Easter

John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed 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.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings 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 understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 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.


“Don’t hold on to me.”

I imagine that the very first thing that Mary wanted to do when she realized it was Jesus that morning in the garden was to embrace him—to be sure that it was real, to calm all the fear and anxiety she had been living with for the last several days. She had seen him die. She was sure they had buried him in this tomb and rolled a stone in front of it. No one had been out since the Sabbath day had come and gone since he had died and been buried. Their whole existence had been turned upside down when he was gone, and now he’s back, and she can’t grab hold of him? I would imagine she and the others would never want to let him go.

In fact, two of the others had just been there. When she first discovered that something was not right at the tomb, she went to Jesus’ right hand and the disciple whom he loved, according to John’s gospel. They came with her to see what had happened, and found nothing. Literally, they found nothing. No body, no thieves, no explanation, and apparently they didn’t even see the angel. They just saw the place where the body had been laid, and in its place they saw the linen wrappings that had been wrapped around it for burial. Now there was no body. John tells us that the beloved disciple saw and believed.

Mary couldn’t believe what she saw. Those guys were no help to her; the very ones whom Jesus trusted and with whom he had shared everything seemed useless in the end. They did come when she asked them to, but they didn’t stay long enough to encounter the gardener. They didn’t yet fully understand what had taken place and how it fulfilled scripture. They simply took in the details of the scene, and then they were gone.

Mary must have been frustrated. She had likely hoped that they would have some kind of explanation for the lack of body she had found. Surely they would know something about this; surely there would be some kind of explanation that she could grasp that might help her make sense, not just of what she was seeing or not seeing now but also of what had been happening these last few days. Everything was wrong: their beloved Jesus had been arrested. What had he ever done that was wrong? He had been tried in the synagogue—the Son of God! Pilate had tried to save his life—the envoy of the Roman Empire had tried to spare the life of a Jew! He had died a cruel and humiliating death while she stood at his feet and watched it happen, and now his body was missing! How confusing and troubling it must have all been.

I imagine it would be something like what one of us might feel like if you were to lose your job, be unable to pay your mortgage, have credit card debt piled up in bills at your door, suffer the loss of a significant life relationship, and then have your car break down and leave you stranded in the home you can’t afford with nothing to do but worry about your piled up bills and mourn the loss of an important relationship. If just one of these happens to us, we feel that the world could quite possibly come to an end, at least as we know it. Try to think of the worst things you can imagine happening to a person all at one time, and that’s how I imagine that Mary and the others felt when Christ was taken away from them. And so to encounter him in the garden near the tomb where his dead body was laid just days before, this would have been utterly unbelievable. Surely she rubbed her eyes, cleaned out her ears, blinked a few times, and pinched herself to be sure it was true. Of course she wanted to run to him. It is what we do when we find ourselves in the very worst situations of our lives and the grace of Jesus breaks through, calls us by name, and pulls us up from the very depths of despair. We want to grab hold of the presence of Christ that reassures us and brings us peace, and we want to hold on to it for dear life. We want Christ’s presence in our time of need, that feeling we get when we are as low as we can go and we feel him lifting us up—we want that feeling to go on forever. We want to grab on to it and never let go.

Didn’t it feel like a foretaste of glory when we sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” just a short while ago? Wouldn’t you love to hang on to that feeling whenever you gathered here at St. Paul? What if we sang our hearts out like that every week? What if everything we do here we did with giant grins on our faces and with the kind of energy we sang that hymn? We would probably prefer that to the times we gather for more difficult discussions about money or everyone’s lack thereof, when we gather to settle disputes among us, or when it just feels like our hearts are not in it and it is hard to be here. It sure is better today when are all here for the exact same reason and we are all so happy to be here together. We just want to hold on to that feeling…

“Don’t hold on to me.”

The glory of Easter is not that everything is all chocolate bunnies and sugary peeps and stuffed rabbits and nicely packaged baskets. It is not even new clothes or big family brunches. The glory of Easter, brothers and sisters, is simply that he was not in the tomb. The Son of God, the one sent to love us, the incarnation of the God who created everything was not done in by death and, therefore, neither will we be. The glory of Easter is the very promise that just as Jesus stood in the garden that day when all hope was lost and brought hope back to life right in front of one who loved him as much as any other, we are not separated forever from the ones whom we love by death. Whatever happens to cause us pain in this life is not the end. When all hope is lost, there is still hope to be found!

Today we gather in the moment when Mary realized that it was her Lord, Savior, and Teacher standing before her. It was with great joy that she ran from that tomb to tell the others, and in so doing to tell the world: “I have seen the Lord!”

You have seen him in your life. He has come to you when all hope has been lost, when death and darkness has surrounded you and there seemed to be no breaking in of morning light. He has called your name.

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Thanks be to God!