based on John 20:1-18
Faithful God, it is a day to proclaim to one another that the tomb is empty, that Christ has been raised, and that life has the final word over death. We hear these words and even speak them ourselves, and yet we still may feel the need to run to the tomb to see for ourselves the stone rolled back, the abandoned cloths, the empty slab. It may be natural for us to wonder how this could be so, given the endless amount of uncertainty and suffering that resides in this world.
Despite the joyous nature of the day, we still carry such uncertainty with us, and we bring it to you in the hope that resurrection will touch these burdens just as it did that first morning. We pray that physical ailments will find relief, troubled minds will be quieted, uneasy spirits find peace, and ruptured relationships will find resolution. We pray that the empty tomb will be found in these other spaces that occupy our hearts, that all may experience the new life that we as an Easter people claim.
O God, may we not only rush to the tomb to see it unoccupied, but to point it out to each other as each of us needs it. Amen.
Jeffrey A. Nelson 