EASTER DAY - Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18 -

23 March 2008 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

The Resurrection of Jesus Changes Everything

 

MARY MAGDALENE AND JOHN AND PETER

 

You can’t make this stuff up.

 

They’d all seen him nailed to the tree and die. Those who didn’t run for fear of what might happen to them - and that was mainly the women - watched as they took him down from the cross, and laid him in a new tomb. The burial happened hurriedly, so that it could all be done before the sabbath started.

 

And then early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and (according to the other Gospels) Mary the mother of James, Salome, and Joanna went to the tomb so that they could more properly anoint Jesus’s body for burial. According to John’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene saw that the stone and been removed from in front of the tomb, figured out Jesus’ body wasn’t there, and immediately ran back to tell Peter and John what she had discovered. This leads to more of the unlikely - John and Peter having a race to the tomb! This in a culture where men and women probably didn’t run anywhere. But this was big news. What was up? John, a little too humble to call himself by name in the Gospel story, does tell us that he outran Peter to the tomb. I’m guessing Peter was older than John. (Or maybe all guys named Peter are not very fast when it comes to running.) In any event, John poked his head in through the opening to the cave-like entrance where the stone had been, saw the linen wrappings and no Jesus, and didn’t go in. Peter finally got there, huffing and puffing, but being Peter, he just ducked his head and went right on into the tomb.

 

The story gets more interesting. After looking around, and undoubtedly still trying to figure out what had happened, John and Peter, we are told, “returned to their homes.” The women who had by now followed John and Peter back to the tomb had a different approach. I’m guessing they were thinking, “How can those men leave now?” They were overcome with emotion. Where could Jesus’ body be? We are told that Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb, and then, as she wept, bent down and looked into the tomb. Suddenly she saw two angels in the tomb. Do you wonder why she saw the angels and Peter and John didn’t? Or why the angels suddenly appeared to her? The angels speak. “Woman, why are you weeping?” Isn’t it obvious? “I don’t know where they have taken my Lord’s body!”

 

Suddenly a different man is standing there next to her. And he asked, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Hadn’t she already answered this question? Supposing him to be the gardener, she answers once again. And then this man called her by name. “Mary!”

 

I’m guessing this was the sweetest sound she had ever heard, not to mention the one moment in her life that, from then on, would always stand out above every other moment.

 

Once she heard the man say her name she knew immediately who it was. “Rabbouni!” Could this be happening? Could her friend, her Lord, her teacher - the one who had changed her life the first time she met him - be standing right in front of her - alive?

 

She exchanged a few more words with him - probably one big blur, so overwhelmed was she. Mary Magdalene went back and found the disciples. Yeah, right - she “went”. As a writer, John disappoints us a little bit at this point. Matthew put it this way, “So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” (Matthew 28:10) That’s a little more like it. They ran. They ran like the wind. They ran like they’d never run. It felt like they were flying. And when they got back to where the disciples were staying, Mary Magdalene needed to say only five words. “I have seen the Lord!”

 

You can’t make this stuff up. The first witnesses to the risen Christ were all women. In a cultured that was dominated by men... Jesus appeared first of all to the women.

 

CHANGED LIVES

 

There are many mysteries when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, the biggest one being, “How exactly did God do this?” Here’s what we know, from different sources and different witnesses.

 

1) The tomb was empty, and no adequate alternative explanation has ever been given for what happened to Jesus’ body.

 

2) The resurrected Jesus showed up at a number of different times, to a number of different people, over the next 40 days. These appearances don’t fit with what we know of hallucinations, for the disciples touched him, and ate with him, and walked with him. They didn’t always recognize him at first. Something about his resurrected body might have been a little different from the body that he had before. But then he would do something familiar. He would call them by name, or break some bread, or tell them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and suddenly there was an absolutely crazy number of fish flopping about. And then, in that moment of recognition, they knew. It’s Jesus! It’s the Lord!

 

3) And the third thing we know is, I think, the most telling thing of all. Their lives were forever changed after these encounters with the risen Lord. They went from being terrified disciples hiding behind locked doors to people who traveled about and spoke boldly of what they had seen. Even after they were arrested and flogged, they would not and did not keep quiet. They kept telling the story of how Jesus had changed their lives, and how he had been raised from the dead.

 

NOT THE END OF THE STORY

 

Jesus’ resurrection is not the end of the story - not even close. Because we have had our own encounters with the risen Lord, too. And our lives have been changed, just as their lives were.

 

Yesterday, as many of our members were here for the spring work day, I interrupted a number of them, and asked them two questions.

 

The first one was: What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? This is what I heard...

 

- New life and hope

- Death is not the end of the story. Life goes on.

- There is glory in life even amid death and suffering.

- I get to be part of a community which has one sole purpose, which is love.

- The resurrection is the payoff for all the events of Holy Week.

 

I also heard:

 

- It’s the basis for everything. Jesus’ resurrection makes all of his teachings real.

- The abyss between us and God has gone away. It makes everything complete.

- It speaks of mankind’s connection to God.

- Life and joy

- Hope for the future

- The powers of evil and darkness and death have been overcome

 

The second question was: How have you experienced the risen Christ in your life? I heard...

 

- Among the people here - there is something real

- In the support you get here; in the lifting of the spirit

- “I just experienced it a little while ago when one of our 12-year-olds asked me if I would go to lunch with her.”

- We take the acceptance we feel here out into the world.

- In my own personal resurrection... it’s more about a process through which we grow and become resurrected, with each passing day.

- When He’s helped me get over being sick and in the hospital (said by a 12-year-old)

- In Christ, meshing with the Spirit, and giving me comfort, strength, guidance, total acceptance - all the parts of love

- I experience the risen Christ moment by moment, day by day

- In the opportunities for new beginnings

 

I also heard one very touching and beautiful story shared by one of our couples, as they related how they felt that God - the Holy Spirit, the risen Christ - brought them together on a “walking holiday” in Cornwall, England one week in July, 1986... how their meeting seemed ordained and totally guided by God (if you want to hear more of that story, talk to David and Mary Cartwright)

 

If you were to ask me what the resurrection of Christ means to mean, I’m sure I could go on for a while, given the fact that I’ve been preaching about it, in one way or another, for almost 17 years now. But if you were to press me on one thing, I think it would be this:

 

Whatever things I have been fearful or insecure about over the years... things like, oh...

 

- speaking in public

- financial security

- will I be accepted and loved?

- do I have anything to offer?

- does my life matter?

- can I be forgiven for the wrong things that I have done?

- dying and death

 

All of those fears and insecurities have been answered in the resurrection of Jesus. Last night we heard Paul talk about Jesus’ death and resurrection this way, in his letter to the Romans:

 

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:9-11)

 

In other words, when we have faith in Jesus - in his power to save us, and in the power demonstrated by God in raising Jesus from the dead - we die to an old way of life. If death has been conquered by the love of God, then everything has been conquered. And that means that no matter what happens to you and to me, and no matter what happens to our friends and loved ones, all will ultimately be well. In the end, there is nothing to be fearful or insecure or anxious about. In other words, I believe that the resurrection of Jesus changes everything.

 

And so we are set free - to learn how to love as Jesus did, to learn how to serve as Jesus did, to learn how to die as Jesus did, to learn how to grow and embrace new life, as Jesus did.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Like Mary Magdalene... like John and Peter and all the other disciples, like Paul who had that life-changing experience on the road to Damascus, we have had our lives changed, too, thanks to the same power of love that raised Jesus from the dead. We have experienced the risen Christ in our own very real ways, and because of that, each one of us can join our voices to Mary’s and say, “I have seen the Lord!” I’m telling you, you can’t make this stuff up. Thanks be to God! He is risen! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

(With thanks to John Stott and his book, Through the Bible Through the Year, particularly p. 271)