Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:1-2,14-24
Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18
Alleluia, Christ is risen…. Do you want to know how I know that? I know because Mary Magdalene told us that Jesus was risen. She saw him with her own eyes. And she spoke to him. Mary Magdalene was the only one who saw him and spoke to him on that day. In fact Mary Magdalene has been acclaimed as the first ordained evangelist, and the first apostle among apostles. On that first Easter day, Jesus commissioned Mary to take the good news of his resurrection to his disciples who are hiding from the authorities for fear of being recognized as one of his followers.
But I don’t want to discredit Jesus’ disciples. They had more to lose than Mary did should they be found at Jesus’ tomb. It was common and expected that women would keep watch over the burial of a friend or family member. Also, women were not to be feared in Jesus day; they had no power and little authority, and no one took them seriously—except for Jesus. Jesus’ disciples, however, were to be feared. Their affiliation with a criminal, charged and executed for a capital offense, could cost them their own life. And just in case we find it too easy criticize Jesus’ disciples for not having the faith or stomach to own up to the truth of their relationship with Jesus, we must remember that all of them will eventually have the faith to take gospel into the world and transform its people. And each of them will have the stomach to face the consequences. Each one will be martyred for his faith.
This Easter day in John’s gospel, however, is a day to honor Mary Magdalene. It is Mary who comes to the tomb in the middle of the night to mourn her beloved friend and mentor. Not out of any cultural rule or social expectation. Once again, Mary is making her own rules and setting a standard for her life which takes her way outside the norms of expectation of gender and culture. Mary comes to the tomb because of her regard for the one who liberated her from such expectations, and showed her a new way to live her life in this world, and she would follow him in that way. She would follow him to the cross and stay with him until his limp body is taken down. She likely helped to prepare his body for burial, and now she returns in the darkness to the place of her own darkness and despair over losing him. It is not likely that Mary slept at all that terrible night. And it is doubtful that she came to that tomb anticipating anything more than a quiet few hours where she might grieve in solitude, alone with her thoughts and prayers.
But what she discovers when she arrives at that place fills her fear. Not fear for herself; she is afraid that something terrible has happened to Jesus’ body. She doesn’t know anything else to do except to run to Peter’s house to tell him what she has seen. Peter and Jesus’ unnamed beloved disciple run to the tomb to see for themselves. And sure enough, Jesus’ is not there. The linen wrappings have been rolled up and placed carefully on the slab where Jesus’ body was laid. Archaeological experts tell us these wrappings probably weighed about 75 pounds or more, and the liquid compound used to secure them to Jesus’ body would have been extremely sticky. So this should have startled these men to see Jesus gone and his burial wrappings left behind. But it didn’t. John tells us that Peter and the other disciple simply “saw and believed,” and then they went home. John also makes it clear that what they “saw and believed” had nothing to do with their understanding of scripture that Jesus would rise from the dead. What they believed was that Mary was telling them the truth because they saw with their own eyes. They had to verify her witness. After all, Mary lives in a time when women are not credible witnesses and they are not to be believed by their own word. A woman’s word could not be trusted, especially a hysterical woman who comes to them teary-eyed and excited by something she has probably imagined, or exaggerated. I can just see it now. Peter and the other disciple emerge from the tomb. They look at Mary and declare, “Yup, you’re right. He’s not there. Now, let’s go home.”
Now, I don’t know what you think, but I think this is a very strange response from Jesus’ disciples. And in fact, it is. But John’s entire account of Jesus’ resurrection is very strange when you place it next to the other gospel accounts. In John’s account Easter does not burst forth into light with dazzling eye witness accounts. John’s Easter story seems to creep out of darkness into confusion. Only one woman shares her eyewitness account with only two disciples and Jesus’ disappearance doesn’t seem to have any great impact on them.
When the disciples decide to go home, Mary begins to weep, all alone, with no one to console her or help her answer the only question she has. “Where is he?” She wants to know, “where have they taken him?” It is then we begin to realize there is no Easter joy spreading through communities of the faithful. There is only one woman, alone and confused, seeking an answer. And typical of Mary, she is doing everything she can to find that answer. So she looks into the tomb for herself. And lo and behold, she sees much more than Peter and the other disciple saw. Hmmm… I wonder why? Could it be that women see differently than men? I leave you to answer that by your own experience. However, modern social science and brain research medical is finding much to support the claim that men and women see things differently. In fact, in the culture of Jesus’ day, that was believed to be true. The problem is that most societies believe that one is superior and more reliable than the other. This is why women were not to be taken seriously. So Peter and the beloved disciple only saw what they were looking for. They see that Jesus is, indeed, not there. But when Mary peers into the tomb, she sees two angels dressed in white, and they address her. “Woman, why are you weeping?” She tells them what the angels already know. “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” And she wants to know where he is.
Well, Mary’s answer comes to her, not from the angels, but in the form of a man standing right behind her. She turns to the man who also asks her, “Woman, why are you weeping.” Now, Mary doesn’t recognize that this person is Jesus. She thinks he is the gardener. Maybe he can help. So, she pleads with him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” How could Jesus not have responded to Mary’s heartfelt plea on his behalf. In these few desperate words she has given him every reason to believe that the message he needs to give to the world should and must come through Mary. Mary is the only person who wants to know where her Lord is. She is the only person who seems to care where he has gone, and who has taken him away. She is the only person who begs to have him back so that she can see that he is taken care of. Mary’s love for her Lord and her devotion to him move Jesus to make himself known to her, despite the fact that she is a woman, and also because she is a woman; a woman who believes what she sees; a woman who will be totally dedicated to telling this incredible story and totally able to make it live in the hearts and minds of people she will tell it to.
I find it interesting that in all of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus makes himself known first to women. And it is even more interesting that the men who hear their witness come to believe them. It is clear that Mary is honored by her Lord who ordains her to be the first evangelist and the first apostle of many apostles who believe that she really did see Jesus. That he really did speak to her in his resurrected body, and he really did confirm that he must ascend to God so that he could come back to them in Spirit and in truth. So what can we learn from such a one as Mary, especially as we experience her in John’s Gospel? What can we take home with us on this glorious Easter day which can even begin to resemble what Mary took with her when she went to Jesus’ disciples to declare, “I have seen the Lord.”
Well, first of all, none of us can claim we have seen the Lord. At least not as Mary saw him. But Mary did not see him as she knew him in his material life, either. If you remember, she did not recognize Jesus. And that is true of many people the resurrected Jesus appears to in all the gospel accounts. It interests me that amateur archeologists in modern times continue to look for Jesus’ body for the sole purpose of refuting Jesus’ bodily resurrection. It is obvious that the body Jesus was in when he encountered women at the tomb had already been transformed by God. It was not the same body that Jesus was in as he journeyed through this life. Christians are often asked, “What would happen to your faith if the bones from Jesus’ body were found in an ossuary?” Personally, my response would be the same as that of one of our great modern theologians, Paul Tillich, who said, “Oh, so he really DID exist!” Of course, Tillich’s tongue in cheek answer only confirms that for Tillich resurrection was about something more, something different than Jesus’ actual body. And while it is true, a body made its appearance to Mary and to many others who saw Jesus before he ascended into heaven, no one recognized him until he gave forth a signal which people could identify as coming from him. In Mary’s case, he called her name. And that is the another important learning we take from John’s Easter account. When Jesus wants to let us know he is present to us, he calls us by name. When we need him most he will give us a signal that he is there. Our relationship with Jesus is just that personal and intimate.
Mary’s relationship with Jesus had been as personal and intimate as two friends can be, but if you remember from our gospel lesson, when Mary recognizes Jesus she wants to embrace him, but Jesus won’t allow it. And we have to ask ourselves why? Why does Jesus not want Mary to hug him and hold on to him? The obvious answer we have already heard. Jesus’ body is already so different from the one he inhabited in this life. No one can recognize him, undoubtedly because God is transforming his body for his ascent to heaven. But the second reason, I think, is more provocative, especially for the church in every generation.
I think Jesus will not have anyone hold on to him because if we could hold on to him, then we might think that we own him, exclusive of anyone else. Much like one person who holds on to another person in a possessive marriage or friendship, or any other relationship which is based on ownership and control. Such relationship can be damaging, even deadly. So it is a good thing that we cannot have Jesus. We cannot use him for our purposes, or put him into lock box for safe keeping. We cannot make him into our own image or pin him down to a theology which suits us and likewise condemns others who don’t subscribe to it. That is why we cannot embrace Jesus. But we can be sure that every time we call his name; every time we turn to him, we will find Jesus embracing us. He knows how to hold us gently so that we can move and grow and even leave his embrace for a time. But we cannot know or feel Jesus’ embrace if we don’t have eyes that willing to see him, or ears that are able hear him, or a mind that is open to the possibility. Like Mary and all the women Jesus encounters at the tomb in other gospel accounts, we have to be open to the possibility of encountering the resurrected Jesus in every circumstance of our life. We have to open our eyes and ears, our hearts and our minds to see and hear and feel and know the risen Christ.
The well-known pastor and theologian, William Sloan Coffin, gave an accurate description of people who are able to see and hear and feel and know the risen Christ in the circumstances of their life and their world. Coffin says that such people live “an Easter Sunday faith in a Good Friday world.” On this glorious day of resurrection, I want us to remember that every Sunday we celebrate a resurrection faith at St. George’s Church. We call Jesus by name and he makes himself present to us in word and sacrament. We experience the risen Christ in each other and we believe our Easter Sunday faith helps us live in this Good Friday world. Our Easter story began with one courageous woman and one resurrected Christ. But the good news of that story in every age still depends on each one of us to tell it and live it every day of our life. The good news is that he can depend on us. We are an Easter people. And this is our day to celebrate it. Happy and Blessed Easter.