Easter Sunday
John 20:1-18
"I have Seen the Lord"
"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her." John 20:1-18, RSV.
Grace and peace to your from our risen Lord. Amen
As Easter approached, a Sunday School teacher had a project to teach the meaning of Easter to her young children. She collected a number of egg-shaped boxes us and gave one to each child. She asked them to find one thing that reminded them of Easter and to place it in the egg-box. On Easter Sunday the children brought their boxes to the teacher, who opened them one by one. The first box had a rock in it to represent the door of the tomb. Another had a tiny flower in it to speak of the life of the resurrection. a third had a butterfly, another symbol of the resurrection. The fourth had the best idea--- this egg had nothing in it -- the tomb was empty.
The empty tomb is the most impressive symbol of the message of the resurrection. the grace that was empty, the bomb that gave up its victim, the emptiness of the burial place are the vivid fact of the resurrection.
The first Easter morning three different people came to the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, John, the disciple Jesus loved, and peter. All three came with a different approach, with a different attitude.
We begin with Mary. May came to the tomb to anoint the body as was the custom in those days. She saw from a distance that the stone was moved away. She stops. She stares. And then she runs back to the others to tell them what she has seen.
She runs back to the disciples and tells them "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
She assumes that the body has been taken.
At this point Mary does not think about the words of Jesus and the idea of the resurrection. All she can think about is the body is gone.
Sometimes when we encounter the harshness of life, all we can think about is the act that is affecting us. All we can think about is the hurt, the pain, the brokenness that has happened to us.
Mary was like that. She did not think she reacted.
But Mary did not give up either. She goes back to the tomb. She still does not go in, but she returns to the tomb. John and Peter go in, look around and they go back to the others.
Mary stays outside the tomb and is weeping. Weeping for the one who died, weeping because she fears his body is gone and they will not be able to anoint it.
But then Mary gets some courage and peeks inside the tomb. As she peeks, she gets more and more courageous and goes all the way in the tomb.
And what does she see. Two angles. One sitting at the head and one at the feet of where the body was suppose to be.
They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."
Mary still does not understand about the resurrection, but she is getting closer.
As Mary turns to leave the tomb she sees someone in the doorway. She supposes it to be a grounds keeper, and he speaks to her saying: Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
She still does not recognize Jesus. But then something wonderful happens. Something great happens.
Jesus says just one word, ’Mary" and immediately Mary knows that it is Jesus and she says "Teacher"
It happened! Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. He is alive standing next to Mary. Can you imagine the joy, the utter happiness which was leaping in her heart.
I bet she could have yelled so loud that everyone in ear shot could hear her say Jesus is alive.
Jesus then gives Mary some instructions as he says ""Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
Jesus tells Mary to go back and tell the disciples what she has seen.
And the text says that Mary goes back to the disciples and says: "I have seen the Lord"
Mary has seen the Lord. Mary the one who was afraid to poke her head in the tomb, Mary who could not fathom that Jesus had risen was the one chosen by Jesus to go back and tell the others what had happened.
Mary, a woman, was the one in all gospels to go and tell the good news of the resurrection. Mary was the one that Jesus chose for this important mission. Not Peter, not John, but Mary.
A poem says this about Mary’s experience
"How can I tell...That we’ve all been set free?..I’m only a woman;.....They won’t listen to me.....I saw him----The One we all thought was dead....They’ll think I’m imagining----Out of my head....I talked with Jesus;....I knelt at his feet....My Master’s alive!...Will the others believe?.....Will they beat me or scoff at me?...Put me away?......It’s my duty to tell,...But what will they say?....
Author unknown
Mary and the women were the first ones to understand and perceive that Jesus was indeed alive.
How ironic that the people whom society saw as weak, and not being of much value, the women, were the first ones to understand about the resurrection.
This point is important for Jesus came not to those who had it all, but He came to those who knew they needed someone, a Saviour. He came to those who understood the brokenness of the world.
And where do we find Jesus today?
In part of a sermon by Pastor Schmalenberger who used to be pastor at St. John’s Lutheran in Des Moines he says this about where we put Jesus.
"It seems to me there are three different places we church people often put the body of Christ.......
1. We leave him in the grave and gather every so often to pay our respects to a dead and buried Christ who died for a great cause........
2. We remove him from the grave and locate his body in some pearly-gated heaven. We then return to the empty grave to marvel at his power to do that back then. We "ooh" and "ahh" at how he ever worked such a thing as to come back from death and out of the grave......
3. We can take the body out of the grave, with all its power and glory---move it up 2,000 years and place it here and now in this church. Then on this day and every day he is with us out in the world......
The hallelujah of today’s story--the thrill of the Easter resurrection, is the fact the body ends up here! It is in our church and in us as we gather to witness and worship and serve to be his alive presence in the world...........
We may see this communion as a table of the living Lord who is its host and take very seriously: "This is my body" and "This is my blood." It is when we gather for the alive Christ to join with us and in us that Easter has its full significance.......
And he departed from our sight," said St. Augustine, "that we might turn to our heart and there find him. for he departed, and behold he is here."
He comes to us today as Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name there I am.
He is here in this church on this Sunday because we begin each service with "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The risen Christ is here, here in our worship, here in the Supper he prepared for us, here in the water of Baptism, here in the word proclaimed.
Jesus is a risen Lord who is here to all those who are feeling less than God intended for us to feel. He is here for the lonely, the bereaved, the parent who lost a child, the older couple who is seeing life slowly slip away. He is here for those who are unemployed, He is here for those who are in estranged relationships, He for those who are searching for meaning to their life. He is here, the Lord of this moment and this time.
Jesus Christ is risen and he is risen here in our midst.
Mary said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"
And we can say the same thing, we have seen the Lord in this body the church through the means of grace, His supper, His baptism, His word.
Jesus comes to all who are experiencing everything that life has to offer, the good as well as the bad.
A closing thought says it well:
"The late Dr. Kent Knutson said "On the Saturday before Easter, I and my family got up early to visit my mother who lives in a small town in Iowa. She is 82 and in ill health. We expect she will die soon. In reality the Knutson family went to see her to say their good-byes. While we were visiting with her, we received the sad news that my sister’s son had a terminal illness.
Late that evening we returned to Minneapolis. It had been an emotional day for us. The next day was Easter. That was a great day for the entire Knutson family..Early on Monday morning we took our daughter to the bus so she could return to Luther College. At 1:00 the call came. The bus had overturned and some of the students were injured several had been killed. At first we thought it was our daughter who had been killed. But with in hours she was able to phone to assure us that she was all right.
Kent Knutson concluded this personal story with this insightful observation:
"And that’s the way life really is."
Later on in the year, the church were Kent Knutson preached this message replayed the tape of these words, "And that’s the way life really is." These words rang home even deeper as the congregation knew as well as the whole ALC knew that Kent Knutsen was fighting for his life in a Rochester hospital a struggle which he was to loose in a few short months from an incurable illness he contracted while is Asia seeing how the ALC was establishing mission congregations. 1
And that’s the way life really is and our risen Lord is there with you each step of the way.
Jesus Christ is risen....He is risen indeed!
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale March 21, 2005
1 From Pastor Buchheim’s book, The Power of Darkness,
