John
20:1-18
A man and his ever-nagging wife went on
vacation to Jerusalem. While they were there the wife passed away. The
undertaker told the husband, “You can have her shipped home for $5,000 or you
can bury her here, in the Holy Land, for only $500.” The man thought about it
for a moment and decided to ship her home. Baffled and surprised, the
undertaker asked, “Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your wife home when it
would be wonderful to be buried here and you would only spend $500? The man
replied, “Well you see, long ago there was a man who died here, was buried
here, and 3 days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take the risk!”
All grins and kidding aside, the man
does have a point because resurrection is risky business. It certainly was that
first Easter morning when, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene, overwhelmed
by grief, makes her way to the tomb only to discover upon her arrival that the
stone has been rolled away. So in her distress she runs to the disciples, tells
them the news. and two of them run back with her to see with their own eyes
that the tomb is indeed empty. And then they return home leaving Mary alone
weeping.
You know how we just sang Welcome Happy Morning? Well on this
first Easter morning it was anything but happy. The day begins in the dark both
literally and figuratively. And even as the sun begins to rise Mary is consumed
by the darkness of her grief. After some time she looks into the tomb through
her tears she sees two angels in white. But it doesn't seem to register who or
what they are as they ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” because, she
responds, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid
him.” After saying this she turns around and then the most curious thing
happens. The Gospel of John puts it this way. Mary sees Jesus. Mary sees Jesus,
but she does not know that it is
Jesus. She doesn't recognize him. Perhaps she cannot recognize him because she
is so consumed with one thing. Finding Jesus’ body. The way her mind makes
sense of this man standing before her is that she presumes him to be the gardener
as she pleads with him just to tell her where the body is. She’s holding on so
tightly to that thought that it leaves no room to consider anything else.
Until, that is, Jesus says her name. Mary. And that changes everything.
And understandably so because modern
science tells us that hearing one's name actually does change us. It literally
causes a chemical reaction in our brain. It turns out that when we hear our
name spoken, feel-good hormones, like dopamine and serotonin, are released
which reduces stress and increases warm, positive feelings like being known and
loved.
When Mary hears her name spoken it is
then that she is able to see, really see who it is who’s been standing before
her all this time. And I can only imagine the processing that she started to do
in her mind: Jesus. Dead. Now alive. Jesus. OMG! And as it begins to sink in my
guess is that she did what any of us would probably do if someone we loved came
back from the dead. She threw her arms around him. But he tells her to let go.
“Do not to hold onto me.” And then goes onto to explain that he has yet to
ascend to his Father. But I think there is more to it than that because part of
what Mary, and all of us must do, to experience resurrection life is to let go.
And that’s the first aspect of resurrection that feels rather risky to me. In
order to embrace the new life that God in Christ offers us we must be willing
to let something go.
As wonderful as resurrection life might
sound, don’t be fooled, it isn't a life that just simply hops from one joyous
event to the next. Hardly. Because you know, by definition, in order to have
resurrection first comes death. Death of a person, death of life as we know it.
Death of an idea, a hope, a dream, one’s health, a relationship. Our world is
full of deaths – both big and small – because life is always changing. And in
the midst of those changes, those losses, even those deaths, I wonder how many
times is Jesus standing right there before us? We may even see him there, but
like Mary, we are unable to recognize him.
Unable because, perhaps, we are holding onto to something else. Clinging
to the past, to the way things used to be, to the way we still want them to be.
But when we do that, when we refuse to let go, we lose the ability to grasp any
other possibility and end up resisting the work of resurrection in our lives.
Now don't get me wrong, it is a good and
right and healthy thing to grieve the losses in our lives. But when we have
done that good work there comes a time to let go so that something new can be
embraced. When Mary laments, “They have taken away my Lord,” she is not
entirely wrong. Although Jesus has risen from the dead, he has not been
resurrected so that he can go back to his old life. Resurrection is not the
same as restoration. It is not about turning back the clock to the way things
used to be. It is about something new. And this is the second aspect that I
find rather risky about this resurrection business. The first is letting go.
The second is this part about the new. Without minimizing or dismissing loss,
resurrection encompasses it what has been lost while offering something new.
New life that is good and rich and meaningful. But it’s also new life the is
unknown, uncharted, uncontrollable. Hence the risk.
Nonetheless, this Easter morning you are
invited to encounter the risen Christ anew. To hear him tenderly call you name
and see that it is he who is always standing right there before you. Jesus
calls you, calls all of us, to let go of what we might be clinging to that is
holding us back so that we might embrace more fully the resurrection that
touches our deepest fears, pains, and losses while giving us new life. And then
as we do, we can proclaim, with Mary Magdalene, the good news that changes
everything, “I have seen the Lord.” Because when all is said and done,
resurrection is worth the risk!
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