Easter Traditional (Year C) - April 21, 2019

Easter Traditional

April 21, 2019
Year C
John 20:1-18

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

The Gospel of John, like usual, records a very different set of events that followed Jesus’ resurrection. It is only in John, for instance, that we hear the familiar story that Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, and he greets her with her name. For those of you who joined us for our Sunrise Service - we heard the story of the resurrection according to Luke. Quite different from what we’re hearing now.

In this morning’s gospel text, we get three very different reactions to the empty tomb. Upon hearing Mary’s concerns about the empty tomb, Peter and the one whom Jesus loved engage in a child-like and almost comical race to see the scene for themselves. Were they racing because they had hoped that Jesus’ word was true and that Jesus was raised? Were they racing because they too were fearful that Jesus’ body had been taken? Were they running out of curiosity? Did they think that Mary was mistaken in her grief (could she have gone to the wrong tomb?)? We don’t know. We just get this race between the two. Once they reach the tomb, there’s hesitation. The disciple whom Jesus loved won the race remained outside the tomb, leaving Peter to go in himself. Did the disciple whom Jesus loved hesitate to go in because he was afraid that the initial hope at hearing that the tomb was empty would be dashed as he looked in, if a body indeed lay there? Was he afraid of what he’d see or what he might not see? Again, we don’t know. But they went into the tomb, saw the linen wrappings, Peter has no recorded reaction, but the Disciple whom Jesus loved “believed,” and the two men returned home. Back to their lives and business, seemingly without talking to Mary.

On one hand, we encounter Mary, who upon seeing the empty tomb, worries that someone had taken her teacher and Lord from his resting place. She is overcome by grief. She thought that the worst had already happened; her Lord had died. He had suffered a terrible and gorey death at the hands of the Romans. Adding salt to the wound, now it appears that someone stole his body, and she’d never be able to properly lay him to rest.

Mary stays. Mary dwells there, in her grief. The world is even more scary and confusing than it was before (how could it get scarier than what she had experienced just days ago?). This is the place, the site of her grief. And she has to name her grief again and again. First to the disciples, then to the two angels, then again to Jesus. Each time, she says, “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him,” her heart ripping out again, desperation growing. “Just give my Lord back; we’ve been through enough. He deserves to be properly laid to rest.” Ayanna Watkins says it this way, “Mary stays. She stays and cries; she lets grief prevail. And at grief’s mercy, she stays at the site of her loss, face to face with the empty tomb.” In a moment, that all changes. Mary presumes Jesus to be the gardener. And Jesus calls her name, “Mary.” In that moment, Jesus rolls away another stone, a figurative stone, meeting Mary where she was - meeting her at the tomb. He sends her out to tell the disciples what she had seen. Her grief turns into a proclamation of the gospel, “I have seen the Lord.” Where she expected to find death and decay, she found life. She becomes the first to preach the Good News of the resurrection.

Three disciples. Three different reactions. Peter loses the race to the tomb, but is the first inside. He sees, but returns home without a response, uncertain of what he had experienced. The Disciple whom Jesus loved won the race, hesitated, but saw and believed. Mary, dwells at the place of her grief, but is wooed into belief and into proclamation, hearing the voice of her Lord calling her name.

We all come here today for different reasons. Maybe you’re like Peter who comes out of curiosity, and will return and go about your business. Maybe you’re like the beloved disciple, while afraid to peek into the tomb, believes after seeing the wrappings left behind. Maybe you struggle to believe; or maybe your belief is sure. Maybe you’re here out of family duty - of being together as a family - and joining us because it makes Gram happy (and that’s okay; truly it is). Maybe you’re like Mary and you bring with you your grief, your fears, your confusion. Maybe you need to hear Jesus calling your name too. Maybe you’re here because you too have seen what resurrection and new life feels like and looks like. Maybe you’re some of all of these; and maybe you’ve found yourself at different places throughout your life. Easter brings with it the whole range of emotions. For whatever reason you come this morning, I am glad you are here. Today, I want to proclaim that, no matter what brings you to this place, we are an Easter people - in our beliefs, in our doubts, and everywhere in between. The resurrection is for the disciple that Jesus loved, it is for Peter, it is for Mary, it is for you and me - wherever we might find ourselves. Today, we are invited to see the Lord. We are invited to see the resurrection again and again. We are invited to proclaim that the risen Jesus changes us and changes the world.

Resurrection is a promise made - and a promise we can be sure of - because Jesus was raised from the dead. It is an exclamation point on all that we’ve experienced this week. Grace, indeed, starts at the cross; we don’t get Easter without Good Friday. It is there that God, in Christ, connects to the deepest hurts, suffering, and losses of the world. On Easter, we see the Risen Christ that bears the scars of the crucifixion. And it is this morning that, while on one hand, we can be assured that the worst moments of human life cannot separate ourselves from God, God proclaims that those same moments of grief, of tragedy, of heartbreak are not the end. God’s transformative, redeeming, and life-giving Word will always have the last word.

Thus, while important, resurrection is not *just* a promise of life after death. It is also a promise that God will keep showing up and God will keep rolling away the stones that try to contain and restrain life, bringing life, bringing love, bringing hope, where we expect to find death, decay, and destruction. Resurrection insists that love will win over hate, and life will always find victory over death. Resurrection means that God’s word to God’s people is a loud and resounding “yes,” a commitment to being our God, and to making us into God’s people - into the body of Christ for the sake of the world.. Resurrection transforms relationships. Resurrection restores the relationship between God and humanity (not even killing Jesus can turn God away from God’s beloved humanity).

Resurrection means something for us, for who we are, and for the world - not just in some future afterlife, but in the here and now. It means something, not just for our future, but for our present, An Orthodox theologian, Patriarch Athenagoras, puts it this way “The Resurrection is not the resuscitation of a body; it is the beginning of the transfiguration of the world.” Something changed when the stone was rolled away. Not just for Mary, not just for the disciples, not just for us, but for the whole world.

We are an Easter people. Where the ways of the world invite death and despair, God meets us with the promise of new life, hope, peace.  When we turn on the news, it doesn’t take long to see the ways of the world that try to contain and take away life . We see the tombs of sin, of grief, of sexism, of racism, of poverty, of marginalization, of violence, of corruption. When we proclaim, “I have seen the Lord,” we stand in defiance of all the tombs of our society, and we proclaim a different vision of being in the world. We say that none of these tombs will ever have the last word. When we proclaim, “I have seen the Lord,” we proclaim a God who brings life where we might expect to find death, and we proclaim a God who is rolling the stones away, freeing us all from the tombs that try to bind us. Our God is a God of life, and we are called to participate in life-giving ways, freeing our neighbors from their tombs, as we have been freed from our own. We proclaim resurrection everywhere we encounter God’s life-giving work happening all around us.

And so, today, we can say:

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!