An Altogether New Reality

March 31, 2024

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

John 20:1-18

An Altogether New Reality

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mary went to Jesus’ tomb very early on that Sunday morning. She even beat the sun there. But when she arrived, something very drastic had changed since she was last there late Friday afternoon. On Friday, the great stone in front of the tomb had been rolled into place. But now, it was rolled to the side. The tomb’s entrance was open. Jesus wasn’t inside.

The only logical conclusion was that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. It was the only explanation for why his body was missing. Dead men don’t up and move. Someone must have moved him.

She runs and finds Peter and John. She tells them that someone has taken Jesus’ body. He isn’t in the tomb. Where could they have taken him? They all hurry back to the tomb.

Then Peter and John leave, but Mary lingers at the tomb, weeping. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Jesus had been crucified! Now, as a final insult, his body has been stolen. She was even denied a place to grieve.

In her grief and anger and confusion, Mary wept. She was so overwrought that it didn’t really register with her when she saw two angels. She addressed them like there was nothing at all unusual about conversing with angels.

And when Jesus himself, freshly risen from his tomb, spoke with her, even that didn’t register with her. There he was, standing right before her very eyes, talking with her, and she didn’t recognize him. She thought he was a gardener!

Mary is standing face to face with the resurrection. But her thoughts are so firmly fixed on the finality of death that she just can’t process these strange new things. She just can’t absorb the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

No, dead is dead – it’s just a given. The grave is a one-way passage. When you’re dead, you simply don’t come back to life. And Mary had seen it all. She was there when Jesus died on the cross. She witnessed when his lifeless body was removed. He was cold and ashen. He was DEAD. She accompanied his body to the tomb and helped to tuck him into his final resting place. She watched as the huge stone was rolled in front of the tomb’s entrance and sealed. She was there through it all. She’d seen it from start to finish.

Mary knew that Jesus was dead. And that was all there was to it. He was dead.

Oh, she’d seen him do some truly remarkable things. She herself had experienced his healing touch when he drove seven demons from her. Mary had witnessed Jesus’ miracles. He’d even raised Lazarus and other persons from the dead. But it was quite another thing to BE dead. THAT was the end of the line.

So even when the risen Lord stands squarely in front of Mary, her eyes just cannot see him! It’s only when he says her name, that’s when it hits her. This is Jesus! This is her dear friend! He has overcome death!

And at that moment, Mary entered an entirely new age. Her eyes came into focus. Her hearing attuned to this new frequency. When Jesus calls out her name, she stepped into an altogether new reality. It’s a realm where death does not get the last word; life does.

This is what we celebrate on this Easter Sunday. This is why we gather every year: we step with Mary into this new morning of life.

Like Mary, like the disciples – like every person who has lived from then until now – we still dwell in the realm where we shall die. We still find ourselves circling around gravesites while we say a tearful goodbye to our loved ones.

But what occurred on that first Easter morning reveals a game-changing shift. There is something stronger than death. There is something more lasting and permanent than the grave.

In overcoming death, Jesus has rewritten the rules. His resurrection has ushered us into an entirely new reality. Sin and death no longer hold the ultimate grip over us as once they did. We know that Christ has defeated them! In his resurrection, he has forged the pathway from death into God’s new creation. His rising shows us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. And this knowledge changes everything.

To Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ disciples, to those who witnessed the resurrected Christ face to face, his defeat of death produced a radical shift within them. This new reality catapulted them into a bold new future. These humble fishermen and common laborers from Galilee shared their joy with every tribe and nation. This new Easter realization changed how they understood the world, how they saw others and themselves.