“Mary’s First Sermon”

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2026

Matthew 28:1-10

Over the course of 2,000 years, the voice of the women in the Church have been silenced. Today, we get to hear the first Christian sermon given—a message of good news to the other disciples hiding in the upper room. This sermon is offered by the first true Apostle of Jesus the Christ: Mary of Magdala.

Mary of Magdala to the disciples.

You won’t believe it. You won’t believe where we’ve just been. What we’ve just seen! Tell them, Mary. Tell them about your son. Tell them about Jesus.

You won’t believe it! We were at the tomb. We had to see it again for ourselves. You were there. Wait, no. You weren’t. We had to rush to get him down from that horrible cross. It was almost sunset, and we just couldn’t leave his body there for a whole day waiting for Sabbath to end while the carrion picked at him.

His poor, beaten and battered body. It was awful. The soldiers were awful. The whole thing. The whole thing…

But Joseph—you know, the one from Arimathea—he helped us. He even offered his own tomb for Jesus. You really should write him a thank you note. But he helped us bring him down. We didn’t have the proper spices or ointments to prepare his body. We just wrapped him up and took him to the tomb.

The soldiers came with us. I’m surprised they didn’t take his body and hide it. They were paranoid, you know. Thought you guys might show up and steal the body and then claim he got up and walked away. They don’t know how right they were!

They sealed the tomb. The put guards in front of it. Guards! To watch the tomb of Jesus. Ridiculous! All of Sabbath, Mary and I could just sit and cry. Tell them, Mary. Tell them how hard it was to pray to God. Tell them about how long yesterday was.

Well, you know. You were grieving, too. We were grieving together. I forget. Because today has just been…well, tell them, Mary!

We went back to the tomb this morning. You all were still asleep. But we couldn’t wait anymore. We had to go back. To bear witness. To see the tomb and make sure it was real. To touch the stone. To make sure the soldiers hadn’t done something horrible to it—or to him.

But as we got there, the whole earth shook! We nearly fell over. Did you feel it here? Did you feel the quake? I was so scared! And then came a light. An angel. I’ve never seen anything like it! Mary and I clung to each other in fear. What could it mean? What had Rome done, now? What would we find?

But you should have seen the soldiers. They were so scared they fainted! Fainted! Big bad Roman soldiers, lying on the ground in terror. I almost laughed. The angel moved the stone—all by herself! And then just sat on top of it, swinging her feet as if she were playing around. She told us not to fear. She told us Jesus was gone. She told us he had risen.

I know! What does that even mean?! She let us look inside. The tomb was empty. At first, I just wanted to fall to the ground and cry. Mary held me up. Tell them, Mary. Tell them what we saw.

Nothing! That’s what we saw. Nothing. Empty. Nada. No sign of him anywhere. The angel told us to tell you—oh yeah—we’re supposed to tell you to go to Galilee. Let’s go. Oh, why? Oh. Right. Well, she said that that’s where you’ll see him. Who? Jesus! Haven’t you been listening? He isn’t dead. Well, he was. And now he’s not.

We saw him. Didn’t I tell you? Oh. Well, we saw him on our way back. We were running so hard and fast we almost missed him. He was at the side of the road and said, “Greetings.” Greetings! Like, howdy. How’s it going? Unbelievable. I mean, seriously unbelievable. We nearly fell over in fright. You don’t often see a dead man standing at the side of the road, you know.

But he told us what the angel had said. Tell the disciples to get up and go to Galilee. That’s where they’ll see him. Where you’ll see him. Where we’ll see him. But, of course, we’ve already seen him.

So, yeah. Jesus is alive. He was dead. He’s alive. What does it mean? Don’t you get it? It means that God is bigger than the empire. It means that God is bigger than death. It means that God is bigger than the worst things we can do to one another. It means that God’s promises are sure. It means that everything Jesus taught and did are real and true. It means that life is more than struggle and pain. It is beautiful. It is plentiful. It is meant to be cherished. It is meant to be protected.

It means that the whole story of our people—the whole trajectory of our history—is about justice and hope and love and grace. And that it culminates in this moment. Right here. Where our most important mission is to tell others this good news. To show others God’s love. To give others hope in something more than peace through violence and dominance. To serve like he served. To live like he lived. To trust in God’s presence, even when God is silent. And to listen when God speaks.

It means that it’s time to get up, for Pete’s sake (sorry, Peter), and go. He is not here. He is risen! Tell them Mary. Mary?

Pastor Tobi White

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Lincoln, NE