Easter

John 20: 1-18 (April 12,2009)

1) The Text

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. 2So 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.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and 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. 13They 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.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus 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.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus 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.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

2) The Context

The Gospel of John is the only gospel in which we have a full description of the resurrection stories. The other three gospels are more fragmented in their telling of the resurrection story, but John’s gospel gives us his complete version of these events. His emphasis certainly falls on the reality of the resurrection as much as it does in Luke, but the focus is not a resurrected Jesus who materializes to his disciples. It is the fact that resurrection means that God has vindicated Jesus and that, as the Son, he has returned to the Father, initiating the new stage in God’s history with humanity: the sending of the Spirit which will equip the disciples. John paints a scene in 20:19-22 which combines this into one event. Thus what elsewhere appears as Pentecost and the great commission takes place in John on Easter Day. Likewise in his words to Mary, Jesus announces his immediate ascension (20:17); Easter Day is also Ascension Day.

From the covenant language at the end of v. 17, it would seem that the ascension is necessary for us to have the same relationship with God the Father as Jesus has with him -- a relationship mediated through the Spirit. The resurrection is not a return to the past, but a movement to the future. Neither Mary nor we nor our congregations can hold on to the past after resurrection. We look to the even greater future that God has in store for us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

3) Interpretation

All the disciples saw when they got to the tomb on that first morning was two piles of old clothes. Mary didn’t even see that much. The moment she saw the door to the tomb standing wide open, she ran to tell Simon Peter and the other disciples that Jesus’ body had been stolen. They beat her back to the tomb and found that she was right, at least about his body being gone.

Only why would grave robbers have bothered to undress him first? The cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was rolled up in a place by itself. Odd, that someone should go to all the trouble of rolling it up. None of it was making any sense to them because no one there that morning understood the scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead. Still, when the beloved disciple saw the clothes lying there, he believed. Believed what? John does not say. He simply believed and he and Peter returned to their homes.

The rest of the story belongs to Mary. She is the one who saw the angels and the risen Lord. Peter and the beloved disciple saw nothing but a vacant tomb with clothes in it. They saw only emptiness, and on that basis one of them believed, although neither of them understood.

Any way you look at it, that is a mighty fragile beginning for a religion that has lasted almost 2000 years, and yet that is where so many of us continue to focus our energy: on that tomb, on that morning, on what did or did not happen there. Resurrection does not square with anything else we know about physical human life on earth. No one has ever seen it happen, which is why it helps to remember that no one saw it happen on Easter morning either.

The resurrection is the one and only event in Jesus’ life that was entirely between him and God. There were no witnesses whatsoever. They all arrived after the fact. Two of them saw clothes. One of them saw angels. Most of them saw nothing at all because they were still in bed that morning, but as it turned out that did not matter because the empty tomb was not the point.
The living being that had once been inside of it was gone. He had outgrown his tomb, which was too small a focus for the resurrection. The risen one had people to see and things to do. The living one’s business was among the living, to whom he appeared not once but four more times in the Gospel of John. Every time he came to his friends they became stronger, wiser, kinder, more daring. Every time he came to them, they became more like him.

Those appearances cinch the resurrection, not what happened in the tomb. What happened in the tomb was entirely between Jesus and God. For the rest of us, Easter began the moment the gardener said, "Mary!" and she knew who he was. That is where the miracle happened and goes on happening -- not in the tomb but in the encounter with the living Lord.

In the end, that is the only evidence we have to offer those who ask us how we can believe. Because we live, that is why. Because we are not alone. We never know where he will turn up next. Never get so focused on the empty tomb that you forget to speak to the gardener.

4) Thought Exercise

What objective evidence do we have for the Christian faith?

In what sense do we live now in Christ?