Easter 2013 - John 20: 1-18
The Reverend Kirk Alan Kubicek, Saint Timothy’s School for
Girls, Stevenson, MD
Alleluia! Christ is
Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
Or is he? Book after book, magazine article after magazine
article, movie after movie, all try to tell us just who this Jesus was. Or,
more properly, is! When to pin Jesus down as being this or being that is only
to place him back into some kind of tomb. When we pretend that we know just who
Jesus is, we simply domesticate him to be the person we need him to be and
close him up in another tomb of our own making.
"The only excuse," writes John Shea (The Challenge of Jesus, The Thomas More
Press: 1975), "and a lame one at that, for another book on Jesus is that
we are never quite through with him. When the last syllable of the last word
about Jesus the Christ has been spoken, a small, balding man who until now has
been silent, will say, ‘Just a moment, I….’After two thousand years people
still journey to Jesus. They bring a vaunting ego and last year’s scar, one
unruly hope and several debilitating fears, an unwanted joy and a hesitant
heart—and ask Jesus what to make of it. We have only gradually become aware of
the hook in Jesus’ promise, ‘I will be with you always, even to the end of the
world. ’This not only means he will not go away, but that we cannot get rid of
him! He continues to roll back the stone from the caves we entomb him in. It is
only because Jesus insists on inserting himself into the thick of our plots
that we insist on commenting on him." (Shea
p. 11)
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
So after forty days of Lent and the magnificent journey of
Holy Week, it all seems to hinge on the actions of one woman; one previously
crazy and insignificant woman; one woman who, tradition maintains, once was
possessed by evil spirits. A quintessential outsider, a powerless, and much
maligned woman, the likes of which have been on parade all of Lent: the
Samaritan Woman at the well, the Man Blind from Birth, Nicodemus, Martha, the
confrontational housekeeper, Lazarus stinking in the tomb, and now Mary of
Magdala, Mary Magdalene.
She leaves the house while it is still dark. That is, it is
still Sabbath: time to rest. But she who had always been restless until she met
Jesus can rest no longer. He was the only person who had ever made her feel
healed, healthy, and whole. When she was with Jesus all the demons seemed to
vanish into thin air. So she had followed him and ministered to him, listened
to him and watched him as he spread his Good News of God’s love for all people.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
So Mary Magdalene is the first to find the stone rolled away
from the tomb. She runs back to tell the others. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb! We do not know where he
is?" Who is this "we?" Wasn’t she alone at the tomb in the
still darkness of Sabbath morning? Are the demons back? Is it possible that she
already knows that we who are reading her story are already with her wherever
she goes? That we who come to eat and drink with him week in and week out on
the first day of the week, that we are somehow inextricably linked with her so
that wherever she goes we go, wherever she runs, we run, when her heart is
racing, so is ours, because we, too, have been to the tomb in the darkness and
can see that the stone has indeed been rolled away?
Mary, Peter and the disciple Jesus loved run back to the
tomb. It is like a footrace. Peter, "the other disciple, the one whom
Jesus loved," look like a couple of kids racing down the streets of
Jerusalem, the City of Peace, the City of God’s Shalom. Their hearts and feet
are racing! The other disciple outruns Peter. But then he puts on the brakes
and does not go in. He sees linen cloths lying about, but stands back. Peter,
ever the impetuous one, goes in and sees the cloths, like swaddling cloths,
lying all about. As he surveys the scene, the other disciple comes in. Then we
are simply told, “…he saw and he believed.”
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
There is endless speculation as to who this other disciple
whom Jesus loves might be. Some say John. Some suggest it is Lazarus, who
otherwise says nothing in John’s gospel. Others say the Samaritan Woman at the
well is the beloved disciple. Still others say it is whoever reads or hears
this Gospel and also sees and believes. That is, the beloved disciple is you
and me. As soon as we step closer to the communion rail and accept the bread
and the wine for the first time, we, too, began to see and believe. And once
one eats of this bread and drinks of this cup, one cannot help but have the
feeling in your heart that you are a disciple whom Jesus loves. Each time that
cup is passed to us at the Eucharist, we look into its depths beyond the dark
wine shimmering gold and, trembling, we say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
All this takes only a moment. Then the boys return to their
respective homes. Only Mary stays behind, all alone, weeping. She stoops to
look in, and where before there had been nothing but swaddling cloths lying all
around, there were now two angels asking her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
And as she blurts out her answer she turns and bumps into
someone else who is also asking her,
"Woman, why are
you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Whom do I seek? Why am I weeping? Why
is everyone asking me these questions? Who are those men in white in the tomb?
Can’t any of them see what has happened? Oh, no, it’s the demons again! I’m
losing my mind! "You’re the gardener,” she says. “You tell me! Where have
you put him? You should know, not me! You work here. You tell me. Whom do I
seek? Why am I weeping? Why indeed!!"
Then it happens. He says one word. "Mary."
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
She has heard this voice before. Only one person ever said
her name in just this way. But it does not look like him. It cannot possibly be
him. But suddenly her heart is racing again! It is about to leap out of her
chest as she throws herself on the one she has supposed to be the gardener!
Thank God I am not crazy after all. The demons are not coming back! They are
never coming back. It is Jesus. "Rabboni!"
she cries as she embraces him.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
And for a moment it seems as if it is all in her hands, in
her embrace. It appears as if she can hold it all back, keep him there, hold
onto him forever and ever, when he says, "Do
not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, my father and
your father, my God and your God. Go and tell the others."
And with that, she is given a new task. And our text simply
says, "She went and told the
disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord, and she told them all the things he had said
to her."
It took courage for Mary to go back to the tomb. It took
even more courage for her to let go of Jesus. But in doing so, she gives birth
to the Church. By her witness, by her testimony, the history of the world is
changed, made new, transformed. Her words to his friends are the first Easter
sermon ever preached! Because of her testimony, we know and experience
resurrection today! Mary continues to run through the ages to this very day,
gathering us all to be a community of his people, his beloved disciples.
Like those first disciples she calls, we all race to the
tomb and stoop over to see for ourselves. Like Peter, Mary and the beloved
disciple, we do not all see the same things, we do not hear the same voices.
Except the one voice that calls us each by name.
He calls us today. He calls us by name. He calls us to be
his beloved disciples. Jesus calls you to be with him. He calls you to know he
is here, even now. He calls you to do something beautiful with your life and
bear much fruit. The world needs you, the church needs you, Jesus needs you,
They need your love and your light.
As with Mary, he also calls us to let go of him. We can shut
him up in tombs of our own making, or we can be like Mary and let go, and go
and tell others about our Risen Lord. In letting go, like Mary, we will find
that we are more fully embraced by him, by his love and by his God than we
could ever imagine.
And like the people who were changed by this one woman’s
words, the lives of others will be changed by ours. We are never quite done
with Jesus. And thank God, he is never quite done with us!
Alleluia! Christ is
Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed!
Alleluia!
And so are we… And so are we! Amen!
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