The Story
There is a sentence in the Apostles' Creed that the Church has been saying for nearly two thousand years: He descended to the dead; on the third day He rose again. The descent is dramatic; the rising, in the Gospels, is unbearably quiet.
The Sabbath is held. Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown, no one moves. The disciples lock themselves in an upper room in Jerusalem and grieve in the silence of the law. The body lies in a borrowed tomb belonging to a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the council that had condemned Him and yet, when the moment came, asked Pilate for the body and laid it in his own grave. A Roman seal is fastened across the entrance. A detachment of soldiers stands guard.
Sunday begins before dawn. A group of women — at least Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome, and Joanna — walk through the still streets toward the tomb, carrying spices to anoint the body, the last act of love the Sabbath had postponed. They are worried about a practical problem: "Who will roll away the stone for us?" They are not worried about angels. They are not worried about a risen Christ. They are bringing perfume to a dead man.
What they find is a tomb already open and a body already gone. The stone — a millstone-shaped slab that took several men to set in place — has been rolled aside as casually as a coin. Two messengers in white sit where the body had been. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."
Peter and John come running. John gets there first; Peter goes in first. The grave clothes are folded; the head-cloth is rolled up in a separate place. No grave robber leaves linen folded.
And then, in John 20, the most tender encounter in any of the Gospels. Mary Magdalene stands outside the tomb weeping. A man she takes to be the gardener asks her why she is crying. She tells him: "If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." He says one word — her name. "Mary." And the morning, which had been grey, becomes the first morning of the new creation.
By Sunday night, He is in the upper room with the disciples, eating broiled fish to prove that He is not a ghost. By the next Sunday, He is letting Thomas put his finger in the wounds. For forty days, He keeps appearing — to five hundred at once, on a Galilean hillside, by the Sea of Tiberias making breakfast on a beach. Death has been bypassed. The grave has lost its monopoly. And the women who came carrying spices walk back through the dawn with the first news the world has ever heard.
Scripture
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
Luke 24:1–2 (ESV)
"Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him."
Mark 16:6 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
John 20:16 (ESV)
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins… But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:17, 20 (ESV)
Lyrics
[Intro]
Before the sun…
Before the sky had color…
The women walked toward a grave…
[Verse 1]
I saw them moving through the gloom,
With myrrh and aloes pressed,
With broken hearts, with tear-stained eyes,
With grief upon each breast.
"Who will roll the stone for us?
Who will break the seal?"
But the earth began to tremble soft,
And the graveyard ground to reel —
[Pre-Chorus]
And an angel like the lightning came…
And the stone was rolled aside…
And the soldiers fell like dead men there
At the opening of the tide —
[Chorus]
HE IS RISEN!
Shouted the angel on the stone —
HE IS RISEN!
Like He said, He is not alone —
Oh, the grave clothes folded neat,
And the graveyard under feet,
And the death of Death itself complete —
He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!
[Verse 2]
Then Mary stood beside the tomb
And wept into the dawn,
"They've taken Him, they've taken Him…"
Till a voice behind her shone —
"Mary." — one word, the whole world new,
She turned — "Rabboni!"
And ran to tell the hiding men,
"I have seen the Lord — He's free!"
[Pre-Chorus 2]
He walked through walls of locked-up doors…
"Peace! Peace! Peace be with you!"
He showed His hands, He showed His side,
And Thomas's doubt broke through —
[Chorus]
HE IS RISEN!
Cried the disciples in the room —
HE IS RISEN!
He has conquered every tomb —
Oh, the wounds He still displays,
Oh, the scars that sing His praise,
Oh, the First of many resurrection days —
He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!
[Bridge]
"O death… O death…
Where is your sting?
O grave… O grave…
Where is your victory?"
For the sting of death is sin…
And the strength of sin is law…
But thanks be, thanks be, thanks be to GOD!
Who gives us the victory
Through our Lord Jesus Christ!
DEATH IS DEAD! DEATH IS DEAD!
THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN IS ALIVE INSTEAD!
DEATH IS DEAD! DEATH IS DEAD!
AND THE CURSE ITSELF HAS LOST ITS HEAD!
[Final Chorus]
HE IS RISEN!
(Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
HE IS RISEN!
(the Firstborn of the free!)
From the tomb to the throne,
From the cross to the crown,
From the grave where no man can keep Him down —
He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!
[Outro]
Then He walked beside the sea…
And He broke the bread again…
And He said to His disciples —
(with power)
"All authority in heaven and on earth —
Has been given unto Me —
Go therefore — GO THEREFORE —
Into all the nations of the world —
And I am with you always…
To the very end of the age."
(… a wind rises. fire hums in the distance. Pentecost is coming.)
About the song
"When Sunday Came" is the album's hinge. After the heaviness of Track 9 it is meant to feel like the sun coming up — slowly at first, almost unbelievably, then unstoppably. The chorus is the women running. The bridge is Mary Magdalene hearing her own name.