April 9: An Empty Tomb & A Missing Jesus
♫ Music:
WEEK EIGHT—BRIGHT WEEK
TITLE: THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST (JOHN 20 & 21)
April 9–April 15
Christ’s third-day resurrection from the dead is the cornerstone on which all of Christianity’s claims and promises are based. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “For if the dead do not rise neither did Christ rise, and if Christ did not rise your faith is futile and your sins have never been forgiven.” John tells us that when he entered the tomb and saw how the grave clothes were arranged, he immediately believed what Christ had prophesied about himself during his three-year ministry.
John’s narrative style tends to focus on singular personages and one-on-one interactions. Mary Magdalene is the central figure in the first part of John 20. She lingers at the tomb after the male disciples have returned to their dwellings, and is the first to encounter the risen Lord. One of the most poignant moments in all of Scripture occurs when Christ utters her name with deeply felt emotion. Mary’s intimate rejoinder, “Master” or “My Great One,” is the response of personal faith John wants all of his audience to experience when reading this account. John’s hope for his audience is that like Mary they too will fall desperately in love with the Savior!
John’s gospel focuses on life. It is one of the central themes of the book. At the beginning of John 1, the Evangelist states, “In him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind.” The life that Christ brings is mentioned forty-seven times throughout the gospel. In one of his encyclicals, Pope John Paul II wrote, “When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says, ‘I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that ‘new’ and ‘eternal life’ which consists in communion with the Father, to which every person is freely called in the Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit. It is precisely in this ‘life’ that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve their full significance.”
Rejoicing this Easter Sunday and throughout Bright Week over the abundant, everlasting, Spirit-filled life that Jesus has provided through his death and resurrection, may we truly experience Christ’s presence today and in every circumstance and challenge we encounter along the way!
Day 47 - Sunday, April 9
EASTER SUNDAY
Title: THE EMPTY TOMB
Scripture: John 20:1–10
But on the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala arrived at the tomb, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and noticed that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. At this she ran, found Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.”
Peter and the other disciple set off at once for the tomb, the two of them running together. The other disciple ran faster than Peter and was the first to arrive at the tomb. He stooped and looked inside and noticed the linen cloths lying there but did not go in himself. Hard on his heels came Simon Peter and went straight into the tomb. He noticed that the linen cloths were lying there, and that the handkerchief, which had been round Jesus’s head, was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself, a little way apart. Then the other disciple, who was the first to arrive at the tomb, came inside as well, saw what had happened and believed. (They did not yet understand the scripture which said that he must rise from the dead.) So the disciples went back again to their homes.
Poetry & Poet:
“Resurrection”
by Mary Ann Bernard
Long, long, long ago;
Way before this winter’s snow
First fell upon these weathered fields;
I used to sit and watch and feel
And dream of how the spring would be,
When through the winter’s stormy sea
She’d raise her green and growing head,
Her warmth would resurrect the dead.
Long before this winter’s snow
I dreamt of this day’s sunny glow
And thought somehow my pain would pass
With winter’s pain, and peace like grass
Would simply grow. (But) The pain’s not gone.
It’s still as cold and hard and long
As lonely pain has ever been,
It cuts so deep and fear within.
Long before this winter’s snow
I ran from pain, looked high and low
For some fast way to get around
Its hurt and cold. I’d have found,
If I had looked at what was there,
That things don’t follow fast or fair.
That life goes on, and times do change,
And grass does grow despite life’s pains.
Long before this winter’s snow
I thought that this day’s sunny glow,
The smiling children and growing things
And flowers bright were brought by spring.
Now, I know the sun does shine,
That children smile, and from the dark, cold, grime
A flower comes. It groans, yet sings,
And through its pain, its peace begins.
AN EMPTY TOMB & A MISSING JESUS
In the churches I knew as a child, Easter always seemed to show up with brightness. I still have the Easter photo taken of me and my two sisters more than thirty years ago. It’s a flurry of pastels, flowered dresses with ruffles, and the kind of palpable discomfort that can only be seen in the face of three missionary kids all wondering, “So this is what we do in America?”
In those churches, Easter was celebratory in every way. The bright colors, the trumpet blasting through “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” and the celebration of a lavish feast all signaled the joy that comes in the news of Christ’s empty tomb.
I never grow tired of that. There’s hardly a surplus of resurrection joy in our time.
At the same time, I wonder if John’s narrative here gives us a more complex picture of the mixed emotions and experiences on that first Resurrection Sunday.
There is surprise, discovery, perhaps even a glimmer of faint hope in the way John recounts the events at the tomb that Sunday morning. Amid Mary’s seemingly genuine surprise at the Master’s absent corpse, there’s also a clear concern. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.” (John 20:2, NIV) You can almost hear the helpless despair in her voice.
One has to wonder, who they are in Mary’s anxieties. The imperial authorities? The religious leaders? Common graverobbers? All of the above?
The climactic resolution will come in the verses to follow as Mary hears the voice of the risen Christ and encounters him in the gardens there among the dead. But for now she and the other disciples are in a liminal moment, between the shock of an empty tomb but before a personal reunion with the risen Christ.
There is a jubilation that is entirely fitting for Easter morning. Today many of our churches will declare in antiphonal celebration, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” We do so by faith, assured that the Word and Spirit testify to us that Jesus is not only absent from the tomb, but is seated at the right hand of God the Father in glory. There’s no better news in the world. And yet, we also await, longing for His return.
I cannot help but think of Peter’s admonition, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9, NIV).
May that be your experience this Easter Sunday. There is joy available, the inexpressible and glorious kind, for those of who wait by faith.
Prayer:
Glory be to you,
God, our strength and our redeemer.
The vacant cross and the empty tomb
vindicate your claim
that the love which suffers
is the love which saves.
–––From the Church of Scotland’s Book of Common Order)
Provost Dr. Matthew Hall
Senior Vice President
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Translation of the Bible for the 2023 Lent Project:
J.B. Phillips New Testament Translation of the Bible
J.B. Phillips (1906-1982) was well-known within the Church of England for his commitment to making the message of truth relevant to today's world. Phillips' translation of the New Testament brings home the full force of the original message. The New Testament in Modern English was originally written for the benefit of Phillips' youth group; it was later published more widely in response to popular demand. The language is up-to-date and forceful, involving the reader in the dramatic events and powerful teaching of the New Testament. It brings home the message of Good News as it was first heard two thousand years ago.
https://www.biblegateway.com/
About the Artwork #1:
Necropolis Etrusca, Orvieto
Greg Halvorsen Schreck
Photograph
On the northern side of the cliff face of the beautiful town of Orvieto, in Umbria, Italy, lies an ancient Etruscan necropolis, dubbed Crocifisso del Tufo in Italian. A necropolis, from the ancient Greek literally meaning "city of the dead,” is a large cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name of the necropolis owes its name to a crucifix carved into the rock on which the city stands. This black-and-white photograph is from a series of the necropolis done by the American photographer Greg Halvorsen Schreck. The usage of the black-and-white photographic medium emphasizes the absolute stillness and decay associated with the location. The photographer describes his visit and shooting at the location, saying, “I’m always taken by the layers of time that exist simultaneously in Italy. It seems that the past cannot be erased, and repressed, as it is here in the United States. In Italy, we lived in a Medieval village, in a 15th century palazzo. The cathedral there housed beautiful Renaissance frescoes. Elements of the Roman Empire and the Baroque also punctuate and inform whatever is contemporary. These artifacts, that span millennia, from 700 BC until the present, provoke a richer, deeper sense of existence. Perhaps one becomes more humble realizing that the ground underfoot isn’t as ‘young’ as once assumed. In this bigger perspective, a single life becomes both less significant, and more important. In Italy, I feel invited to be more present, to inhabit the time that is now.”
https://www.joshobrouwers.com/articles/etruscan-necropolis-orvieto/
About the Artist #1:
Greg Halvorsen Schreck teaches photography in the art department at Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago, Illinois. He teaches analog and digital photography, explored through artistic, documentary, and community-based approaches. In his thirty-year tenure, he has also taught art history, film, video, and cinema classes. His undergraduate degree is from Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studied both commercial and fine art photography. He worked in commercial photography in New York City for ten years. Schreck completed his graduate work at New York University and the International Center of Photography in 1988.
https://www.gregschreckphotography.com/personal
https://www.gregschreckphotography.com/contact
About the Artwork #2:
Early in the Morning
Barry Sherbeck
Digital photograph
From the CIVA exhibition entitled Again and Again
Barry Sherbeck’s color photograph of the trumpet-shaped morning glory flower symbolically proclaims the joyful news of the resurrection—“He is risen!” Just as Christ was raised from the dead, the morning glory flower wakes in the early morning hours to open its beauty to the world. We can walk in the newness of life each day because Jesus walked out of the grave. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection demonstrate God’s infinite glory. Jesus’ death covers our sins and reconciles us with God and his resurrection gives us the hope of eternal life with him.
He has risen! Christ has risen, indeed!
About the Artist #2:
Barry Sherbeck is an American visual artist, writer, and educator with a passion for making photographs. Having lived and traveled in over twenty-five countries worldwide, he has developed a love for cultural documentaries—recording the personhood, dignity, and way of life of people from various cultures––and for sharing the stories of the people he documents with others who may be unlikely to meet them. For over thirty years he has been doing video and multimedia production, photography, marketing, and interactive design—swimming along with the current of immense changes brought on by technology and globalization.
https://barrysherbeck.com/
https://trulyexperiences.com/blog/morning-glory-flower-meaning/
About the Music: Russian Easter Festival, Overture, Op. 36
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov like many great Russian composers drew heavily from the liturgical music of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although no words are sung in this composition, Rimsky-Korsakov, in a bold move incorporated two beloved Easter hymns that were familiar to most Russians at the time. He used the glorious melodies from these hymns to create his overture. The Russian Easter Festival Overture is entirely based the sublimely beautiful tradition of Russian chant, a certain melody from the Slavic-Byzantine Liturgy utilized by the Russian people. From the contemplative opening evoking the martyrdom and mystery of Good Friday to the trumpet blasts and bell tolling during the triumphant coda, we hear the chant “Christ has risen from the dead.” The work was started early in 1888 and completed some eight months later. The overture was presented to the public just before Christmas of 1888 by the Russian Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, of which Rimsky had recently been appointed chief conductor.
The overture opens with a passage taken from Psalm 68: Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from before his face! As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire, So the sinners will perish before the face of God; but let the righteous be glad. At 6:00 minutes in the second hymn is introduced: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! The lyrics of this ancient hymn recall the biblical message spoken by the angel to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph after Jesus' crucifixion when the women arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint Jesus body. These words are sung over and over during the Easter Liturgy.
https://classicalexburns.com/2019/04/20/nikolai-rimsky-korsakov-russian-easter-festival-overture-a-holiday-celebration/
https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/3128/russian-easter-overture
https://interlude.hk/from-solemnity-to-paganismrimsky-korsakov-russian-easter-festival-overture/
About the Composer:
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five, prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create distinct Russian classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” from The Tale of Tsar Saltan and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are perennial staples of the classical music repertoire. Rimsky-Korsakov became a professor of musical composition, harmony, and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner. As an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov widely influenced young composers and is considered "the main architect" of what the classical music public considers the Russian style of composition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov
About the Poetry and Poet:
Mary Barnard (1909–2001) was an American poet, biographer, and translator particularly noted for her translations of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Mentored by esteemed poets like Ezra Pound, Barnard published widely and received numerous awards for her work throughout her career, including the 1935 Levinson Award from Poetry Magazine and the Western States Book Award in 1986. Some of her collections include Mythmakers and Time and the White Tigress.
http://marybarnard.com/bio.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barnard
About Devotion Author:
Provost Dr. Matthew Hall
Senior Vice President
Biola University
Dr. Matthew Hall joined Biola University in the summer of 2022. As provost, he acts as the chief academic officer of the university to establish and implement its academic priorities. As part of the university's senior leadership team, Hall works with the deans, academic officers, and faculty to fulfill Biola's mission. Dr. Hall came to Biola from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville (KY), where he served as provost and senior vice president for academic administration (2019–2022). Previously, he was the dean of Boyce College, the seminary's undergraduate division (2016–2019), and vice president of academic strategy (2013–2016). Dr. Hall holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Kentucky as well as degrees from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div; Th.M.) and Grove City College (B.A.). His academic interests focus on the intersection of theology and culture in American religion and he has taught for over a decade at both the graduate and undergraduate level. An ordained minister, he regularly preaches and teaches throughout North America, as well as in the Spanish-speaking world.