The Wrong Question

It was early Sunday morning,

I imagine it was a morning much like today --- foggy and the air heavy

the Sabbath was over

          Mary Magdalene decided to go to the tomb to honor the dead body of Jesus

But as she arrived --- to her surprise she noticed that the stone covering the tomb that Jesus body had been placed in had been moved.

She ran at once to Simon Peter and breathlessly called out, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”

Mary, Peter and another disciple ran back to the tomb. 

          The boys went inside but didn't find Jesus

Mary stood outside the tomb weeping.

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.”

She then turned away and saw someone standing there.

But she didn’t recognize the person.

The man spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?”

Mary, in her confusion and grief thought that he was the gardener, said, “Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.”

The stranger said one word: “Mary.”

Turning in the midst of her tears, she said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” meaning “Teacher!”

Jesus then said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: “I saw the Master!” And she told them everything he said to her.

I love that story --- it is my favorite of all the resurrection morning stories.

I have tried over and over again throughout the years to try and explain just what happened that Easter morning.

          Trying to bring the disparate versions into some sense of harmony

Earlier this week, as I was preparing a presentation for those who are traveling to Israel next January.  I was looking at some of my pictures that I have taken over the years I was struck by one in particular.

It is a photo taken outside one of my favorite churches in Jerusalem --- it is a church built by donations given by 12 nations following the end of World War One in the hope and prayer that this was the dawn of a new age.  --- It is known as the “Church of All Nations.

The church is adjacent to the Garden of Gethsemane and the alter is build around a rock where Jesus is believed to have prayed before being arrested.

          It is truly a remarkable place

But what caught my attention in this picture was a very large sign at the entrance to the church --- it was a clear warning to every visitor. It said:

          NO EXPLANATIONS INSIDE THE CHURCH.

Obviously this was there to discourage overzealous guides who wanted to lecture inside the church and disrupt the prayerful setting.  But on this particular day, it was speaking to me.

Easter is one of the most challenging Sunday's to preach. 

What can one say that hasn't already been said?

And yet, confronted by a room full of people who spend most of their time in secular ways of thinking, where the dead stay dead and God—if there is one—does not intervene in the natural order --- I have often found myself trying to explain what happened on that first Easter in a way that might make sense to the modern mind.

There is nothing wrong with addressing people’s doubts, or wondering what facts might lie behind what Rowan Williams calls the “painfully untidy stories” of the Easter narratives.

          But I have concluded --- that is work for another day.

Easter Sunday is for proclamation, not explanation.

Easter is a time to meet the One who changes everything.

Mary, as she came to the tomb that first Easter morning didn't ask --- "what happened?"

Instead, we find Mary weeping

          She is distraught over the death of her beloved friend Jesus

                   She --- like the rest of his followers expected great things

I am not sure they fully understood what those great things would be

But they surely did not expect him to die at the hands of the Romans on a cross

And while she was looking for his broken and very dead body

          Mary encounters someone whom she assumes is the gardener

Now I have never seen a resurrected body

But if my brother Stewart was to all of a sudden show up at my door --- and remember he died 34 years ago --- I would be willing to bet that I would recognize him

But Mary --- who the Gospel writers tell us was at the crucifixion just three days earlier --- Mary does not recognize this person who is standing in front of her and actually having a conversation with

I have a hard time understanding that

I have often said --- that if you are I were there on that first Easter morning with our I-Phones ready --- I don't believe that we would have been able to capture or record the event

          I do not believe it was a Kodak moment

But what was it then???

          I don't know

                   And I really don't think it matters

                             That is the wrong question --- but the one we often want to answer

What I do know is:

Mary --- standing outside the tomb weeping does not know who she is talking with --- UNTIL --- do you remember what changed everything?

                   Until he calls her by her name

Something about the way that Jesus called her name --- Mary --- was transformative

At that MOMENT the resurrection became real for Mary

And not only did Mary recognize Jesus in that moment

          Jesus recognized something in her

                   He saw in her what she was created to be

And this moment becomes so transformative --- so real --- that Mary breaks all the rules of first century society

Do you remember what happens?

Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.’”

Do you realize what just happened?

In a world and society in which women were third rate citizens

          A world in which the author of 1st Timothy is going to write in a few short years

I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

Did you hear that?

          GO, Jesus said, AND TELL THEM

The first preacher of the Gospel --- selected by Jesus himself to tell the news of his resurrection was not Peter, or John --- the first preacher of the Gospel was Mary!  A WOMAN!

Is that crazy or what!

Jesus ordains Mary --- he commissions her to go tell the Good News

          Not because she recognized Jesus

          But because Jesus recognized her

The question is NOT what happened on that first Easter --- but where is Jesus now!

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Where is Jesus?

The rest of the Gospel tries to explain that to us.

Jesus --- the Christ --- is here RIGHT NOW

          He sees YOU!

                   He is inviting you

                             To see Jesus --- the Christ --- in everything

There is a powerful scene in all three of the synoptic gospels during the crucifixion that we often let slide by unnoticed

At the moment that Jesus dies --- all three Gospel writers want to make sure we know that the world is forever changed.

And they do that by telling us that the earth began to shake and rocks were split into pieces --- but they throw in this seemingly unimportant statement

          "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom."

What does that have to do with anything?

Who cares if the curtain of the temple is suddenly torn in two?

It would be important if you were a first century Jew who worshipped at the temple.

The temple was made up a series of more and more restrictive spaces.

          The further in --- access becomes more and more limited

And at the center of the temple was the most restrictive space of all: The Holy of Holies.

          Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the threshold of God

For the Temple worshipping Jew ---The Holy of Holies was THE dwelling place of God

          It was where God lived

And what separated the Holy of Holies from the next space in the temple was --- yep you guessed it --- a curtain

The Gospel writers are wanting us to know that God has been released into the world

          No longer is God dwelling in that one spot

But through the death and resurrection of Jesus

          --- God is now EVERY WHERE

On this Easter morning --- the question should not be: What Happened?

But rather: How is the Risen Lord transforming our lives as he calls us by name and is inviting us into Kingdom life.

Jesus is calling YOU by your name

Hear his voice and respond to the Kingdom call.