Sermon “In the Garden” John 20:1-18 04/20/14 Easter Blessings

On this day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  On this is the day our entire faith rises or falls; on this day which tells the world our faith is earth shattering, world changing, hope filled.  Without the resurrection our faith is no more significant than any other competing philosophy in the great marketplace of ideas. As the apostle Paul says, “…if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” If Christ has not been raised, “we are of all people most to be pitied.”  Either we proclaim with all our hearts, “Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!” or we may as well just close our hymnals and go home to the Sunday paper and our Easter brunches right now.

On this is the day that begins in the garden.  From the very beginning the garden has been a thread that is woven through God’s plan for humans.  God plants a garden in Eden.  God is the master gardener!  He gives the garden to the newly created man and woman, walking with them in the cool of the day. And then, all that disastrous business with the serpent and the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil…the willful disobedience, the agonizing confrontation, confession and banishment…it all takes place in a garden.

A garden is at the center of the stories we have been hearing throughout this Holy Week, the gospel accounts of Jesus’ passion and death. After Jesus’ final meal with his friends, they go out across a valley to a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives. John’s gospel proceeds immediately to the arrest of Jesus. But the other gospel writers tell of Jesus’ agonized prayer in the garden called Gethsemane, a prayer raised while his friends sleep peacefully beneath the rustling leaves, inhaling the fragrance of juniper and hyacinth.

And then there is the crucifixion. John mentions, almost as an afterthought, “there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in that garden there was a new tomb.  Jesus was crucified in a place with a garden. And there he was buried. There is a Victorian poem, that speaks to God and gardens:

“The kiss of the sun for pardon, The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer to God's heart in the garden, Than anywhere else on earth.”

From the creation and great expulsion from Eden, to the suffering and death of Jesus, to this morning’s encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, God’s heart does seem to be beating in a garden. It seems to be beating there for us.

This morning the scene opens on a solitary figure walking through the darkness. Mary Magdalene has broken through her fear in order to tend to the body of her teacher and friend.

When Mary finds that the stone has been removed she jumps to conclusions. Her perception of what has happened is that someone has entered and stolen the body. We don’t know if she entered or even looked in the tomb, “she saw the stone rolled away.”  Did she really know that the body of Jesus was not there?  How often do we jump to conclusions about God's actions in our lives?  Nevertheless, she runs back to tell Peter what she believes has happened.

Peter and the unnamed disciple always identified only as "the one whom Jesus loved."  Over the years there have been many suggestions as to whom he might represent: Jewish and Gentile Christians, Petrine and Johannine Christians. Could it be that the beloved disciple is unnamed because, as one biblical scholar has suggested, this person is to represent us?

Like Mary they run. The unnamed disciple, perhaps younger, arrives first. For whatever reason he waits until Peter, arrives. He allows Peter to be the first to enter.  Peter finds that the tomb is, indeed, empty.

And unlike Lazarus who after four days in the tomb, stumbled out of his tomb held tight by his burial cloths, Jesus’ burial cloths are still in the tomb. John goes into detail about the burial cloths.  He describes the placement of the wrappings, but also notes that the cloth that had covered Jesus' head has been placed in another part of the tomb. Did you notice the tomb was empty when Peter and then the other disciple arrived?  There is no angel; no heavenly messenger.

John tells us that the beloved disciple "saw and believed." But what did he believe? Did he believe Mary was correct?  That someone had stolen the body of Jesus. Or did he believe what Jesus had said the night of their last meal together, that Jesus had "overcome the world!"

There are no shouts of joy, no celebration. The emptiness of the tomb does not seem yet to have made a difference.  How many of you here today will return to work and responsibilities tomorrow forgetting the empty tomb?  How many of you will not be feeling joy, hope, or certainty on Easter Monday?

Peter and the one that Jesus loved leave.  Mary is alone weeping, at the tomb.  This time she enters the tomb.  . But Mary does not find an empty tomb. While the body of Jesus is not there, there are two angels. In response to what must have seemed a ridiculous question, “Woman why are you crying?”  Mary repeats her understanding that someone has taken Jesus’ body.

The angels are no more helpful than the disciples. Mary turns away only to encounter Jesus himself, standing there, but she does not recognize him, and he too asks her, “Woman, why are you crying?” He also asks, “Who is it you are looking for?” Mary supposes he is the gardener.

Look at what happens here.  This is so interesting.  What we are seeing here is not the end of the story, but a new beginning.

In the opening of John's gospel, Jesus' first words are a question directed at the disciples of John the Baptizer. "What are you looking for?" 

And here, in this new beginning, this new creation, Jesus asks Mary the very same question, "Who is it you are looking for?"  A new ministry is beginning, a new story. Is Jesus asking the same question of us this Easter morning? What are we looking for? It was when Jesus called her by name that Mary recognized her beloved Rabboni. Is Jesus calling our name? And when John's disciples called out to this Rabbi, he invited them to "Come and see". Are we being called to see the new things that God is doing in our lives and in our world?

Unlike the Matthew, Mark and Luke whose gospels that begin at dawn, John begins in the dark, the absence of light. This is the writer who, at the opening of his gospel took us not to a stable, but to the very opening of creation, "In the beginning." Could it be that John is taking us back, once again.  Back, to that primeval darkness when, "the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep."  John echoes Paul's declaration that in the death and resurrection of Jesus we are experiencing a new creation, "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

And where are we?  We are in a garden. Without knowing it, Mary has correctly identified Jesus as the gardener who is bringing a new world, a new life, and a new creation into being, as he had done before:

"All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it"

In the first creation story God drove Eve and Adam out of the garden. But in this new creation Jesus sends Mary out of the garden rejoicing. She is sent out to tell everyone the darkness has not overcome the Word made flesh who had lived among us lives among us still.  

"I have seen the Lord."  Her message declares to us is the new beginning that God has prepared for all of us. Amen.