HW: "Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen"

A reflection on the journey to Easter faith, inspired by John 20:1-18. Written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
Easter Sunday 2026
John 20:1-18

Welcome
Christmas makes more of an impact as a secular feast, but there is no doubt that Easter is the crown of the Christian year. Christ is risen, alleluia! As we allow ourselves to feel the joy of the feast, perhaps now is the time to pause a moment to reflect and ask ourselves,

What brings us here today?
What are we celebrating?
Why does it matter?

Topic
The full gospel for today, taking in both parts of the story, can help us on our own journey to Easter faith.

Steps
The core of our Christian proclamation is “Christ is risen, he is truly risen!” In the Orthodox Church, this Easter greeting is exchanged during the liturgy and throughout the Easter season — capturing the excitement of the feast. Today, we celebrate a victory: Christ’s victory over death, destruction and evil. Today, we celebrate a liberation: our being set freedom from the power of death and even from the fear of death. Finally, today, we celebrate the triumph of love. In the words of the Song of Songs: for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave (Song 8:6). God’s newest word to us all is a loving and resounding “yes”. As St Paul says in 2 Corinthians,

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ … was not “Yes and No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.  (2 Corinthians 1:19–20)

This “yes” is spoken to each one of us this Easter day.

Our Gospel (John 20:1-18) portrays two characters who make the journey to faith, the Beloved Disciple and the Mary Magdalen. The Beloved Disciple is a chiefly symbolic character appearing only in the Gospel of John, standing in some way for the ideal follower or disciple, always faithful. In a more literalist reading, the Beloved Disciple beats Peter to the tomb because he is younger and presumably fitter! But, as every athlete knows, it is not your legs that get your there but your heart. So too with the beloved disciple. The motivation of the Beloved disciple is being loved and loving in return. Out of respect for Peter, the Beloved Disciple holds back and allows Peter in first — but nothing happens, even though all the hints are there. The institution takes you only so far… By contrast, then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Precisely because he is the Beloved Disciple, he makes the journey to Easter faith. Easter faith is as much a movement of the heart as anything else.

Something similar may be said in a different way about Mary Magdalene. She too is a bit mysterious, appearing first in this Gospel only at the moment of Jesus’ death. She is, however, part of a broader narrative tapestry in the Gospels. The Gospel of John offers what we might call “quest” stories, narratives of individuals on the journey of life and ultimately on the pilgrimage towards faith. The outstanding examples in that Gospel are: the woman at the well, the man born blind and Mary, Martha and Lazarus. The significance for the Gospel writer of these quest stories is underlined from very start. The first words on the lips of Jesus in the Gospel of John are spoken to followers of John the Baptist: what are you looking for? It is the universal human question. What do I really want? In our Gospel of Mary Magdalen, the question is significantly altered: whom are you looking for? No longer, then, a “what”, a book of answers or a philosophy or even a theology but instead a person. Mary’s moment of faith comes when Jesus calls her by her name, “Mary.” She responds in recognition, “Rabbouni”.  Like the Beloved Disciple, her journey of faith is one of love, being loved and loving in return, called back as she is into relationship with the risen Lord. Today, we are invited to hear the voice of the Risen Lord speak the name of each one of us here.

Today, our proclamation is the triumph of the love of God — a love which has brought Jesus, the Son of God, into the heart of being human, becoming “obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross,” to speak to us words of love from within our being human. As we stand before the Easter proclamation, we may well wonder if we could ever make the leap of faith and trust, in a rich and radical way. Actually, the real challenge is slightly different: not so much can I believe the doctrine of the resurrection but rather can I trust in God who so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son. Or in different words, can I open my heart and simply allow myself to be so loved? Can I hear that resounding “Yes” spoken to me, to us all? As just observed, Easter faith is as much a movement of the heart as anything else.

Perhaps now we begin to see what brings us here today, what we are celebrating and why it matters.

Conclusion
As often, it is the poets who express is best. George Herbert, the Welsh poet from the early 1600s, has a mighty poem entitled “Easter”. I’ll read the opening lines and final verse. 

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen.  Sing his praise
                                                  Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
                                                  With him mayst rise:
… 
Can there be any day but this,
Though many sunnes to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we misse:
There is but one, and that one ever.