This morning, we turn to the story of the Resurrection as it is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 20. Although we have heard this story before, try to listen with fresh ears. In the first century, none of Jesus’ friends expected the resurrection. They were amazed and surprised on the first Easter day.
Listen now to the word of God as it is found in John chapter 20:
Our Scripture Reading John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.
Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,
as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Amen.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray…
The Message Life Changing Resurrection
I love big family dinners….creating the menu, spending days preparing the food, rearranging the dining room so you can put leaves in the table, setting the tables, folding the napkins, filling the glasses with water….the smell of the cooking food filling the house…the energy that comes with children and parents, aunts and uncles, and cousins crowding into the house.
Perhaps you will be attending a meal like this in a couple of hours…a big Easter meal.
But, the aftermath is often tricky…..a wrecked kitchen….loads of dishes to wash….napkins and table cloths to clear and launder….transferring the leftovers into smaller bowls so that you can cram them into the refrigerator. I have been to a few dinners when it seems like all of the adults suddenly disappear at clean-up time, abandoning the kids to play with their cousins and the hosts left to wash dishes and babysit. The aftermath is tricky….the party is over and there is unpleasant work to do.
I suspect on the first Easter Sunday, when the Disciples and Jesus’ friends woke up that morning, they were feeling pretty bad. They believed Jesus was dead. For the previous two or three years of their life, they had purpose…they had work…they travelled around Israel with Jesus and were his friends and servants and worker-bees…but now, the party was over and there was a big mess to clean up. What were they supposed to do now, just go back home and start fishing or collecting taxes? They woke up that morning and felt terrible….the aftermath was tricky.
Mary Magdalene woke up that Sunday morning and she felt compelled to go to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. She loved Jesus so much that she needed to go and sit by his tomb…to cry…to grieve…to be near his body. She was in mourning, and she went to the cemetery. She believed Jesus was dead, but she wanted to be near his lifeless body. We all handle our grief differently, but some of us are like Mary…we want to sit by the graves of our loved ones and weep.
When Mary arrived at the cemetery, she saw that something had changed. The tomb was standing open. She was afraid Jesus’ body had been stolen and further desecrated. She thought that the people who killed Jesus were so full of hate that they wouldn’t even allow him to rest in peace.
So, she went to get help. Simon Peter and the unnamed “beloved disciple” rushed to the tomb. They went into the tomb and saw the grave clothes were neatly folded up. It didn’t look like a desecration…. what kind of grave robber would neatly fold up the burial cloths? But, they still didn’t realize Jesus had been resurrected.
Mary still stood outside the grave. Even after the men left to go home, she stayed and cried. She couldn’t imagine how she was going to retrieve Jesus’ body. She wanted to make sure he was buried the right way, and she didn’t know how she was going to make that happen.
A man approached her. She didn’t really look at him…she assumed he was a gardener. She asked him if he knew where the body was. And, then he said her name.
Lightbulb moment! Jesus was there…right there…alive and standing with her. Resurrected!
And, everything was different. Mary’s life changed when she met the resurrected Jesus. The lives of the disciples changed when they met the resurrected Jesus. And, our lives change when we meet the resurrected Jesus.
When we turn our lives towards Jesus, and believe in him and God, we change….our values shift….our priorities shift. How we relate to other people and how we relate to the world changes.
When we believe in Jesus, we are adopted into the family of God. We become God’s children. We become sisters or brothers with other Christians. Our identity shifts and we are welcomed into the community of Christ, into the family of God.
This frees us. We are new people. We are new creations. We are born again.
The world tells us that we are valued for how we “perform.”.... We are ranked in high school by our GPAs. We are encouraged to strive to earn promotions and more money in our jobs. We are valued for how successful we are, or how good we look, or how much we do for others. We are proud when we succeed, but feel guilty when we fail.
When we believe in Jesus, and become a child of God, we are no longer valued by what we achieve. Instead, our standing with God is acquired by God’s grace. We are loved. We are forgiven of our wrongdoings. We receive love from God that we don’t have to earn. We are accepted.
Christianity is unique because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s active, personal presence that dwells in the world and dwells in us, believers. The Holy Spirit is our helper. The Holy Spirit works with us to nurture “Fruit” in our lives that we can’t grow on our own. The Holy Spirit helps us to grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Faith in Christianity isn’t about following a list of rules, or praying a specific way, or eating a certain diet – it is about working to become more loving and compassionate and kind.
When we believe in Jesus, our priorities change. We stop-being so “me” focused, and start being “kingdom” focused. We commit to sharing our time, our talents, and our treasures to further God’s kingdom on earth. We are called to serve others as we live out our faith. And, we are particularly called to care for people Jesus called “the least of these”: people who are hungry and thirsty and lack the necessities for survival; people who are strangers–immigrants, refugees, and outsiders; people who are naked and lack adequate clothing and dignity; people who are sick and are suffering from physical and mental ailments; and people who are imprisoned and are cut off from society. Our faith compels us to love God and love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.
This morning we gather to remember the greatest moment in the history of humanity. Jesus died to take on the sins of the world. And, then Jesus resurrected to teach us that nothing people can do is more powerful than God’s will for us. When we believe in the resurrected Jesus, everything changes in our lives. We are a new creation.
Let us share this Good News with others.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
