"Christ is risen. He has called you by name!" Easter Dawn 2026

05. April 2026
Easter Sunrise Matins
John 20:1–18

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Mary arrives before sunrise. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb stands empty. She runs to tell Peter and John, who race to the grave, peer inside, find nothing, and leave. Mary stays behind, weeping.

She stooped to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She answers, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." She knows the body is gone. She does not know where Christ is. This is where the Law always leaves you: weeping at an empty tomb, knowing death has had its way, unable to find your Lord. More than that, she is alone in her grief. The disciples have gone home. She stands isolated, cut off, abandoned.

She turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. The risen Lord stands before her, and she mistakes Him for the gardener. Grief blinds her. Despair clouds her vision. She looks directly at the living Christ and sees only a stranger. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She still does not recognize Him. She thinks He has carried away the body. She asks where He has laid it so she can take it away. She expects a corpse. The Law has trained her to expect death, and only death.

Then Christ speaks one word. "Mary."

He calls her by name. She knows His voice. She turned and said to Him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). The sound of her own name spoken by Christ changes everything. He has not remained hidden. He has revealed Himself to her personally by speaking her name. And in speaking her name, He reconciles her to Himself. She is no longer alone. She is no longer cut off. She stands face to face with the risen Lord who knows her, claims her, and restores her.

But Christ does more than reconcile Mary to Himself. He sends her to deliver this reconciliation to others. "Go to My brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'" Mary must go to the disciples — the same men who forsook Christ, denied Him, fled from Him. She must tell them that Christ calls them His brothers. His Father is their Father. His God is their God. The resurrection does not just reconcile you to Christ. It reconciles you to one another. Christ speaks your name in Baptism and makes you His own, and in doing so, He joins you to all the others whose names He has spoken.

Christ speaks your name the same way He spoke Mary's. When you were baptized, God called you by name and claimed you as His own. "I have called you by name, you are Mine" (Isaiah 43:1). That baptismal calling joins you to Christ's death and resurrection. You were buried with Him. You were raised with Him. And now He speaks your name every time His Word comes to you, every time His body and blood are given to you, every time absolution is pronounced over you. He calls you by the name He gave you at the font. And He calls the person sitting next to you by name, too. You belong to the same Lord. You share the same Father. You are baptized into the same death and resurrection.

Mary came to the tomb expecting death. She found an empty grave and wept because she could not find her Lord's body. Then Christ spoke her name, and everything the Law had taught her about death collapsed. The tomb was empty because death could not hold Him. “In Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive.”The Second Adam now walks in the garden at dawn, calling the daughters and sons of Eve by name, granting them life where the First Adam brought death. And He does not call you in isolation. He calls you into His body, the Church, where all who bear His name are reconciled to Him and to one another.

Christ sends Mary to His brothers with a message of reconciliation. Think about what that means. Peter denied Him three times. Thomas doubted Him. All of them fled when He was arrested. They abandoned Him. They failed Him. They deserved the names “cowards” and “traitors.” And what does the risen Christ call them? "My brothers." He does not call them servants. He does not call them the faithless. He does not call them the ones who forsook Me. He calls them brothers. He reconciles them to Himself by speaking that Word over them, and in reconciling them to Himself, He reconciles them to one another.

You know what you have done. You know your sins against Christ. You have denied Him by your silence. You have forsaken Him by your cowardice. You have failed Him by your weakness. And still He calls you by name. Still He claims you as His own. Still He speaks absolution over you and gives you His body and blood. He reconciles you to Himself, and in doing so He reconciles you to every other sinner whose name He has called.

This is why Mary must go to the disciples. She has seen the risen Lord. She has heard Him speak her name. But the Gospel is not complete until she tells others. Christ has reconciled her to Himself so that she can proclaim reconciliation to those who are estranged, isolated, and despairing. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." She became the first witness to the resurrection, the first to proclaim that Christ is alive, the first to announce reconciliation between God and man.

The disciples did not believe her. They thought it was nonsense. They could not grasp that Christ had risen or that He had called them His brothers. Their sins stood between them and the Gospel. Their guilt convinced them that reconciliation was impossible. So it is with you. You hear that Christ has called you by name in Baptism. You hear that He has reconciled you to Himself through His death and resurrection. And you do not believe it because your conscience accuses you, your sins weigh on you, and you cannot fathom that Christ would claim someone else like you.

But Christ has spoken. He has called you by name. He has reconciled you to Himself. The lack is not in His word but in your faith. And here is the mercy: Christ does not wait for you to believe perfectly before He reconciles you. He does not require your faith to be strong before He speaks your name. He calls you first. He reconciles you first. He claims you first. Your faith is weak, your conscience is guilty, your sins are many — and still He speaks your name and makes you His own.

This reconciliation extends beyond you and Christ. When Christ reconciles you to Himself, He reconciles you to everyone else who bears His name. You sit here this morning surrounded by other baptized sinners. They have failed Christ just as you have. They carry guilt just as you do. They struggle with doubt just as you do. And Christ has called them by name just as He has called you. His Father is their Father. His God is their God. You are joined to them in Baptism, joined to them in the body and blood of Christ, joined to them in the resurrection that swallows up death forever.

This means you cannot isolate yourself in your sin. You cannot stand alone at the tomb, weeping over your failures, convinced that you are cut off from Christ and from His people. Christ has spoken your name. He has joined you to His body. He has reconciled you to Himself and to one another. When you receive absolution, you receive it alongside every other sinner in this room. When you eat Christ's body and drink His blood, you do so joined to everyone else at this altar. You are not alone. You are reconciled.

Mary left the tomb and went to the disciples. She proclaimed what she had seen and heard. She announced reconciliation. You do the same. Christ has called you by name. He has reconciled you to Himself. Now you go to those around you — your family, your neighbors, your fellow Christians — and you proclaim that same reconciliation. You forgive as you have been forgiven. You speak words of peace to those estranged from God and from one another. You announce that the tomb is empty, that death is defeated, that Christ is risen, and calls His people by name.

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This path is not one you walk alone. Christ makes it known to you by speaking your name and joining you to His death and resurrection. And He joins you to all the others whose names He has spoken. You walk this path together, reconciled to Christ and to one another, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, partakers of the resurrection.

The tomb is empty. Christ is risen. He has called you by name. He has reconciled you to Himself and to one another. His Father is your Father. His God is your God. And in His presence there is fullness of joy forevermore.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin