Easter,
April 4, 2021
A man overhears his friend
say the police were at the elementary school.
He turns white with horror. These
are dads of second graders, and the first guy has been watching the news and
become fixated on stories of mass shootings.
Panic-stricken, he asks, “What happened?” The second man, the
story-teller, looks at him and says, “Nothing.
I was just talking about how cool it was that the police were at the school
doing a demonstration with K-9 unit dogs.”
False assumptions distort
our perception, of reality. In the dark,
early Sunday hours, Mary Magdalene discovered that the entrance to the tomb
where Jesus was laid to rest on Friday had been opened. The rock sealing the tomb entrance was rolled
aside. She assumed someone had stolen
the body, so she ran to Peter and the Beloved Disciple and said, “They have
taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him”
(20:2). We do not know. We bump into several unknowns in John 20. Mary did not know where Jesus’ body was.
Bible readers, avoid what Mary
did. Avoid jumping to conclusions
without knowing the full story. Bible
readers, do what Mary did. Mary readily acknowledged what she did not
know. We should too.
I have discovered freedom
in saying three simple words: “I don’t know.”
Acknowledging my own ignorance protects me from leaping to false
conclusions. It makes me curious,
especially when reading the Bible. When
confused, I tenaciously seek answers.
And, I don’t confidently assert untruths as if they were true. The church does not demand that I have all
the answers, so I shouldn’t pretend to know things I don’t know.
Mary ran to tell Peter and
the “one whom Jesus loved,” the Beloved Disciple. Most readers assume the Beloved Disciple is
John, but the actual book we call “John’s Gospel,” doesn’t say that. Anywhere.
Later tradition equates the Apostle John with the Beloved Disciple. Since the gospel doesn’t name him, I will refer
to him as the Beloved Disciple.
He outran Peter, but
didn’t go into the tomb upon arrival.
Why did he hesitate? I don’t
know. Upon arrival, the slower Peter
went in, and then the Beloved Disciple followed. They discovered the linens meant to enwrap
the body lying where the body should have been.
The head cloth was not with the rest of the linens. The head cloth was rolled up and set off to
the side in a place by itself.
Head cloths do not unwrap
themselves from around the corpse’s head.
Head cloths do not then roll themselves up and set themselves off to the
side. Something happened. Mary, seeing the stone rolled aside knew
something happened, and now, seeing the scene inside the tomb, Peter and the
Beloved Disciple did too. Neither they
nor Mary knew what; they only knew something was going on.
John tells us the Beloved
Disciple believed, but did not understand.
What, exactly, did he believe?
Belief soaked in incomplete knowledge comes up more than once in this
gospel. When grief-stricken Martha
talked to Jesus in chapter 11 about her dead brother Lazarus, he said to her, “I
am the resurrection and the life. Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and
believes in me will never die” (11:25-26).
He’s saying this where Lazarus, Martha’s brother, lay dead. He then asks Martha, “Do you believe?” “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
Does she? He talked about being “the resurrection and
the life.” She says, “I believe you are
the Messiah, the Son of God.” Did she
hear Jesus’ words about people never dying?
When she said, “I believe,” did she understand what it was that she
believed? When we express our faith and
belief that Jesus rose from death and in him, we will too, do we understand
what we are saying?
The beloved discipled
believed, though what he actually believed we cannot say because he also
misunderstood the way Jesus’ resurrection fulfilled scripture. And what about Peter? What did believe was going on? The gospel doesn’t say.
It does say after they
left, Mary lingered and then looked into the tomb herself. She saw two angels. Peter and the Beloved Disciple didn’t see
angels. They saw clothes and head
wrappings for a corpse, but no corpse.
Were the angels invisible to them, but then visible to Mary? Did the angels slip in after the men
left?
The angels ask Mary, “Why
are you weeping?” She answers, still
locked in her false assumption that Jesus is dead and someone has nefariously
robbed the grave. “They have taken away
my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him” (20:13). Did Mary know these were angles? Was Mary startled or upset to find two
unknown persons in the tomb of Jesus?
The Gospel doesn’t say.
She steps away from the
tomb and faced toward the surrounding garden.
For the first time, the narrator announces the resurrected Jesus. For the first description of the risen
Savior, wouldn’t we anticipate something more forceful and theatrical than what
the fourth Gospel gives us? It’s as if
the resurrected Lord is a background character in a drama where Mary is the
star. Mary has been locked in on what
she does not know. She does not know
where Jesus’ body is.
Now, that which she has so
earnestly sought, Jesus, stands before her and she thinks he’s a gardener. He repeats the question the angels
asked. “Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary has spent this morning in the land of
false assumptions, and who can blame her?
It had been a traumatic couple of days and that was before she
discovered graves unable to hold in their residents. Assuming he’s about to pick up his hoe and go
to work on pesky weeds, she repeats her mantra to him, this time thinking she
may finally make some headway.
“Sir, if you have carried
him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away”
(v.15). In this statement, made in the
land of false assumptions, made from a place of not-knowing, we have a hint of
why the resurrection is the event upon which all of reality stands.
In the world as we
understand it, the dead don’t bury themselves.
It could be in unmarked mass graves, it could be in cheap pine boxes or
gold inlaid, elaborate caskets, or it could cremation; whatever form we choose,
we, the living, have to deal with dead bodies.
If we don’t, there will be carcasses in various stages of decomposition
all over the place. This is our reality
as it was Mary’s.
What does Jesus have to
say to our ideas about reality? Back in John
10, Jesus said, “No one takes my life. I lay it down of my own accord”
(v.17-18). Mary lives in a reality where
she, or someone, has to deal with the corpse of a man they know and love. Jesus announces a new reality. The corpse she seeks is the living, breathing
man before her. She finally sees him
when he speaks her name. “Mary!”
Remember what I said? I found freedom in the phrase “I don’t
know.” I don’t know how this story hits
you. I don’t know what you think about
Jesus’ resurrection or resurrection in general.
I do know I have become convinced through my reading of 1000’s of pages
from New Testament scholars that the writer of John’s gospel believed he was
writing about a fully raised, fully physical body. Mary grabbed hold of Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, and later in John 20, and
again in John 21, we see indicators that Jesus’ raised body was tangible but
also different. He could cook fish and
share it; he could be bear hugged by Mary; but he could also pass through
closed doors without opening them.
That different quality of
existence signals that the resurrection of Jesus is the dawning of New
Creation. Do you want to be part of New
Creation? We believe in the resurrection
because we believe God is free to step outside the boundaries of natural law,
and more importantly, is free to do new things.
Please do not mistake this assertion of new creation for the
insufferable platitude “God can do anything.”
That’s something someone says if they get the job they were hoping for,
or their teams wins a title. That
sentiment is essentially meaningless.
Forget God can do
anything. Respond to God has done
something. In the risen Jesus
Christ, God has ushered in a new age in which all who believe in Jesus and
follow him as Lord, will have eternal life.
Jesus declared this in Chapter 3.
His resurrection is the stamp of approval affirming his power to overcome
of death.
I am comfortable saying “I
don’t know” when I really don’t. I
readily accept there is far more knowledge that I seek than what I possess, and
there is far more I am unaware of than that which I seek. But there is something I do know.
What I know is that I have
studied the evidence of the resurrection.
I believe, historically and logically speaking, the most plausible
conclusion is that Jesus’s resurrection happened in actual history. I know that
I have studied the scientific method. I
believe the resurrection cannot be proven or disproven scientifically. I know my experience with God tells me that
God is real and that the Spirit of the risen Christ is with me.
Based on what I know, I
believe in Jesus Christ, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and present as Holy
Spirit. He is my Lord. Because I know him, I believe New Creation
has begun overtaking a dying world.
Because of what I believe, I invite you to consider the resurrection
–death is no more. Considering the
resurrection, I invite you to give your life to Jesus. Commit to follow him. There will still be much you don’t
understand, but when you give yourself to Jesus, you will know life, abundant,
joy-filled, everlasting life.
AMEN
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