Gospel Reading John 20:1-18,
Early on the first day of week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. then Simon Peter, who was behind him arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. [They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.]
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don't know where they have taken him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to hear, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni! [Which means Teacher].
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me for I have not yet returned to the Father. God instead to my brothers and tell them I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news; “I have seen the Lord!” and she told that he said these things to her.
Sermon “Is That all There is?” John 20:1-18 04/04/10
When we depend upon our eyes or our other senses alone to perceive truth we end up lamenting as the old Peggy Lee song goes, “Is That all There is.” Many of you remember the song, no matter what was going on in the lyric the refrain always responded, is that all there is? Whether it was a tragedy or an occasion of joy. Whether her home burnt down or she went to the circus, it was always, “Is That all There is?”
Those who witnessed Christ's journey to the cross and his death must have felt that way as they left Golgotha. Those who feared and hated Jesus were disappointed because he died too quickly, is that all there is?. The Roman soldiers who had to go back to the boredom of the barrack life, must have thought is that all there is? Those who loved him must have thought back, remembering the promise of a new world, and faced with the reality of his death and a world seemingly unchanged must have lamented, is that all there is?
Look what happens as the disciples depend upon their eyes alone for truth.
Mary went to the tomb finding the stone rolled back and the tomb empty to goes to the other disciples and says, “They have taken the Lord away.”
The disciple whom Jesus loved looked in the tomb and saw the grave clothes lying there and believed. What did he believe? He didn't believe Christ had risen. He believed the tomb was empty and he now believed Mary when she said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.
Peter went into the tomb and saw the strips of linen and the cloth that covered Jesus' face were neatly folded in different places. Even Peter, the one who always had flashes of insight, looked and said yes, he's gone. The biblical witness tells us they went home. There is nothing to do here, he's just gone. That is all there is.
Then Mary saw the two angels. Again she responds, “They have taken my Lord away.”
And then, Mary saw the gardener, she doesn't just say, “They have taken my Lord away.” She found person, so she says, “If you have carried him away, tell me...”
You know that is the problem with eye witnesses. They don't always see reality. That is why if you really want to make a good case for or against anything or anyone. You need good solid circumstantial evidence.
You see what happens inside our brains is our intellect is limited by its complexity. When have an experience the brain sorts through its collection of previous experiences to make a match. When we encounter something that doesn't fit into our previous experience we try to make it fit. Like Cinderella's slipper, we force this new experience into the experiences that we have had in the past, that which we know. And when it doesn't fit our brain either rejects the experience or bends it into something acceptable.
So when faced with an empty tomb Mary responds in a reasonable and sane fashion. Her grief does not cloud her rational mind. She actually arrives at the only conclusion a person in their right mind could reach. Dead bodies do not simply disappear. Someone has to move them. In a world of established rules, in a world where that's all there is; that's all there is or can be. In a world where reality must be touched, or smelled, or seen, there is only room for the old and familiar. Only a place for the plausible.
Mary's logic is right on target. Find the body, wherever it has been taken and get on with her grieving. Even when angels, heavenly beings, beings from another dimension ask her why she is weeping, Mary still believes that someone has stolen the body.
Even when she sees Jesus she thinks it is not him, he is dead, it must be the gardener. He'll know what happened to the body.
Mary knows that she is in a cemetery, a place of loss and death. Her brain has no way to process the what she sees. She sees Jesus but she says gardener because her intelligence cannot make room for a walking, talking, dead man.
And then something happens, he calls her by name. And when she hears her name, it must trigger some memory, long passed. Maybe from the beginning of their relationship. You know when they first met, when she was “crazy Mary.” Demon possessed, we don't know what shape it took, it could have been addiction, depression, schizophrenia or just demons. What ever sort demons beset her, they she was completely in their power. Because the biblical witness says, there were seven demons. The number of entirety. Maybe she had a flashback, just for an instant she could see that time so long ago, when they were standing over her, holding her down, she was shrieking and writhing when suddenly she heard, Mary, Mary, you are healed. Her body calmed as the voice touched her, he called her Mary, not crazy Mary, just Mary. And from that day on no one ever called her crazy again. And today when he spoke her name, she remembered.
She remembered that there is more to life than your present circumstance. There is more to life than is revealed at any given moment.
When they were at the cross, they lived in the mindset of “that's all there is.” In our gospel this morning we hear, “But on the first day,” the day of new beginnings. God wants us to know it is a new time, that is why it is on the first day of the week. The old and familiar death is replaced with new and abundant life.
When Mary knew who she saw, she said, “Rabonni,” her tears of grief turned to tears of joy.
The pain, the pain that Jesus predicted, the pain he likened to childbirth was replaced that joy that he promised the joy, the joy he likened to holding a new born babe.
O death, where is thy victory. O death, where is thy sting!
The grave could no longer hold Christ and because of Christ it no longer holds you.
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
As Mary was freed from the grave of possession, by the voice and touch of the living Savior. Likewise you can be freed from whatever holds you in bondage, whatever grave clothes bind you, whatever the name of the grave that holds you. Because we know our redeemer lives.
It wasn't just the resurrection of one man, of Jesus the Christ. He was the first born and we are free at last free at last thanks be to God we are free at last, free of the past, free of bondage free sin free of the bondage of death, free because He is risen. He is risen indeed.
Alleluia! And Amen!
