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John 20:1-18 April
4, 1999 Two gas company service men, a senior training supervisor and a young trainee were out checking meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck at the end of the street and worked their way to the other end. At the last house a woman looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter. Finishing the meter check, the senior supervisor challenged his younger co-worker to a foot race down the street back to the truck, to prove that an older guy could outrun a younger one. As they came running up to the truck, they realized that the lady from the last house was huffing and puffing right behind them. They stopped and asked her what was wrong. Gasping for breath, she answered, "When I see two gas men running full speed away from my house, I figure I had better run too." Let’s face it, we live in a world that is on the run, a world that is in a hurry. But far too often we don’t have a clue as to why we are in such a hurry. Quite often our frenetic lifestyle comes from confusion, from watching others run, and so we run, too. The more confused we are, the more we run. The late psychologist Dr. Rollo May said, “Man is the strangest creature of all. He's the only one who runs faster when he loses his own way.” But if an academic can not convince you, a comedian well may. Lily Tomlin said, “The trouble with the rat race is even if you win, you're still a rat.” Far too often we mistake activity for achievement, busyness for productiveness. The great illusion of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time, that advances in technology will slow our pace of life. Testimony before a Senate subcommittee in 1967 predicted that "by 1985, people could be working just 22 hours a week or 27 weeks a year or could retire at 38." The major challenge facing people in the 1990s should have been what to do with all the leisure time provided by our technological wizardry. Yet 30 years later people are more pressed for time; they are running more, but getting nowhere. Consequently, we buy anything that promises to help us hurry. The top-selling shampoo in America achieved that status by combining shampoo and conditioner in one bottle, eliminating the need for the time-consuming rinsing. Domino's became a name in pizza because they promised to deliver in 30 minutes or less. "We don't sell pizza," said their CEO. "We sell delivery." USA Today reports, "Taking a cue from Domino's Pizza, a Detroit hospital guarantees that emergency-room patients will be seen within 20 minutes - or treatment is free." The paper notes that business has been up 30%. (It doesn't say how much the mortality rate has gone up!) Our world has become the world of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: "Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that." [taken from John Ortberg, Leadership, Fall 1998, pg 28] The first Easter was a time of running but getting nowhere, of seeking, but finding little satisfaction with what was seen. This morning we’ll look at the familiar story of the resurrection. But we often listen to this story with hurried ears and busy eyes. Our passage in John 20 reminds us of the necessity to not only stop our running, but more importantly to listen when Jesus calls us by name.
What caught my attention as I reread this passage, as I slowed may pace to listen more carefully to the text, was how much running is going on here. Mary runs from the tomb to Simon Peter and the other disciple, presumably John. Peter and John run back to the tomb. John outruns Peter. All this running leaves one breathless. What's everyone running for? They are running because they are confused, and their confusion is understandable, given what transpired in the previous days. Their leader has died following a hasty trial, their dreams shattered with the betrayal of their friend. But now, to add insult to injury, Jesus’s body is missing. Where was His body? That was the question running through the minds of Mary, Peter, and John as they ran to the open, empty tomb on that first day of the week, very early in the morning. "Where is the body of Jesus?" That is the question that we need to have a clear answer for here today, if we are not going to spend the rest of this day, and the rest of our days, running around in every religious direction under the sun looking for the real, resurrected Jesus. MARY RUNS FROM THE TOMB Following the crucifixion, while the men hide in terror of their own demise; the women hurriedly prepare His body for burial. But with the sun setting and the Sabbath beginning, they were unable to finish the job. So on the first day of the week, with the Sabbath now past, the women return to the tomb to finish the job they began three days before. John focuses on one woman, Mary from Magdala. We are introduced to Mary Magdalene in Luke 8. We are told she had seven demons cast out, yet while ancient tradition says she was the prostitute of Luke 7, the presence of the demons was understood to be a sign not of immorality, but of illness, either mental or physical. In Luke 8 Mary is associated with Joanna, the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household, and that these women were of financial means, supporting Jesus and His work. While it was still dark, Mary set out to finish the job of preparing the body of Jesus. Yet as she approaches the tomb she notices that the stone is already removed. That sight alone is enough to make her run. The massive stone had been rolled away from the opening, the entrance to the tomb was wide open. Her first thought was: "Grave robbers!" Those were the first anguished words from her mouth when she ran back to tell the disciples, Peter and John. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" Mary is panicked and grief stricken. First they crucified her Lord. Now they've stolen His body. Her Jesus is missing. And don't you dare try to console Mary with some faint comfort of a disembodied, spiritual Jesus floating around somewhere in heaven. Mary's Jesus has a body, and she wasn't going to rest from her running until she found His body. The first news of Easter was not good news at all. It was terrible news that Mary brought to the Apostles Peter and John when she came running with the announcement that the body of Jesus had disappeared. What a shock that must have been. PETER AND JOHN RUN TO THE TOMB How did the Apostles respond to the news of the empty tomb? Did they muster up confidence because of what Jesus had said over the past months, that He must suffer and die and be raised on the third day? The news of the empty tomb made them run. They took off to see for themselves. John ran faster, but only takes a tentative peek inside the hollowed rock tomb. He is fast, but hesitates to go any further. Hesitation is not in Peter’s vocabulary; huffing and puffing from the foot race, Peter pushes past John and ventures into the grave. From the interior vantage point, he sees what John saw, but more. What he sees is out of the ordinary by its semblance of order. The body is gone, but the strips of cloth used to wrap the body are lying there, not showing signs of a frantic effort to abscond with the body. The veil placed over the face of the deceased is neatly folded by itself. Whoever did this wasn't in much of a hurry. The sheets are folded. The bed is made. Hardly the work of grave robbers. John joins Peter in a closer inspection. And as both participant of the event as well as author of the gospel John records this solemn sentence: "He saw and he believed." What did he believe? In verse 9 he reveals that although the tomb is empty, the linen clothes removed, he still did not understand what God had said all along. John believed, but he did not believe there was a Resurrection. What then did he believe? He believed that Mary was right. His first glimpse into the tomb had made him feel that Mary, hysterical woman that she was in his eyes, had reported something that wasn't true. He believed the body was there. But when he entered and saw the cloths lying in one place and the head napkin in another he believed that Mary was correct; the body had been stolen. This would fit with the word that follows: "they still did not understand from the scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead." That being the case there was nothing for them to do but go home. And that is what they did: "Then the disciples went back to their homes." There are times in our hurried lives, that we may see with our eyes, but find it so hard to really believe what God has said. It is too hard to believe that God can and will do something so radical. Mary, Peter and John all ran in response to the empty tomb; all had developed their beliefs regarding the events that transpired those few days. But what they thought, what caused them to react as they did, did not include the simple understanding from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. In their hurry they could not see past an empty tomb, folded grave clothes. They ran not because they understood what God was doing, but because they did not know. When we live our lives based on what we perceive and intuit, what we feel and sense, as opposed to what God has revealed, we will do nothing but run. We will run from one set of conclusions about life to another; our busyness will define us, for we lack the ability to understand how God is at work in our lives. MARY MOURNS AT THE TOMB Mary is out of options, her hopes dashed. She tried to secure answers from Peter and John, but they were as clueless as she. At last she looks inside the tomb, but she sees not strips of cloth, but two angels in white. They ask her the obvious question: “Why are you crying?” It is as though they ask her to consider the apparent: "The tomb is empty; why mourn?" Again she repeats her concerns; an empty tomb can mean only one thing: his body is stolen. Her lack of understanding, her rush to conclusions leaves her unable to believe what is true. As she answers the angels, she turns face to face with her risen Lord. But the tears in her eyes, the hardness of her heart keeps her from faith. There is a gentle rebuke in that twice-asked question. It is saying, "This is no time for weeping, but for rejoicing, praise and thanksgiving." It implies that she could and should have known that. Jesus had clearly said several times, as the Gospels record, that He would rise again on the third day. One of the striking phenomena of the Gospels is the deafness of the disciples to the consistent revelations of Jesus concerning His resurrection. But Mary was just like us! Have you ever found yourself in a distressing circumstance, when the sky seemed to come crashing down on you, and you immediately forgot all the promises of God? You felt sorry for yourself; you became anxious and upset. I have. We so quickly forget the promises of God. Many of us have been caught in that trap. This is also what had happened to Mary. JESUS SPEAKS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TOMB It is at that point of faithless mourning, it is when the disciples are rushing to tombs and homes, rushing to conclusions without trusting in what is clear in Scripture that Jesus speaks. While Mary stands before Him, thinking that her Lord is but a gardener, responsible for the heartless removal of a corpse, her Lord speaks. No longer is she addressed as “Woman” but now by her name: ”Mary.” Throughout his Gospel, John uses the Greek form of her name, but here he records it as Jesus would have said it, in Aramaic: "Miriam." Nothing more need be said. No proofs of His authenticity, no evidence more than His voice calling her name. At that moment her heart melted, the rushing of her life ceased, the tears flowed this time not out of sadness but joy. At that moment she cries out, “Rabboni!” She uses the term not just of any teacher, not Rabbi, but the term reserved for God as teacher, for in that moment she learned the greatest lesson. The One she rushed to care for in the darkness of that morning, the one whose tomb she rushed from in fear and the disciples ran to see for themselves - that One called her by name. He was alive. Mary believes. She heard Jesus's Word addressing her personally and tenderly, and the living Word of her living Lord had its faith-creating life-giving way with her. Her response is understandable. The one she sought was alive. She flings her arms around Him, touching Him, knowing that this is no disembodied spirit; this is no figment of her troubled psyche. But Jesus gives an odd command, “Do not hold on to me.” Stop clinging, He demands. She clung to Him in both joy and fear; she clung because she knew He was alive, but she did not want Him to leave again. But His command is a subtle rebuke, for she still did not fully understand the power of the Resurrection. A new relationship now unfolded. The comfort she thought she could receive by holding on tight to the Teacher was nothing compared to the comfort that would come with the change in the Resurrection. With the ascension to the Father we have a glimpse of the greater promise, the promise that quiets our lives, that keeps us from frenetic lives full of activity, but devoid of meaning. There was no need for her to hang on to Jesus any longer. He would never be separated from her again. This was a new day. It was the Day of the Resurrection. This was the first day of a new creation and a new order of things. Death would never again separate them. Not Jesus's death. He had risen never to die again. Not Mary's death. He had died and risen for her. In His ascending to the Father, Jesus would be present for Mary and for all His disciples in a new and greater way. Now Mary would embrace Him by faith as He embraced her with His Word of life. Never again would she have to search for the risen body of her Savior. Nor do we. Where is Jesus that we may cling to Him? Where is He seeking us that we may be found by Him? In His Church, which is His body, in the Word and the Sacrament that make the Church the living body of Christ. The same death-defeating, curse-crushing, crucified and risen Jesus that was located for Mary in the garden is located here for us, hidden yet present, unseen yet heard. He calls to each of us by name from the water of Baptism, embracing us with His death and life. Paul writes, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." He calls to us in the preaching of the Word, in the bread and wine. She can stop clinging for His presence will always be with her. She can now stop running in search for Him, for He has found her. Now she may go, not in a race not knowing where she is going and what she is doing, but she goes with a message to Jesus’s brothers that their Savior is going to His Father and their Father, His God and their God. In this new relationship she can rest from a lifestyle of confusion. No longer must she be content with running but never resting, seeking but never finding satisfaction in life. As one adopted by the Father, having been called by name and now bearing His name as her own, she can go and tell not only what she saw with her eyes, but explain to them what she had been told. Now Mary can go to the disciples, not running with feverish frenzy, uncertain as what to believe, but she goes to speak not only of what she saw, but what she has heard. Mary now doesn’t run, but goes. She goes with clarity and purpose, with a message that matters What message do you take with you this Easter? The message of the empty tomb is not just a nice reminder of Jesus’s victory over death. It is that, but far more. The empty tomb defines our lives. It stops us dead in our tracks, where God calls us by name, reminding us of our position before the Father. We need not run in search for God or meaning. We need not cling to Christ in fear that He’ll be gone again. Rather, we can go from here in confidence that our God sent His Son to die for our sins, be raised again so that we can walk with confidence in our lives every day. |