Early in the morning (Easter 2025)

Mornings are my favourite part of the day. There is just something that I love about the morning!

Think about a dawn or sunrise that you remember. The first hints of light… The changing colours, as the light chases away the shadows… The stillness giving way… The birds singing and sound of animals stirring… The fresh smells… The cool air and damp blanket of dew… Mornings are a beautiful, natural picture of life returning, of gloom receding! Psalm 30 captures it perfectly: ‘Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.’ (Psalm 30:5). Mornings are for rejoicing!

But it makes you wonder: Why did God choose to raise Jesus in the morning? Out of all the times of day, why did God choose the morning — the quiet solitude of the “deep dawn” — to change everything? He could have chosen midday or afternoon or night-time. But it was early in the morning. Why?

Picture the scene again. Luke writes, ‘On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.’ (Luke 24:1–2). Imagine the women in the pre-dawn light. Heavy with grief. Plodding to the tomb, carrying the spices. The cool air kissing their faces. The phrase Luke uses to describe the time of day is literally “deep dawn.” The sun is pregnant, just below the horizon, ready to give birth. It’s at this time that the women discover the stone to the tomb has been rolled away. The tomb is empty. Jesus is risen!

Mornings are special for a whole range of reasons.

(1) Mornings are for urgent tasks.

Think about the most important things you do. Do you leave them for the end of a tiring day? Or do you try to tackle them first thing, with fresh energy? Maybe it’s that crucial home task, that important conversation or email, that vital appointment. We instinctively prioritise our most important tasks for the morning. We put the most important things first.

The women didn’t hit the snooze button on their alarm clocks! (Not that they had any, but you know what I mean). Their love and grief propelled them out of bed before sunrise for what they thought was the most urgent task — anointing Jesus’ body. They were desperate to complete his burial ritual, which had been interrupted on Friday evening by the Sabbath rest (running from Friday evening to Saturday evening).

But God had an even more urgent, universe-altering task to accomplish: defeating death itself. The resurrection of Jesus means, quite simply, that he’s not dead. As the men in dazzling white tell the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” (Luke 24:5–6). Since the Fall of humankind, God had been working to bring his promised Messiah to defeat sin and death. And he promises his followers that they too will receive this death-defying deed. Such urgent and important work is for the morning. First things come first.

(2) Mornings are full of wonder.

Have you ever watched a sunrise and just been filled with awe? The colours shift, the light changes everything it touches. It fills you with a sense of wonder at creation.

The empty tomb filled the disciples with a different, deeper kind of wonder — wonder at the new creation. We’re told that after hearing the report of the returning women, Peter rushes to the empty tomb. He peers in and sees the linen strips lying there, but no body. ‘And he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.’ (Luke 24:12). The word “to wonder” means “to marvel, to be astonished, to be amazed, to be filled with awe.”

Women at the tomb by Graham Braddock

The early morning of that first Easter still causes wonder today. St Paul calls the resurrection event the “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). Just as in the first creation God said, “Let there be light,” and there was evening and morning, the first day; likewise in the new creation God says, “Let Christ be the light of the world,” and very early in the morning Jesus Christ is raised to new life. Just like the sun rising from the darkness of night, Jesus rises from the tomb of death to life. And he promises that you too will receive the same resurrection when the final darkness comes upon this age. When the sun sets on your life, you will rise again like the dawn. It’s no wonder this wonder-full event took place in the morning!

(3) Mornings are a new beginning.

The morning is like a blank page in a notebook, or a fresh canvas ready for paint. It is a new beginning, full of possibilities. What will be written? What picture will emerge? What will happen this day?

True beginnings are indescribable. A true beginning has never been experienced, so there are no words. As much as we might desire a detailed description, the creation accounts in Scripture (like Genesis chapter 1) do not describe the exact process of creation. I mean, how would they?! What words would they use?! Instead we are given a poetic vision. Likewise, the resurrection is indescribable. Therefore, the accounts in the Gospel accounts by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are quite bare. They simply describe what people observed after the fact. The tomb is empty. Jesus is not there. The people are told, “He is risen!” There’s no attempt to describe the actual event, because, frankly, words cannot contain this mystery. Other counterfeit gospels, like the so-called “Gospel of Peter” written centuries later, do attempt to describe the resurrection, and this betrays their pathetic and clumsy forgery. As one author writes about the resurrection account in Luke, ‘Like all beginnings, whether in nature or in history, it is hidden from view.’ (Plummer, International Critical Commentary on Luke, pg 546).

The resurrection of Jesus is a new beginning, on the same level as the creation of the world. It is indescribable. The resurrection means the pages that follow are empty, ready to be written. The canvas is wiped clean, blank. And you are connected with the resurrection of Jesus in your baptism. In baptism, your sin is forgiven, washed clean like a blank canvas. You are made new, like a blank page with a new story ready to be written. A new beginning is possible. And every morning you are invited to return to your baptism. Every night you crawl into the tomb with Jesus. And every morning you are washed clean again, your sin forgiven, you are made new as you rise again with Christ. The author of Lamentations says it best, ‘The Lord’s mercies are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 3:23).

So why was Jesus raised early in the morning? Because mornings are for urgent tasks, and the task of defeating sin and death is urgent! Because mornings are full of wonder, and the new creation is a wonderful event. Because mornings are a new beginning, and you participate in the new beginning of that first Easter morning again and again, day after day. Because Jesus rose that morning, every morning holds new significance for us. Every sunrise is a reminder that God is on an urgent mission, that we are part of his new creation, and that his mercies are new every morning.

So, as we live another Easter dawn very early in the morning, let’s not leave the wonder behind. Let the reality of the resurrection reshape how you see every morning. Embrace the possibility of today, the new beginning, the new life, and the joy that dawned on that first Easter morning, and dawns for us again today through the risen Christ. Amen.