Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Easter Vigil, April 20, 2019
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of
the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that
the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to
Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have
laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went
towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other
disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to
look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then
Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen
wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head,
not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then
the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and
believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he
must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their
homes.
But Mary stood weeping
outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and
she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying,
one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman,
why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do
not know where they have laid him.’ 14When she had said this, she
turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was
Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom
are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if
you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him
away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in
Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said to her,
‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to
my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to
my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the
disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these
things to her.
Anybody ever come home, or gone out to your car, only to
find that you’ve been burgled?
It’s happened to me a few times—four times with my car, and
twice in my office. At home just stuff
out of the shed.
And every time it has happened to me, it has taken me from
a few seconds to a minute or so to realize what happened. Like, I’ve gone out to the car and thought,
“Why did I leave the glovebox open? That
was dumb!” And then I notice that things
have been removed from the glovebox, or things are in the wrong place, or—worst
of all—my mini-stash of coins and dollar bills is gone.
And each time I think I probably should have realized what
has happened sooner, but our minds don’t really work that way. We seek out the most plausible answer: “I left the glovebox open.”
Then slowly, we start to see what has actually
happened. “Wait, my computer’s not
actually in this office anywhere…”
Here’s what I have never once surmised, in the midst of one
of those situations—and I bet you haven’t either.
I have never once surmised that the things missing from my
car, or my office, or my shed were resurrected. Never once thought that God had just spirited
away my computer to fulfill the promises of the prophetic witness.
Have you? Ever
thought that?
So I raise that because it is easy from our cushy vantage
point here in Two Thousand Years Later to judge poor Mary Magdalene for not
realizing that maybe something supernatural had happened in that tomb.
She does have a few clues, which could make you think maybe
she should have realized what had happened.
On the other hand, her first thought is that somebody stole
Jesus, while it always takes me a while to come to that conclusion.
I always like having John’s resurrection narrative for the
Vigil gospel, for a couple of reasons.
First, it says Mary went to the tomb in the dark, so good time parity.
More importantly, though, this tale of resurrection makes
sense to those of us who come out each year to sit in the liminal space between
death and life. Where Matthew and Luke
both include an announcement that Jesus has been raised from the dead in their
Easter narratives, John lets us stumble along with Mary as she figures it
out.
John’s story is a good old-fashioned mystery, from its
first line.
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still
dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed
from the tomb.”
[play Law & Order chung chung]
Stone rolled away.
First clue.
It’s fair to say that Mary is not exactly Sherlock Holmes,
or even Lennie Brisco, because she solves the mystery first and then begins to
examine the clues. As soon as she sees
the stone rolled away, she determines that someone has moved Jesus’s body, and
she very doggedly sticks to that story as she talks to angels and then Jesus himself, all the while holding to
her original narrative.
And this is why I love this account of the resurrection on
this night. Maybe it is all a bit much
for you. I know it is for me. Last night we were walking with the cross and listening
to plaintive violin music. Tonight the
tomb is empty.
What does it mean?
Well, it means that Christ is ri…diculously good at the
whole power over death thing. And it
means that we as his followers inherit our own power over death. And it means that we belong to a God with a
whole lot of power, and let’s be honest, it means a lot of things.
It means different things for us at different times. I know there have been times in my life when
I needed actual resurrection. And
other times when I was ready to testify to others about God’s power.
Tonight we get a chance to simply sit and wonder what it
all means for us. What does it mean to
you that the tomb is empty? What does it
mean to follow a savior who has power over death and who has conferred that
power upon you?
And why does Mary think Jesus is the gardener?
Tomorrow will be big and we will be dressed right and say
all the right words. Tonight is time to
ponder, to peek into the tomb and wonder what it all means.
Blessings upon your wondering. Blessed be the mystery of this night. [chung chung]
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