unbound from the world’s expectations and ideas and has been freely given eternal life. The Israelites would sing Psalm 118:19 as they would enter the temple to make sacrifices and worship the Lord. Mary Magdalene is rejoicing in the new creation, the new reality; she is filled with joy.

Like the palmist, Mary Magdalene is rejoicing and thanking the Lord, Jesus Christ, for pulling her out of despair and into absolute joy. Mary Magdalene is the first person to get a glimpse into the new Jerusalem—the new creation. In Psalm 118, the verse 14 echo the Israelite’s song of deliverance after they cross the Red Sea and escaped Pharaoh’s army; the enemy has perished  and new life is in front of the Israelites. Verses 15 and 16 echo Moses’s song (Exodus 15:6, 12) where there is a grand celebration for being delivered from the Egyptians by “the right hand of the Lord;” verse 17 affirms “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds off the Lord” (Psalm 118:17 NRSV).

 This is where Mary Magdalene is right now; she has gone through Jesus’s crucifixion and death. She has witnessed Jesus’s brutal crucifixion first hand. And now Mary Magdalene is the first one to glimpse into the new Jerusalem, into the new creation, where death is not a period on one’s life but a semicolon, a breath, a pause before what is to come, before an individual goes to the Kingdom of God and enjoys eternal life.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)

The Lord is great and powerful. We can rejoice with Mary Magdalene as she goes and spreads the good news: Jesus Christ has died but has risen. Mary Magdalene is the first person to share the good news, and while she is meant with disbelief she is filled with joy and amazement. Once the collective community catches up and is filled with the same joy and amazement as her, the community will rejoice and worship the Lord, our Savior alongside Mary Magdalene as in Psalm 118 the community joins in with the psalmist. 

This is the new day that the Lord has made where are granted entrance into the new Jerusalem. We no longer die but live with the Triune God forever and ever and ever. We live in a new reality where death means a mere transition into a better and joyful life. So let us rejoice and be glad.

“Alleluia. Christ is risen! / The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!” (BCP 355)