Acts 10. 34,37-43 ‘We have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection’
Colossians
3.1-4 Look for the things that are in
heaven, where Christ is
John
20.1-18 He must rise from the dead
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
and we do not know where they have laid him’.
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Mary
Magdalene is the first witness to the fact of the Empty Tomb on that first
Easter morning.
She’s horrified by what she finds, so
perfectly naturally, Mary runs from the empty tomb, in urgency and shock to
tell Peter, the first among the apostles, what she has found.
Mary’s
account, to Peter and the Beloved Disciple, of what she found at the tomb is
clear, and yet, her conclusion is wrong.
Mary, perfectly reasonably and
logically, assumes grave robbers, or political machinations have taken his
body. The authorities - political or religious- would be prime suspects: “They have taken the Lord out
of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
In fact, as we now know, they haven’t done anything.
Mary ran to tell Peter, and he in turn runs back with the Beloved Disciple. What they find together
doesn’t solve anything, but only confuses them all more.
The tomb is empty, the linen
wrappings are there, one cloth rolled up by itself. This is not the modus
operandi of hasty grave robbers; there is something purposeful and careful
here, but Mary Magdalene, Peter and John cannot yet see it.
To help us understand this confusion
the Evangelist helpfully notes that ‘as yet they did not understand the
scripture, that he must rise from the dead’ .
Baffled, Peter and John return home.
The Church’s proclamation of Easter
can seem equally baffling to many in our culture today: ‘Okay, the tomb was
empty but there must be a rational explanation; what’s your problem?’
But Mary Magdalene stays.
She can’t stay away from the tomb;
she is drawn to the place where the body of her Lord lies after his death on
the Cross.
Mary’s grief took her there at the
first opportunity.
Jesus’ bruised, dead body was
hurriedly placed in the tomb on the eve of the Sabbath; there had been no
opportunity to wash and anoint his body, but Mary was back to do that.
She had come at dawn on the third
day since his death, the first day of the new week, what we now call Sunday.
If nothing else, Mary Magdalene goes
simply to be in proximity to the dead body of Jesus.
In a deeply loving, human way she
wants to be still and to treasure someone just lost to her.
It’s Mary’s desire to stay at the
tomb, empty though it is, that gives her the great moment of encountering the
Risen Lord.
In the hurry, the leaping to wrong
conclusions about Jesus body, in all the running about she, Peter and the
Beloved Disciple, had missed something vital.
It is when she slows down, and is
still, that the moment happens.
‘Woman,
why are you weeping?’ Mary is asked that question twice: first by an angel then
by the man she takes to be the gardener.
Why
might she be weeping?
She’s
sad, her Lord has died a most traumatic death.
She’s
angry and confused, her Lord’s body has been snatched.
She’s
bewildered and grieving; of course she’ll weep.
On
another, deeper level, her tears are the tears of all humanity in our
estrangement from God.
Mary
Magdalene is in a garden – evident from the fact she mistook Jesus for the
gardener – and that hints at two other gardens in scripture; in Genesis and in
the Song of Songs.
In
Genesis, the first woman, Eve, and the man, Adam, are estranged from God in the
Garden of Eden; they’re are expelled from the garden after they snatch at
equality with God. The garden which was a place of safety and oneness with God
is lost to them through their action.
In the
ravishing book Song of Songs, the lover seeks out the beloved, as she runs
through the streets of the city and searches in the beautiful garden, through
blurred, tear-filled eyes.
Mary’s
tears are our tears when we are far from God; when we long for him but do not
find him.
This
second time at the tomb Mary models something important in the spiritual life.
You will not find the life-giving power of the Crucified and
Risen Lord if you are running around, cooking up theories about God, or why you
want to blame “them” for your lack of perception.
This second time at the tomb she
doesn’t panic but rather she laments, she weeps and an angel gently asks her why
she’s weeping.
In the Scriptures angels announce things:
the word angelos means ‘messenger’.
This angel announces nothing, and
prompted by the angel’s question Mary repeats her theory about grave robbers.
Then she turns around. She turns
around from theories, suspicions, confusion and meets the Crucified and Risen
One.
He asks the same question as the
angel: ‘Woman why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?”
This is a beautiful moment, when
Mary’s tears, your tears and mine, can be wiped away: in Christ’s death and
resurrection we are once more united with God in the garden of his peace and
life and presence.
Mary glimpses the vision described
in Revelation:
Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of
God is among mortals.
He will dwell with
them;
they will be his
peoples,
and God himself
will be with them;
he will wipe every
tear from their eyes.
Death will be no
more;
mourning and crying
and pain will be no more,
for the first
things have passed away.’ Revelation
21.1-4
When Jesus utters Mary’s name the
theories are dispelled, resurrection is not an abstract thing, but rather it is
known in the moment of encounter with the Crucified and Risen Lord.
*
Why are you here today? For whom are you looking?
Be certain Christ is here today; he
is looking for you and whispering your name.
Be still.
Open the ears of your heart.
No one carries Christ away from you;
you now know where to find him.
His Body lies on the altar and he
comes to us in the way he promised: ‘This is my Body; this is my Blood’.
Then, like Mary Magdalene, we can
all announce ‘I have seen the Lord’ and tell all the things he says and does.
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