Join us for Easter breakfast at 10:00 am with Easter Worship Service at 11:00 am. In preparation for service, please consider the words in John 20:1-18 NIV
The Empty Tomb
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still
dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the
stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she
came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the
one Jesus loved, and said,
“They have taken the Lord out
of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put
him!”3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the
tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran
Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and
looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go
in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went
straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying
there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped
around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place,
separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who
had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and
believed. 9 (They still did not understand from
Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then
the disciples went back to where they were
staying. Jesus Appears to
Mary Magdalene11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and
saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had
been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They
asked her,
“Woman, why are you crying?” “They have
taken my Lord away,
” she said,
“and I don’t know where
they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and
saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it
was Jesus.15 He asked her,
“Woman, why are you
crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was
the gardener, she said,
“Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have put him, and I will get
him.”16 Jesus said to her,
“Mary.” She turned toward him
and cried out in Aramaic,
“Rabboni!” (which means
“Teacher”).17 Jesus said,
“Do not hold on to me, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my
brothers and tell them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God.’”18 Mary
Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have
seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these
things to her.
THE WORD OF
GOD, FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD. THANKS BE TO
GOD.
