April 25th 2021
​
(Click on the Bible references if you would like to study the readings in more depth)

​First Reading
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
​
 And now I want to remind you, my friends,
of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received,
and on which your faith stands firm. 
That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you.
You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it
- unless it was for nothing that you believed. 

 I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance:
that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; 
 that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later,
as written in the Scriptures; 
 that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. 
Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once,
most of whom are still alive, although some have died. 
 Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. 

Last of all he appeared also to me -
even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal. 
 For I am the least of all the apostles - I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church. 

 But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing,
but God's grace working with me. 

 So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach,
and this is what you believe.

Second Reading
John 20:1-18

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark,
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb
and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance. 
 She went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and told them,

"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they have put him!" 

Then Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb. 
 The two of them were running, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and reached the tomb first. 
He bent over and saw the linen cloths, but he did not go in. 
 Behind him came Simon Peter, and he went straight into the tomb.
He saw the linen cloths lying there and the cloth which had been around Jesus' head. It was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself. 

Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in;
he saw and believed 
 (They still did not understand the scripture
which said that he must rise from death.) 
 Then the disciples went back home. 

 Mary stood crying outside the tomb.
While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb 
and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. 

 "Woman, why are you crying?" they asked her.
She answered, "They have taken my Lord away,
and I do not know where they have put him!" 

 Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there;
but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

 "Woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her.
"Who is it that you are looking for?"

She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him,
"If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him,
and I will go and get him." 

Jesus said to her,
"Mary!"

She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, "Rabboni!"
(This means "Teacher.") 

 "Do not hold on to me," Jesus told her,
"because I have not yet gone back up to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him
who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God." 

So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord
and related to them what he had told her.