“Love Stronger than the Grave”            2014

Psalm 118:1, 19-24    John 20:1-18

 

Psalm 118:1, 19-24

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.  This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

 

John 20:1-18

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. So 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.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and 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. They 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.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus 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.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

For $25.72 or $19.26 for the paper back, Amazon dot com

            will sell you a book, that in 432 pages promises to cover,

                        “Everything You Need to Know About the World and How It Works”.

Everything you need to know about how the world works.

            Though I trust that it probably is a very fine volume,

                        and packed with oodles of wonderful facts and information,

                                    that claim,   strikes me as  a bit over the top.

 

On the other hand, most of us were taught in school

            that there is a rational explanation for everything,

                        and everything fits within

                                    scientific laws of nature that can be tested.

- We’re pretty sure

            we can understand and can explain how the world works,

                                                            and so we live out our lives accordingly.

We’ve also learned by experience and the school of hard knocks,

            that life can be unfair and difficult,

                           and that when we bump into walls of life's adversity

                                    we don’t always recover from our losses …

… and even without a book we know how the world works,

                                                            and so   we live out our lives accordingly. 

 

We know to be realistic, to be cautious and suspicious in life.

            We’ve learned to look for selfish motives and hidden agendas.

                        We recognize that sometimes, things are beyond rescue,

                                    but somehow we must live and endure in desperation …

… for we’re pretty sure we’ve learned how the world really works,

            it’s been pounded into our lives, for all of our lives…

                                                            and so we live out our lives accordingly.

 

Mary Magdalene knew all about how the world   really works,

            for that had been

                        brutally pounded into her on Friday at the crucifixion

                                    as she had watched Jesus suffer in agony on the cross.

Mary had traveled with Jesus, her life was transformed,

            then stood with his mother and others, looking on as he died,

                 and later, she helped prepare his tortured body for the tomb.

 

            She was realistic enough to know that it was all over,

                            for she knew all about how the world   really works,

                              and had no choice but to live out her life accordingly.

 

Easter begins with Mary coming to the tomb in the predawn darkness.

      In John’s gospel, darkness has poetic meaning beyond the literal

               more than the physical darkness before the coming sunrise.

 

It also represents the moral darkness

            of the violence of conniving treachery and human depravity,

                        and the emotional darkness

                                    of crushing loss and overwhelming despair and grief.

 

So  she came to the tomb in the dark of Easter morning to mourn.

            The other gospels describe the women coming to the tomb

                        with spices to complete the task of preparing his body.

 

            I think that after such a cruel and violent death,

                 there was a need for closure, a chance to say a final goodbye.

Certainly Mary knew it was over, that death is always the end,

            she knew very well how the world   really works,

                                    and tempered her hopes and expectations accordingly.

 

I can well imagine the crush of plodding along toward the tomb

            feeling so lost and detached, confused and hopeless,

                                                as the only expression of love yet remaining,

                                                            was to pour perfume and spices

                                                                        over his lifeless and decaying corpse.

 

            What a stark picture  of darkness, of disappointment and grief;

                        the savior   they had followed    had not saved himself,

                                    but had died a most horrible and wretched death.

 

            For us today, more than two thousand years later,

                        the soul-crushing horror and shock of it all

                                    are distant and somewhat removed from our experience;

    but nevertheless, we too do know something about

       the hollow feelings of personal devastation & disappointment,

              the numbing darkness of despair, of the future torn asunder:

 

- like the grim look on a doctor's face that says, 'terminal',

            even before the words, cancer or oncology have been uttered.

- the shock of a trusted dear friend and soul-mate-confidant

            who turns out to be, not friend but conniving betrayer,

                                    - or the many scars of brokenness we bear

                                                from the devastating sadness of crushed dreams.

 

            We do indeed understand the words and ways of darkness,

                        of Mary’s emptiness and overwhelming sense of loss,

                                    and that in just these few verses,

                                                we are told  four times,  that Mary was weeping.

 

But when she got to the garden --

    the great stone blocking - sealing the tomb had been rolled away,

            and knowing how the world works and seeing the empty tomb;

                                    obviously, someone had taken his dead body,

                                                stealing from her of even that final good-bye.

 

            No doubt --  the empty tomb meant something terrible,

                        for Mary already knew all about how the world really works.

 

            But when Peter and the disciple looked inside the empty tomb,

                        they saw something they could not explain.

The burial wrappings were still there  in form - but no corpse,

                        as if his body had evaporated right through them…

                                    … the shape of the burial cloths made no sense at all.

 

If the dead body had been taken,  his messy, bloody dead corpse,

            then grave robbers would hardly have unwrapped the body,

                                    or taken the time to leave the grave cloths behind                                                                                       for that’s not how the world works.

 

But actually   no one had    taken the dead body of Jesus;

            rather,   a resurrected and living Jesus

                        had left death behind   along with the burial wrappings.

 

Turned out that the way they thought the world works,    was wrong-

                        there was more ... much more than they thought or knew. 

                                    The end ---- really wasn’t the end  at all,

                                                which is the true message and meaning of Easter.

            When I think about the meaning and point of Easter,

                        the image that speaks most clearly to me,

                                    is from when I used to ride a motorcycle.

 

Back when Route 66 was being extended on down into Washington DC,

     the construction crews erected barriers and barricades

               with signs, “Danger”, “Road Construction” and “Keep Out”.

 

But on the weekends, when the road crews were not working,

            you could squeeze through

                        and slip past those barriers on a motorcycle,

            and there, stretched out before you were miles and miles

                            of the most wonderful wide-open  hard-packed  dirt track;

 

-- space enough to really run a motorcycle with reckless abandon

            racing along full throttle, popping wheelies, jumping ditches

                        and pulling rooster-tails   all to your hearts content.

 

I truly appreciated the government and highway department

            having provided that multimillion dollar dirt track…

                        … and there is no doubt in my mind,

                                    that the very best ride         was once you got beyond

                                                those stop signs, the barriers and barricades,

                           allowing my spirit to soar with pure and unfettered joy.

 

The way we assume,   the way that the world works,

            is that death is the sure and certain stop sign,

                        and the barrier that marks the end of all life and hope;

 

            that there is no recovery from the big disasters of life,

                        that our failures and mistakes will always be with us.

 

But the resurrection of Jesus destroys all of that.

            Jesus came as the true expression of God’s love and invitation,

                        God’s grace, that even the worst, the most violent,

                                    the cruel and unjust could not defeat or overcome,

                        as it overturns the idea that suffering and death

                            are the final barrier and barricade of human experience.

 

On that first Easter, going to the tomb in the dark of early morning,

            Mary Magdalene’s world looked pretty bleak and hopeless;

                whatever Jesus had been about, seemed to be   defeated & gone.

BUT God had other plans… and if you read the Old Testament,

            God always had a Plan B for overcoming human sin and death.

 

The way everyone thought the world works - was wrong and deficient;

                        because there was more -- much more than anyone knew ---

            and because Jesus was resurrected,

                  we know there is something wonderful and amazing      

                        and full of hope far beyond the way the world seems to work.

 

It was not the evidence of the empty tomb or folded grave-cloths

            but her reality changed    when Jesus called Mary by name…

                        just as the Good Shepherd knows us and calls us  by name.

 

Recognizing that Jesus has been raised from the dead,

            Mary wraps her arms around her Lord,

                                    but Jesus says, “Don’t hold on to me”.

            Typical of John’s gospel, the meaning of this is theological.

 

The Greek is very specific, “don’t try to cling to me.”

            The point is, that Easter resurrection is not about

                        returning to the past or the way things used to be.

                                    It did not cancel the hurt and tragedy of crucifixion.

 

            Easter is not about making a few minor repairs.

                        but it is the promise and hope of something entirely new.

Jesus was not resurrected to resume his ministry in Palestine,

      but raised to leave   for the Holy Spirit to come & dwell among us,

            the power,  the promise and presence of   God with us now.

 

So for us, Easter is not just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus

            as an historical event of more than twenty centuries ago,

                        and Jesus is not just a sacred memory of some distant past;

but through the Holy Spirit,

            Jesus is a continuing presence and person   who makes us whole,

                        and gives us hope for even in the worst situation and loss,

                                    his gracious love & compassion still calls us by name.

 

In stark sharp contrast to how the world seems to work,

             God intervenes - God raises the dead, God sends the Holy Spirit

                        and absolute defeat   turns into glorious victory and joy.

 

For everyone who knew how the world works, and so lived accordingly;

            turns out, that's not true anymore, if it ever was,

                        but for the Christian,   by grace, God has intervened.

 

And so Mary was the first,

            the first to proclaim the Good News of Easter ---

                        the very essence of Christianity: “I have seen the Lord”  -

 

     and the fact that Jesus was raised by the Father,

            is divine vindication of the life words and deeds of Jesus,

                        that his death was a great wrong that has been

                             overturned by a higher judge,  by the Lord God Almighty.

 

This is sure proof and assurance that life is stronger than death,

            that God's love is stronger than sin and the grave,

                            and that Jesus Christ is our risen Lord and Savior,

                                    who still lives and calls us into relationship,                                                                                                    and brings us through

                                                            even the roughest places in life.

 

Easter places new and wonderful possibilities before us,

            to live   right on past the stop signs and barriers

                                    that wherever we are, whatever our circumstances,

                                                death and defeat do not have the last word

                                                            for God has torn down death and disaster…

… for our hope rests upon God whose power and mercy have no limits,

            who offers possibilities beyond what we ever even hoped.

 

Easter is not

            us searching for Jesus like children hunting for Easter eggs,

                        but being willing to be found by the Good Shepherd,

                                    letting God into our lives to turn things around.

            Easter is responding to Jesus calling us each by name,

                        offering the grace of all the second chances we need …

 

… and much like taking the battery out of your cellphone,

            it’s a total reset and a fresh and whole    new beginning.

 

The resurrection of our Lord isn't just an event of 2000 years ago,

            but today, look around and see   God’s movement in our midst -

                        and let us live the most powerful words ever proclaimed:

                                    “I have seen the Lord”            ---

 

            “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it”

                        -- for the Lord is risen,  He is risen indeed!