Not the Same Old Story -- Luke 23:55-24:12 (Easter Sunday)

Photo credit: Pisit Heng, used with permission via Unsplash

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As the sun rises that morning, the women could not have known how the day would unfold.[1] Death had done what death does. They had seen it with their own eyes. Just as they had travelled with Jesus through his whole ministry, the women traveled with him all the way to the cross. When the disciples fled, the women remained. They were there when the Roman soldiers conscripted Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. They followed Jesus and Simon and the soldiers – a great number of people – the women weeping and wailing for Jesus. They were there when the powers crucified Jesus. They were there when he died. Death had done what death does.

And the women then did what we do. The women accompanied Jesus still, even in death – giving him the dignity of love till the last. We know what that looks like when we encounter our own unimaginable loss, and somehow still love as hard as we can.

Joseph of Arimathea comes and asks Pilate for the body. The sun is setting, and it will soon be Sabbath – when they won’t be able to do this work – so they do the best they can do – as quickly as they can. Joseph of Arimathea takes the body down, wraps it tenderly, and makes sure it is laid in the tomb. The preparation of the body will have to wait until Sabbath is over. So, the women prepare the burial spices and perfumes, just before sunset.

And then, in the quiet of the Sabbath, the women grieve and wait.

Death has done what death does. And the powers have done what the powers do. It is the same old story. This is the world they know. The women are part of a tiny people who over the centuries have been conquered again and again by empire – empire upon empire – Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and now Rome. They know the violence of imperial occupation.  Soldiers walk the streets. There’s a local puppet king who collaborates with Empire. The religious leaders join in too – everyone afraid of the powers above them pressing down – everyone afraid of retribution, revenge and violence – everyone afraid of losing their place of privilege.

And those outside of power suffer – all those folks Jesus kept on healing, all those outcasts that Jesus kept inviting to dinner, all the poor that Jesus worked to bless. Pretty much everyone in their world lives a bare subsistence living – just enough food for the living of this day – they hope.

The powers like the way things are – and they do everything they can to protect their power. They silence anyone who speaks up to criticize or oppose them. They use all the power they have to arrest, imprison, and crucify.

But then, Jesus comes along and proclaims a world where the powers are being brought down, so that those held low might be lifted up – the hungry fed, the prisoner released, the oppressed set free.

And the powers do what the powers do.

It is the same old story – played out down through the generations.

We know what that looks like, even in our day.

We know what it’s like to live in a world filled with violence and war – a world of empires, including our own. Though we don’t live in a war zone, we can’t not see the images that our screens bring into our awareness – of brutal regimes on the prowl – nowadays with bombs and tanks – driving people from the land, decimating lives.

We know what authoritarian power looks like – its resurgence in this nation. We know what it’s like to watch power grab for as much power as it can – to see folks rounded up, imprisoned – some disappeared to prisons in foreign lands even – with no thought to a hearing or a trial. We watch daily powers driven by revenge – as they work to silence any dissenting voice – any voice of opposition. We know what it’s like to watch systems of oppression grind away – harming so many to benefit the few.

We know that same old story – and even with those powers grinding away – we know, too, the human longing that endures as well – the longing for peace; the longing to live free of fear; the longing to love – to love family, and friends, to live together in community; the longing that all children might have enough to eat, that all children might have enough of everything to survive and to thrive – to become all that God intends for them to be; all those longings that tell us something of what it is to be human.

It is the same old story as the women set out early that morning. For them, that same old story has ended in the silence of the cross. [silence]

That is the story of Good Friday.

But we are an Easter people.

And this is the day we celebrate Resurrection.

As the sun rises that morning, the women set out – determined. They set out with the spices they have gathered, and they head toward the tomb to wash Jesus’s body and to prepare it for proper burial with myrrh, and aloes, and perfume. What they find when they arrive is the stone rolled away. What they DON’T find when they arrive is a body. The tomb lies empty, the carnage of crucifixion... gone.

And the women stand there as we might – amazed and bewildered.

And, then, there are these two men dressed in clothes of dazzling white – two messengers – standing alongside them. I love that – they don’t confront – or startle. The messengers come alongside and stand with the women – all of them together, looking into this empty tomb in silence. Until one of the messengers, leans over to one of the Marys, and asks:

Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

This... is not the same old story.

Remember, they say to the women, remember what he told you.

He told you – not just once – he told you that he would be handed over and crucified – that is what power does to those who speak up. But also remember, he told you... that on the third day he would rise again.

This is not the same old story. And it hasn’t been from the beginning. This story doesn’t end here.. in death. In this story, the powers no longer have ultimate power.

Remember what he told you:

The Spirit is upon me to bring good news to the poor,

healing for every hurt,

release for the captive,

freedom for all who are oppressed.

Remember what his mother Mary sang, back at the beginning:

My whole being magnifies God – for God is lifting up those who have been held low, and bringing down the powers – God is filling the hungry and the poor with good things, and sending the rich away empty.

Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

Remember what he said.

Why are you standing here at this tomb, as if this were the same old story? Don’t you have someplace to be?

And out of their stunned silence, the women know what they must do:

Speak.

And so Mary Magdalene, and Joana, and Mary the mother of James, and all the women with them... go... they go as fast as their feet will carry them – to tell the disciples and those gathered with them. This is some good news!

And we know how that goes. The men hear what the women have to say, and they think it an idle tale. And we know, there are reasons for that – the disciples are still stuck in that same old story – in a world swirling with power-over – including patriarchy – where those who have been held low are to be silent, and when they speak, they are not to be believed.

And so we should say this.[2] The women... these women have been with Jesus for the whole story. From the beginning, do remember Mary and Elizabeth sing together of what they are birthing into the world – God, in their lives, in their bodies, lifting up those for too long held low. Early on, the Gospel of Luke tells us that these women – the very women at the tomb – have been traveling with Jesus from the start. Some have been healed by Jesus. Get this: these women have been financing Jesus throughout his ministry, out of their own means. (Check it out – Luke 8:1-3.) A woman anoints Jesus. Mary and Martha welcome Jesus into their home. And when the disciples betray, deny and flee into the night. The women remain steady and present. They are there when Jesus is sentenced to death. The women accompany him, weeping and wailing to the cross. As Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., says: “The women were the last at the cross, at the first at the tomb.”

In this story, no one but Jesus has more credibility than these women – they have been there the whole time. And now, out of this patriarchal world – that same old story – the women walk to the fore – and, they speak. They go and tell the disciples this story we now tell again this morning – two thousand years later.

This is no idle tale.

This is not the same old story.

Death has done what death does.

The powers have done what the powers do.

And now God does what God always does.

God brings healing and freedom and life.

Last Sunday, we talked about how, in this book -- in the Scriptures, there is so much suffering. In this book, there is even more life. The people are in slavery and God does what God does – God brings them into freedom. God’s people are wandering in the desert, and God provides manna in the morning and water from a rock. God’s people are in exile, and God brings them back home.

And in Resurrection, God does what God does, once and for all. In Jesus Christ, God enters into the whole of human experience – all the suffering, all the joy, all the struggle – even unto death –and in Resurrection, says to us:

Throughout and beyond all this, there is yet more life.

It turns that for the women that morning it wasn’t the end of the story at all, it was the beginning.

Now, make no mistake. The powers want us to stay stuck in that same old story. That’s how they keep their power. That’s why they spend so much time trying to silence.... everybody. Just watch them. They want us silent. But these women... speak. And nothing will ever be the same.

One of my teachers – Professor James Noel used to tell his students, “Class, when you are preaching on Easter morning, you have just one job to get Jesus out of that tomb.”

What I want to say this morning, is that our job – yours and mine – our job this morning – is to follow Jesus on up out of that tomb.

We are living in hard times. It would be easy to call these Holy Week times – I may have done that during Lent. They sure feel like it. But we can’t live our days as if every day is Good Friday. Because Good Friday is not the end of the story, and we are an Easter people.

Now, I’ve been talking about life and liberation from the powers, but I want to be clear. I’m also talking about life and liberation from death. One of the places in this community that we talk most often about resurrection is at memorial services, where we celebrate a life. At celebrations of life, we choose – and lean into –  those Scriptures that speak of Resurrection – “Nothing can separate us from God’s love – not life, not death.” “In God’s house there are many rooms, I go to prepare a place.”

It has moved me – over these past 5 and half years as your pastor – that, in this community, families often turn to 1 Corinthians 13 to celebrate a life: Love is patient; love is kind.. love always protects; always trusts; always perseveres. Love never ends. Love never dies. That is one of the ways that you – that we proclaim resurrection.

For this season of Lent, we have been Turning Toward the Way. And what we have found is that every time we turn toward the Way of Jesus, we find ourselves turning toward life.

·      Every time we turn toward the Way of Jesus

in a world swirling with too much turning,

we find that we are not alone –

we find each other, and we find God meeting us at every corner

·      Every time we turn toward protesting the injustice of this world,

we find a voice with power stronger than any power.

·      Every time we turn toward tender mercy,

we find abundance and grace beyond what we ever imagined.

In these difficult days – in our day – every time we turn toward God and each other – we find love, and purpose, and life.

We find God already and always turning toward us.

On this Easter morning, we stand with those courageous women –

amazed and bewildered –

in what we all thought was a Good Friday world,

and together, we turn toward this new day,

and into the silence,

we proclaim this Resurrection truth:

Everything that lies ahead is life.

© 2025 Scott Clark

[1] For general background on these texts and the Gospel of Luke, see Justo L. González, Luke (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010); Sharon Ringe, Luke (Louisville, KY:  Westminster John Knox Press, 1995); Joseph Small,  Commentary in Feasting on the Word, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), pp.196-97; Beverly Zink-Sayer, Commentary in Feasting on the Word, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), pp.197-98. For a powerful presentation of the women’s role in this text, see Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away: Understanding the Timeless Connection Between Women Today and Women in the Bible (Warner Books, New York: 1988, update 2005), pp.100-06.

 [2] See Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away: Understanding the Timeless Connection Between Women Today and Women in the Bible (Warner Books, New York: 1988, update 2005), pp.100-106; Beverly Zink-Sayer, p.196.