John 20:1-18
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, gasping for breath. “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself.
Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. And the disciples then went back home.
But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”
“They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.
Jesus spoke to her saying, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?” She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Sir, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.”
Jesus said, “Mary.”
Turning to face him, she said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” meaning “Teacher!”
Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them what you see.”
Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: “I saw the Master!” And she told them everything he said to her.
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark..... If you are a church-going person, chances are good that you have heard these words many times over in your lifetime because these are the opening words of one of our most important stories. Perhaps the most important story we share.
We are a story-telling people – not in the sense of telling lies – but a people who make sense of our world through sharing our stories with each other. We share our feelings, our hopes, our dreams, and we share the things that are most important to us, most often in the form of a story. That is probably why there are four different tellings of the rising of Jesus from his tomb – one for each of the gospels. This one today, is John’s telling of the Easter story,
Most importantly, we share our wonders – those moments when some world other than our straight-line-thinking world breaks through and becomes part of our present reality -- and that is why the telling of this magical, mystical return from death speaks to us so deeply.
People argue about whether this story is fact or not – whether Jesus really did die on that cross and then miraculously rise again on the third day. Whether or not this is fact, or just how it happened really shouldn’t matter to us because it is the wonder that it happened at all that is important. This story is a story from the heart, for the heart, not the rational mind.
In the same way that the world might have been created in six days or has taken 4 billion years, the length of time doesn’t determine the miracle. Neither point of view is more or less miraculous than the other. The miracle is simply that it IS.
We exist.
Jesus lives.
Jesus, who, in human flesh, embodied God’s very own self, but chose to live as fully human – frail and weary, fallible, and ultimately unable to even hang on to life.
Jesus, who never owned a house or a donkey, or even a bed of his own.
Jesus, who in fact, went to the cross owning nothing but his oh-so-human body, until even that was taken from him.
Jesus, who put himself within our power, to live or die as one of us – not to be powerful here, but to be as powerless as the rest of us.
And all of this – every aspect of this Jesus was shared as those who loved him gathered to remember him, to talk about him, to tell their “hey, were you there the day he did this...” stories. And as they talked and remembered they began to feel his presence with them, and Jesus lived among them again.
And as they talked, they remembered his love for them. They remembered and recognized things they hadn’t even noticed when he was living among them. They began to understand how he had changed their lives. They began to recognize how very deeply he loved them ... how very deeply he still loved them even beyond death, and that was what it was all about.
Jesus lives and loves and travels with us on our journey through life. Every moment every joy, every grief – every success, every failure, Jesus is here wrapping God’s love around us.
Jesus lives – and so shall we.
In the words of Pope John Paul II, “We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.”
Christ lives. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Amen.
We are a story-telling people – not in the sense of telling lies – but a people who make sense of our world through sharing our stories with each other. We share our feelings, our hopes, our dreams, and we share the things that are most important to us, most often in the form of a story. That is probably why there are four different tellings of the rising of Jesus from his tomb – one for each of the gospels. This one today, is John’s telling of the Easter story,
Most importantly, we share our wonders – those moments when some world other than our straight-line-thinking world breaks through and becomes part of our present reality -- and that is why the telling of this magical, mystical return from death speaks to us so deeply.
People argue about whether this story is fact or not – whether Jesus really did die on that cross and then miraculously rise again on the third day. Whether or not this is fact, or just how it happened really shouldn’t matter to us because it is the wonder that it happened at all that is important. This story is a story from the heart, for the heart, not the rational mind.
In the same way that the world might have been created in six days or has taken 4 billion years, the length of time doesn’t determine the miracle. Neither point of view is more or less miraculous than the other. The miracle is simply that it IS.
We exist.
Jesus lives.
Jesus, who, in human flesh, embodied God’s very own self, but chose to live as fully human – frail and weary, fallible, and ultimately unable to even hang on to life.
Jesus, who never owned a house or a donkey, or even a bed of his own.
Jesus, who in fact, went to the cross owning nothing but his oh-so-human body, until even that was taken from him.
Jesus, who put himself within our power, to live or die as one of us – not to be powerful here, but to be as powerless as the rest of us.
And all of this – every aspect of this Jesus was shared as those who loved him gathered to remember him, to talk about him, to tell their “hey, were you there the day he did this...” stories. And as they talked and remembered they began to feel his presence with them, and Jesus lived among them again.
And as they talked, they remembered his love for them. They remembered and recognized things they hadn’t even noticed when he was living among them. They began to understand how he had changed their lives. They began to recognize how very deeply he loved them ... how very deeply he still loved them even beyond death, and that was what it was all about.
Jesus lives and loves and travels with us on our journey through life. Every moment every joy, every grief – every success, every failure, Jesus is here wrapping God’s love around us.
Jesus lives – and so shall we.
In the words of Pope John Paul II, “We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.”
Christ lives. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Amen.
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