Mary Magdalene, one of the most faithful of Jesus’s followers, went to the tomb where he had been buried, early on the morning of the day we now remember as Easter Sunday. She sees that the stone sealing the entrance to the tomb has been moved, and runs to tell the other disciples that Jesus is no longer there, and she doesn’t know where he is.

Confusion, fear and grief turn to joy, though, when she sees the risen Christ. She takes that good news to the other disciples with the simple proclamation, “I have seen the Lord.”

More than 2,000 years later, that proclamation is still at the heart of the Christian witness.

The account we will be using Sunday is from John’s gospel, 20:1-18 (read it here).

As part of the morning worship service, we’ll be singing one of the great hymns to come out of the Methodist tradition, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” It’s a hymn that Charles Wesley wrote in 1738 to celebrate his own conversion experience, and it resonates with the joy of salvation. For anyone unfamiliar with it, take a moment to listen to this rendition from a church in England.