The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich,
Massachusetts 02563
March 23, 2008
Easter Sunday
The
Lord of the empty tomb, the conqueror of gloom.
Come to you.
The
Lord in the garden walking, the Lord to Mary talking.
Come to you.
The
Lord in the upper room, dispelling fear and doom.
Come to you.
The
Lord on the road to Emmaus, the Lord giving hope to Thomas.
Come to you.
The
Lord appearing on the shore, giving us life for ever more.
Come to you. Amen
* * * * *
Today’s sermon is taken from
the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 1-18.
I went to a nursing home in
Southington, Connecticut, to offer communion to the residents. This was not one of those upscale places
called a retirement center. This
facility was for the poor and its residents were mostly in various stages of
dementia. When I arrived I was told by a
volunteer who was wheeling patients into the room that since it was late
afternoon, everyone’s medications seemed to be wearing off. Some would sleep through the service as
usual, but for the most part my little congregation would be on the wild side
today. Sure enough all through the
beginning of the service one woman sang, “Row, row, row your boat.” bouncing up
and down in her wheelchair. It got so
chaotic that I clapped my hands to get their attention and said, “What shall I
read from the Bible today? What part
would you like to hear?” And above all
the movement and noise still in the room, one answer could be heard in an old
woman’s voice (actually, she was one hundred year’s old), “Tell us a
resurrection story.” The room changed -
those who had been moving grew still, and sleepers opened their eyes. “Yes!” said another, and from yet another,
“Yes, Father McGinn, tell us a
resurrection story!”
And I suspect that is why you
are here this day…to hear the story of the resurrection, and that’s good
because that’s the story I want to tell this morning.
It may be a little more
difficult to tell this story in our modern world. A father was explaining to his five-year-old
son how Jesus died and then on the third day was resurrected from the
dead. “That’s what we believe,” the
father said. “That’s how we know Jesus
is the Son of God because he came back from the dead just as he said he
would.” “You mean like Elvis?” the boy
replied. “Well, no, not exactly like
Elvis.” This is a new world. People nowadays believe just about everything,
accept that which is most true. We have
to work a little harder in this new world to help people understand the old
story of the Gospel.
In John’s telling of the
Easter story, it is Mary Magdalene who first comes to the tomb. 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.”
It is interesting that Mary
Magdalene should be the first to discover the empty tomb. Contrary to what you may think about Mary
Magdalene, we actually know very little about her. What we think we know is mostly conjecture
and legend. Newsweek magazine did
a story on Mary Magdalene a couple of years back. They called her an inconvenient woman because
she is at the center of so much controversy, and yet so little is really known.
One tradition with which you
probably are familiar has her as a prostitute before she met Jesus, but nowhere
in the Gospel does it really say this.
In fact, the Eastern Orthodox Church maintains that Mary Magdalene was a
virtuous woman all of her life. All the
New Testament really tells us about Mary is that she entered Jesus’ ministry as
he preached throughout Galilee; that she had been possessed by seven demons,
but was no longer; and of course, that she announced the resurrection. We never learn her occupation, the color of
her hair, if she was old or young, homely or beautiful. There is a tradition
that Mary Magdalene led so chaste a life that the devil thought she might be
the one who was to bear Christ into the world, and for that reason, he sent the
seven demons to trouble her.
Unsurprisingly, the fact that she is so important in the resurrection
narrative, and so absent from the rest of the New Testament, has led to all
kinds of speculation and even conspiracy theories.
Those of you who have read The
Da Vinci Code know that the plot revolves around the idea that the
early church sought to suppress the fact that Jesus was actually married to
Mary Magdalene and she had his child. As
absurd as this sounds, it is not completely a new idea. There are manuscripts from as early as the
second century that seek to show that Mary Magdalene was closer to Jesus than
all the other disciples; that she was the leader in the early church, but that
she was shunted aside because she was a woman.
Personally, I would prefer to
stick to what we know; and most of what we know comes to us in the stories of
Jesus’ passion and his resurrection. And
as Jesus hangs in agony on the cross, his life ebbing from him, Mary Magdalene
is there beside his mother Mary, keeping watch.
Crucifixion is slow and brutal and bloody, but still Mary Magdalene
stays. And finally the hour comes. “It is finished,” Jesus says, and he bows his
head. His body is bound in linen and
carried to a garden and buried in a tomb.
And before dawn on the third day, it is Mary Magdalene who rises to
anoint Christ’s body, and she makes her way to the grave. It is empty.
The Lord is gone. She is confused
and terrified. She races back to tell
Peter and another disciple, probably John.
Peter and the other disciple start for the tomb and both are
running. They confirm what Mary
Magdalene has reported to them. The
disciples leave the scene and go home, but Mary, paralyzed, stays in the garden
in tears - then comes a voice and a question, “Woman, why are your
crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,”
she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” And then she turns around and sees Jesus
standing there, but she does not recognize him.
“And woman,” he says, “why are your crying? Who is it you are you looking for?” And thinking he’s the gardener, she says,
“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will
get him.” And Jesus says to her,
“Mary!” And she turns toward him and
cries out in Aramaic, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). And Jesus says, “Do not hold onto me for I
have not yet returned to the Father. Go
instead to my brothers and tell them I am returning to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.” Mary
Magdalene goes to the disciples with the news:
“I have seen the Lord.” A simple
testimony, but one that will change the world.
What is it that God is saying
to us this morning through this beautiful Easter story. First of all, I think, and I believe that God
is saying this is real. It is not made
up. If you wanted to apply one word to
this Easter narrative, it might be surprise.
The last thing Mary expected when she went to the tomb that first
Easter morning was to find the tomb empty.
She expected to find a gray, lifeless corpse already beginning to decay,
and she was going to anoint him because of her great love. Surprise!
Even Peter and the other
disciple, who had been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, were not
prepared for what they found that morning.
Even after they found the tomb empty, they were mystified. As verse 9 of the Gospel that I just read
tells us, they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise
from the dead. Surprise! And certainly the religious leaders who put a
guard on the tomb did not do so because they expected a resurrection. They did it to keep his disciples from
stealing his body. Surprise!
Surprise is the best word to
describe that first Easter. No one
expected Jesus to rise from the dead. If
you think the disciples made all this up, it just doesn’t jibe with the report
and the record. They were just as
shocked as you and I would be if we went to the funeral of a loved one and
suddenly a person who had been dead for three days got up out of the casket and
began to walk and talk. The story is
true. It is not made up.
The second thing I believe
that God would say to us about this story is that you can’t divorce the
resurrection from the cross. Many people
today are trying to do that. In fact,
that is basically what much of the new-age movement is all about, though most
of it’s adherents probably don’t realize it.
It is Christianity without the cross.
Take the love from Christianity, take the joy from Christianity, take
the hope and magic from Christianity, but leave the cross.
Penny’s grandsons,
six-year-old Ryan and four-year-old David, were visiting her church for Easter
Sunday service. Penny explained to each
boy that the priest would give them a small cross during the children’s time to
remind them of how Jesus died for them.
At this point, young David announced, “I think I’d rather stand outside
with my basket and wait for the Easter bunny.”
Isn’t that just like adults too?
We don’t want really the true story of Easter - the suffering, the
sacrifices, the death and despair. We
want the warm and fuzzy unreality of the Easter bunny instead.
Mary did not recognize her
Rabbi there in the garden because her heart was breaking. The beautiful man, whose very life and nature
was love, had been crucified on the cross.
He who had saved others could not save himself. How could life be so cruel? Where was God in all of this? If you’ve not asked such questions in your
own time of pain, you’ve been very fortunate.
It’s very simple: No cross - no
resurrection. The resurrection validates
everything that Jesus said and everything Jesus did, including his death on the
cross. The resurrection is real, but we
cannot separate it from the cross on which Christ died.
The third and final thing I
believe that God would have us know is that the power of the risen Christ is
still loose in our world today. Jesus is
not dead. Jesus is alive.
Now this morning I brought a
picture, and especially I want the children to be able to see it. I know it’s a long ways away, but it is a
picture of a man and woman. This is a picture of my father and my
mother. I loved them very much. They taught me as a child, and even as a
teenager; they taught me to see God in all things. Now they are both dead. They died a short time ago, and I miss them -
particularly on a day like today when our family gathers and we celebrate
Easter - I miss them very much. But, you
know, I know that I will see them again some day. That’s what Easter is all about. Maybe somebody you love a whole lot has
died. Maybe one of your parents, or your
grandparents, or a friend, or a spouse.
You miss them very much, but the Bible says that some day you will see
them again. Why? Because Jesus was resurrected from the
grave. Jesus was dead but is now alive. He has risen!
And people we love, if they die, they will live with Jesus in heaven.
Now let’s thank God for
Easter, and that even when we die, God gives us new life. And that’s what I believe God is saying to us
this Easter day. Christ is alive! He is risen, as he said. The story is real. It cannot be separated from the pain of the
cross, but it is real, and it is powerful - powerful enough to change people’s
lives. And how about you? Has Jesus come to you like he came to Mary
Magdalene in the garden that morning?
Has he spoken your name? Open your life and your heart to the power of
the risen Christ. See what Jesus can do
for you. Praise his name.
Jesus is risen, Alleluia! Amen