Easter 2007

John 20: 1-18

Easter began when Mary Magdalene heard the risen Lord call her name, Mary! Turning she said Rabboni which means teacher. John tells us that early, before first light, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and other women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus…but they found the tomb empty, and light burst forth in the resurrection. The chosen witnesses bore testimony of what God had done. Simon Peter, the special disciple whom Jesus loved and Mary Magdalene. Each one of the three became witnesses of the resurrection and each of the three were changed by the encounter.

Simon Peter, called a rock by Christ was one of the followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry. Jesus noticed that many of the early crowd of worshipers had left him when the teaching got too hard – when he started to talk about money and politics – and asked the disciples if they too wanted to leave. Peter said, “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of Israel (John 6:68). Peter also protested when Jesus wanted to wash his feet but Jesus persisted. Peter claimed to be willing to lay down his life for Jesus but within hours denied even knowing Jesus. Then, while it was still dark, Peter ran to the tomb and also saw it was empty. Peter represents the conflict in each of us – shall we follow the Messiah of God, or should we hold back, just a bit, at a safer distance. Peter is a disciple – he is not perfect – his faith grows through experience – with teaching – by failure – repentance – and turning again to be faithful. Peter is changed by the encounter with the living, risen, Christ. It is Peter who at Pentecost stands and gives a sermon that God’s spirit uses to convert 5000 people. It is Peter who stands tall in organizing and leading the embryonic church.

The Beloved disciple ran faster than Peter – looked inside the tomb and not only saw that it is empty, but believed. John does not tell us what the beloved disciple believed only that he did. If Peter is hesitant, ambivalent, the beloved disciple is confident, and takes the leap of faith even if he doesn’t know what it means yet. We learn then much about the nature of our humanity and God’s grace. We are unsure, uncertain, doubtful, unfaithful, but God is faithful, gives abundantly of his grace and love, and stays with us, meeting us where we are to bring us into restored relationship. Peter and the beloved disciples, according to John, returned to their homes, holding on to life in this world as if nothing had happened – at least at first. Peter and the beloved disciple teach us that faith is a journey.

Mary Magdalene unlike Peter was at the fringe of the crowd, at the foot of the cross, while Jesus died, and she saw where he was buried. Early on the next morning, Mary Magdalene along with Mary the mother of Jesus, went to the tomb to anoint the body but when they arrived the tomb was empty. She was still in darkness, no doubt filled with grief that tears ones heart out and leaves an empty place inside. On the first day of the week in a new creation, Mary is still in darkness because when she first saw the risen Lord she thought he was a gardener. She saw him but did not recognize him, until he called her name.

Jesus commissioned Mary Magdalene to go and give the message to the others that the life from above, the life from the risen, ascended Lord, the eternal Word who became flesh, is the light of men and women for all time to come. She is the first apostle; she is the first to encounter the risen Lord and receive the commission to preach the gospel of good news to others. She was faithful and ran to tell the others what she had seen and heard.

Mary, Peter, and the beloved disciple are the eyes to our faith – they saw the risen Lord, and through generations of faithful disciples for more than 2000 years that testimony has come to us. Many died for their faith in the embryonic church of the first century. There were fights inside Christianity about what was to be the orthodox wording in the creeds, which books to put in the bible, how to organize and share ministry and much of these issues remain in our contemporary experience, but above all else, I believe the message received from these first witnesses because encountering the living Lord was life-changing for the men and women who had the experience then and it continues to be so now.

In each and every post-resurrection appearance the person who encounters the living Lord is affirmed in faith and commissioned to go and tell the good news that Jesus Christ is Risen! Knowing through the experience of encounter means that all Jesus said and did is also true. The question is will we encounter the living Christ and be changed by the encounter or will we go on doing the same-old same-old and call it “following Jesus.” The answers are part of rising from the tombs of impoverished devotions and dualisms that allow faith to stay inside the church institution while the state is allowed to establish priorities for budget allocations that fail to do justice. Like the women at the tomb we must stop looking in the wrong places, in things, in systems, in social approval, in money, in status and begin to look for the risen Lord to empower us to proclaim boldly the Gospel. Like the apostles who could not imagine any truth outside themselves, we fail to hear the Word of God in stranger, alien, and those different from us. We have taken as truth the half-truths of systems that teach only justification for the status-quo.

Easter calls us to be open – prepared to find God where God is by opening ourselves to the world around us with listening ears, open eyes. We need to be ready to be surprised by God in strange places. We must allow others, even the stranger to speak the message we do not want to hear, so that the voice of God is freed to speak in every person. That means putting down social phobias that protect us, it means getting over the vocabulary that labels and separates, i.e. liberals, conservatives, republican, democrat, radical. To live the gospel we must continue in the work to open the kingdom – just as Jesus commissioned the disciples – so Jesus invites us into the ongoing work of the Living Christ. . . opening paths of liberation for the poor and oppressed, for the hungry and the marginalized, to see a better vision. Easter Day the tomb is not only empty – the risen Lord finds us wherever we are and calls us forth, gives us the great commission to share the good news of God’s redeeming love. Today we can allow the living Christ to renew our faith, our hope, our love so that we too can go forth and proclaim the gospel.

Then the Easter Alleluia is true: God is surely, “with us.”