00:05The Garden
00:06Easter Sunday, the happiest and most hopeful day in history.
00:11Hallelujah!
00:12Jesus Christ has risen from the grave.
00:15Let's go now to that first Easter and remember the wonderful events that rewrote history
00:20for everyone everywhere forevermore.
00:23Isn't it beautiful that the very first person to whom Jesus chooses to appear is not Pilate,
00:29not the chief priest, nor Peter or one of the other men, but to a weeping woman with a dubious
00:35past?
00:36And isn't it exquisite that his first words are not a proclamation of power but a simple,
00:41pastoral and playful question, Why are you crying?
00:45When Mary first sees the risen Jesus, she mistakes him for a gardener.
00:50What does this show me about his appearance and the nature of his glory?
00:55Lord Jesus, open my eyes to recognize you today, resurrected in ordinary encounters with the
01:02people I meet.
01:03Jesus tells Mary, Go to my brothers and tell them, I pray today for those people like me
01:09who have become witnesses to your resurrection.
01:12Commission us afresh, Lord, to proclaim the good news with irrepressible courage and joy.
01:19I pray especially for those who are preaching in churches around the world, that they would
01:24proclaim that you are alive with the same passion and amazement that Mary had on that very first
01:30Easter day.
01:31I imagine myself in that room.
01:33How do I feel as Jesus appears?
01:36He breaks through locked doors to be with me.
01:39He commissions me as his apostle as if I'd never let him down.
01:44He breathes on me and says, Receive the Holy Spirit.
01:49Holy Spirit, breathing deeply now, I receive you joyfully.
01:53I relinquish my sense of inadequacy and receive again your commission to go out through these
01:59locked doors, to proclaim that you live, to make disciples and even to forgive their sins
02:05in your name.
02:06Amen.
