Easter Sunday is glorious. But the most important Sundays come afterward, when we are left—as were
Jesus' disciples—with the sense that nothing can ever be the same.
"They have taken my Lord away," says a tearful Mary Magdalene, "and I do not know where they have laid him." Mary utters some version of this lament
three times in the Easter Sunday reading from John. D. Moody Smith calls it "an answer of unparalleled poignancy."
Regardless of its size, an Easter congregation can be an amazingly diverse audience. Consider the following as a thought experiment about those who will be listening.