The Great Vigil of Easter

Year A, Saturday, April 4, 2026 

The Prophecies 
Psalm 114 
Romans 6: 3-11 
Matthew 28: 1-10 

The Resurrected Jesus walk before us and is with us...today and always. 

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!! 

The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!! 

This is the night!! 

Tonight with Christians around the world we celebrate the cornerstone of our faith Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, has risen and walks ahead and with us into the future. 

In our opening Salutation we heard: 

THIS is the night when God brought our forebearers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea onto dry land. 

This IS the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, rising victoriously from the grave. 

This is THE night, when all, all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and restored to grace and holiness of life (BCP, 287) 

This is the NIGHT when heaven and earth death and life meet an 

Christ defeats death providing hope for you and me for today and tomorrow forever... 

God invites us this night to use our eyes to see and ears to hear the wonder of WHAT God has done creating us in God’s own image forming the beauty of creation around us walking with us through stories of faith across generations. 

God also invites us to use our ears to hear and eyes to see HOW God has faithfully pursued us over history when we have gone astray, chasing us down through deserts and dry land, floods and fire; creating and fulfilling prophecies ultimately redeeming us and defeating death, death the ultimate enemy as Jesus is resurrected from the tomb tonight!

This IS the night we remember Jesus’ life on earth for just as Jesus went down into the Jordan River waters and rose triumphantly. 

Dee presented her sons, Preston and Prescott, for Holy Baptism, to dive deeply into baptism’s holy waters, be washed clean, dying to sin, only to rise again just as sinless Jesus did from the Jordan River. Rising again to a new life marked as Christ’s own forever, united with Christ, the victor over sin and death. 

Now tonight is not only an extraordinary night but also an ordinary night as somewhere in our community the power going out, backs and knees ache, babies cry. 

Tonight our nation is at war, gasoline prices are rising and we wish there were more brothers and sisters here in church. 

Tonight is a night filled with love, passion, disappointment, fear and grief. A night when time stops and seems to stand still and yet time goes on. Jesus’ resurrection reminds us our lives are wrapped up, not only in the ordinary sequence of seconds, minutes, hours and days but also in timeless eternity. 

Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the origin of creation and redemption, the fulfillment of God’s promises. 

Jesus is TIMELESS. 

Jesus who is present from the beginning of time and will be present with us to eternity and beyond comes right into our very lives as the Risen Christ - tonight. 

Now while the rules of gravity and the dynamics of human nature remain Jesus who fulfills his earthly mission defeats death, gives each of us the gift of salvation, rises from the tomb to join us NOW and is here in our very midst and our own hearts. 

Sometimes as we endure medical, financial and family crises we can be lured by earthly desires, turn away from God feel overwhelmed and conclude both the situation is impossible and God has deserted us. 

Jesus’s resurrection teaches us that even in those places and situations, and with people that seem impossible God is with us. 

God reminds us through praying and talking with God, reading Holy Scripture, singing songs of praise and worship, receiving the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood -the Risen Christ is WITH us. Alleluia, Alleluia! 

God came to be with us in Jesus, a first century, Jewish, male carpenter but His resurrection teaches us God’s presence with you and me cannot be confined by time, space, or even other people! 

There is no place, no heart, no relationship ruptured so deeply, broadly, or widely that God cannot bridge and heal and God wants to heal us.

Sometimes our lives are so painful, our suffering so deep we truly feel alone as if no one understands or has experienced the depth of our pain. 

I suspect Mary Magdalene and the other “Mary”, who was likely Cleopas’s wife or Jesus’ aunt, James and John’s mother were utterly devastated as they arrived at the tomb to pray, grieve and remember Him. The “Marys” were Jesus’s disciples who had followed and supported his ministry, witnessed his teaching and healing, endured His and their own pain at the foot of the cross. 

You and I can imagine especially if you have gone through the loss of a beloved friend or family member the Mary’s shock over what had happened. Perhaps they were also experiencing deep sadness or even anger at God and wanted to find a silent place near the dark, isolated, damp tomb where they didn’t expect to find God. In that impossible place of loss the Marys went to the tomb not expecting to find anything but a corpse, the vibrant life-giving Jesus would not be there. 

And suddenly just as when Jesus died and the temple curtain was torn a great earthquake announced God’s very presence an angel of the Lord descended from heaven his appearance like lightening, his clothing white as snow and rolled away the stone and sat. 

The guards overwhelmed by the angel’s blazing divinity freeze like dead men 

unable to even hear the angel’s testimony. But the women remained alert and awake, no doubt trembling as the angel brings impossible news... 

“Do not be afraid; 

I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 

He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. 

Come, see the place where he lay. 

Then go quickly and tell his disciples. 

‘He has been raised from the dead.’” 

The “Marys” are steadfast listening with open ears, courageously looking into the tomb, running with both fear and great joy to tell the 11 disciples the impossible news, Jesus has risen the dead and goes on ahead of them. 

And then as the Mary’s are on their way to Galilee bursting with this life-changing news Jesus appears to them as if he could not wait to re-unite with them and offers 

Greetings which in Greek means.... Rejoice! 

Jesus re-affirms whom He was on earth. He will be for all eternity and where HE is now right in their midst. The “Mary’s fall down and worship him as he urges “Do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee I will meet them there.” Jesus goes on to Galilee ahead of Mary and Mary Magdalene just as He goes ahead of all of us into the future. 

Even as we face a future filled with fear or foreboding, 

g Jesus promises He will be there -He is with us now. Going to Galilee represents a new beginning, Galilee is the other side of a medical test, a funeral, an accident, Galilee is also the other side of a new birth, graduation, or a wedding. 

Jesus Christ, the anointed and beloved child of God, walks with us no matter what we are facing, suffering and pain, confusion and boredom, healing and joy. Jesus who faces and understands every aspect of being human goes ahead of us for even before the women reach the tomb Jesus is already gone. 

Galilee is our future, an unknowable except for one thing Jesus is there. Jesus who is ready to welcome us into whatever future awaits us receives us in solidarity to live into every moment, circumstance, question that He too has endured. Jesus welcomes us in our every tear, every peal of laughter. Jesus is timeless and walking beside you. May this Easter you heartily receive His invitation to walk with you! 

Amen. 

** I am grateful to The Rev. Sara Irwin for the ideas in her sermon